Feeding the giraffe

Here is the video from Sofia and CK feeding the giraffe today!

Giraffes, Zebras and more....

Today we went to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, which has 1,100 animals on 1,500 acres including oryx, giraffes, zebra, various deer and all sorts of animals that we also were able to feed out of our car! It's located about 1 1/2 hours from our house and is set in a beautiful area with rolling hills - it almost felt like we were back on our honeymoon in Tanzania! Except the animals would either watch us calmly as we drove by or would come to the passenger windows for food (except the giraffe - he went through the sun roof!). It was so much fun and Sofia loved it! Of course, I think we'll be finding food pellets for months since some of her tosses out the window hit the door and bounced all over the inside of the car....

Sofia sat in her Papa's lap and enjoyed feeding the animals and watching them as they walked around. Her favorite (and ours) was the giraffe! One giraffe just helped himself to the bag of food we had by sticking his neck through our sun roof. Just prior to that CK and Sofia were feeding him from their hands while I tried to take pictures. It was a really fun way to spend the day.

After we finished our tour, we drove to Glen Rose and ate lunch at the Arwood's BBQ, then headed home. Sofia was asleep within five minutes of getting into the car and slept the entire trip home.

All set to look at animals


Our first animal - an Addax


Feeding the Axis Deer


I must confess that I thought Sofia would be scared to feed the animals given her 'turkey incident' in Florida, but she jumped right to it!


Mommy and Sofia at the lookout stop - which was right in the middle of the tour and included a cafe, picnic benches, bathrooms and a petting zoo (it was closed for some reason).


A Roan - absolutely magnificent animals! They were more scared and never approached the car, although they would sniff the air when we stopped.


A view of the valley


A pesky zebra


This reminds me most of our honeymoon....


This is the giraffe who ate from CK and Sofia's hands and then helped himself to the bag (luckily he didn't get too much so we were able to continue feeding other animals).


A close up - it was hard to get anything but a close up!


Feeding the giraffe


Sofia LOVED it!


A young giraffe - I really loved this picture.


After a full day and a full tummy .....

Mother's Day 2010

I had a fabulous Mother's Day and was pampered by CK and Sofia. Like last year, CK made brunch plans for us, but kept it a secret. After Meeting, he drove us down to Dallas and it wasn't until we were there that I realized we were heading to the Dallas Museum of Art! The restaurant on the second floor served a delicious brunch and it was a nice, relaxed atmosphere. I think most of the other Moms were somewhere else because it wasn't very crowded, which was great. After overeating on chocolate-stuffed pancakes (honestly, who could pass that up), eggs, salad, fresh fruit, and cupcakes we headed downstairs to see one of the exhibits. Of course, Sofia thought running down the main hall was the most fun ever, so we had to rein her in and were given a few disapproving looks. The museum was showcasing a great exhibit called "The Lens of Impressionism" which brought together paintings and photographs of the Normandy Coast in the mid-1800s. The photos were also from that timeframe, and the exhibit explained the difficulty of taking pictures of moving ships at that time. It was a fascinating exhibit and Sofia enjoyed listening to the audio handheld while we walked around.

Following the exhibit we headed home for present opening (new outdoor plates, glasses and a pitcher as well as cute outdoor candle lamps!!) and naps. While Sofia napped with her Papa, I worked in the yard - one of my favorite things to do. All said, it was a very nice day and I'm very lucky to be a Mommy to Sofia!

Outside the Museum of Art


Sofia running around the fountain


Sofia puts her sippy cup to bed....one sign she's getting tired!


And gives the sippy cup a kiss, of course!


Contemplating dessert! Yum!

Hanging out with Mimi

During Mimi's visit, we did a lot of 'hanging out' and had a lot of fun doing just that! One day we took a walk down to the neighborhood pond, another day we made homemade pizzas (including the dough), and another we had a key lime pie bake off to see which recipe was best. So, although it looks as if we did all this stuff on one busy day, we spaced it out and enjoyed a lot of hanging out between.

On our way to the pond - Sofia says "hi" to our neighbor Reggie's lions - she does this every time we head that way


The lion fountain


Petting Chocolate Kitty - we recently were told her name is Boo, but we prefer Chocolate Kitty. She's the friendliest, most understanding cat I've EVER seen and will let Sofia do just about anything. She also follows us down to the pond like a dog.


At the pond


Making homemade pizza - Mimi and Papa took over and made some delicious pies! Yum!


The key lime pie bake off!


Taste testing! Sofia preferred the more tart of the two

Our photo shoot!

We visited the local Portrait Innovations during Mimi's visit so we could get a few pictures of the three of us, and I wanted some cute updated pictures of Mimi and Sofia together. Here are some pictures from our big shoot! As typical, she smiled like a champ for the camera guy, but is still not very responsive to me when I ask her to smile for a picture! Of course, I also don't generally put a stuffed animal on my head and then "sneeze" it off! That causes lots of laughs for a 21/2 year old, as you may imagine.


















These two pictures are from our shoot for Sofia's second birthday at the end of July 2009. Her hair has grown longer and she looks a little older now...

Popcorn Party with Mimi

During Mimi's visit, they had a popcorn party - one of Sofia's very favorite things to do! The whole "popcorn party" was started by Sofia's Grandma while she watched Sofia in early December while we went to London. Sofia loves to sit on the couch and have her popcorn party with whoever will join in! This time it was a very willing Mimi.

Yum, popcorn!


Notice they each have their very own bowl


This is my favorite picture from the popcorn party!