Founders' Plaza

"Over the years, Founders' Plaza has become a favorite spot for families, aviation enthusiasts and Airport employees. The Observation Area offers magnificent views of many types of aircraft as they take off and land. In addition, the plaza provides convenient parking, picnic tables, telescopes, historic information, a commemorative monument and a radio that broadcasts air traffic control communications from the FAA tower."

With this in mind, we were excited when our friends invited us to the Founders' Plaza Opening Ceremonies yesterday. The ceremonies started at 10 am and kicked off with 2 fire trucks spraying in an arch as three planes did a fly by. This was followed by a wonderful parade that included cowgirls on horses (Little Miss's favourites), a fire truck, police car, drill team, marching band (my favourite), and much more. The parade circled the street while we sat on the curb with front row seats.

There was also live music from Olympic Gold Medalist Carly Patterson and a man making balloon animals for the kids (Little Man loved this). The ceremony ended with free hot dogs and apple pie. It was such a great day!

Our kids were so cute that we even made the local news!

GrapeFest

This past Friday, September 12th our family packed up and headed out to Grapevine's annual Grapefest. "GrapeFest, the largest wine festival in the Southwest, is the perfect blend of great wines, great food and great times." Admission was free from 10-5 p.m. on Friday, so at 4:58 p.m. we walked through the entrance gate :)

We had dinner that consisted of hot dogs, corn dogs, nachos, water, soda, and beer :) Little Miss got two flowers painted on her cheek. Both of the kids took a turn at the Home Depot tent colouring tiles, we checked out the cool hot rods, and danced to one of the many live bands. Little Miss also took her turn at "wine making" by stomping the grapes (Little Man got as far as taking off his shoes before he decided that that wasn't for him). Both of the kids got to ride the ponies, Little Miss was on Comanche and Little Man rode Chester.

On the way out, I picked up some delicious kettle corn (I LOVE kettle corn!!) while Ryan and the kids had some ice cream.

All in all, a great family evening came to an end as we exited the fest, loaded onto the shuttle bus that took us to the car and headed home! By the time we left around 8:30 p.m. the line to enter Grapefest wrapped around the block!

First Day of Preschool 2008

I gotta go back, back, back to school again
You won’t find me, till the clock strikes three
I’m gonna be there till then
I gotta go back, back, back to school again
Whoa, whoa, I gotta go, Back to School …… AGAIN!
~ Grease 2

On Thursday, September 4th the kids started school. Both of the kiddos are in school this year. I do love it that finally they are both in school and I have a couple of days to myself but I will admit that it's weird without one or both of them around! I'm sure I'll get used to it though :).

Little Miss started the 4 year old class with all of her old friends from last year and got right back into the swing of things. Her new teachers are Ms. Barb and Ms. Sophia and she already loves them. She even got to be class leader the first week of school and got to bring home Husky the class bear. She took him everywhere and did everything with him over the weekend and then got to write about their adventures in the class journal. She was so excited to tell all of the things that she and Husky did!

Little Man had a harder time adjusting to preschool. He's a bit of a Mama's boy and is not too keen on going to school. "No school, Mommy!" is what I hear each day as we drive up to the preschool. Each day as I drop him off I have to peel him off my leg and he cries so sadly as the teachers try to engage him in an activity as I leave. I know that 2 minutes after I leave he is playing happily but it still breaks my heart a bit to leave :( He does seem to like school though. He likes the colouring, reading books, and was super excited to tell me how messy he got playing with shaving cream in class last week!

Overall it's great for them to make friends and do all of those messy and fun activities they get to do. I think I'm going to love actually having a bit of kid-free time once we settle in to the new routine. Maybe I'll actually get some house cleaning done this year!!

American Airlines C.R.Smith Museum

On Tuesday, August 19th we took a class fieldtrip to the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum in Fort Worth. This museum is very hands on with numerous commercial airline displays. It shows the history of commercial aviation and has many displays for the kids to touch, see, and play with.

It was great to get to see all of our friends and the kids loved sitting in the airline seats, doing crayon rubs of airplanes, climbing in the stationary airplane, and watching the airline movie.

Power Lab VBS - 2008

"There's power, there's power,
there's wonder working power...
In the blood of the Lamb."

















We've been singing and dancing since the last song was sung at Vacation Bible School.

This year's theme was Power Lab - Discovering Jesus' miraculous power! We spent each morning last week going through the stations at VBS... Song and Dance, Games, Arts and Crafts, Snack, Bible Drama, and Chadder's Bible video. Little Miss had a blast on her second tour of VBS. She was in a group with a bunch of her school friends. I got to check in on her each day as they learned their lesson of the day... That Jesus gives us the power to be thankful, help others, be brave, live forever, and tell others about God. She especially loved all of the singing and dancing. I'm sure we'll be listening to this CD well into next year :)




I was the VBS Director this year... who knew that I'd spend the 5 months leading up to VBS on my computer, at a meeting, or on my cell phone VBSing. It was stressful at times but a lot of fun as well and I made some great friends along the way :)



Little Man had one more year in the nursery. After the first day, each day that we headed into church you could hear him yelling "No, No, No...No VBS Mommy!" He is kind of a Mama's boy. My little Linus could be seen each day pulling his blue blanket behind him with a small tear in his eye. Hopefully he'll enjoy VBS more next year when he is old enough to participate.


All in all, Power Lab was a success. Next year's theme... Crocodile Dock!

Our Family Dog - Jack

One of our family dogs, Jack, had to be put down last week. Jack was born in the Spring of 1996 and has lived a good life. He was an outdoor farm dog for much of his life living underneath Ryan's trailer house in Lubbock. He loved to chase rabbits and goats and has always been a loving dog.

When Ryan moved to Ft. Worth in 1999 he lived in the yard around Ryan's teeny tiny house in Benbrook with PJ and Little Dog.

When we moved to the Dallas area the dogs moved inside and have been inside ever since.

Jack was a good dog and was always one to put his head in your lap or pretty much lay down on top of you to get a good scratch.

He will be missed!

Oleo Ranch 2008

We just got back from our annual trip to the Oleo Ranch in Colorado. The kiddos did great on the LONG car trip there. Especially considering that we JUST got back from our long car trip to North Carolina :)

I, of course, was sick for the first two days of the trip with some virus. So Ryan took the kids to the lakes to fish, played games, and read them stories.

Little Miss caught this fish at the ponds on the property and Little Man showed off this fish that he caught!

The kids and Dad had a great time fishing. Little Man even fell in the lake one of the days!

As usual we spent the days relaxing, reading, doing crafts, or playing games with the kids in the cabins. We also fished, did a bit of hiking, went into town (Lake City and Creede) to shop, and listened to Denver play the guitar. The kids got to play the spoons while Uncle Denver played guitar. And Uncle Denver and Grandpa even made up a fabulous song about our families and our week at the Oleo.

The highlight of the trip for the kids was when we went down to visit Ronnie, the ranch manager and his wife Barbara. They let Little Miss ride their horse, Tucker. She LOVED it! Little Man also took a turn. Then Ronnie took each of the kids for a ride in his backhoe. Little Man was so excited :) He even let them raise and lower the bucket!

It really was a wonderful vacation this year!