Zoo crew

It's been ages since we actually did this, but I wanted to at least show our visit to the zoo. Nolan's BFF at school, Cooper, had a birthday party at the zoo. What a great idea. They brought in an opossum, a parrot, alligator and the cutest little penguin that I wanted to snuggle. Nolan was smiling ear to ear.

 We were really looking forward to it being a family event but the night before Campbell's tummy was a rumblin' and we had diaper changes about every 15 minutes. So we decided that we'd have to make it just a mommy-and-me zoo trip this time.

Nolan has been battling allergies this spring (like his daddy) and was sniffling. So I gave him some Benadryl before we went.  I was a little bummed that he wasn't more excited about the zoo. He just stared at the animals and was like "so what." I gave him my best "we're here and you're going to like it," speech and then he said, "I'm just really tired mommy." Poor thing was practically falling asleep at the zoo. He was so drugged from the Benadryl.

We got to see the new MOLA (Museum of Living Art) and it was so awesome. Too bad at this point we were doing the 4 year old walk-thru because he was crashing and burning. I really want to go back just to see this!

Of course the battery died and so I had to take almost all of the photos with my point and shoot camera so sorry for the bad photos. Nolan's favorite part of the zoo? The giraffes or elephants, right? Nope, the carousel. Umph...next time I'll just make sure we bring lots of kleenex and not give him Benadryl.

Will you be my Valentine?

I had a date today and it wasn't with my husband. Shhh, don't tell. Don't worry it was with Nolan. A lady from my church invited Nolan and me to come to a Reading Rocks Valentine Brunch that benefited the "I have a Dream" Foundation that whose creed is to make a difference though education by helping children from low-income families stay in school. You wouldn't believe how insanely cute the place was decorated. Each table had a book theme. We sat at the "I'm Dirty" table. Our chairs were covered in caution tape. Our table cloth was comprised of blueprints and we had a big tractor in the center with orange cones all around. There were at least 40 tables there...from Fancy Nancy, Bob the Builder, Dr. Seuss and they all were Martha Stewart worthy. They really did bring the books to life.

To top it off Robert Munsch, the author of Love You Forever (one of my all-time favorites) was there and did story telling with the kids. Nolan wasn't too sure of all of the fanfare at first but after some Curly's custard and a cupcake he thought the place wasn't so bad. It's amazing what sugar can do.

I just loved having some good ol' one-on-one time with Nolan. He's a great date. He even walked me to the car and gave me a kiss. I gotta make sure he doesn't move so fast on the girls when he gets older!

Yee Haw!

I would call this another episode of Forced Family Fun but this wasn't forced...it was actually fun! We took the boys to the Fort Worth Stock Show. First I asked Nolan if he wanted to go to the Stock Show. Not knowing what it really is, he of course said no. Then when I really talked it up and told him that we would see horses, pigs, goats, he got his excited voice and told me, "and lions, too?" The morning of I was trying to get everyone up and moving and reminded him about going and he said, "I can't wait to see the monkeys!" So what if he thinks the Stock Show is the zoo.

He was dying to see the baby piglets and the ducklings and just went on a on about how much they were snuggling. And believe it or not (we hardly could), he actually rode rides...kinda scary ones too! It looks like our cautious scaredy cat is coming out of his shell! Campbell was a trooper. He's like me in that he loves to people watch and there were definitely a lot of people there to watch! We skipped nap time for Nolan but he crashed on the way home and didn't have any meltdowns the rest of the day. I told you it wasn't forced!

The McMartins

We had our friends Anna and Steve Martin over on Sunday to catch up and let our boys play. Nolan and their oldest, Owen, are 10 months apart and Campbell and their second, Ben, are 2.5 months apart. I foresee lots of camping trips in our future together or maybe just sending the guys for a trip so Anna and I can get some girly time in a house full of boys!