Comfy Spot

Little C was still sleepy after his nap today. Guess he decided this was as good a spot as any....

Connor, My Man

After dropping Big K at school, Little C and I had a few moments to kill before playgroup.  We stopped in old downtown to take some pictures.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Kiser's 5th Birthday!

We enjoyed:

Sugar. Lots of it.

A cape-decorating workshop. (Each child was given a cape, a felt cutout of their initial and felt superhero emblems.)

A crazy fun visit from Superman.

Great friends.

Birthday Bash Plans

This coming Saturday is Kiser's big birthday party.  Being the planner and organizer that I am, I have been working on it since early May.  He has been really into superheroes for a while, so I began with inviting Superman to pay a visit.  Then I found out that Superman needs a 9'x9' space to perform, so I had to search out a large space for the party. 

Once that was done, the invitations were created....

The cake had to be designed and ordered and paper products using Superman, Batman and Spiderman were purchased.

Then the fun began!  I began looking for fun ways to decorate the party place and party favors to give the guests.  You wouldn't believe the number of blogs that can be found related to birthday party planning.  Additionally, the quantity of really creative ideas for superhero parties is staggering!

I decided on the following:

Of course, there's still the floor to ceiling city scape, the 36 Superhero balloons, the 3-dozen Sweetface Cookies superhero lollipop cookies, Superhero ceiling danglers and specially-created Superhero music playlist.

Add to all that, 25 smiling boys and girls.....AND YOU HAVE YOURSELF A BIRTHDAY PARTY!

Bye Bye Summer!

A new school year officially starts today! Both boys went bee-bopping into their new classrooms with excitement.  Kiser begins Pre-K and Connor begins official Preschool.  We had a great summer, but now it's time to get back into routines!

Dallas Museum of Science & Nature....maybe

Today, we took advantage of the Bank of America program that provides cardholders a monthly free admission to certain local museums.  After church, we made the haul from Frisco to Dallas Fair Park to check out the Dallas Museum of Science & Nature.  The boys had a ball digging for dinosaur fossils, playing with bubbles, gathering and sorting vegetables in the farm and admiring Texas native wildlife.  However, I found myself feeling as though I was in some sort of time warp.  It seemed as though this museum may have looked exactly the same way and boasted exactly the same exhibits when I was just a mere child.  I was actually a little saddened by the state of the facility.  Many exhibits did not work, there was a general air of disrepair about the building and there were few patrons actually visiting the museum on a weekend afternoon.  I don't know much about the ins and outs of supporting cultural landmarks; however, if I was a supporting member of this facility, I would definitely be wondering where my hard-earned money was being used.

Bluebonnet Bedlam

I keep hearing about and seeing all the gorgeous bluebonnet pictures this spring.  I decided to try to capture my two boys amidst the Texas state flowers too.  The three of us headed over to JC Penney headquarters where there are quite a few fields of flowers. 

Lesson #1:  Don't attempt outdoor photographs of your own children by yourself!  After getting the older one sat down, I had to chase down the younger one.  By the time the younger one was nearby, the older one was off picking stuff - his nose, his shoes, the flowers, rocks, you name it. 

Lesson #2:  Don't attempt pictures around a meal time.  Yes, it was around 5:00pm.  Yes, the boys were hungry.  Yes, I came armed with snacks.  Yes, said snacks got dropped into the flowers....repeatedly.

Lesson #3:  Don't let them see you sweat.  The longer I tried to get a good shot, the more frustrated I became.  Those boys were on that frustration like white on rice.  One took off towards the car (and the traffic) while the other took off further down the bluebonnet field.  Of course I had to save the young one hurtling toward oncoming cars and certain death.  By then, the older one was done and declared a mutiny on the whole project.

Ah well, the following pictures were the best that I could get!  Kudos to all you professional photographers -- you're magical!