Moody Gardens

Today, I took Maryse, Addy & Alex to Moody Gardens.

We had a lot of fun even though it was H-O-T hot!

 We started in the aquarium...

We saw the penguins

& the seahorses.

Addy LOVED the seahorses!

the shark cage

They're "holding up" the glass in the pyramid.

After the  aquarium, we tried to watch the 3D bug movie but Addy thought it was "yucky" & Alex though it was scary, so we left & went to the Dora movie instead.

It was really cute & the kids loved it!

Next we went to the Rainforest.

We saw lots of animals including the ocelot.

(Look how cute he is. I swear he wants me to pet him & to curl up in my lap!)

The next exhibit we visited was the Discovery Museum. It was all about bones, both human & animal. There was a super cool whale skull (but sadly I didn't get a picture of it.)

This was a cool bone puzzle that the kids had fun with.

The last thing we did was to visit the new exhibit Dinosaurs Alive. 

I think this was Alex's favorite. He thought the dinosaurs were really cool (& so did I!)

The T Rex was humongous, he was as tall as the tent!!!

Maryse doing a rubbing of a T Rex foot print.

Build A Bear & Barnes & Noble

I decided to knock out a few things on our 101 Summer Activites list today, so we went to Build a Bear & Barnes & Noble.  At Build A Bear, both kids were fascinated with the stuffing machine & hearts, but neither one of them wanted to make an animal. Addy ended up getting a pre-stuffed baby rhino but Alex didn't want anything. He had fun just looking around & typing on the computers.

Addy & her baby rhino

The kids love books so they had a great time at Barnes & Noble. We sat & read lots of books. Mickey Mouse, Thomas the Train, Backyardigans, Dora, Diego, How Do Dinosaurs... Alex got a Wonder Pets lift the flap book. He was so excited that he wouldn't even hand the book over to the cashier. I had to pick him up & let her scan the book with him holding it.

A Mini Bribe for a Mini Vacation...

Nick & I left the kids with his parents for a couple of days & had a little mini vacation. It was our first time ever to leave the kids for more than 1 night. We had fun but missed our sweet babies like crazy! When we got back to Lumberton on Thursday, we bribed the kids to forgive us for leaving them!!!

First with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese

(or Chuck Cheese as Alex calls it)

(Be forewarned that some of these pictures are a little out of focus. I forgot my camera & had to use my phone.)

I love this pose! & Addy loved this game!

And then on Friday with a trip to the Port Neches Splash Park

As you can see, Addy loved the splash park.

But Alex was tired & hungry & got water in his ear & was READY TO GO!

(Don't you just love this expression )

Happy 4th of July!!

We celebrated the 4th of July with all the F words;

food, family, fireworks & fun in the sun!

We started the day at the LDS church with a pancake breakfast.

Addy ate pancakes & Alex had 4 pieces of sausage, or meatballs as he called them.

Then we watched a children's bike parade.

Then we headed over to Wayne & Tracey's house to bbq & SWIM!

Alex has no fear! He jumped off the diving board several times!

Even though fireworks were banned this year because of the drought, the City of Beaumont still put on their show & we got to watch a little of it while bringing Maryse home. A great end to a great day!

Hope you all had as great a holiday as we did!

An univited guest...

Look at this guy I found on my tomato plant. I was so excited! Yay, a caterpillar, I thought this is going to be a great science experiment for the kids!!!

I looked online to make sure this little guy wasn't poisonous & he's not. But guess what, he's a tomato hornworm. (Notice the little horn on his hiney) Not good! Not good at all!

Then I looked around & noticed that he had eaten A LOT of my tomato plant. So I thought I would keep him anyway & we would watch him turn into a butterfly. But then I read that he turns into a moth, so that's no fun! It said the only way to get rid of this little creature is to smush it or drown it. Those both seemed like really mean choices so I took him across the street to some bushes to live a long & tomato free life!

But the very next day this little guy was right back in my yard, but this time on my jalapeno plant, just a munching away & fatter than before!

I planned on moving him farther away this time, but he jumped off my plastic shovel & landed in a pail of water. So sadly he drowned, but luckily for my plants he will not be making a repeat appearance at my house!