Sunday, August 30, 2009

Keeping Busy

A lot has happened around here lately. We celebrated the August birthdays- Carol, Renae, and mine, by going to the Olive Garden, then to a really neat kid park in Allen that had a cool maze and small kid buildings- bank, gas station, fire station, caboose. For my birthday, my parents took me to a playground (okay, it was really for Victoria and Bella), then out to an Italian restraunt where I had a chicken Caprese salad- delicious. My Thursday playgroup brought coffee, muffins, sausage and cheese balls, and kisses cookies to the park for me on my birthday:) That night, Jeremy brought home my favorite soup (Lobster Bisque from Lefty's Lobster House) and a wonderful Reese's Peanut Butter Cake. I had a wonderful birthday- thanks all!

This past weekend, we went to the Coppell Night Out at city hall with my parents. They had a swing band that played as the kids danced and the parents chilled in their lawn chairs eating free popcorn. Victoria loved this. She ran smiling up and down the sidewalks and steps and danced to her little heart's contempt. She even got down on her hands and knees and did back kicks to the music- quite funny. Bella enjoyed eating popcorn and sitting on my lap- I don't think she was keeping up with Victoria, so decided to just chill instead.

Last night our good friends Gary and Deb came by and we grilled kabobs outside. It was such wonderful weather, we ended up spending the majority of the night out on our patio drinking vino and talking. Good times. This morning, however, Victoria woke up with a fever and sneezing. Unfortunately, I don't think she'll be going to school tomorrow- her first day. I'm a little bummed, especially, because she'll now miss the entire first week since we'll be taking off for our Disney World vacation. Well, I've still got packing to do, so I'll update the blog after our trip.

August birthday girls- Renae, Carol, and me.

The cousins sit in front of one of the many cute kid buildings at the park.



Victoria and Bella play chase and hide and seek in the maze.
Victoria hides from Daddy in the maze.


Daddy jumps over the maze and scares the potatoties off of Bella and Victoria who thought that they were in a good hiding spot.
Daddy plays chase with Victoria and Bella in the maze.
Carol and I enjoy some cake at her place.

What the girls do when they're suppost to be napping.


Monday, August 17, 2009

Austin Rocks! San Antonio- not so much.

We traveled to the Southern part of Texas this past week. Jeremy had a conference in Austin, so the girls and I tagged along. We stayed in the Radison hotel on the 8th floor. Victoria and Bella were hyped on Austin and shout "Austin Rocks!" in this picture.
The coolest place around- figuratively and literally was the Austin Children's Museum. It had so many interactive learning experiences. My favorite was a room devoted to a Mexican artist Carmen? (name's failing me) and her paintings. They would show a painting, then bring it to life and let the kids be part of the picture. Here Victoria and Bella dress up in Mexican garb and create music for a fiesta.

One of her paintings was of Carmen helping her mother to make tamales. They had little pieces of cloth cut out like corn husks and maso and little brown bean bags for the meat. They showed a diagram of how to make the tamales. Victoria made a couple for me.

They had an activity center discussing how to make a quilt and lots of precut cloth and ribbon. The girl's made their own quilt patches.

One of the activities was to create your own "Ducky Chair." Victoria was very proud of hers.

Bella was proud of hers too.

In one activity, you were instructed to create your own vehicle that would roll down a platform that you controlled the angle of dissension. Victoria's vehicle was a success.

One station had materials and supplies to create a "Shadow Puppet." The arms and legs were supposed to be able to rotate with fasteners or pipe cleaners. Bella created herself. (FYI- Bella drew a smiley face on the chest.)

They also had many mock rooms, such as a restaurant, a construction zone, a grocery store, a train station, and a veterinary clinic, to name a few. All in all- very cool.

After a nap, the girls wanted to do some summing. Victoria was a little weary about getting into the water after a upsetting incident at Denise's pool the last weekend where she tried to swim on her own without a life vest. Swimming is an on going lesson for her. Bella, on the other hand, knows no fear. She has started swimming to me from the wall for a couple of strokes and loves to jump in at any chance she gets.

The girls and I ate at TGIFridays outdoor patio and watched the bats come out at dinnertime. They were mesmerizing.

The next day, we took a trolley to the capital and played chase on the front lawn. The girls weren't as interested in this building and kept complaining about how hot it was.

When Jer's conference was over we loaded up and headed for San Antonio. Along the way we saw a sign for Natural Cavern's Wildlife Perserve, so we gave it a try. What fun! The animals go right up to your car. I was kind of grateful for the heat, because most of the wilder ones were snoozing in the sun. Afterward, there was a feeding area for the kids. Victoria was reluctant to feed the goats, but in the end did and was very proud of herself. Bella's goal was to pet all the animals and talk to them. It was quite cute.

Our Sea World adventure in San Antonio was a disappointment. Not only was the cost extremely high, but it was so CROWDED and HOT. Bella and Victoria were very whiny. We did see two shows- the dolphin one and Shamu. When we were done with the shows we headed off to go swimming- which we had been promising Victoria throughout the entire day. When we got to the section, there was an hour long wait just to go into the water area- insane. We ended up calling it quits and heading back early to our beloved Frisco.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Chicago

This past week Jer and I traveled to Chicago to visit my relatives and attend my cousin Julie's wedding.

My cousin's Karen and Susie, and little cuz Mattie start the jab fest at Karen's house. Later Karen and Susie took Jer and I out to an Irish pub for a Blue Moon and nachos (served with french fries, instead of tortilla chips- interesting and yummy.) Karen and I stayed up until 3 chatting and reminiscing, while my philosophical hubby and Susan stayed up until 5am! Probably not the best of moves before a busy wedding day, but- hey, we only get to see each other once in a Blue Moon.

Julie's wedding was amazing! She looked sooooo beautiful! She wore her hair in long blond ringlets down her back; with a long strapless light-beige colored gown that drug a couple of feet behind her. The bodice of the gown had tiny gems and embroidery throughout and the back had a cris-cross sash. The ceremony was at a neat outdoor garden that had its own chapel. The weather was perfect- 75 degrees (It was actually cold at night, and on the last day of the trip- and I didn't bring a jacket.) She walked down the aisle to two musicians, I believe one was a violinist. In a nutshell- great ceremony!

Susie and Chris

Karen, Matt, Mattie, and GiGi

Jer and I


Jer, Aunt Lois, Karen, Stevie, Susie, and Mattie

Chris and Julie


Mom, Dad, Matt, Jer, Karen, Aunt Lois, Uncle Dave, Cathy, Mattie, GiGi and a few others who didn't get into the picture ( Julie, Chris, and Uncle Steve) took a walking tour of Chicago. We started at Millennium Park (dedicated in 2004 by Mayor Daily:) and saw some of its attractions, such as the giant bean sculpture, the flower gardens, and a neat tall glass bricked water sculpture that projects people's faces onto it and spits out water. Later we did a Chicago river tour and learned about their buildings. We also saw the Chicago library and Chicago Tribute building that contains rocks and stones from around the world in its' outer facade- neat. Jer also was able to get his wish- to eat Chicago sausage and pizza. What a wonderful time we had!


The 3 Sadowski brothers- Joe, Steve, and Dave


Thank you Karen for letting us stay at your place, showing us around (although I hated that traffic!), and staying up to 3 am to talk shop with me:) I love you.

Side note: Victoria and Bella stayed with Grandma Carol and Grandpa Dick for those 4 days- Thank you so much! They never once said that they missed us until we got home again. Yeah! Bitter sweat:) However, they've been glued to me all day.










Build A Bear

Lake Ray Roberts

Memorial Weekend 2009

Brothers Visit

Christmas '08

PA Vacation Slideshow