Today we went to the Fort Worth Nature Center, and the kids had a blast.

When we got there the first thing we saw were the buffalo's. 

This big guy came right up to the fence when we pulled up.

Surprisingly Ryan wasn't afraid of this dude!  I wonder what buffalo's consider a treat??

 Ryan is turning into such a great big brother, and they truly love each other and want to be around each other. It warms my heart to see them play together and really want to be together.

 I love that she is kinda hiding behind him.

 I also love that she follows his cue, and just happily follows him.

That is one big ol' buffalo!!

 She asked to hold his hand, exchanged "I love you's" and they happily walked and checked out the sights.

He is pointing out something interesting I'm sure of it.

This one might need a frame!!  I love it!

I left my stroller behind at one point and needed to go back and get it.  Ryan jumped at the chance to go retrieve it for me.  He is starting to want to do more things on his own and help me with my stuff that I need done(now if you ask him to pick up his toys or clean his room it another story)

 It was quite a ways away and I could have done it in about 2 minutes but he was so proud of himself it was worth waiting the extra 10 minutes!

Come on cool weather!! Tomorrow is his first soccer game of the first season, and it is going to be muddy, it finally rained tonight moments before his first soccer practice was supposed to start.  I am sure some fun pictures will result!

Some late night swinging produced some kinda cool pictures and happy kids!

This week the weather has finally started to cool down!!  We had 70 days of over 100* degree weather and NO RAIN!  So since we have had a break in the weather we have started to venture out more.  We headed over to the Dallas Zoo this week and the kids had a blast!

These statues were finally cool enough to sit on.  The kids loved riding these elephants!

Next we were off to the lions, and they were sleeping peaceful :)  Seriously who could sleep like that??? It was hilarious, and the one lion kept moving his leg trying to get comfortable.

 

 Look at those paws, it looks like a stuffed animal!  Look at those nostrils!

Look at how proud he is!! He was so excited to be holding a real ostrich egg.  We were in this information club house area with several zookeepers who were asking Ryan a bunch of questions, folks I think many hours watching Wild Kratts is paying off because he knew most of the answers and some answers I didn't even know!

This one is for my Katie!

This one is a cheeky little monkey, she was playing keek-a-boo with me!  

Ummm, do you see that sass???? Because I do!!!  

Ummm, I think he was slightly excited about riding this eagle.

My little adventurous one though, she was a little less then excited!!  This was the fastest moving carousel I have ever been on, so I guess it scared her a little bit. 

The best kept secret though is don't buckle up your kids, and then 3/4's of the way through the little old man running the thing stops it all, scolds me, I buckle them and then he starts the whole thing over again!  Perfect!

Next we were off to ride horses!  I swear we looked at the animals.

Of course my little cowboy loved the pony ride.

Next was Caroline's turn, I'm not sure she loved it as much as her big brother but she enjoyed it.

Next we were off to see the goats, that was Ryan's only request all day, he wanted to pet the goats.  

 In true Caroline form she was bossing the goats around!

 For some reason all these goats started to gather around this door all the sudden and it kinda freaked Ryan out.  He was a little panicked but just as quickly as they gathered they dissipated.

Now he was top dog!

 Last of all it was off to the tunnels.  I was captivated by these Naked Rat Moles.  They are so nasty but so interesting at the same time.

 My kids in the tunnels!

I threw a baby shower for my good friend Amber, who is pregnant with twins.  The theme was Around the Clock.  I think it all turned out great!

The food turned out great!  Amber's daughter helped me with the setup and she said,"Wow this is way more then I expected, I thought it was going to be cake and presents."  To which I replied,"Hope, really??  You have been to my parties before!"

Strawberries filled with cheesecake filling topped with a blueberry.

Brownie Bites topped with chocolate gauche and a raspberry 

Chinese Chicken Salad and Artichoke dip with bread.

Amber found the idea for these, lifesavers and a jelly bean=Binky!  So cute and so easy!

WELL THIS HAS BEEN POSTED TWICE< JUST SKIP IF YOU WANT!

We rode the train to the Dallas Aquarium a while ago.  The conductor took pity on us because we got there so early, he let the kids come and sit in his chair and pull on all the levers.  As you can tell from Ryan's face he LOVED it.  The conductor also let the kids come up and blow the whistle while the train was moving!!  The kids loved it!

When we got the to the aquarium the inside part was okay(the kids loved it, I thought it was kinda lame)  But then we found the stingray tank outside!!  Boy oh boy was that the jackpot, the kids could have stayed out there ALL DAY!!

Caroline was definitely the brave one and would have jumped in there with the Stingrays if I would have let her!

Ryan on the other hand was a little more cautious and skittish!

This one snuck up on him, can you tell???

Then he got a little braver, with one finger! :)  It always makes me laugh that he is so cautious since you would never guess it from meeting him!

So the other day Ryan was in the living room and said, "hey mom I found a ribbon for you" and so he handed me said ribbon

and this is what I got, a Bullsnake, which I have found out is one of the largest snakes in Texas, growing up to 9ft long!!!!  Luckily this was a baby, but I so wasn't planning on grabbing a snake, it scared me too DEATH!!! 

The other day I needed to get some cleaning done so I rolled out some butcher paper and let the kids go to town.......and it started out nicely like this.

With some serious body drawings.

But it quickly turned into this.........

And Caroline for some reason had markers that weren't washable! Lovely!

Our lovely day ended with a wonderful reading by daddy.  Caroline has just recently started to sit still during books which is a nice change!  Ryan was cute and sat and played with her hair the whole time they were reading books!