A Day of Fun

When I heard my niece and nephew were coming, I asked them what they wanted to do.  They sent me their list of places to go and foods to eat.  Since we only have a short time, I had to figure out how to make the most of their time and squeeze in as much as possible.

8:00 am--Breakfast at McDonald's
9:00 am--Dallas Zoo
We have passes, so we hit the specific places they want to see when we have limited time.  We covered one whole area of the zoo, and then we went to 3 specific places on the other side.  They both touched snakes, saw what they wanted, and had a great time.
12:00 pm--Lunch at Subway
Since we were downtown and didn't have too far to go, we had to find somewhere they wanted to go and in our location.
1:30 pm--Perot Museum
We visited every floor, seeing what they wanted, spending time where they wanted, and had a blast.  The museum did a great job covering all the tested materials for 5th and 8th grades, so I pointed out what they will both need.  :-)  Always the educator!
4:45 pm--Walmart
5:30 pm--Church Small Group Pot Luck
When the kids are with me, I do and plan what they want to do, and I focus all my time and energy on them.  My church small group had a pot luck/gathering planned for today, so I asked my niece and nephew if they wanted to go or do something else.  I gave them all the details so they could make a good decision.  Not only did they agree they wanted to go, they were going to get to see my BFF's children too, children they love to see/play with.  We had a great time visiting, and by the end, all of the children were in the hot tub or pool--fully clothed.  My niece and nephew had the best time, and it makes me so happy.  We had tasty pulled pork, homemade mac and cheese, fruits, vegetables, potato salads, coleslaws, and desserts.
8:30/9:00 pm--Taco Casa
Yes, we ate at the pot luck, but we had planned to have dinner at Taco Casa (before we decided t go to the pot luck), and my niece didn't forget, so we went and got a "snack."
10:00/10:30 pm--The kids passed out for the night.

I was so blessed today!  I absolutely love those two darlings, and I love watching them learn and have fun. Thank you, Lord, for a wonderful day!

Elephants

 Lioness

Monorail

Alligator Encounter 

Touching a snake 

Learning about rocks

Life Science floor

 Swimming in April

Houston Museum of Natural Science

We took a little mini-vacation to spend time with my niece and nephew over Winter Break.  We spent this afternoon at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. My niece was excited to visit this museum.

They have an amazing collection of shells and prehistoric skeletons/fossils.

Their traveling exhibit was about Egypt.  My nephew was excited about this part.

This is a replica of the Rosetta Stone.  I have had the privilege of seeing the real Rosetta Stone at the British Museum.

Discovery Children's Museum in Las Vegas

My niece and nephew love Science museums, so we decided to find the local museum while visiting Las Vegas.  We visited Discovery Children's Museum.  It has three stories with 3 or more learning areas on each floor. In the center of the museum, there is a climbing system that stops on various levels allowing for more learning.  There are also areas to climb to different levels or slide down to other levels.

Witte Museum

After my niece's dance competition, we had an afternoon to spend having fun.  We decided to check-out the Witte Museum.  We were a little disappointed that we only had two and a half hours until closing, so we are looking forward to going back another day.

Their traveling exhibit was on dinosaurs.  While I can't remember specifics, there is new research out with info I didn't know previously.

There are several other parts of the museum that are interesting.  One area depicted food webs, populations, habitats, and niches.

They had Prairie Dogs that they let out to run around and eat.

They have a huge treehouse that is really neat--inside and out.

Glen Rose and Ft. Worth, Texas

Looking for a great day trip in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex?  Try Glen Rose and Ft. Worth, Texas!

The first weekend of 2013 was a beautiful one, and I had the great privilege of spending it with my niece and nephew. 

On Saturday, we went to Glen Rose and enjoyed Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, where we fed animals as we drove through the park.

After a bite to eat, we headed to Dinosaur Valley State Park.  It was a warm, sunny day on the first Saturday of January.  We climbed down to the river to see the dinosaur tracks in Site #1.  We then climbed back up to drive over to Site #2, where we climbed back down to the river and played around, crossing the river by stepping on the rocks, and coming back across.  The kids took their shoes and socks off to enjoy the water.  We have been to DVSP before, but the river was always higher and faster, which made it difficult to see the dinosaur tracks.  We could see them this time, and we could cross the river without worry.

On Sunday, we drove to Ft. Worth to enjoy the Ft. Worth Museum of Science and History.  The kids have been very interested in all things Titanic.  FWMSH had an exhibit displaying artifacts salvaged from the bottom of the ocean, information about passengers while on the ship, and if they survived or not.  As we entered the exhibit, we were each given a boarding pass with a name of a passenger and other interesting information.  We knew a little about why our passengers were on the ship, what class they were, what rooms they were assigned, and little more, but we were not told whether or not they survived.  By the end of the exhibit, we found out. 

After completing the exhibit, we visited the rest of the museum.

It was a great weekend, and I absolutely loved seeing the kids.