Chef Nicholas prepares pizza for lunch

We went to a swimming pool party with our Early Childhood PTA friends this morning. On the way home, Nicholas asked to have pizza for lunch. I happened to have most of the ingredients for pizza except that we had to substitute cheddar cheese for mozarella. Nicholas had fun making the pizza although he kept eating the ingredients before they ever made it to the pizza...one pepperoni for the pizza, three pepperoni for Nicholas...It turned out to be a great little pizza.



By the way, we were watching a show on TV yesterday in which some kids were paddling a boat with their hands. Nicholas said, "Oh no, that boy is paddling with his hand open. That's not right! He should paddle with his hand closed!" Stuart was very proud that his student had recalled and applied his lesson (See July 8th post).

Man with no hair & Androcles and the Lion

Nicholas and I went to pick up our pool pump motor from the repair shop today. The nice man who was helping us was bald and Nicholas quickly said, rather loudly, "Mommy, why does that man have no hair?" I don't know that the man heard the question so I whispered to Nicholas that we would talk about it in just a minute when we got outside. But Mr. Persistent had to know the answer to his question so he asked it again. The man heard that time but he didn't seem bothered by it....until the other guys in the shop all started cracking up with laughter. I apologized to the man and explained that Nicholas is just a very curious little guy. Fortunately he laughed along. He said he has grandkids and completely understands. Whew! As we were driving away, Nicholas and I had a little lesson on hair (and the process of losing it!) as well as how we need to be careful about what we say to people. He seemed to understand but I'm sure there will be other instances like this.

After our trip to the motor shop, we grabbed some lunch and went to the next thing on our agenda. We had front row seats for a performance of Androcles and the Lion at the Plano Children's Theater! What a great performance it was. It is a tale from ancient Rome of a runaway slave who aids an injured lion. When he is recaptured, he is sent to the arena to face wild beasts. However, to his delight, the beast he faces is the lion he helped. Androcles life is spared because of his random act of kindness to the lion. The actors were great. They were very animated and they interacted with the audience at various time throughout the play. Nicholas was enthralled by them, as were most of the other children there. Nicholas has been to other plays before this one but I think he is just able to appreciate the story line more at this age so it had a greater impact on him. He said that when he grows up, he wants to be an actor - but only after he is a fireman and an ambulance driver!

Here's a cute picture of Nicholas with the Lion!

More kite flying!

At this time of year, we love the longer days because it means that there is still sunlight when Daddy gets home from work in the evening. Time for just one more fun thing before the day is over! On Monday morning, Mommy and Nicholas had gone to a park to fly kites and that evening we got to go back out with Daddy. Daddy and Nicholas each had their own kite. There was a good wind for kite flying and it had a pretty good pull on the kites. At one point Nicholas said, "Oh no! It's pulling me up! Help! I'm floating away!" Then later he played on that scenario some more when he said, "Help! I'm flying away to Mexico!"

Counting with Teddy Graham crackers

Nicholas learns well with a hands-on approach to teaching. This morning we were using Teddy Graham Crackers to practice counting to 10 in Spanish and in French. Then Nicholas decided he was hungry so we started practicing subtraction. He is quite good at addition and subtraction when using manipulatives such as our Teddy Graham friends. He can also count to 100, with a few prompts along the way.

Later in the morning, Nicholas and Daddy were playing a game of good guy vs. bad guy. Nicholas was using a piece from his little tool bench as his "gun" to shoot at Daddy. I think this is a cute picture of Nicholas but it is a little disconcerting to see my little baby in a shooting stance with such good form. We don't pretend to "shoot" when we play with Nicholas so I know he's picked this up from being around other little boys. As he gets older I often have to fight the urge to try to keep him naive and innocent, my little baby forever. But he has such a passion for experiencing life that I've come to realize that there is just no holding him back.

So much fun to be had!

Last week was very busy for us. On Monday we had a playdate with some friends from church, we had a playdate with some friends from Montessori on Tuesday, fireworks on the 4th, Circle of Sciences on Thursday with our Montessori friends, and Paradise Pond and Casey's Clubhouse on Friday with our PTA friends. So much fun to be had!!

We had a great time on July 4th. Nicholas and I talked about the United States of America, the flag, and the Pledge of Allegiance. We did some patriotic arts and crafts as well. Stuart was off work so he and Nicholas were running around playing. At one point, Nicholas had two toys that he was pretending were his boat oars that he was using to paddle his pretend boat. Stuart pointed out to him that the two oars were different from each other - one had a solid surface, like a shovel, and the other one was more open, like a rake. He asked Nicholas which oar would be better at moving the boat through the water. We got out a container of water to let Nicholas figure out the answer for himself by running his hand through the water with his fingers closed and then again with them open. He decided that his hand was more effective when his fingers were closed.


Stuart soon lost control of his classroom and got splashed with water by his student!


Fellowship Church always puts on a great event. It started at 6:00 out in the parking lot which was filled with 15 inflatable structures such as bounces houses, water slides, obstacle courses, and even an inflatable climbing wall! They also had hot dogs, hamburgers, snow cones, and ice cream. At 8:00 we all went inside for a great concert by the worship team. Nicholas was very excited about the concert because he usually doesn't get to go into "Mommy and Daddy Church" with us. We happened to sit next to Lisa Whelchel (Blair Warner from The Facts of Life TV show) and her husband, Steve. I just recently finished reading Lisa's book called, So You're Thinking About Homeschooling, so it was neat to be able to talk with them for a while. The concert was awesome and it wrapped up about 9:15. We all headed outside for the firework show by the lake.

On Thursday we went to Circle of Sciences with some of our friends from Montessori Episcopal School (MES) where Nicholas goes to preschool. Circle of Sciences is an incredible learning center for math and science and it's located right here in Flower Mound. We enjoyed getting to learn about and touch many interesting and unique animals.

We saw a prairie dog and learned that they love to eat carrots. They have such soft fur!

We saw the biggest walking stick ever! We weren't allowed to touch him though. He had already lost one leg before we ever got there so I think the rule was made in his best interest!

We got to touch a cute little hedgehog and learned that he is prickly!

We learned about mice and watched one run through a maze!

Look at this friendly bird hanging out on Nicholas' feet. He was especially fun because he talked. We watched him fly back to his cage!

We also got to touch a corn snake!

Some other neat animals we saw included a three-toed box turtle, a chinchilla, frogs, toads, an iguana, a tarantula, sugar glider, and many more!

Unfortunately it had been raining pretty heavily so we only got to spend time with the indoor animals. We hope to go back soon so we can visit with the outdoor animals. We aren't sure what's out there but we know there was a horse, cow and lots of chickens!

On Friday, we went to Paradise Pond with some friends from the PTA. It is an indoor play area at a church in Grapevine. They have a huge climbing structure, bounce house, tons of costumes for girls and boys, a pretend grocery, a train table, climbing wall, building block area, video games, etc.

Here is an unusual picture of the Incredible Hulk directing traffic!


After Paradise Pond we all went to lunch at Willhoite's in Grapevine. They have a great lunch buffet and kids eat free :) Afterwards we went to an outdoor park called Casey's Clubhouse. This playground was built in 1998 in memory of a child who had been confined to a wheelchair. It includes a two story play structure that is 100% wheelchair accessible, learning stations, and even water-spouting dolphins - bring your swimsuits! We enjoyed freeze pops (Thank you, Mrs. Deb!) and went home for Nicholas to crash for nap time.

There is just so much to do and so little time to do it all - but we are doing our best to get the most out of this summer time fun!

June 27, 2007

We spent the morning at Pump It Up! which is an indoor play area that has 8 inflatables such as bounce houses, obstacle courses, slides, and even one that has basketball goals in it! It was a great way to get some exercise since it has been too rainy here to go to a park.



Reese Williams' Birthday Party!!
We had so much fun at our friend Reese's birthday party. He just turned 4 years old! Nicholas loved the float tube that they had and was overjoyed when he realized that each child was getting one of their own as a party favor to take home!


Look at the pirate cake that Reese's mom made! Isn't it incedible?! Ahoy, matey!

Granddad Owen comes to visit!

Nicholas loves it when Granddad Owen comes to visit! He came last month, in June, and Nicholas really enjoyed spending time with his grandfather.

Granddad enjoyed reading bedtime stories to Nicholas.

We went to a park down the street from us where Granddad and Nicholas fed lots of ducks. Nicholas and Grandad both had a good time.

They even got to feed a mommy duck and her little baby ducklings!


We ate at Red, Hot, and Blue - Grandad's favorite place! Nicholas tried ribs for the first time and loved them!

We went to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum which included 4 hangers of vintage aircraft. Granddad showed Nicholas a Piper Cub plane like the one that he used to fly.

And they got matching t-shirts of the Flying Tigers P-40 Warhawk!

We had dinner at Mikado's Hibachi grill and Nicholas got to watch his food being cooked right on the table. The chef started he show with a blaze of fire which looked really cool but startled Nicholas. He quickly warmed up to the show and started talking to the chef as he was cooking. He kept asking the chef "where's my shrimp?"

We took a day trip down to Dinosaur Valley in Glen Rose, Texas and saw actual fossilized dinosaur tracks. Most of the tracks are in the river beds so with the large amounts of rain that we've had they were all covered with water. However, look closely through the murky water and you just might catch of glimpse of prehistoric times...


We did get to play in the river to cool off!

Grandad and Nicholas napping after a day full of fun.

Flower Mound Symphony Orchestra

I love music so I was excited to take Nicholas to the Flower Mound Symphony Orchestra's Children's concert. Stuart was volunteering at church that night so it was just the two of us. We started with dinner at La Madeleine where Nicholas discovered that he loves Chicken Cordon Bleu. Nicholas was excited about going to the concert and he told everyone in the restaurant where we were going after dinner.

The concert was great. The conductor told all of the children to come sit on the thurst of the stage so that they could have the best seats in the house. Before each performance the conductor explained a little about the song as well as any musical terminolgy related to the song such as Forte which means "to be played loud and strong" and Adagio which means "to be played slowly". Nicholas kept trying to stand up and dance to the music so about half way through the concert we moved to some seats in the back so that Nicholas could dance in the open aisles without distrupting the other patrons. At that same time the conductor had stepped off stage to let a guest conductor perform. I had not realized it at first but the conductor was standing right next to us watching Nicholas dance with a big grin on his face. I'm sure he was pleased to see how much Nicholas was enjoying the music.