Sunday, August 28, 2016

First Days of School

Donna has been back to work since 8/11, Nicholas back to school since 8/15, and Mikaela since 8/22, so it's time for a few "first day of school" pictures.  Poor Daddy does getting summer vacation like the rest of his family.

Nicholas attends Spanish Schoolhouse in North Carrollton.  This is his second year there  We love this place.  I can't say enough positive things about it!



Mikaela is now in first grade.  She attends Independence Elementary in LISD.  She's in their dual language program.  This year, she has just one teacher who alternates each day which language she teaches in.  Last year, in Kindergarten, she changed teachers depending on the language day.

Her class of 2028 shirt




They hadn't changed the marque yet.  We went the day before school starts to take these photos.  It makes life way less stressful for Mommy!





Have a great school year, everybody!

Saturday, August 20, 2016

A Day in Kansas City

2 years ago, Mike and I decided to set out on an adventure to visit all the ballparks of America (plus Canada) with the hopes that we'd see the Rangers play at most every one of them.  This adventure kicked off with a tenth anniversary trip to Toronto which included Rangers V. Blue Jays at Rogers Stadium.

This summer, we didn't have a lot of time or money, so we took a weekend trip to Kansas City, Mo for a Rangers v. Royals game.  We left Friday, spent the night in Tulsa, then drove to KC the next morning.  Saturday night was the game.  Mike flew home from KC and the kids and I spent the week in Higginsville, MO visiting a dear friend of mine.  That post to come later.

We stayed overnight in Tulsa, OK to break up the 8 hr drive.  Unfortunately, someone pulled the fire alarm just as we had all bedded down for the night.  Oh well.  Memories.

When we arrived in KC, we went to the Crown Center.  Our first visit there was an art activity exhibit for kids, sponsored by Hallmark, called Kaleidoscope.  The kids had a great time.






























After Kaleidoscope, we went to Fritz, this really cool little diner where trains deliver your food  It was cute and the food was good too!






train delivering food to a table

our food coming down



The Crown Center also had a Mr. Potato Head Exhibit on display while we were there.  They had a great time there too.














And we took a trip to the Crayola store...




With the exception of the food we purchased at Fritz, everything we did at the Crown Center that day was free.  We really enjoyed this time as a family.  And thankfully, indoors as it was pretty hot outside.

We had a little time left to kill before heading to the game and we happened to drive by a park so we played there for a few minutes.  Like I said, it was hot so we didn't last long, but it still gave the kids a place to run off some energy.  It also looked to be a park designed for children of varying abilities because it had ramps, braille, and a big welcome sign where the characters spelled out "Welcome" in sign.
sign language Welcome sign




The highlight of this short weekend, was of course, the Ranger game against the Royals.  Prior to this game, the Rangers had been on a fairly long losing streak, so we were thankful that they pulled out a win while we were there.