WHEEEW HOOOOOO

The girls had a wheeew hooooo of an afternoon!
They played outside in the water for hours.

Presley watered her flowers. They are doing so well! Only if we can keep Maggie from digging in them!

Maggie Bell has a tree just her size!

Piper was cracking up! She thought she was being soooooooo funny!

My clematis is doing great in it's new spot! It was tons of new blooms too!

Presley's flowers will be blooming soon!

And Piper's peas are going crazy!

Maggie's Day Out!

Welp, the girls and I took Maggie Bell out today. We went to the vet and weighed her for her heart worm preventatives and her flea/tick/mosquito medication for our camping trip. She now weighs about 23 pounds. Seriously, I don't think she's going to be a big dog at all. Which is fine by me...she's the perfect size right now.

And you know, it's getting so much easier taking her places....she actually sits in the seat with out me having to hold her down. And she hops up in the car when you tell her that we are going for a ride. She did, however, get excited and climbed back in the back seat with the girls and tried to climb into Piper's lap.

Me multitasking....Maggie kept licking my ear when I was driving. So I took a pic of us.

After we left the vets, we took her to Pet Smart for some more socializing and let her pick out a toy. Well, she was taking too long picking out the darn thing and the girls were throwing balls all over the place telling her to fetch. SOOOO I cut the trip short and threw a toy in the cart for her, picked up some dog food, and we were out of there!

Then the girls were yelling out the hungry word. So we stopped by Sonic and grabbed some lunch. Maggie was so funny when we got here. We interrupted lil' Maggie Bell's napping schedule by taking her out today. She was falling asleep sitting up in the car. FUNNY!

SWEET DOGGIE!

More Zoo Days

Welp, the girls and I went to the zoo on Wednesday so John could work from home in peace. We had a great day! We learned that all the schools pretty much have field trips to the zoo between the hours of 10 - 130ish. There were sooooooooo many kids there!.

John has been teaching Presley her North, South, East, and West. And also how to read a map...so to her, that makes her our leader every time we go somewhere. When we got there, she got out the map and planned out our day.

1st on list was a ride on the monorail. I don't know why they like that thing so much...lots of it is in the sun and sooo hot! But they do...so we ride it every time! But on the way, Presley had to do her "zoo" pose in front of some flowers.

On the monorail. I love this pic of Presley!

Presley's favorite lizard...she gives it kisses every time. This time she accidentally touched her lips to it! GROSS!!!!!!! I sanitized her and Piper's mouth. Remember what Piper sees Piper does. And man o' mighty these kids move at the speed of light!

After kissing the lizard, snake, and ducks....we headed to the geology center and learned more stuff. Presley turned in some snails and gastropods and quartz and picked out some sand from Galveston with her points to bring home. Then we had lunch....YUM!

Then we went to another learning center there and got to do some finger painting and colored some butterflies. And Presley learned a little about tree snakes.

Then we fed the birds. This little guy wanted to go home with me. He would not get out of my bag for nothing! Then I'd hold him and he just wanted to be petted. So sweet!!!!

Presley adores the birds! Piper not so much yet....she still keeps some space between her and them. Since we were the only ones in there, the keepers brought out there gorgeous parrot ( that I didn't even get a pic of). Anyways, she would quack, meow, say hello, and do a bunch of stuff. That was really neat!

Then we stopped to play on the playground for a bit and headed to get an ice cream.

On the way out, Presley remembered that she wanted to ride in the nest on the carousel from the last trip to the zoo. So that is what they did.

Then we headed home. One day, we'll actually go visit some animals. It seems every time we go we kinda just hang out in the kid's area and play all day! Oh well....as long as the kids are having fun!

A Woman's Work...

Presley just finished playing with her play-doh.
I asked her to clean her mess and sweep up the play-doh of the floor.
She does & I hear her singing a song about cleaning up her messes.
Then she stops, sighs, and wipes her forehead and says, "Whew, I am a woman and woman's work is never done!"

Now she wants to do laundry....

Our Experience at Lake Ray Roberts State Park

Lake Ray Roberts

Isle De Buis Unit

Map: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/park_maps/pwd_mp_p4503_137n.pdf

I had forgotten how much I loved the outdoors and camping and stuff. This place reminded me of all of that. It was really that nice. They have 20+ miles of trails for hiking, biking, and horse trails. We didn't go walk on any of them (I forgot our jackets and it was really cold!). But we saw the start of the trails and they were so nice and paved. Very impressed.

They have a beach, it was clean! And the playground equipment was colorful, inviting, and clean looking! They have a small store. By small, I mean SMALL!

A couple of down falls that I saw from camping here are: 1) you cannot forget anything! The only thing within a few miles is a Dollar General. AND 2) The campsites are rather small.

Oh, and by looking at the map, trails run through all the camps...so we should be able to get anywhere we want by foot.

COST: $25 to camp with electric & water a night, $2 extra cars (2 allowed at campsite), $5 per person per day (excludes kids under 13 yrs old)

The beach....what would I do with Maggie?

The girls really liked the beach.

The beach, picnic area, and clean playground. The small store is in this parking lot.

Primitive camping - Hawthorne Area

This is a view of the parking lot, grassy area that kids were playing ball in, and the chemical bathrooms.

The beginning of the trail to get to the camp sites (walk in only, no cars)

I never thought I'd do primitive camping with kids, but it was actually really nice! The kids could run around the campsite with out the fear of being hit by a car. And the bathrooms aren't that far of a walk. You'd just have to drive to the showers, but it's a real short drive.

Cool little finds for the kiddos...like moss on some pretty black rocks.

See, the primitive camping doesn't looks so bad. Camps are really nice. Better than the primitive camping at Cedar Hill State Park.

Piper posing on the road through the primitive area.

Beautiful view of Mother Nature in the primitive area. We went out looking for nice campsites.

The primitive area has a water spigot in the center of the camps.

Favorite primitive camping site. #18. We we end having to go primitive, we'd camp here. People were camping on it and they had a ton of tents. Must be a great site, right??? Oh and it was one of the 1st off the trail! Short walk!

Nice trails! What a change from the visit at Cedar Hill State Park.

Quail Run Area. Water and Electric hook ups. I use to go camping all the time pre-baby. I don't remember the camp sites being so small. And since when did everyone stop pitching tents and start camping in RV's? There were so many campers and RV's at the parks this weekend. It was unreal!

We did find some campers that had lots of tents on one campsite. Must mean it's a good one. That was #169. That'll be choice #1 for me!

Fishing is FREE in State Parks. And looks like the fish were biting this weekend. They are huge too. See this boy carrying his catch.

Lake Ray Roberts

Johnson Unit

Map: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/park_maps/pwd_mp_p4503_153a.pdf

Girls (in their brand new Dollar General jackets) posing as we walked thru the Johnson Unit's primitive area. Presley soooo did not want that jacket. It's a boys and teh only one they had n her size. I told her we could sew stuff on it and make it very cool for a girl to wear! Now she loves it and I have yet to sew anything on it.

There were a few cool sites that I'd camp at, like sites # 136, 137. 138. They also have chemical toilets very close by.

A lot of the camping over in this Unit was open. Not many trees in the water/electric hook up areas. This is view of the islands that were saw & a very open camp site.

Happy Mommy's Day!

I had the best ever Mother's Day weekend with my lil' family.

Saturday the girls were coming down off of being sick and their fevers finally broke! So we headed out to Sanger to visit the units at Lake Ray Roberts. Pretty impressive and very clean!

It never warmed up and I didn't pack any winter clothes for us....who'd figure we'd need them now. We had to leave and go to the Dollar General store to find some jackets for the girls. Seriously, this is the only store out there with out having to drive into Gainesville or back into Denton. SOOOO if we decide to camp here...note to self: be ready and have everything before you go!

After visiting the units, John and the girls took me to a Mother's Day dinner at Logans! YUMMM! Love it here but haven't been since pre-baby! I was soooo nervous too! I had forgotten about all the peanuts they have all over the place! My meal was wonderful, but since I don't eat that much red meat anymore, my meal was like a rock in my belly.

And Sunday...Mother's day, I got to sleep in till 1030!!!! 1030 I said!!!!!! I was awaken by a little voice and sweet little kisses telling me that I had a mommy's day breakfast waiting for me in the kitchen. I had Eggo waffles and fruit AND a STARBUCKS drink waiting for me along with gifts from my girls. What a great way to start my day! Oh, and the girls showered me with gifts!

Handmade planters (the girls put these together at Lowes)

Beautiful little hand painted picture frames (the girls painted these at Michael's)
I don't have to sneak around to read these anymore!

My beautiful cards!

And what gorgeous roses!

And I love my Frappuccino!

Then we got ready to head to Cedar Hill State Park to scope it out and have a picnic. The packed me the most wonderful Lunch-able meal. And we sat by the water and ate and talked. It was really special! I have the best husband and two girls in the world!

And for dinner we watched the season finale of The Apprentice and ate Chinese food and pizza.

Happy Mother's day to you all!!!!!! I hope all you mother's had a beautiful day