Happy St. Patty's Day

We gained a new love and appreciation for St. Patrick's Day in Philadelphia.  Philadelphia was home to many Irish immigrants and they knew how to celebrate.  There was always a parade (that was always on Sunday so we never saw it) but on TV you could see all the Irish dancers (in those cute green dresses).    There were Irish dance studios all around, which we had never seen before.  They also had this yummy treat called Irish Potatoes.

These are a fun coconut candy that is rolled in cinnamon to make them look like little potatoes.  I think I may need to try to make them next year.  

Anyways in honor of our new appreciation for St. Patrick's day, we have started a few fun traditions.

This is some white mint hot chocolate drink.  It is was good.  I don't know if I would say that we will make it again but it was definitely worth a try.  Check out the recipe here.

We learned about a cute idea to make a Leprechaun trap.  Last year we made our first trap out of a shoe box.  This year we copied some friends and made a trap we can reuse.  Caleb was a big help putting this together.  It is made from a large yogurt container.  We put a small piece of felt on the top and then put gold on the top to lure the Leprechaun in.  The weight of the Leprechaun would then push it inside the yogurt container, and then we can ask for 3 wishes.  Pretty cute!

He was so sure he was going to catch that Leprechaun!  He had his 3 wishes all planned out.

In the morning Caleb discovered a bit of a mess.

The chairs were turned over.

And the couch cushions taken out.  

Those sneaky Leprechauns!

(Sometimes Leprechauns did this to my Kindergarten classroom when I was a teacher.)

But sadly the Leprechaun had escaped our trap!

Fortunately we were left with a fun little breakfast surprise!

"May the Luck of the Irish, Be With You Today!"

Yummy yummy!

Caleb has already planned out how to improve his trap so that he can be successful next year.

Spring Break at Home

Since the big Spring Break trip was to Dallas for the Titanic Exhibit, we just had a relaxing week at home.  Unfortunately we had to do a bit more relaxing than I had planned.  During our visit to the museum, I started to not feel well and so we ended up cutting our Dallas trip short.  Fortunately we made it home in time for me to be sicker than I have ever been in my life!  It was a long few days and put a bit of a damper on the beginning of our Spring Break but we were able to fit in some fun little activities.

Reading to Dogs

One of the local library locations held a fun event that Caleb just had to go to.  They brought dogs in the library and let the kids read to the dogs.  Caleb waited to have a turn with each dog and even got to read to them multiple times.  He would only read books with dogs in them and showed off his awesome reading abilities.  It was such a fun way to encourage reading (especially if your child adores animals).

A Different Kind of Zoo Trip

One afternoon we went to the Zoo for a picnic lunch and to hang out with some friends.  As much as we love Zoos I think we have photographed the local Zoo as much as we can, so no pictures.  But after  our little zoo visit, we went to the local park and ran into some other great church friends.  Caleb was thrilled to see his friend Liam and hang out.  Liam's family had planned a little fishing excursion and we were able to explore areas of the park and zoo area we had never checked out before, including this little scummy pond.

The fishing pole line got stuck in the middle of this pond but with a little encouragement we got the kids to wade out into the pond.  Caleb was the first to jump at the opportunity to get wet (shocking right!) and led the pack out into the really cold water.

They made it out there and rescued the fishing line.  They were so funny though.  The oldest was sure that a water snake would eat him, but after we got them out there we had to fight to get them out of the water.  

The best part was that later that day in the car, we could smell something really bad.  It took us a while to figure it out but we finally realized that it was Caleb.  The scummy pond was super smelly later and everything about him smelled.  His clothes were terrible!  Sure made us laugh!  Not everyday your son needs a bath from smelling so bad and playing in a dirty pond.  Everyone needs to get dirty and play in smelly ponds.  Although the whole time they were in the water, I was thinking about all the people that would be totally disgusted by putting my son in that water and it most definitely made it even more fun!

All the kids playing on a really awesome log.

It was just a great afternoon with amazing people, getting dirty, and having lots of old fashioned fun!

The Skate Park

We were invited the next day to play at the skate park.  We had never been to a skate park before and it was fun to check it out.  We cheated and brought Caleb's scooter to the park.  He had a blast!

The Prime Time

On Brydon and I's random Valentine's date, we got some gift cards for the arcade games in the Prime Time.  So as the last family Spring Break hurrah, we decided to play arcade games and introduce Caleb to miniature golf.  We scored at the arcade games and Caleb got some fun little toys. 

Caleb turned out to be a little pro at Miniature Golf!  Well he was about as good as his parents anyways (and we are far from pros), but it was a good family activity.  And can I just say that it was so amazing to have a 6 year old!  6 year olds rock and we have one of the best!

Check out that awesome swing!

One of Caleb's favorite parts was keeping score for us.  

He did a great job and officially beat his parents!  

What a fun Spring Break!

I had to get a picture with me in it.  I was reminded by a dear friend that I had been lacking from the photos lately (not purposely), so I had to make sure I got in a shot. 

 Sure do love that sweet boy!

An Obsession with the Titanic

Caleb has a new obsession....the Titanic!

A few months ago, Caleb found my Magic Treehouse books on our bookshelf.  We owned the first 8 books and he LOVED them!  Since then we have been reading all the books in order.  We are currently on number 43.  Book 17 is Tonight on the Titanic.  After reading this book, he became obsessed with the Titanic.  We did all sorts of research online with him, looking at what the boat looked like and what an iceberg was.  He found the Magic Treehouse Titanic research guide and checked out other books he could find about this ship.  The Titanic has become quite the research topic at our house.  

While we were in Dallas flying out for the funeral, we noticed signs for a Titanic Exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  We didn't have any big plans for Spring Break, so we decided to make a day trip to Forth Worth to see the Titanic Exhibit as our big Spring Break Adventure.

This museum was so much fun and we were so excited to have our friends the Murray's join us for the day.  Everything is more fun with great friends!  While we waited for our time to enter the Titanic Exhibit, we checked out some of the other fun exhibits.

Shadow Screen

Fun Glow in the Dark Coloring Pads

A HUGE Light Bright!  I loved these when I was a kid (well mine was normal sized).

Can you see Caleb's multi-colored shadow?  So cool!

Making and Launching Paper Airplanes with Dad

The Titanic Exhibit

A very excited boy!  This was a great place to get a picture.  No pictures were allowed in the exhibit so this is one of the few pictures we could take.

As we entered the exhibit, we were each given a boarding pass.  On the back of the pass, there was information about the passenger we represented and information about them.  The kids loved learning about the passengers.  

Caleb's Card

Brydon's Card

Jennifer's Card

It was a beautiful exhibit and Caleb wanted to read every sign and every description by all the items.  He was fascinated by the artifacts and was excited by all the things he already knew.  The set up was really amazing.  The first area of the exhibit focused on the designing and building of the Titanic, then we went to 1st class quarters and so saw artifacts and displays about what this area looked like.  Then to 3rd class quarters and the boiler rooms.  Each part displayed the few artifacts that they had found in those areas.  Then we came to the fateful iceberg crash.  They actually brought in a huge chunk of ice that you could touch and talked about icebergs.  There was also a really good video of how the Titanic most likely hit the iceberg and then sank.  The next part focused on how the remains of the Titanic were found and some of the neat discoveries.  The last section allowed you view a passenger list of everyone that survived or died.  We each looked up our passenger.  Both Caleb and I survived, poor Brydon was a single male and did not make it.

Caleb picked out another book about the Titanic as his souvenir.  It was so fun to take Caleb to a museum exhibit that he was really interested in.

We did get this fun picture!

"I'm the King of the World!"

Our friends had to leave us after the Titanic but b\we decided to stay and check out a few more of the exhibits. 

An outdoor water splash area and play area

A Texas Cattle Driver

Digging up Dinosaur Bones

Checking out Dinosaur Bones and Learning about Natural Gas in Texas

The Fort Worth Museum was so much fun and it was a great day!