A few weeks ago, we adopted Lily from a local rescue, Forgotten Tails Animal Rescue. Lily was very shy at first, but she’s starting to come around. She’s very affectionate and vocal. Shadow is not very happy we brought a new cat home, but she forgave me after about a day.
Bill asked me what I wanted to do today, and I decided to find the local waterfall since we have had rain recently. The waterfall is part of the Trinity Trails system and is located on Farmers Branch Creek just off of Pumphrey Drive in Westworth Village, near the entrance to NAS JRB. It was already pretty hot when we got there this morning.
Zachary taking in the falls from the trail.
Hannah at the seating area near the falls.
Another view of the falls.
The kids were excited to see horses right by the trail.
Zachary had to stop to look for alligators and monsters.
On the way back to the parking lot.
After we got back past the falls, we found goats. The baby goats were shy and wouldn’t come near us, but the adults came right up to the fence.
I finally pulled the trigger and bought a new lens, a Nikon 50mm f/1.8. I wasn’t quite ready to spring for the f/1.4. Here are a few of my first attempts shooting at a larger aperture. Here is one of Zachary in his wagon.
Here is one of Hannah and her friend.
I am still keeping up with my 365 photo project, but I have been a little slow posting them to Flickr.
We decided to throw caution to the wind and go ahead and plant our garden today. We planted tomatoes, rosemary, basil, onions, spinach, red lettuce, bell peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers, squash, carrots, garlic, and strawberries. We still had chives, sage, and a few strawberries left over from last year.
Hannah’s birthday was actually yesterday, and she chose to have a sleepover for her party. Mother Nature foiled my plans to have them play outside. Zachary’s soccer game was called at the half due to rain and lightning, and we had standing water in our yard for most of the day. Just as the first two girls arrived, Hannah got sick; we thought it might just be nerves, so the other girls stayed. After they played for a while, Hannah opened the gifts.
Then, I got the girls together for a photo.
Then, they started getting a little silly.
After pizza, we had cake. Hannah wanted a Littlest Pet Shop cake, so I decided to do a horse. I took a shortcut and used canned chocolate frosting for the horse’s body, and it did not work as well as buttercream, so I don’t think I’ll use it for stars again.
The girls were even sillier by cake time.
After cake and ice cream, all of the kids went upstairs to watch a movie. Hannah fell asleep, so that’s when we realized she was actually sick. We decided it was late enough not to call the other girls’ parents, especially since we thought they were going to sleep in a separate room from Hannah. Zachary and the remaining girls played musical rooms for a while, but we finally got them all to settle down and sleep.
Hannah is having two birthday parties this year because she chose to have a small slumber party (oh, excuse me, “sleepover”) with a few of her friends. So, we had her first birthday party on Saturday. Hannah wanted cupcakes.
Ashlyn got into the cupcakes before the party, so this was became hers.
Here’s a picture of the birthday girl and her cupcake.
After cupcakes and presents, the kids went outside to play with Play-doh and blow bubbles.
Here’s a short clip of Zachary’s soccer game on Saturday. He was acting pretty silly for the whole game, but this is my favorite part of the game.
Zachary played his very first soccer game today. We didn’t expect him to play because he has pretty much refused to practice so far. However, he must have thought it looked fun, because he played quite a bit. There aren’t many things more entertaining than watching 3- and 4-year-olds playing their first soccer game. Due to a uniform snafu, we didn’t get his uniform until just before the game. I was disappointed to see that “rust” looks suspiciously like “burnt orange”.
He didn’t start the game, but went in quickly as a substitute.
I have no idea what he’s doing here.
He was much more aggressive than Hannah ever was. Here he is out in front and going for the ball.
Late in the game, he got to throw the ball in. The coach and ref told him to throw it toward the goal. He took off running toward the goal with the ball.
He ran all of the way to the goal and threw it in. I was laughing so hard, I could barely take the picture.
He said he had fun, so maybe he will actually participate in practice this week!
Zachary turned 3 on April 28, and this is the first chance I’ve had to write. We had his birthday party the weekend before. He wanted a Mickey Mouse party, and his cake was my first attempt at using fondant.
Bubbles were a big hit with all of the kids at the party.
Zachary had his checkup on his birthday, so I took the day off to spend with him. He weighs 35 pounds and is now 39 3/4 inches tall. After his appointment, he wanted to go to “the petting store”, but it wasn’t open, yet, so we went by my office and visited a few people. Then, we went to two pet stores, looked at all of the animals, and petted all of the cats up for adoption. He wanted to go to McDonald’s for lunch, so we went, and he played. He was having so much fun, I had to carry him, screaming, out of McDonald’s.
In the March issue, Texas Monthly published their list of 63 things all Texans should do before they die. I decided to see how many of them I have already done.
#5 – See the world in San Antonio (Tower of the Americas). I have eaten lunch in the restaurant at the top of the Tower of the Americas during a Spanish Club trip my sophomore year of high school. And, apparently, I was involved in a hair-pulling incident in the elevator there at a very young age.
#10 – Sip a Dublin Dr Pepper. Growing up in De Leon, this one is pretty much a given. A Dublin Dr Pepper is the only soft drink I will drink other than Coke.
#25 – Learn the two-step. Yes, but not very well. Thank you, College Station.
#28 – Order a Brown Derby at Dairy Queen.
#35 – Memorize the Texas Pledge of Allegiance. Sadly, this one is only in the last year and only because of PTA meetings.
#37 – Ride the Ferry Between Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula. I did this one on the last day I worked in Galveston. It was rainy and dreary.
#49 – Drive the Freeways at Night in Houston. I did this one quite a few times.
#50 – Attend a Classic High School Football Game. There were so many… Go Bearcats! One of my favorites was the 1990 2A State Semifinal game between De Leon and Pilot Point. De Leon won 9 to 7. What a game!
Only 55 more to go.
