Cinergy Birthday Adventures

In lieu of birthday parties this year, we let the kids each pick a special activity to do with us or a friend. Sophie had wanted to go to a movie, but when we were at the theater buying tickets over Spring Break, she saw the "Sky Walker," an elevated obstacle course and immediately decided on that has her birthday activity. 

We measured her at home and found she would just barely meet the 48" height requirement. She was so excited and looked forward to going back all week! We made reservations (which surprisingly only cost $4) and on her last day as a 5-year-old, Sophie conquered the Sky Walk. She was so brave and we were so proud of her!

In front of the new Cinergy Horse. Amarillo is the American Quarter Horse capital, so there are horse statues at local business all over the city. The kids love to look for them. 

All harnessed up to go! I went along with her so she would have a guide, and because I also love this sort of thing and was thrilled that she picked it as her special activity. 

Up in the air ready to start - the two girls that went up before us chickened out and went back down, which made Sophie feel extra proud that she did the whole thing without falling off or getting too scared. 

We were given 15 minutes to explore the ropes course, which had about 18 different obstacles, including a zipline. Only one person can be on an obstacle at a time though, so I could not be with Sophie other than to help her step back on to the platforms in between challenges. She did all on her own!

Since Davey was too little for the main attractions at Cinergy, he got to play Jurassic Hunter with daddy. He used his lives very quickly, but enjoyed every second fighting back dinosaurs.

Video of Sophie on the Sky Walker Course

Davey is THREE!

Our Davey is THREE!! Although if you ask him how old he is, he will tell you he is eight. Haha. He loves the number eight and we've all learned that it's pointless to correct him. He is the most stubborn kid, but at the same he is always quick to apologize, the most likely to say "please" or "thank you" and a natural cleaner and helper. His room is spotless - everything has a place, and any extra items in his room at the end of the day are not welcome and will get tossed out into the hall. His three biggest loves right now are dinosaurs (especially t-rexes and pterodactyls), cars/trucks/anything that goes, and the Paw Patrol. If one of those are involved in anything we are doing, then he is one happy kid.

For his birthday this year we celebrated at home with just our family. He actually has quite a few friends that he plays with on a regular basis, but we decided to hold off on a party until he's older. On his special day we opened presents, let him choose the dinner menu, and then ate cake. We love you Davey!!

We told him to show us three fingers

Very excited about his big gift!!

From his birthday he received Paw Patrol toys, an umbrella, some construction vehicle puzzles, and a dinosaur Imaginext set. 

This umbrella was the source of many tears. Sophie became crazy jealous that his new umbrella had a longer handle than hers, which lead to a breakdown. Out of all the gifts he got, this was not the one I was expecting to cause problems. 

For the most part everything went really well. Sophie was very attentive and was always standing ready to show him how to play with each toy as soon as it was opened. 

For his birthday dinner we had his favorites - dinosaur pasta, strawberries, and jello. 

Happy birthday big boy!

Davey at Age 3

• He 38 inches tall (64%) and 32 pounds (57%). He's taller than he is heavy now! As a baby he was such a chunk and I feel like now he's finally starting to shoot up and level out. 
• He is known for his long eyelashes, his husky toddler voice, and hilarious personality. The other day Sophie was telling us about all the kids missing from her class because they had the flu. Davey replied, "My best friend is Jaxon, and he didn't flu away." 
• Right now he is a better little brother, than big brother, and we are working on that. He adores Sophie and spends the whole day asking if it's time to go pick her up from school. He always has a million things to tell her or show her when she comes home. Charlie, on the other hand, is not his favorite, and they are almost always at odds over something. 
• In addition to dinos, Paw Patrol, and cars, he also loves robots, tools, and weapons. Almost anything (pretzels, legos, sticks) can be turned into an imaginary "pew pew" or "hi-yah". 
• When he grows up he wants to be a "digger man" and operate an excavator. 
• He talks nonstop, even if no one is really listening. Some of our favorite things he says right now are "gotfor" instead of "forgot" and "minjas" instead of "ninjas". 
• His favorite color is blue, although he still loves his yellow blanket. 
• He loves to sing and dance, and has some pretty good moves for a three-year-old. Favorite songs right now include Baby Shark and The Ants Go Marching, which is ironic because he is actually terrified of ants, even the little tiny ones.

The House Flood

The day we got back from Oklahoma I accidentally flooded our house. Charlie got messy at dinner, so I took off his outfit and put it in the laundry room sink to soak. Then I got busy cleaning up dinner, unpacking all the stuff from our road trip, and checking on the kids in the bath. Forty minutes later I passed back through, and to my horror, realized that the sink was still running and now overflowing everywhere. AHHH!!!

I shut it off, pulled the plug and immediately started calling for Dave. The water had spread through the laundry room, back entry way, the pantry, and out into the garage. We grabbed towels, rags, blankets, anything we could find to start mopping up the water. After the lake had been soaked up, we then starting running fans and space heaters for the next 72 hours to try and dry out all the water that had seeped into the cracks under the base boards and the cupboards. 

Luckily the only visible water damage was to a cupboard in the laundry room and one baseboard, so it could have been a lot worse. It was such a dumb mistake that will hopefully never be repeated. I'm just glad it didn't run all night!

The bear suit that started it all. Charlie may never be able to wear this again because I now have hostile feelings towards this outfit. 

In addition to all our vacation laundry, I now had to also wash 5 loads of towels and blankets after they were used to clean up the floodwaters.

Drying things out - now all our floors are extra clean!

The worst of the water damage. I am sad every time I look at it, but at least it was the laundry room and not a more prominent part of the house. I also had a very nicely organized collection of gift bags stored in this cupboard that all had to be thrown out :(

Spring Break 2019 - Oklahoma Zoo

On our second day in Oklahoma we took the kids to the zoo. Our visit was two days before Davey turned 3 so we didn't have to pay admission for him (so sad those days are ending - these trips are going to start getting more expensive the older our family gets). The zoo was nice, big, and most of the animals were out and active, trying to soak up the sun. We were able to see everything on our hit list, except giraffes, which made for happy kids. It was a fun day!

I packed hats and gloves for the kids in case it was chilly, but it turned out to be even colder than expected. Luckily it was nothing a few layers couldn't fix, and we were able to keep everyone warm by putting pajamas either over or under their clothes for a little extra warmth.  

The herpetarium was the first stop for my reptile lover!

We showed the kids a map and asked them which animal they wanted to see the most. Sophie chose the reptiles, and Davey picked a white crane (???) We are still not sure why he chose a crane, but we made sure to track one down and take a photo. 

We stopped for a snack break by some sort of weasel creature that was fun to watch. 

Making friends with an orangutan 

Getting a break from the stroller with mom

Charlie loved these otters

And of course the kids loved the animal statues, maybe as much as the real animals. We had to stop and take a picture on every single one. This is just a few of the many that we took. 

Tired zoo crew at the end of the day. They were troopers and did awesome during our four hour adventure.

We had promised the kids a ride on the carousel at the end of the day, only to find it was closed. So instead we each gave them a few dollars to pick out a souvenir from the gift shop. Davey picked a crocodile that he named "Herbie" and Sophie chose a flip sequin snake. 

Oklahoma Zoo Video Clips

Spring Break 2019 - Oklahoma Science Museum

We had only two days in OKC, and our first activity was the Science Museum. I had heard really great things about it from friends and we were able to visit for free with our museum pass! The place was huge and did not disappoint! There were so many different hands-on activities to try for both kids and adults. We were there for almost 5 hours, but could have easily spent two days there playing. The only let down from the whole day was the planetarium show, which we ended up leaving part way through. We will have to come back again for another visit!

They had a Segway course you could try for free! Sophie, Davey, and I each took a turn and it was really fun. I would like to try a Segway tour sometime. 

Shadow wall, and our only family photo from the day

There was a glow, mirror maze that was actually pretty tricky. Davey kept running into walls trying to figure out where to walk. 

Chomp, chomp!

Making a tall tower with daddy's help

Piloting a mars robot

Sophie and I doing some climbing

Bed of nails!!

Tightrope conga line

Video clips from our visit