Drive Through Safari Park

Over Labor Day weekend, Wayne and I took Nathan on a day trip to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, TX. It was a 2 hour drive, but we had so much fun. Nathan is such a good traveler. Plus we left Charlotte with Grandmother so that we could just spend the day with Nathan.

I was reading the brochure and found out that there are over 1,000 animals there that roam freely on the 1,700 acres of land. Many of the species represent extinct in the wild, endangered or dwindling populations that require cooperative efforts to save them. So, along with having fun, our money was going to a good cause!

Nathan broght along his bag of safari animals so that he could hold whatever it is he's looking at. It was so cute to watch him digging through his bag to find the right animal!

We bought a bag of special food at the visitor center, and Nathan wasn't stingy feeding the animals!

The zebras were all over the place, and they were HUNGRY! They were not shy about eating the food from our hands and would even stick their heads all the way in the car! They were our favorites because they were so interactive!

Here is Nathan showing the zebra his toy zebra. He said they were friends :)

Nathan even helped daddy drive and was actually pretty good at it! There were a few times that Wayne just let Nathan steer without him helping!



We saw some cars being able to feed the giraffes. After looping around, we got our turn to try to get it to feed out of our hands...in the meantime, another group of zebras were waiting for us AGAIN!

So this time, I decided I wanted to try to feed them. Until now, I had only been taking pictures and leaving the animal feeding to Wayne and Nathan. I just knew it would be my luck that I'm the one they decide to bite! Wayne knew how  nervous I was, and as I was holding out my hand with one or two pellets of food, Wayne thought it would be so funny to drop more food onto my lap! The crazy zebras stuck their whole heads in to get the food and completely scared me to death. You can see in the 2nd picture that I was all the way into Wayne's seat...those are my legs in the picture! Bad Daddy! Of course, Nathan thought it was hilarious to scare Mommy and make her scream :)

Nathan had no fear! Here he is lining up the food for the zebras to eat from his window. Good plan Nathan!

We finally made our way to Mr. Giraffe! He wasn't going to every car for food, so we were just hoping he'd come to us. Nathan found his toy giraffe and was so excited to see one in real life. He skipped the car in front of us but came to ours! Wayne fed him as I snapped away!

The rhino was the last one that Nathan REALLY wanted to see. And here he is!

After our safari drive through, we also went to the Dinosaur State Park which was only a few miles up. I'll update that post later this week. We had such a great time!

First Week of Preschool

Last week was Nathan's first week of preschool at his new school, St. Andrews. It was a short week, only two days so that the kids had time to get used to the beginning of the school year. Nathan had so much fun! I was so happy to see him so happy when I picked him up each day, and I loved seeing him say bye to his new friends. Since this was a new school for him, he didn't know anyone here, but I could tell that he was fitting in just fine and that he was going to love it here!

I made a big mistake though on the first day. I thought the kids were only going a half day and would not be eating lunch there. After I dropped Nathan off, I heard someone say, "See you at 2!" to their child. I found out that it was only the nursery kids that were staying until noon. OOPS! Luckily, my friend, Alison was there dropping off her little boy too. She lives just down the street from St. Andrews, so we went to her house where I borrowed a lunch box and fixed Nathan a lunch! Thanks Alison!

Day 2

Nathan's First Soccer Practice

Move over David Beckham...Nathan is the new soccer superstar!

These are his "serious" poses...

And this is the "sweet" one Mommy asked for :)

Nathan has been so excited for his first soccer practice! On Saturday, Wayne took him to get a new soccer ball and shin guards, and they practiced playing the game all weekend. Since today was his first soccer practice and tomorrow is his first day of school, I asked Mama and Papa if Charlotte could spend the night with them so that we could just focus on Nathan tonight and tomorrow. After Papa picked up Charlotte, Nathan and I had so much fun getting ready for "the big game" as he kept calling it. We picked out his soccer outfit together, got his water bottle ready, and did some last minute practicing. So 30 minutes before he's supposed to be there, we walk out to the car to get in, and I can't find my keys! I realized I left them in the diaper bag that is at Mama and Papa's house. Oh S***! What am I going to do?! Wayne is meeting us at the game and wouldn't have enough time to come home to get us. The thought of Nathan missing this practice that he's been so excited about just about broke my heart. So I quickly called my neighbor, Jennifer...her son Jake and Nathan are great friends. She was so sweet and told us to come on over. She loaded her two kids, me, and Nathan into her car and took us to the game where we met Wayne. What a lifesaver!

Nathan's friend from school, Blake, is also on the team and the two of them had the best time!

Nathan had so much fun and completely wore himself out! He fell asleep in the car on the way home :)

Silly Faces

I'm going to need to buy some more Windex! One day, while Wayne and I were in his office, Nathan and Charlotte were playing in the hallway, and they started making silly faces at each other through the windows of the office doors. Then Wayne showed Nathan how to push his face up to the glass and make even sillier faces. Charlotte thought this was so funny and was trying to give Nathan kisses through the glass. And so we started a new hobby. In these pictures, you can see they are in 3 different outfits because they have spent a whole week doing this! It was so funny at first, but now the glass is a mess!

And this is the cute little dress that Mama made for Charlotte. I love that she is laughing in this picture!

Mrs. Luigs, Nathan's Preschool Teacher

This is Nathan's new preschool teacher. We went last week to meet her, and to see Nathan's new school. For the last two years, Nathan has gone to Prestonwood, our church. But they only offer two days. I wanted him to go to a 3 day program to get him used to going more days since he'll be starting kindergarten the next year (that makes me so sad!). Two of my friends have had their kids enrolled in St. Andrew's program, so we decided to switch. And we are so happy with it! It's a smaller school with smaller classes and it seems more academic, as far as a 4 year old preschool goes. There are 4 boys and 6 girls in Nathan's class, and Mrs. Luigs is so sweet! When we met her, she gave Nathan a big hug and showed him all around his classroom. Nathan drew her a picture (the one I put in a previous post). We also brought her a muffin and orange juice from Starbucks...nothing wrong with sucking up early! Nathan was so sweet and talkative, and didn't want to leave. He kept asking me why he couldn't start school that day!

Charlotte's Sweet Tooth

Last week, the three of us spent the day at home doing absolutely nothing except playing...Nathan was our boss, and he planned the day for us. We put together puzzles, read books, built towers with Legos, played with baby dolls (Charlotte's choice) and ate a bunch of junk! Nathan asked if he could have a treat, so we got out our stash of candy while Charlotte took a nap. I didn't realize it at the time, but when we put the bag of candy up, we didn't close the cabinet door all the way. When Charlotte woke up, it was like she knew she had missed out on something...as soon as she walked into the kitchen, she found the door that was cracked open, and pulled out the candy bag. Nathan and I watched her grab the bag and speed walk into the living room where she wasted no time going through it. Nathan thought it was so funny! And Charlotte was so worried that I was going to take the bag away from her because every time I came close to her, she held the bag close and turned away from me or moved to the other side of the room :)

Here she is right after her nap and before her sugar high...she loves to rock her babies in her rocking chair.

Charlotte is always so serious, but I got a half smile here.

Time for candy!