Abilene Zoo

Yesterday Chance and I went to the Abilene zoo. Oh yeah, we are in Abilene, Texas with Scott while he is working here for the next two weeks. We arrived in Abilene on Friday and while Scott was working Saturday and Sunday Chance and I stayed at the hotel where we hung out and went in the pool even though the water is pretty cold as far as I am concerned Chance doesn't seem to notice so he played in the pool for two hours on Sunday. Anyway, on monday we went to the zoo.

The zoo here is small but inexpensive and they do a good job making up for their size by offering special things that other zoos don't such as feeding giraffes! They had a bridge the went over the giraffe habitat when we climbed to the top we were able to hold crackers through the fence and the giraffes would come eat them right out of our hands.(see first picture) I had never fed a giraffe before so this was pretty cool for both of us.
The zoo was bordered on one side by a lake which had a ton of fish in it that were jumping over each other to get some of the fish food we were thawing in for them to eat. I am not sure why they were doing this, it was kind of strange, you can see in the second picture all the fish waiting for the kids to drop in some food.

Another animal we we able to get up close with was the peacock who was wondering around the zoo. At one point he walked over to where we were sitting and fanned out his tails feathers. I guess he really liked us.
This last picture is one we took in front of the Abilene Zoo sign but all the good ones cut out the word zoo.

Free Ice Cream Day

Last week Chance and I were sitting here at the house with nothing to do when I checked my twitter account and saw a tweet talking about fee ice cream at Haagen dazs. Turns out a bunch of Haagen Dazs locations around the country were giving away a free one scoop cone to anyone who asked that afternoon. I looked up the closest location and off we went, This is the first time Chance had ever had ice cream in a cone so it was quite a new experience not to mention a mess. He picked chocolate (his favorite) and I picked mint chocolate chip. By the time we were done we had to find a bathroom to clean up but that tasty treat was well worth it.

Chuck E Cheese Reward

We have been doing workbooks with Chance for a few months now but recently we started an incentive program to get him more into the whole process and to regulate his use of my iPad in a way where he still gets to use it but he is earning it rather than us just handing it to him to play games.
The deal is this, if he does 5 workbook pages per day then he can use my iPad for 30 minutes per day. At the end of two weeks if he has done all his workbook pages for both weeks then he gets to pick a place to go from a list. Two weeks ago he picked Chuck E Cheese. We hadn't been in a while so we both had a good time playing and checking out the new games.
I asked him to sit for a picture with me at one of the booths, he did but he made this silly face.

Science Experiment

We are always looking for ways to learn. I am sure most of you have seen this experiment before, it is an easy way to illustrate how different liquids each have a different density. Chance isn't grasping all the reasoning behind it yet of course but that doesn't mean he isn't learning a little bit and we are all having fun.
For this experiment we used pancake syrup, liquid dish soap, water with blue dye and vegetable oil

When I ask Chance to smile, this is the smirk I get. he's a cutie pie.

New Bike

Over the winter Chance's bike got hit by the elements. It had become rusty and lost one of it's training wheels so we were planning to get him a new one when the weather warmed up but when we went to test drive some new bikes and realized he had grown so much that he was ready for the next size up we knew we would have had to get him a new bike anyway.

The first one we purchased had a bent frame which we didn't notice till we got it home and started putting it together. Chance was disappointed but he was such a good boy, he understood what happened and once it was established that we would get him another one the next day he was very good about the whole thing. The next day we went to a different Target and they had even more bikes to choose from so Chance had to make some decisions. He picked this bike and needless to say he loves it. Scott put it together while Chance and I were at a playdate that morning and as soon as Chance saw it he took it outside to ride ride ride.


We don't think it will fit in our car so we took him to the park to ride as many times as we could while Scott still had his big rental car (he was working at a local station). He can ride around in small circles in the backyard but to really get going we have to take him to a bigger space.


I just took this picture to show how much he has grown. This is his little quad-cycle a ride-on he used to have in the house and push himself all around on. It was harder for me than it was for him to get rid of it but we figured since this is his second two wheel bike he probably won't be going back to a ride-on besides he doesn't fit on it at all anymore.

Jazz Fest

Jazz Fest is a big 7 day festival that happens after Easter every year. We have never gone because it just seemed hot and expensive and not like a lot of fun with a little one in tow. This year however I had the opportunity to volunteer at Jazz Fest meaning, I got free tickets. One of the days Chance had to come with me because Scott was still working at WDSU in town. I was a little worried but I had no reason. Chance was such a good little boy. I took him a backpack with cars, books, a workbook and my ipad inside along with a blanket and I set him up a little area under one of the tables. He had his own fort! There were a lot of kids books in the tent where we were so he spent most of the time picking out a kids book, taking it back to his fort, looking through all the pages then putting that one back and getting another to do it all over again.


Chance in his fort
We spent most of the time in the tent since that is where I was volunteering but we were able to walk around a little bit to listen to some music. We heard our favorite songs by Mumford and Sons and The Avett Brothers and some of Keb Mo's set as well not to mention all the other local people that were filling all the smaller stages around the festival.
Another cool thing I was able to do while at Jazz Fest was get the cast of Treme to sign Chance's hat. If you remember back last year they shot a few scenes of the HBO show Treme near our house. The catering was actually set up right outside our door. Well, we watched them doing their thing and Chance was playing with the security guys the whole time. At the end one of the guys went to his truck and came back with this floppy hat just like the one he was wearing but in a little kid size. So that is the hat I had the cast sign, they were all very nice and liked the story of the hat they also signed a poster for him.
In case you have never seen Treme it is on HBO and is set right after Katrina here in New Orleans. I have two codes left that will get you the first two episodes free on iTunes if anyone is interested in checking it out just let me know and I will send you the code.


Chance wearing his Treme hat.

Fun with Funny Faces

Chance and Octavian

Chance and Octavian have known each other for about three years now. See how they've grown! This first picture was taken about two years ago and the one below was taken just a couple weeks ago.

Selina's Birthday Party

To truly understand how we ended up at Selina's birthday party the post requires some back story. Connie is Selina's mom and my Mom and Connie's Dad dated for a while when we were younger, we all lived together for a couple years and we all call each other step sisters and brother to this day. We all = Kristy, Connie, myself and Joey (Connie's brother). Connie and Joey were born in New Orleans their Mother's side of the family still live here and now Joey lives here again too. Connie now lives in Texas but is here often to visit. Turns out they were in town a few weeks ago for Selina's birthday, she turned two years old.
It was great being able to hang out with Connie, Joey and all the rest of their family that I haven't seen in years. Chance had a great time too. There were plenty of kids to play with and the place where the party was held had bounce houses, trampolines, slides and all kinds of other stuff to play with and on. He really liked playing pool, he kept putting all the balls on the table and hitting them all in with the stick over and over until it was time to eat cake.


This last one is me and Connie. Selina didn't want to wear her tiara so Connie did.

Strawberry picking

This year we decided to go strawberry picking again. It is about an hour drive from the house to the farm but to be able to live in a big city and get to a real farm in the country in that amount of time isn't too bad at all. Chance was a great help, he took his own basket and filled it up, then came back for another one and filled that one up too! He was excited to show me all the strawberries he picked. It wasn't too hot out because there was a really great breeze blowing over the field.
I have wanted to try canning for a while now and after a lot of internet research and a book by my side I decided I was ready to try. I used most of our strawberries to make jam then put them in the jars, lowered them into the canner then ten minutes later pulled them back out and waited. You have to wait till the jars completely cool before you know if the process worked. After 24 hours of waiting I checked the lids and voila, the jars were sealed. I am so happy! Now, I am going to make some salsa. I have everything I need except the actual tomatoes so we will be making a trip to the farmers market son for those. Our goal with canning isn't really to save money as it is about the same cost as store bought but to be able to eat more local fruits and vegetables. We can't go to the farmers market every day and even every week is much more tedious than the grocery store but if we can buy in bulk and can them so they are available whenever we need them this local thing just might work.


Best strawberry jam ever!

like father like son

I walked into the front of the house the other day and this is what I saw. They are so cute, I mean handsome, I mean cute!

Storyland Playdate

Storyland is such a great little place for a playdate. There is plenty of shade, the whole place is securely fenced and Chance has a wonderful time playing there with his friends. It's a little different from the first time we went to Storyland, now Chance just runs around playing everywhere barely looking back to see if I am there. The best part is just when I start thinking he could go it without me he comes up, grabs my arm and says "Mommy let me show you something" and off we go.
This time there was music playing in one of the pavilions and when Chance heard it he started dancing (see below) it was so funny. He has really started getting into music, playing it and dancing to it. His dancing isn't the best but man is it cute.
There is an amusement park connected to Storyland and now that Chance is getting older and can ride most of the rides at the amusement park we are thinking of getting a season pass that will give us another place to frequent around town. Chance loves being outside, running around and going fast so the amusement park will be right up his alley.