Sugar Plum Fairy Tea

Today we went to the Sugar Plum Fairy Tea put on by the Collin County Ballet Theatre with our cousins Kim & Avery and our aunts Lynda & Nancy. It was a little girls dream! There were sparkly festive decorations, lots of sweets, tea sandwiches and hot chocolate. The dancers from the Nutcracker walked around for photo opportunities. Then all the little girls sat on stage and Herr Drosselmeyer read the story of the Nutcracker and then the dancers performed bits of their dances.

At first Kate wasn't sure what was going on and it took her a bit to warm up. She loved watching the ballerinas dance and when she got home she immediately put on her ballet gear and I turned on some Nutcracker music and she danced around.

Table top decor

With our friend Hadley

With Aunt Nan

 With Nutcracker Ballerinas

Sugar Plum Fairy with cousin Avery!

One of the performances

At home

It was so girly, fun and festive! A new tradition for us!

"To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking." ~Agnes De Mille

Children's Aquarium at Fair Park

Wednesday before Thanksgiving we took Ben & Kate to the new Children's Aquarium at Fair Park. It was great and I highly recommend it! It was very hands on, interactive and kid friendly. They got to handle hermit crabs and feed stingrays- even though they were a little afraid to do both!

At Fair Park

The Big shark tank

The Stingray tank

 

Mark feeding a sting ray- it's eating a little fish out of his hand!

Feeling the octopus' tentacles

If you do go, bring some extra clothes if you think your kids will like to feed the sting rays and hold the crabs. I saw a lot of little wet kids! And there are picnic tables if you want to bring lunch.OR.....you could do what we did and stop by the West End and eat in the trolley car at Spaghetti Warehouse! Ben & Kate got a kick out of it!

Mark & Kate having a "Lady & the Tramp" moment with their spaghetti noodle

The family is one of nature's masterpieces.  ~George Santayana, The Life of Reason

Thankful!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My cousin's home was beautiful and the food was excellent! After Thanksgiving lunch Mark and I hopped in the car and drove to Austin to watch our Aggies beat the hell out of tu- which we did! The game was cold but there's not much better than beating the Longhorns in Austin! Thankful for my family, my health, my country!

Our Family

The Mirsky & Walker Families

The spread

The kid's table

The adult tables

One of my favorite days of the year!

Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day.  

~Robert Caspar Lintner

Fun with Friends

A while back our friends Shawn & Reese came over to play and I caught Ben & Kate playing in the double baby doll stroller. Then they got out and decided to push Reese.

The stuff they come up with cracks me up!

There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child.  There are seven million.  ~Walt Streightiff

Veteran's Day

The weekend before Veteran's Day there was a huge festival very near our house. Ben & Kate had a blast riding the rides! There were several kiddie rides, pretty much exactly the same but a different mode of transportation- motorcycle, boat, car, 4 wheeler, etc! We also got to meet some fire fighters and get a close up of a fire truck! Later that night we enjoyed a Veteran's Day fireworks show from the upstairs balcony. Felt funny to watch fireworks in cold weather!

 

"My heroes are those who risk their lives every day to protect our world and make it a better place--police, firefighters, and members of our armed forces."
- Sidney Sheldon

The Aquarium with Aunt Nan

Aunt Nan took us to the Aquarium last Wednesday. Our trip to the zoo got rained out so the aquarium it was! And it did not dissapoint!

Thank you Aunt Nan! We had a blast!

I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
In his octopus' garden in the shade 

~Octopus' Garden, The Beatles

Halloween Weekend 2010

Halloween was a whirl wind! In 4 days, we had 4 opportunities to wear our costumes! Thursday night Kate had a Halloween party at her ballet class. That night Ben went to the gym with Daddy where he got to wear his costume as well!

Hadley (bride) & Kate (Sleeping Beauty) enjoying cupcakes while I held my breath hoping they wouldn't get orange icing on their costumes!

Kate all business passing out treats to all the little ballerinas.

Friday night we had a Halloween party at Mark's office. 

Kate chose a costume change to a "witchy witch" as she called it!

After the office party we stopped by a cute little pumpkin patch. 

Saturday evening we had our neighborhood Fall Fun Fright Fest. We had a haunted walk in the woods and I dressed up as a witch and was one of the characters in the woods. Sadly I did not take any pictures!

And then on Halloween night we went to the traditional neighborhood Halloweenie Dinner this year at the Freedenbergs!

Trevor (jack o lantern), Jordan (Super Girl), Reese (Chiefs cheerleader), Sean (dragon), Ben (SpiderMan), Kate (witchy witch), Sarah (Rapunzel), Scarlett (Minnie Mouse), Hadley (bride), Shawn (butterfly princess), and you can see part of Noelle (a Rangers cheerleader) and Adam was a race car driver

Trick or Treating was a LOT of fun this year. We went with Sean, Hadley & Adam. Ben & Kate knew exactly what to do and were really into it. A few funny moments came when neighbors opened the door with a scary mask on and Kate would take off running back to us. After that happened she was a little cautious each time a door opened! We got a ton of candy and had to end up donating most of it to our Troops overseas!

We had a great Halloween 2010!!!

We do not remember days; we remember moments.  

~Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand