Pre-Father's Day Celebration

Well, we haven't had anything too exciting going on lately so this post is not nearly as eventful as the snake post but here's an update anyway. 

Today my parents, sister and great-grandmother made the trip over from Broken Arrow which was a lot of fun.  I went to Sam's Club last night and got some ribeyes so we had a great lunch and for desert we had an Italian Cream cake from an excellent local bakery here in town.  We basically spent the day eating and playing the Wii.  It was fun showing my family the Wii Fit and how much fun it is.  I especially like the balance games and the step aerobics is pretty neat too.  Meredith is especially talented at the hula hoop game and it's so cute to watch her.  I'll have to shoot some video and post it sometime.  

So, then for dinner I took Michael and the girls to Shogun's for his Father's Day meal so I'm so full I'm about to be sick.  If you want to go to a nice restaurant with the small kids this is definitely the place to go.  The girls behaved themselves beautifully due to the cooking entertainment at the table and of course they like the onion volcano.  Alli liked it except for the noise when the fire flared up so she covered her ears.  It was a little pricier then I thought it would be when you add on extra fried noodles, etc. but hey, it's Father's Day right and I'm picking up the tab with my high paying job I have.  (at least I signed the credit card receipt)

I was excited to see our little mamma dove return this year and nest in our gutter on top of our house to raise a new brood of babies.  Here's a picture of the little family.

Mother's Reaction

Well, I just spoke with my mother regarding my previous "snake feeding" post and she was mortified and possibly horrified about the ordeal and how I probably traumatized her precious grandchildren for life.  So, I just thought we'd take a step back and look at the positive of the event.  That is maybe Meredith will no longer be afraid of Chuck E. Cheese.  I think it really puts the big mouse in perspective. 

Also, I would like to share with everyone that as I was washing my hair this evening that I realized that I still had a pink Gymboree clippee barett thing in my hair from earlier that my Alli put in it.  That's fine except I just came back from Hallmark (at the mall no less) and Braums where they probably just thought I was a complete loon.  Did I mention it had a pink little flower on it as well?  Nice.

Trip to Nature Center

Today our adventure (besides swimming lessons) was to head to the Nature Center here in town and go to the "critter feeding" at 2 p.m.  My friend Trish and her son Jedidiah also went on the adventure with us.  Okay, now when I saw "critter feeding" I must say that I was envisioning feeding squirrels, ducks, birds, etc.  So, when we arrived and I saw the look on Trish's face in the lobby I knew something was amiss.  Sure enough the worker lady was standing there in the lobby with a container of live mice and we were heading off to feed their snakes in their aquariums.  Now keep in mind that the Entertainment magazine specifically said that snake feedings were on Friday so I fully wasn't expecting this scenario.  So, I then proceeded to ask Meredith if she wanted to see them feed snakes live mice and she answered with an excited "yeah" to my surprise.  When Trish asked Jedidiah he responded likewise.  I knew Alli wouldn't care so I didn't even bother to ask her.  So here we are with our young children watching the lady first feed the King Snake which is a non-venomous snake but it is still a constrictor (which I did not know) wrap around the poor little mouse and as the lady explained how it suffocates the mouse and breaks its ribs before it eats it.  Nice.  We then watched two rattlesnakes strike their respected mice and wait for them to die and eat them.  Next week Trish and I plan to take the kids hunting so they can really get a feel of death and nature and how it all works.  (Just kidding, in case you don't know my sense of humor.)  I've included some pics of our adventure along with the kids fishing for stuffed fish with magnets (which is my kind of fishing).  I have a really great picture of the rattlesnake swallowing up the mouse but I thought a lot of people wouldn't want to see it so I'm not including it.  I do have picture that shows the king snake getting the mouse but it's not too gory.  I'm sure you all are thrilled.  Oh yes, in case you're wondering what my girls are doing in the bird pictures they are pretending they are baby birds sticking their heads out of their birdhouse.  

I also wanted to tell you that don't know this already that if you want to see a picture larger on the blog that you just have to click on it and it will show up bigger.  When you're done looking at the picture just click on your back arrow at the top of your screen and it will take you back to the full blog screen.

Swimming Lessons

We just got back from the girls' first day of swimming lessons and thank goodness the rain held off for us. Hopefully it will do the same tomorrow. It was funny because Alli's teacher had to keep telling her to close her mouth because she wouldn't stop smiling in the water. They both enjoyed the lessons a lot and can't wait to go back tomorrow. Here are some pics of the morning.

Racing Papa!

I thought I'd post these pictures of my Dad, Uncle Jimmy and Cousin David who headed up to Kansas City this week to race cars at Petty Racing. Uncle Jimmy has been two or three times before so he's an old pro and was allowed to go faster then David or Dad. I think they all had a great time.

Meredith's Awards Assembly at School

I'm posting this clip for my family who didn't attend her awards ceremony.   She received the Ambassador Award which means she helps new students at school feel comfortable and welcome.

Weekend Trip to Branson

The family took off for Branson on Friday as soon as Meredith was done with school and we returned today.  We had a great time, minus the timeshare presentation we listened to in order to get a cheap vacation.  Actually the presentation wasn't that bad and what we fully expected.  

We arrived on Friday evening and headed straight to Branson Landing to eat BBQ at Famous Dave's which was excellent, as usual.  Michael's brother-in-law introduced to the restaurant originally and we're grateful.  Personally, I like the sweet Georgia pork with Sweet n Spicy sauce. We were pretty busy on Saturday going swimming, the Dixie Stampede, and Celebration City.  Michael did point out a humorous moment in the laser/fireworks show at Celebration City in which while Mariah Carey's song, "Hero", was playing they first showed a picture of Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and then moved on to a picture of our servicemen putting up the flag on Iwo Jima.  I guess it's heroic driving a race car??  Anyway, I guess it was done in true Redneck style.  

On Sunday morning we listened to the lovely presentation and we headed to the "Hard Luck Diner" located in the Grand Palace Village where we listened to the waiters and waitresses sing while they serve you your burgers and ice cream.  We also had an American Idol sighting of Jason Yeager where he still works.  Unfortunately we didn't get to hear him sing, it must have been before his shift started but some young girls at the next table went crazy when he came in.  It was pretty cute.  I guess he's still waiting for his big break.  We also went to "The Track" on the strip that had a part called "Kid's Country" which was completely geared toward the little ones and the girls loved it.  I think they had more fun there then at Celebration City and it was much cheaper.  Meredith got to ride go carts and they both played mini golf, etc.  I'm sure you are all impressed with Alli's form on the mini golf course.  I also squeezed in some shopping at the Outlet Mall which is always fun for me.