Spiderman and Rapunzel Meet the Dinosaurs

The last thing I wanted to do Sunday morning was get up early and drive all the way downtown to see dinosaurs. And it didn't help to hear my mother's voice in my head  - "you try to do too much - you have to rest sometimes".  But that pretty much goes against everything I stand for. We had the opportunity to see dinosaurs.  How do you say no to that??

Oh. And BTW, out of the blue that morning, Darby declared her desire to wear her Rapunzel costume. I don't even know what possessed her. Contrary to her obvious future proclivity for Drama Club, she's not a costume girl. Dalton is actually more inclined in that direction. So, of course, when she wanted her costume, he wanted his. My reaction to this was basically - why do I care?  So there we were, Spiderman and Rapunzel, headed towards a mystery destination.

I didn't tell them where we were heading. Darby actually had the best guess. As we got close to Fair Park, she guessed the State Fair. No Ferris Wheel gets past that girl.


So we saw dinosaurs. Tony and his mom Elena were sweet enough to invite our crazy crew. And it was amazing. How could it not be. We started out in the exhibit building where they had animatronic dinosaurs of - it seemed like - every variety. The kids were in awe. It was tough to get any pictures of them - they were running so fast from one to the other. We didn't even see them all - we were so all over the place. "Let's go see that one. I want to see that one..."  Apparently small children have not embraced progression yet.


After that we moved on to the Activity Building. The first thing they embraced was the Archaeological dig. Lots of sand and a paint brush. They had fun but I don't think we have any future archaeologists here.


As it turns out - dressing in crazy costumes is absolutely the way to go at crowded functions.  First off, people get a kick out of it. But more importantly, the kids become very easy to spot.  Not to mention, if they were to get lost, it would be super easy to just say - "I've lost my son, he's dressed like Spiderman".

Little known fact - Spiderman is a fan of frozen bananas on a stick. Rapunzel is more a fan of the chocolate around the banana. And once she has finished that chocolate, she will request another banana-shaped chocolate vehicle - with nuts. Even though that very morning she had a complete fit about how she hated nuts, they made her want to be sick, and why didn't they make trail mix with cashews, instead of those "regular nuts". But I'm not bitter...

We did several other activities - including a string of bounce houses - but our final activity was riding dinosaurs.  I believe I talked Darby into it by saying I would take video of her doing it (that's disturbing..). I have no idea how I got Dalton there. But really, it was wayyy too awesome to let them get away w/ not doing it. For the record they got distracted towards the end of their rides w/ an animatronic dinosaur fight that was w/in their view when they were up on the dinosaur.

It was absolutely a great outing (many thanks to Elena and Tony) but as we left it was a totally hot Texas day.  The Fair Park fountains were calling to Darby. For some reason Dalton did not want to play, but Darby and Tony couldn't resist.

When we finally got home it was time to head to a birthday party.  Enough said there. There is no need to go into the gory details.

After the party, we headed to the Castle Hills pool for a special reunion of our original daycare class. The fact that 3 of these kids will be heading off to separate schools in the fall is making their mama's a little bit crazy. It was bittersweet, but it was still a great way to cap off the weekend.


I don't even know how to describe these pictures. The first is basically Jeremiah being ridden like a passenger whale.  The second one is Darby's crazy dance. I have no idea what is going on there.

And finally we have Dalton. I have no words. Two weeks ago he was my 3 year old - doing great swimming half the length of the pool to mommy waiting for him. Sunday he was trying out for the friggin' Olympics. He went down both of the water slides at the pool - no fear - by himself, with no one catching him at the bottom, and then swimming over to the side of the pool to do it again. He's 3!!!! I can't even. He is a rock star. My existence in this scenario was merely a formality.

And finally, because I'm a sap, I had to take a pic of my aquatic cuties before they move on to bigger and better things.  I love them all. I have been so lucky to have them and their families.