The Children's Aquarium

One of our favorite things to do in Dallas with two small kids is to visit The Children's Aquarium at Fair Park.  The building originally opened in 1936 as part of the World's Fair and underwent a renovation in 2010.  We first learned about the aquarium when we joined The Dallas Zoo years ago and we love it so much that we held Jacob's 4th birthday party there two years ago!

The aquarium is perfect for smaller children because it isn't too large or overwhelming.  When you enter, you can either walk up a ramp to the right, which is all freshwater fish and creatures, or left to the saltwater area.  It is extremely stroller friendly but small enough that it won't wear little ones out!

Jacob loved learning about new creatures as well as seeing species he has read about in books.  After about an hour indoors, we headed to the outdoor (covered) area where they keep larger sharks and turtles and for $2 you can feed stingrays!  When we last visited, you just got a small cup of pellets to feed the stingrays but they have upgraded to small fish!  The boys could have stayed out there all day!

Our visit to the aquarium was the perfect way to end our great Spring Break and do something fun on a cold, blustery day!  We can't wait to go again!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

On Saturday evening, we went to Mim and Poppa O'Finkelstein's to celebrate an early St. Patrick's Day.  Nikki, Scott, Sam and Levi were in town so it was definitely a house full!  The menu included corned beef brisket, mashed potatoes, maple glazed carrots and Irish soda bread.  For dessert we enjoyed Luck of the Irish brownies and mint chocolate chip ice cream (my favorite!).  The boys all enjoyed playing together and the adults enjoyed the chance to sit and visit. We didn't get back home until almost 9 o'clock, so both boys were wiped out and went straight to bed!  We just loved getting together with our family and feel so blessed to live close enough to see them often and celebrate holidays together!

The adult table in the dining room complete with shamrock plants we got to take home!

Sam made nameplates and even gave each of us St. Patrick's Day word searches.

The kids' table in the kitchen was also decked out for the occasion!

All the cousins!!

A Day at the Zoo

Thursday was the perfect day for a family outing at The Dallas Zoo.  Before Jonah was born, we had been zoo members but let our membership go when we had an infant and knew we wouldn't be visiting as often. Now that he's almost two, it was time to re-enroll!  Jonah is definitely an animal lover and we knew he would have a wonderful time seeing all the animals we read about in real life.

We arrived at the zoo about 30 minutes after it opened and it seems as though we beat the crowd.  We headed over to The Giants of the Savanna to feed the giraffes first because we were told that it gets busy very fast.  We knew this area of the zoo would be the busiest, because it's newer and definitely has the "high profile" animals most people want to see. 

The weather was crisp and cool but warmed up nicely.  We left the zoo around noon and at that time it was really starting to warm up and the zoo was getting really busy.  Definitely time to head home for nap time!  It was such a fantastic way to spend the morning and we look forward to going back very soon!

Because it had been a busy week at the zoo (with record attendance on Tuesday), the giraffes weren't very hungry and we were told they were getting tired of all the people.  We waited patiently and finally, a few started coming over for some lettuce!

It was already quite crowded and difficult to get a good picture of Jonah feeding the giraffe!!

I love this guy!

One happy boy!

We loved watching the cheetah roam around!

Jacob loved watching the elephants!

Jonah loved getting out of his stroller to stand with brother and enjoy all the animals!  We learned that the zookeepers had been working for the past six months to integrate the zebras, giraffes and elephants.  It was interesting to watch them all in the same area!

The boys loved watching the (stinky) warthog!

It's Pumba!

Jonah loves the book How Loud is a Lion and loved roaring at the lions!

We headed to the cafe located next to the lions for a quick snack and a better view!

Jonah was not pleased I turned him around for a photo, he wanted to see the lions!

Watching the penguins

Yay!  We actually got to see the tiger! 

Jonah was so excited to see the tiger, he was laughing so hard that the people all around us were cracking up!

Proof that I was actually in attendance (with coffee in hand, of course)!

New Fence!!!

When we bought our house (almost nine years ago!), one of the biggest selling features was the amazing backyard.  Because our house is in the "elbow" of two streets, we have probably one of the largest backyards you'll see in this area.  As DINKs, we didn't really use the backyard and therefore, didn't put any money into it.  Now with two active boys, we've been spending more and more time outside.  Unfortunately, the fence (which was original to the house) was in poor shape and continued to get worse and worse over the past year.  A few years back, we had a fence company come out and give us a quote but at the time we had one income and there was no way we could swing the price tag on a new fence.  Finally, after many years and watching our fence continue to deteriorate (we arrived home from school one day to find part of our fence completely blown down!) this past week we were finally able to replace our fence and finally be able to have the privacy and safety we've been longing for!

Here are some before and after photos:

From the front yard

Interior

Coming up the driveway (notice part of the fence is down up by the garage door!)

From the alley

In about a month or so, the company will come back out and stain the fence, once the wood as acclimated and cured.  We had such a great experience with Texas State Fence and the boys loved watching the workers build the fence each day!

Now on to other backyard projects...

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Yesterday was the first official day of Spring Break and it couldn't have been better!  We had originally planned on going to The Children's Aquarium at Fair Park, but Nathan woke up not feeling well and the fence company didn't get to the house until nearly 11 to start demolition and get started on our new, beautiful fence.

Instead, we had a low key, relaxing day at home and enjoyed just playing together.  After nap time and OT, we all went to dinner at Posados to celebrate.  The night was absolutely perfect, so we spent some time outside playing for a bit before bedtime.  It was a little strange to play in our backyard with only metal posts sticking up and no real fence, but we enjoyed it nonetheless!

We are certainly looking forward to the remainder of Spring Break!!

No birthday is complete without strawberry cake, candles and singing!