The Fountain of "Youth"...

Have you ever driven past a fountain, you know the kind springing forth from the ground and shooting straight into the air, wanting to stop for a moment just to run through it?

Well at the entrance on our local museum there is one like this and on this day a couple of friends and I became "those Moms".  Having an extra change of clothes in the car we let our kids RUN!

And boy did they!?! 

By the end the were dripping wet...

Soaked...

Exstatic...

{Joyful}...

GIDDY...

Thrilled...

Gleeful...

Maybe even a little tired...

and Thankful!

Because it was "the BEST {DAY} EVER"

This Isn't My First Rodeo...

Wasn't theirs either...

But it was THEIRS...

and HIS...

and HIS...

We looked on, ooohhed and aaahhed...

sang the National Anthem...

watched riders...

and BULLS...

do their THING!

Each COWBOY out to reach that magic number...

8.00 seconds.

For the wiley bull, the cutting horses and cowboys assisted in convincing them which path they should take.

With 2 Women and 4 boys, we snacked...

watched as some of the bulls got rough...thank goodness for those HELMETS!

We took pictures

snuggled...

admired...

slept...

and ventured home when it got DARK!

We may just have to make this an annual event, because the boys LOVED it and though, try as I may, I am raising COWBOYS, afterall we are in Texas! 

Feeding the Ducks...

So as a rule of thumb, I steer clear of feeding birds. Any kind really, but ducks fall into this category, mearly because of the geese that flock near them.  As a kid, I remember watching my Dad toss an empty box of popcorn over his shoulder as he booked it back to the restaurant, while the geese were in hot pursuit...so you could say I learned from HIS experience!

But this one time, I decided to throw caution to the wind and let my kiddos experience feeding the ducks bread crumbs. While snapping pictures with my new birthday present, I stomped and yelled at the geese to keep them far away!

They had a blast and I can say I am not sorry to have let them experience it and may quite possibly have overcome an unrealistic fear of birds.

At one point miss -K- and -A- got up close and personal with one of the ducks,

who quickly became impatient and nibbled fingers in the process.

Their egos were bruised but their fingers were not.

(For the record this camera is AMAZING!!! so thank you all!)

Strawberry Season Again...

It's that time again!  Last year G. Gram and the boys and I headed out to visit the strawberry patch and enjoyed ourselves so much, that we couldn't wait to go back again this year.  Last year once we arrived home, we had an unfortunate turn of events, in which a majority of the strawberries ended up on the floor directly in front of and on top of the cat litter box. Disgusting! 

Washing them off was not gonna work! 

So with the remaining untainted strawberries we settled for eating a few and making a fresh strawberry pie.

So this year we had bigger plans in mind...including DON'T Drop the Strawberries!

We picked..

and picked...

-A- picked and threw and enjoyed stomping through the rotten ones I removed along the way (thank goodness for yellow rubber boots, that's all I am saying)

Then we picked...

took a few breaks, not so close to the ground.

enjoyed the weather...

caught some candid shots and posed ones...

Then we headed home with {16 pounds} of hand picked fresh from the field, strawberries!!!

Once we arrived home we set to work with no casualties this year, aside from the few tasty treats.  We began the hard work of preparing Freezer Jam and have 15- 8 oz jars of the yummy goodness!

We also made a yummy fresh strawberry pie, two jars of strawberry syrup to indulge in when eating ice cream and pancakes.

And with the remaining pound and a half or so, we chopped them up, sprinkled them with sugar and ATE strawberries to our hearts content!