BURRS! (Part 1)

On Monday, April 14th Jim had to go out of town for work but, a couple hours after he left, the girls and I picked up Burrs from the airport.

As soon as we picked her up we headed straight to the Children's Museum.

Princess Kera

Pirate Abby

Vet Kera at your service.

Jamba juice anyone?

At 63 Burrs still can make it through a maze ladder! I bet she will be doing it at 83!



Art time!

I am SO glad that we got the museum membership! We have one more trip before the membership will have more than paid for itself.

After the museum we went to the Container Park for lunch....

...and some more play time.

On Monday evening we had a belated birthday celebration for Burrs who had turned 63 on the 11th.

Even Chewy joined the celebration!

 

On Tuesday we joined some friends for a hike in Red Rock Canyon. I had the fanciest hikers on the trail!

The Children's Discovery Trail is a great little hike for our hikers! There is a small waterfall...

...and great rocks to climb on.

Fun morning at Red Rock!

Highland Games and Swimming

On Saturday, April 12 we checked out the Las Vegas Celtic Gathering and Highland Games. It was a fun morning!

The girls dresses the part...

had fun on the blow-up bouncy slide...

...and learned about some new sports.

There was also some great music...

...traditional Scottish dancers, and interesting food (I had a curried lamb meat pie).

The girls also had fun visiting the booths of the native Scottish clans. The girls each had a map of Scotland and when they visited a clan's booth they would get an authentic stamp on their map and also got to hear a bit of the clan's history.

On Sunday, the 13th we officially opened our pool for the season!

We all had a great time.

Abby had a MAJOR swimming breakthrough!

Kera also wanted to get in on the fun...she used her float but still, very impressive.

We look forward to a fun swimming season!

Icebox Canyon

On Sunday, April 5th we set out to hike the Icebox Canyon Trail in Red Rock. On this trail you climb about 500 ft. and travel 1.1 miles, one way. It was a GREAT hike and both of the girls did amazingly well.

The trail was 1.1 miles one way but I think we hiked 5+ miles because of the creative route we took back down the trail...I may be exaggerating BUT, only by a little. Even with the mishap down the hill is was a very fun and beautiful morning!

Home Depot

Today while we were looking for tile for the entryway between our garage and family room we happened  upon the kids workshop at the Home Depot. I have seen many a friend participate in this workshop but, we have never had the pleasure of partaking ourselves. Quite by accident, we had a GREAT time. The girls both got an orange Home Depot apron, were able to make and paint a bird feeder, got a craft pin, AND a certificate of completion!

I think that we will be back...Home Depot here we come!

Frozen Birthday

It is nice to know that my 2 kids are not the only ones OBSESSED with the movie Frozen. On Sunday, March 30th we attended our friend Meredith's 3rd birthday party and the theme...FROZEN!

Abby had been counting down the days all week until this party and when Kera woke up on Sunday morning she asked me if it was time for the party. No Kera, it is not for 4 more hours.

So, this birthday was 55% birthday party and 45% Halloween, at least for my girls. We made sure that we were all dressed up!

Abby has had her Elsa costume since right after Christmas and I made her an Elsa cape a few months back. Kera, on the other hand, always played Anna around the house while wearing a pirate dress. Some last minute (on Saturday) modifications needed to be made. I found a picture of a flower from one of their Frozen books, enlarged it, and then created a felt patch to cover-up the pirate on the front of her dress. We had a cape already but it wasn't quite right for Anna so, Abby helped me make the needed modifications including another felt flower patch.  For Kera I also made a hair pin with some white yarn on it to help represent the white streak in Anna's hair.

As you can imagine the girls had an amazing time with their friends and the birthday girl had a BLAST!

Kera and Abby with the birthday girl Meredith

mmmmmm Pizza!

blue rock candy

The highlight of the party for the girls...the "real" Elsa made an appearance. Abby was beside herself. She turned very shy she was in complete awe.

Sea of ice blue waiting for Elsa's autograph

Happy birthday sweet Meredith! Thank you for the great party!!

China Ranch Date Farm

On Sunday, March 23rd we took a short road trip to the China Ranch Date Farm, about 77 miles away. I have been wanting to go to the date farm for years and we finally got our chance.

The farm was really interesting. When we were driving there we were in the middle of the Mojave Desert on a dilapidated windy road and then we turned a corner and we were in an oasis.  Jim said that the drive in reminded him a lot of Saudi Arabia.

Here is a bit of information from their website (http://www.chinaranch.com/category_s/25.htm)

"The date grove was planted from seed in the early 1920's by Vonola Modine, youngest daughter of Death valley area pioneer RJ Fairbanks. Approximately half of the trees are male and produce only pollen. The females bear in the fall, yielding from 100 to 300 pounds of dates in a season."

Can you imagine, FROM SEED! Mail order seed to be exact.

We were able to walk through the date groves and we saw trees from all over the world...Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Egypt, and more. Also, with the area literally being an oasis there was a lot of wildlife. We heard many different bird calls, saw quail, rabbits, plus a lot of humming birds and butterflies.

Of course we had to pay a visit to the farm store. We came home with 2 different varieties of dates, date bread, and fig preserves...YUM!

Next time we visit I am going to try their date milk shake!

Trike-A-Thon

On Friday, March 21st Abby's school hosted a trike-a-thon. The trike-a-thon was a fund raiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and also was a fun way to help teach the kids bike safety and the importance of helping others. Both Abby and Kera were able to participate and they had a great time while supporting a great cause.