Thanksgiving is all week!

Meant to add these to last blog.  We had SUCH fun at the Oil Rig museum in Galveston!!! (said with sarcastic tone...)

Hilarious!

Back to "normal" for a bit after we returned from our road trip, until this week started.  Guess this week the kids will have off entirely.  Yesterday we went to CJ's for an all day Christmas craft extravaganza!  Basically we pooled our art supplies together and let the kids just go for it.  There was always at least one kid at the table working between trampoline breaks.  Ethan was able to perfect his front flip...with out me watching!  While there, the kids asked if they could have a sleepover...so I ended up with two more kids in my car on the way home.  It has been entertaining to hear and see how the boys and girls play so very different!  Every once in a while they join together.  Usually because the boys devise a plan to stalk the girls.  They have chased each other around the neighborhood on bikes and scooters, and around the house.  Right now Ethan and Nathan are having a foam sword fight in the front yard...and Fiona and Tess are sewing in Fiona's room with the bird we are caring for this week.
     Our plan for the holiday is to cook all the classics, and sit by the fire at night.  Lots to be thankful for.  Mostly that the four of us have survived a move and a VERY hot summer, that we have family and friends coming to visit, new friends, health (a big one we tend to take for granted until it is yanked from us) and that we know we are missed as much as we miss others, and that means that we are loved.

Fiona got a shot of this little guy out her bedroom window.

Ethan's "pin" art.

Fiona's

I love the color of this flower!!!!!

See the big fat bee?

Just gorgeous.

Painting....

Sewing...

Shaving...

"Mom, please tell me you're not putting this on the blog." (Zevon's thoughts.)

Fiona's latest sewing endeavor.

Face is still in the works.

She also sewed this dress for Shirley, and the cute little mushroom!

Craft Heaven!

Flip!

They were playing catch on roller blades!

Our bird for the week.

Fiona and Tess made everyone pancakes this morning.

The boys brushed up on their magic tricks from youtube.

YUM!

New Orleans and then on to Galveston

This past week the kids and I tagged along with Scott on a few of his business trips.  The first was in New Orleans.  After a rainy six hour drive (with an interesting bathroom break at a casino and mixed drink drive thru) we were finally at our destination.  We stayed in the French Quarter, which I did not like as much as the Garden District.  The location was perfect , however, for what the kids and I had planned.  Scott had the car, so we were needing to walk to our destinations.  The first of which was the WWII Museum.  I was so overwhelmed.  The kids and I really enjoyed this emotional journey.  Much of the museum is interactive in that they try really hard to make you feel like you are there experiencing things.  Through constant sound effects, movies projected on walls, 40's music being piped in in the hallways, and TONS of personal artifacts through out I had to call it quits after a few hours.  I heard that same reaction from many of the older museum goers as well.  My throat was growing tired of constantly holding back tears.
     On a happier excursion, the kids and I had our first ever beniets(sp) at Cafe Dumond!  Yummy mouthfuls of fried dough piled high with powdered sugar.  We also explored the famous Jackson Square and went into the cathedral.  Our last educational trip in New Orleans was the insectarium.  A good take as we were waiting for Scott to finish up lunch with clients before we hit the road for Galveston Island.
     Moody Gardens (the hotel we stayed in) is HUGE.  The kids and I walked to one of three giant glass pyramids on the grounds for a walk through the rainforest!  There were so many beautiful, strange birds flying around...and two loose monkeys!  I could not get over the strange and giant plant life.  I loved how they labeled them, and described many of their medicinal properties.  The kids also enjoyed a few hours in the hotel lap pool (we were the only ones there) and some room service.  On our last day in Galveston we took a lovely walk on the beach as a family, and explored the old downtown.  Scott also took us to the "Off Shore Oil Rig Museum".  (It was about as much fun as it sounds).
     We are hopeful that he will still want us to tag along on future business trips.

Check this out!  Drive thru drinks!  What better to calm your nerves in traffic?

We made it to our first destination.

WWII Museum has you start by boarding a simulated train ride.  Gives you the feeling that the soldiers had as they left home...

Ahhhh...TV in bed.  What luxury!!

Love/hate relationship really takes place when kids are forced to share a double bed!

Eating out in New Orleans.

Look at the size of the trees around here!  That's Fiona, Scott and Ethan in the background.

We made a stop into "Zoo-isiana" on our way to the "Big Easy".

This llama managed to capture the fresh look my kids give me.

This was not part of the zoo.  I wish it was behind a case though!

Many of the animals were allowed to eat from food the zoo provided for 50 cents a pop.  Here Ethan shows that he likes to chat with his animals before actually feeding them.

YES!  You could feed the giraffes!!!!

I reached over the fence and let this guy hold my fingers.  His hands were so soft and cool!

They had a cage that you could enter, full of parakeets.  For 50 cents they give you a stick dipped in honey and rolled in bird seed.  Fiona was in Heaven.

Ethan too.

Scott's favorite was the black tiger.

I thought the bunny, ground hog, kangaroo was pretty funny.

WWII Museum

Jackson Square.  It was beautiful...but smelled like urine.  Sort of the overall smell of this section of New Orleans.

Kids and I aimlessly wandered for a few hours.

Yummy sweetness!

He was a complete mess immediately following this shot.

Pretending to be insects at the "insectarium".

Termites cause more damage in New Orleans than all the floods and fires combined!

Rainforest pyramid in Galveston.

Lose monkey that we had to carefully navigate around!

Look at those precious tree frogs!

Galveston beach.  Felt like we were in Revere, except the ocean waves were warm on our feet.

Huge pelican!  

She enjoyed stirring up the seagulls.