Butterflies

During the month of March at school, Nico has been studying bugs, with a special emphasis on the butterfly cycle. It has been so neat to see the art work he has brought home, and to read about the lessons they have been doing. Nico has made ladybugs, bumblebees, butterflies, caterpillars, spiders, and the other day he even brought home a sunflower plant he has been growing at school; his was the tallest! I love that in addition to literacy and math, science is a major area of study at Primrose; the kids have so much fun with all the science projects.

Nico's sunflower plant! He was so proud to show it to me once it was ready to be brought home.

Just a couple of books we read frequently at home to reinforce the study at school.

Once of those science projects this month consisted of observing the butterfly cycle first hand. The class "nurtured" five caterpillars in the classroom, watched them eat and eat and grow, build their cocoons and then turn into butterflies! At the end of the project, the kids got to release the butterflies in the wild. They loved it. To go along with the theme in class, this weekend I decided to take Nico to the Texas Discovery Gardens and Butterfly House. He has been to the butterfly house at the science museum in Houston, but it was about a year ago, so it was like a new experience to him, and this time he had a much better understanding of what he was seeing.

Here is a video of Nico at the butterfly house. I intended to get Nico's initial reaction of walking into the greenhouse, but while I was recording, we were interrupted and I had to start over.


Here are some pictures of Nico at the butterfly house, or "fufferfy house."

Nico is holding the pamphlet with pictures and descriptions of all the butterflies we could see. He was so cute walking around holding the paper, behaving like he was reading and studying the information!

Nico is waving good-bye to the butterflies! He is so precious!

And here are some pictures from the gardens we explored after visiting the butterflies.

Safaris, Trinity Park and Train Rides

With Daddy working this past weekend, I was determined to make sure Nico still had a fun time. We got a tip from Auntie Lisa that there was a fun indoor safari center in the area, so on Saturday Nico and I headed all the way over to Southlake. The Indoor Safari Park was an immediate hit with Nico.

First there was a "Kid's World" which included slides, a ball pit,and a bounce house. There was also robotic animals which kids can ride. Nico rode the elephant, and absolutely love it, but If he would have been given the chance, he would have rode every animal there; however much to Nico's surprise there were other kids who wanted a turn. The park also had miniature golf, which Nico caught the hang of, and actually attempted to play. Of course the favorite activity was the mini train ride! Whenever it stopped, I had a crying little boy who wanted "more choo-choo." Finally, there were lots of play areas with doll house, train sets, kitchens, and other pretend areas to play in. The one activity we did not try out was the ceramic painting that they had. I just was not prepared for that mess!

Here are some pictures of our fun from Saturday.










Sunday our plan was simple, but like most plans, they changed. Nico and I have been to Trinity Park many times before in the past to ride the Forest Park Miniature Train, visit the ducks at the duck pond or watch Daddy run in one of his many races, but for once we were going to just play at the extensive park that is there. Nico was very excited when we first got there, and was running from one thing to another, saying "Oh" and "Mommy see!" After about 15 minutes of playing, the train rode by....need I much more? At that moment Nico could care less about the park, and was insistent that we ride the train. So of course we did!

Super Moon!

March 19, 2011 was the first time in 19 years in which the moon has been as large or as bright as it was last night. To be specific, the moon was 14% larger and 30% brighter than the typical full moon. Nico was allowed to stay up for occasion since the moon's rising was not scheduled until 8:00 pm, which is his bedtime. Thanks to Gigi and his stay with her and Grand-dad before Christmas, Nico developed quite a fascination with the giant rock in the sky. Nico is always the first one to spot the moon, can even find it during daylight hours, and of course always communicates that he sees the moon in a very excitable form. So last night while we waited for the moon to rise, walked up and down the street, sat in the yard and ate popcorn and read books.

Here are a couple pictures of last night and the Super Moon!





...And to go along with the theme of the night, I read two of our favorites, "Goodnight Moon" and "Goodnight Moon, 1, 2, 3" to Nico before bed.

Past San Antonio and Back

Sea World was a very fun start to our spring break this year, but it was only the start. The plan was to stay in San Antonio for one night and then head further south to Harlingen to visit Pops, Mops and Ninny. The strategy of driving 4 hours a day actually worked out great, especially with Nico! Before leaving Randolf AFB, which is where we stayed in San Antonio on the way down, I tried to let Nico wear himself out a bit so he would take a nap in the car by playing on the playground. The play area was right outside our room, which was very convenient...staying on AFBs definitely has its perks. On the way down, the little man refused to sleep on either day of driving, but thankfully once we were headed back north, he took naps during each leg of the trip.



If you have every been down to the Rio Grande Valley, you know there is not really a whole lot to do, especially since it is not safe to travel into Mexico anymore. Typically, when down there, I like to spend a day down at South Padre Island, but with Spring Break in progress, that was not the greatest option. Instead, Nico got to spend some good quality time with his Pops and his great-grandma, Ninnny or aka "Nanny." Ninny is almost 96 years old and can not travel anymore, so I make it a priority to make 2-3 trips a year down to the Valley so she can see Nico. Being that Nico does not see many 96 year olds often, I was a little worried he would be scared of her, but he wasn't! Instead he immediately wanted to go see "Nanny" once we arrived at "Pops house." I guess having a family picture with both Nico and Ninny displayed in our house was beneficial after all. Nico had a wonderful time visiting his Pops, and followed him all around wanting to play. So much so that he came home with a scraped up knee and a busted lip from playing hard with Daddy and Pops!








While we were in Harlingen, we took Nico to the Chuckie Cheese alternative, Peter Piper Pizza, went on a little hike through a "birding center," which should have been called the "cactus center" and did lots of playing and exploring outside in Pop's backyard jungle. Hopefully we will be able to get back in July for Ninny's 96th birthday and will have the opportunity to do some shopping and spend some time on South Padre.

Big Fish and a little Mo-Mo!!!!

Yesterday was Saturday and the start of Spring Break 2011!!! Very early in the morning, Mommy, Daddy and Nico got in the car and headed south to Sea World in San Antonio! It was SO, SO, SO much fun; especially since we got in for free and the weather ended up being perfect! Nico was very eager to see "big fish" and was completed enamoured with watching the many shows we went to.





Our timing was perfect when we walked into the park, and we went straight into our fist show, which was "Believe," the Shamu show. It was quite an experience watching Nico during the performances, especially this one. He was in complete awe with Shamu and all the killer whales; however, he was unsure of the situation and clung to Daddy during that first show. After this show Nico made sure we knew he wanted to "see more big fish," and got really excited every time he saw a picture of Shamu.








"Azul," the second show we made it to during our Sea World excursion, was a fun and beautiful combination of white sided dolphins and human water acrobatics. Nico also had the chance to see "The Cannery Row Caper" which was about a mystery crime with seal lions as the investigators and a walrus as the culprit.






I promised Pops that while we were at Sea World, I would make sure to take Nico to see the penguins, which are his favorites, and have his pictures taken with/near them. So here you go Pops, we made it to the penguin area. They certainly are cute!





Just this spring and much to my surprise, Sesame Street moved into Sea World! There is now the "Sesame Street Bay of Play" for kids to play and climb on jungle gyms, run around in the sprinklers to cool off, ride mini amusement park rides, meet and greet many of the Sesame Street gang and watch a couple shows. Unfortunately, Nico was still a little too short to ride any of the rides, but we certainly watched both shows, took a picture or two with some of Sesame Street friends and then Daddy surprised Nico with a new friend of his own to bring home...his very own Elmo or as Nico says it, "Mo-mo."






This was an awesome mini family vacation and wonderful quality time spent together. Ed and I were so happy and excited that Nico got to experience Sea World at its finest. We will definitely be going back, hopefully on a yearly basis.


Our little man had a wonderful day, although he was completely tuckered out at the end. Nico did not take advantage of the 4 plus hour trip to San Antonio to catch a quick nap, so by the time we left Sea World, he could barely stay awake! These pictures are Nico after just minutes of being in the car.



What a wonderful start to what I hope will be a great spring!