Northpark

It's fun to take the kids to the mall on a hot day. And to see them do the same stuff I used to do at Northpark some 30+ years ago. It's no wonder the floor around the planters outside Neiman's stays so clean; who knows how many kids butts slide down it every day.

Once we get past the Hammermen, Grace goes straight to sliding on the planters while Alex goes straight for the turtles.

Fun day at the mall. 

Hard to get Alex away from the Hammermen. 

Sliding on the planters. 

Alex slides too.  

Take my picture Mommy! Look what I can do! Take my picture! 

Alex is happy that he can climb the small planter just like Gracie. 

Looking at the ducks.

Tired kids after lots of playing.

OH MY GOD IT'S HOT

Nothing new to my fellow Texas readers, but at 5:30pm today it was still (according to my Weatherbug on my computer) 102.8 degrees. The high for today (and yesterday) is shown as 108 degrees - this is based on a downtown reading rather than DFW airport.

Any chance for once August will be cooler than July?

Fun weekend (again)

Every weekend seems to turn out to be a fun weekend. I guess you just can't go wrong when Dad doesn't have to work and can hang out with us all day.

Saturday night we went to Cafe Madrid with Kim and Javier for their Running of the Bulls annual celebration. We all decked ourselves out in red and white, and the kids were enthralled with the flaminco dancers and the guy walking around in a bull costume taking pictures. And we won a couple door prizes - I won a bottle of wine, and Grace won a kid-size t-shirt from the same wine company featuring their bull on it. Even though the restaurant was beastly hot and the service was slow due to all the customers, it was still a fun time and something a little different to do.

We came back home and played a couple mean games of Uno with everyone, so Grace got to discover how much more fun it is to play with more than two or three people. But what I loved the most was, after Kim and Javier left, to see Jim on the floor with both kids belly-flopping on top of him ("oofing" him). It's one of their favorite games to play. And it's the kind of enjoyment you don't realize you can have until you have kids. So I'm so happy Kim and Jav are almost there. Only a couple more months to go!