Zoo

Today Natalie and I met Poppy and Grandma at the zoo. We saw almost every animal there was to see in the park. Natalie even got nectar to feed the lories. She and Poppy were able to find some hungry lories (they get fed all day long so they usually aren't hungry).

We got there early enough to get great parking and didn't have to fight the masses either. By the time we had seen everything we wanted to see, the crowds started showing up and it was getting pretty warm outside. We got there and left at the perfect time!

Easy Bake Brownie

Natalie enjoys "cooking by lightbulb" in her Easy Bake oven. A couple of days ago she made a brownie recipe. I think most of it ended up on her face rather than in her tummy!

The Salt Lick & Outlet Mall

Today we decided to try out the GPS and take a road trip to Driftwood to eat at The Salt Lick, one of the best BBQ restaurants in Texas (if not THE best!) If you've never eaten there put it on your list of places to experience. It's worth the drive no matter where you live! If this isn't convincing enough for you, the show Man Versus Food filmed there several months back and raved about it. It's always important to get a great picture of the BBQ pit to remember the trip (and drool!)

Here are a couple of pictures of Mark and Natalie enjoying their meals. Natalie raved about the turkey and loved the beans too. We all shared a peach and blackberry cobbler for dessert. Ooh lah lah! Scrumptious!


We followed lunch up with a trip to the outlet mall in San Marcos. We weren't the only ones who had the same idea! It was swarming with people! Mark found some great deals at a men's clothing store for some work attire and Natalie snagged some bargains too! Gymboree had some 79 cent shorts and tanks - perfect for next summer! They had a lot of dresses marked down to $6.99 too - a steal for that store! She has about five new outfits and a pair of new pajamas. What a deal!

Week in Review

We're not even in school right now and we've had a busy week! I didn't realize how long it'd been since the blog was updated! We've spent our week shopping and getting ready for Christmas. On Friday afternoon we went to a Christmas Eve service at church. Natalie got what she wished for from Santa, a cash register, along with other toys, books, and games. She had a great Christmas!

Dance Recital

Natalie really enjoyed dancing in her Christmas dance recital on Saturday. Her class did a tap routine to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. It's actually the same song they danced to last year, but a different version and choreography. This year they wore brown leggings, a brown shirt with their reindeer's name on it (Natalie was Prancer), and reindeer headbands. Their teacher gave them a brown reindeer nose and they had to get decked out in blue eye shadow (hello 1980s!) and bright red lipstick. I didn't own either one of those items, so we had to make a trip to Ulta before the recital. The shade of lipstick we found was called "Red Alert." The name said it all - it was bright red!

We thought Natalie did a great job up on stage. She had a smile on her face the whole time she was dancing. Much to Mark's chagrin, we stayed for the entire recital which turned out to last around thirty minutes. It was relatively short! Either there aren't as many students this year or it was so short because everyone just danced one number. Either way we weren't complaining!

Party & Gifts

At Natalie's school today she enjoyed a party during snack time. She was excited to tell me about the puzzle she got at school and the numerous goody bags she received.

When we got home she opened all of the presents that I got at school. I tried to get her to slow down long enough so I could write down the student's name and gift, but she was on a roll! After dinner she spent her time perusing her goody bag items and hanging up the ornaments she made at school on the tree.

She also spent time going over her dance routine for tomorrow's recital. She's reallly looking forward to it and we are excited to see her dance.

Pre-K Open House

Natalie was so excited to attend her school's open house tonight. She didn't want to leave when I picked her up this afternoon, which is nothing unusual. She thought it'd be a good idea to stay at school until the open house began. I had to convince her that she should eat dinner before attending the event. She eventually agreed, but wasn't happy about it. I think she asked me every five minutes if her open house had already started. She did not want to miss it! She visited with her teacher, Ms. Jennifer, ate a cookie, made a star art project, played with playdough, read books, and sat on Santa's lap. She asked Santa for a Barbie (even though she has a million at home!)

Brown Legging Dilemna = Solved!

Thanks to Gap Kids Natalie now owns her own pair of brown leggings for her dance recital on Saturday! They actually had two options there if you can believe it. One was a lighter brown shade with a thin row of lace at the bottom. The other was labeled as a legging, but with a light sweat pants material feel to it and a chocolate brown color. The bottom was finished off differently than a normal pair of elastic sweat pants. These are leggings that will keep her slightly warmer that just the average legging and they're fun and stylish at the same time. She can wear them on a daily basis after the recital too. Who could ask for more?

Of course we went with the warmer ones. Here's the thing too - everyone in the class has purchased a brown shirt of some kind, whether it's a tank, a t-shirt, or a long sleeved shirt. None of the dancers will be uniformed. The leggings will probably look different too. There are so many different shades of brown that none of them will match anyway. Maybe from a distance it will look good? We can only hope!

Brown leggings...Anyone?....Anyone...?

Natalie's weekend started off the same - dance class on Saturday. She's getting ready for her recital next weekend where she'll be dancing to Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. She's excited about being up on stage again, but first I must find her some brown leggings....somewhere...anywhere! We shopped in every store I could possibly think of on our side of town and no luck! The stores that did carry them were out of her size and any size close to it. Looks like we'll have to venture out this week to find a pair. I'll even take an entire outfit that has the darn leggings in them. Really at this point she just needs anything brown to wear!

Christmas Concert

Today at Pre-K, Natalie's class sang Christmas songs for a senior church group. She was really excited because she got to dress up in her Sunday best and brand new headband. She had a great time singing with all of her friends. Unfortunately we couldn't leave work to hear her sing, but I got a picture of her dressed up in the morning before she left for school.

Book Fair Queen

Now that Mark works across town, Natalie must join me for any after school activities I must attend. Today she got to go to a book fair at an elementary school down the road from my school. She had a great time making and decorating cards with the librarian's daughter. They compared shoes and socks and discovered they matched. What a thrill! Natalie really wanted a book, but we got swamped and it was too difficult to take her to look. Good thing she's going to another book fair at my school next Tuesday! What a lucky girl!

Model Homes

Our neighborhood is expanding yet again! This time they're adding approximately 600 new homes! I cannot imagine where they're going to put all of them, but they're going to squeeze them in somewhere. It's hard enough getting in and out of our neighborhood now, and when I picture hundreds more vehicles trying to exit and enter our area daily it makes me shudder. Be that as it may, we now have more model homes to view.

It's always fun to see how model homes are laid out and decorated, from the painting down to the interior design. We've got two beautiful models to tour and we checked both of them out. One is a large 3,500 square foot two story model. Natalie loved it. It features its own movie room, has a spacious kitchen, and one of the bedrooms upstairs contains a balcony. She loved that house so much we had to tour it twice! As we were touring it for the first time, Natalie ran over and dragged me to the laundry room. As she was showing me the room she said, "Feast your eyes on this!" The homebuilder's salespeople loved it and asked if she'd consider working for them! When I discussed a possible future career in realty with her she wasn't too happy about the prospect, but she certainly did a great job trying to "sell" the house to us. The second house isn't really worth mentioning really. It was nicely decorated, but way too small. It sure was fun looking!

Bathroom Renovation

Natalie's bathroom renovation was completed today! Mark did 95% of the work himself and it turned out quite nice. We're calling him "Handy Manny" now since he's been using so many power tools. I've always given him a hard time about viewing DIY shows all the time, but I guess all that watching has paid off. He's got more on his honey do list, but at least he can scratch off bathroom renovation. :)

Dickens on Main

On Saturday night we met Jason, Misty, and Mallory in Boerne for a nice dinner and went to Dickens on Main. The old stores in downtown Boerne are decorated in white lights, and after dark the Christmas parade begins. After dinner we took our places to watch the festivities. There were a variety of company and non-profit organization floats, marching bands, dance teams, etc... coming by to keep both girls entertained. One of the floats was from the Fiesta Flambeau Parade. They had a large Alamo on the side of the float. I pointed it out to Natalie and here's how the conversation went:
Me: Look, Natalie! It's the Alamo!
Natalie: The Alamo? I remember it!

The parade was a lot of fun and both girls really enjoyed it. Natalie had been to one other parade before, but was too young to really remember it. She really enjoyed the "snow machines" they had set up at various points along the road. The "snow" was really just small snowflake like bubbles, but it was exciting for her to pretend it was real.

Girls Night

Since Mark was out playing poker tonight, Natalie and I enjoyed a girls night out. After school we enjoyed a nice dinner out and then browsed the bookshelves at Barnes and Noble. We can never leave that place empty handed. Natalie scored a new Berenstain Bears book and her first Junie B. Jones chapter book. She was so excited to hear the first two chapters of her Junie B. Jones book because it's the same book as the most recent play she saw a week and a half ago. I wasn't sure how she'd fare without as many pictures in the chapter book compared to a picture book, but she loved it. Here she is reading a book at Barnes and Noble tonight.