slip n slide

this summer has been brutally hot.  but i'm not complaining.  i do live in texas for a reason!  i DO NOT like cold weather and if you ask me, it's a whole lot easier to cool off than it is to warm up.  and a whole lot more fun too!

these pictures are my proof!

burrito in motion

 and now it's noodle's turn!

 

and now some pictures just for fun!

see how much fun you can have when it's hot outside???

breaking rutherford news!!!

today was a history-making day in the rutherford household:  burrito lost his first tooth!!!

at age 7!!!

it was HANGING on by a thread, and he was so consternated about pulling it out that i just had to do it for him.  with one little yank, out it popped!  he was so excited, and i think a little relieved, that it didn't hurt and that it was finally out!

and i cried.

i just can't take the fact that my boys are growing up.

nonetheless, i was so excited for him.  he has been waiting so long to lose a tooth!

love you my snaggle-toothed burrito!

indoor soccer

just when i thought soccer season was over, our coach gave us the option of playing as a team in an indoor league.  we have never participated in indoor soccer before and we had heard that it's lots of fun so we decided to give it a try.

the most exciting part was that burrito's coach asked noodle to play on the team too!  sweet little noodle was so excited to be a part of a "bigger boy" team.  he has always practiced with burrito's team (thanks to the sweet coach) so he already knew all the boys.  this was the first time that burrito and noodle have played soccer together and it was SO FUN to watch both of them on the field at the same time!

they had an awesome season and only lost 2 games.  and this encouraged john to sign up and play indoor soccer too!  so i am a certified soccer mom and wife cheerleader!  it's been really fun to cheer on my players!

legoland discovery center

as promised, here is our review of legoland discovery center.  my boys are HUGE lego fans right now and i cannot walk through my house without stepping on at least one (or more!) lego.  so you can imagine their surprise and delight when i told them after our trip to the zoo, that the fun was not over.  we were headed to legoland!

and now for a tip on admission.  if you go online and print your tickets before your trip, you will save a few bucks and guarantee that you can get in (it gets crowded and there is a capacity limit i'm sure).  the boys, however, receive a lego magazine in the mail (it's free!) and whenever it comes, there is always a coupon for a free child's admission.  that said, it was actually cheaper for us to use those and purchase our adult tickets there (because you can't use the coupons online) than it was for us to print them off online.  so that's the scoop on ticketing.  and we went before most kids were out of school to eliminate the chance of it being too crowded to get in.

so it was actually not crowded at all and we breezed right through.  first you are lead by a tour guide through a part that demonstrates how legos are made.  it was interesting but the boys could have cared less, they were so excited to see what else the place had to offer.

next up was a laser ride.  we boarded a ride that led us through different lego scenes and we had laser guns to shoot the bad guys.  there was a digital reader that kept track of how many we shot to see who shot the most.  this was fun but only lasted a few minutes.

next up was a cute and short 3D movie featuring bob the builder and his friends.  they were building a roller coaster (out of legos, of course!) and this was fun because it was interactive.  when the movie simulated you riding the roller coaster, a huge fan would blow in your face, as if you were really on the ride.  at one point bob spills his water bottle and water sprinkles on you.  at the end of the movie, it begins to snow and soap bubbles sprinkle down from the ceiling.  it was cute but my boys think they are way to big and cool for bob the builder! :)

they were trying to look like gangstas in their 3D glasses

we then moved into a room that had used thousands of legos to recreate particular places in the dfw metroplex.  this was really amazing to see but not so much interactive.  i've included lots of pictures here so you can see at what i marveled!

dfw airport

great wolf lodge and grapevine vintage railroad

the gaylord

southfork ranch

the ballpark in arlington

cowboys stadium

reunion tower and downtown dallas

state fair of texas

then there was a huge play area for kids to climb around on, think mcdonald's on steroids.  the only place where the kids could play with real legos was an area where you could build race cars and then race them down the ramps.  there was also an area with duplos to appeal to the younger audience and a pink princess castle to appeal to girls.

our last attraction was a ride that went around in circles and as you pedaled, you climbed higher and higher.

this is noodle and john

and last was the gift store, that you HAD to go in, in order to exit legoland.  very clever you marketing people!  i already dropped $38 plus tax to get in, and that was with 2 free child's tickets, and now i had to make my way through a store packed with overpriced legos!  not a fan!  we managed to get out of there unscathed.

so here's my two cents about this place.  it was fun and my boys certainly had a good time.  is it overpriced?  yes.  but i am a cheapskate!  was there a lot to do?  not really.  should you buy a season pass?  i sure would not!

i say it's a fun thing to do once a year, and hopefully they'll change things up a bit each year to keep it interesting.  otherwise, i was a little disappointed.  when you hear the commercials about this place, they tout it being full of thousands and thousands of legos with the idea that you get to play with them all.  not so.  it took thousands and thousands of legos to build all those neat little buildings that are on display that you're not allowed to touch.

so a little disappointing but we still had a fun time!

Summer Fun

well, i am grossly behind in blogging.  blame it on my part-time job, laziness, or just plain busyness.  i have learned that i can only do so much and some things slip through the cracks and unfortunately, blogging has been one of those things.

my lack of blogging does not mean there has been a lack of blogging material.  we have been enjoying our summer break to the fullest extent.  and because i am so behind, i won't attempt to cram everything into this one post.  i'll space it out a bit so your retinas are not bleeding! :)

so we'll start with our first post-school, hooray-for-summer activity, the zoo!

because both burrito and noodle are in school now, we did not renew our beloved zoo membership this year.  so the second school was out and we were free from routine, we headed to fort worth!

burrito and noodle amidst the beautiful landscaping

i love this pic of burrito deep in thought

 the elephants put on quite a show for us this trip.  we have never been there to see them "take a shower!"

feeding the koi fish

the zoo had a dinosaur exhibit this time with robotic dinosaurs stationed around different areas.  they have had this before when burrito was little and he was NOT a fan!  this time, they LOVED it!

posing by the elephant

feeding the birds

we ended our trip with a visit to MOLA (museum of living art) and the boys were so pumped to pet a real, live snake.  i was impressed with the little zoo man here because there were HORDES of children in here and he was being so patient!

believe it or not, we spent about 3 hours here visiting the animals, went home to pick up dad who had teacher inservice for just the morning hours, and then went to legoland for the afternoon!  i was either the coolest mom, the most broke mom, or the most exhausted mom by the end of that day!  or maybe all three!

Square foot garden

we decided to try our green thumb out this spring and plant a garden.  now i say green thumb with tongue in cheek because i am not very good about remembering to water the few plants we already have so taking on a garden will be quite a challenge.

i did a little research and decided that a square foot garden would be a manageable introduction to the world of gardening for us rutherfords.  so first we had to decide on a sunny spot.  in our very tree-shaded backyard this was bit of a challenge, but here's the designated spot.

so first we had to gather our supplies....several bags of miracle-gro garden soil.

and wherever there is dirt, these jokers are not far behind.  check out their gardening tools of choice.

we bought weed block to put down at the bottom of our square foot garden to keep out weeds and grass.

and to make our garden project even easier, we found this raised garden kit with all the wood pre-cut and ready to go!

it was quite easy to put together and it looks so cute!

the next part was a little tougher, that's why i let this cute guy take over.  it's important to have a level place for your garden so that when you water, it will soak in and not run off.

the back part of our backyard is a little sloped so it took a little digging on the higher end to make a level bed.

next we placed our our little raised bed kit in and covered the bottom with the weed block.

and then we poured in all the dirt.  the boys particularly enjoyed this part!

burrito and noodle took their little hand trowels and leveled out the dirt.  once that was done, we divided the bed into 12, 1 foot sections and decided where we would plant each vegetable.

we let the boys dig the holes to plant the plants, and it was so cute to watch how serious they took their jobs.

and here is the finished product!  we planted a roma tomato plant, a grape tomato plant, cilantro, okra, bell pepper, jalapeno pepper and lots of onions!

and later we added a hanging strawberry plant.

and here is a recent picture of our garden.  we won't win any contests but our plants have grown and they are starting to produce!

and some fruits of our labor....grape tomatoes

 a roma tomato

and a strawberry!

if nothing else, our kids have a better appreciation for where food comes from, and they no longer think it just appears at the grocery store.  i am excited to use some of our produce in our homemade salsa that we make weekly.  we've had a really great time watching the plants grow and checking on them daily.  in fact, burrito came running in today to tell me that we have a little baby bell pepper finally growing.  this is such a fun family project, and i'm glad we jumped in to try it out.