Springtime Fun!

Spring 2015

It is time for one of my favorite blog posts - the seasonal collection of random iPhone photos. Welcome to everyday life in the Mhire household!

With the new Star Wars movie coming out at the end of the year, Tommy decided it was time to introduce Jack to the original Star Wars movies. He was enthralled. His favorite one is Star Wars II - Attack of the Clones, followed closely by the original Star Wars from 1977. I'm not sure who had more fun watching the movies, Jack or Tommy. Tommy had been waiting a long time for this moment to come!!

Livi wasn't really into Star Wars, so we headed downstairs to watch some Rapunzel:

It is so fun to watch the kids skills develop - Jack was never too interested in drawing, but it has gotten much more interesting since he started kindergarten. This is his family portrait. So cute!

Following a really rough 10-K season, my boss was nice enough to share the company Mavs tickets and let me take Tommy to a game: 

We even got to watch LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now I can say I've seen LeBron in person!

We made a trip to the Perot Museum to see the Sherlock Holmes exhibit. It was a really cool exhibit that allowed both kids and adults to collect clues and solve a murder mystery, just like Mr. Holmes:

The scene of the crime:

The Detectives Mhire sort through the clues to solve the mystery:

A trip to the Perot would not be complete without climbing on the frogs outside:

Dinner at the original Breadwinners in Uptown completed a wonderful day!

Jack attempted roller skating for the first time at a classmate's birthday party. The rink was very retro and just like I remember from when I was a kid - except I don't think we had these cool things to help us balance:

Jack was a little shaky at first, but he eventually got the hang of it with some balance help:

And all by himself! Go Jack!

We love going to the Pearson Farms park on the weekend when the weather is nice:

Nana taught Jack how to swing by himself this spring. Here is showing off his new skill:

Another favorite new skill - he learned how to jump off of jungle gym on this, swing himself around 360 degrees and land back where he started. He was so proud!

Playing can be hard work! We finally lowered Livi's crib and converted it into a toddler bed:

Livi started taking dance at Kids R Kids this spring. She loves it and is always showing off her "shuffles":

In April, the time came to register my baby boy for kindergarten. How is that even possible?! We dropped off the papers at school together one morning and celebrated with a stop at Dunkin' Donuts:

He was so proud of his new school shirt that he had to wear it to daycare the very next day. It was a little big, but that didn't matter. Nichols here we come...

A Rare Texas Snow Day

February 2015

Well, I've managed to fall almost a year behind in my blogging. I'm really trying, but as you will (hopefully) find out, it has been quite the busy year. As I write this, it is late January 2016 and today was a balmy 75 degrees outside. I can't imagine that we have any days like this day from last February coming up, but anything is possible, especially in this crazy Texas weather!

I headed to work in the morning and not a snowflake had fallen. Midway through the morning, snow had started to fall and the roads had started to ice, leaving cars scattered along the roads of Dallas like this:

Everyone left work early and drove very carefully home. I stopped to get the kids at daycare and headed back to our house for a SNOW DAY!! The kids were so excited to get to play in the snow!

Daddy taught everyone how to make snowballs and we had a family snowball fight in the front yard:

 

Jack was really excited to make a snow angel - we always hear about these things, but we so rarely get to actually do them in Texas!

There was even enough snow to make a snowman - complete with a carrot nose and Brussels sprout eyes!

After a cold day outside, Daddy made a nice pot of gumbo for dinner. Our kids may be pretty picky eaters, but they love gumbo - I think they could eat their weight in sausage. Yum!!

 

Happy Valentines Day 2015!

February 2015

I have always loved Valentines Day. I know it is probably just a Hallmark created holiday to sell candy, cards, flowers and jewelry, but it always just makes me happy!

I helped my kiddos prepare their Ninja Turtle and Frozen valentines the night before - Jack even signed his name on his for the first year ever! The next morning, dressed in their valentine outfits (hearts for one, and Ninja Turtles for the other), the kiddos were excited to head to school for a day of valentine fun!

I took a very late lunch from work and was lucky enough to be able to make it to both kids' parties at school. I started with Jack's class. They had all made themselves some lovely hats: 

Ariana really wanted her picture taken with Jack. He was not that into it, but he obliged. Ha! 

I tried to get pictures of all of the party-goers. Man, he had a big class!

Next, I moved on to Livi's class. She was super excited that Mommy was there! 

Here are all of the cuties in her class: 

Happy Valentines Day from Jack, Livi, and all the other Kids R Kids cuties! 

Winter Zoo Visit

January 2015

Everyone knows Texas weather is crazy. Freezing cold one day, 75 degrees the next. Deep in the middle of January, we got one of those beautiful, spring-like days and decided to take a trip to the Dallas Zoo. We have been over to the zoo in Fort Worth several times, but we'd never made it down to the Dallas Zoo. I had always heard that the zoo in Fort Worth was much nicer, so my expectations were not that high. I was very pleasantly surprised! We had a great visit and will definitely return.

We started off visiting the giraffes:

We arrived just in time for the tiger feeding demonstration:

Not a coat in sight on this beautiful January day:

The kids had their own personal discussions with this gorilla:

My little monkeys with some monkeys that don't move around quite as much:

After checking out many more of the animals, we finished our trip to the zoo with a couple of slushies. From there, since we were so close, we decided to try out a Dallas icon, Fuel City Tacos. As the name implies, they are located in a gas station in South Dallas, but make some delicious, traditional Mexican street tacos. I tried a chicken taco and a barbacoa one, and Tommy tried a couple of other varieties. They were delicious!

 

This weekend definitely didn't feel like the middle of January, but we definitely had more winter weather in store.  Stay tuned!