Independence Day 2014

The Lawler Family celebrated Independence Day this year in fine fashion. We started off with mass as St. Thomas Aquinas in the morning, followed by a neighborhood BBQ. Michael and Malcolm's fashion was provided by Wal-mart this year. After a lazy afternoon, Kim entertained the boys with songs from her patriotic songbook (the boys especially loved "You're a Grand Old Flag). Joseph did his customary crash around 7pm, so it was up to me to take Michael and Malcolm on their first fireworks extravaganza. They toughed out the heat and the long walk to the park, and enjoyed a great view of the fireworks put on by the City of Richardson. We also got a great surprise this weekend when we discovered a blue jay family had nested in our backyard. This is the first time that has happened since we lived here. Below are photos and video.

Trying again

We went to the spring event at Nash Farms in Grapevine a few days after the petting zoo didn't go over as well as hoped. This one turned out perfect. Michael liked the little-sized goats and sheep much better and had fun running around with Theresa, Brendan, and Mrs. Lawler, and of course Mike and me :). I am posting a few pictures but the rest of them are here. It really was a wonderful morning!

Petting zoo

Elizabeth is visiting her mother for two weeks, so we are very fortunate to have the assistance of Michael's grandmothers (and Uncle Brendan :) while she is away! Mrs. Lawler and Brendan drove in late Monday and will be here until Tuesday, when my mom is coming in. Michael is loving the time with the Lawler side of the family (and this is after an Easter visit from Ryan and Nicole). On Wednesday they took a little trip to a nearby petting zoo at a working farm, getting there before all the elementary school kids arrived for their field trip. Since the Dallas zoo is 25 miles away and the Fort Worth zoo is 50 miles away, I was hoping this might be a fun little close by option that Michael would like. Unfortunately, Mrs. Lawler reports that he was a little intimidated by the goats and wary of the other animals, but it was still worth at least one visit! Maybe when he's older he'll like it more. In the meantime, Michael is definitely having fun with his grandma and uncle (goats notwithstanding :). They went to story time at Barnes & Noble this morning.

Animal Kingdom

Here are some pictures from our trip to Animal Kingdom with Amanda, Aunt Cyndy, Grandma Garza, Chris, and Stefani. We had a wonderful day and I think the baby enjoyed all the animals he got to see. However, after standing up to see an elephant, he did fall asleep right in the middle of the safari ride!

Zoo baby

Yesterday Mike suggested that, since we didn't have any plans for this weekend, we should take the opportunity to finally go over to the Fort Worth Zoo. We both like zoos a lot -- I think we have been to four or five different ones, some multiple times, since we first met! It was a great idea, even though it's 50 miles away and it was 95 degrees today :) We timed it so we drove out there during Michael's morning nap, took 2 1/2 hours to walk around, see animals and have lunch , and drove back during Michael's afternoon nap. It worked perfectly!

Michael didn't quite know what to make of everything but when he could actually see the animals moving around, he followed them very attentively. There was a white bengal tiger pacing in front of a glass window, and Michael kept turning his head back and forth to watch it. He also did that at the small aquarium with the blue and yellow Dori fish (I don't know what the fish is, so my mom and I just call it a Dori fish after Finding Nemo). Just like in his nursery! :) He seemed very interested in the penguins, as well as the longhorn calf. He got pretty sleepy in the heat after awhile, so he conked out as we were heading back out of the zoo. But it was a very nice visit and I'm sure we'll be back.

Later this evening we went over to visit Elizabeth, who is going to be Michael's nanny after Aunt Amanda goes back to school in August. Elizabeth sang a bunch of silly songs to him in Spanish and gave him his bottle :) Then she showed him that two of her dogs had just had a litter of puppies three weeks ago! There were six adorable, sleepy little puppies in her kitchen and Michael petted a few of them. But he REALLY didn't know what to make of the puppies overall -- he just held back and watched them all cautiously. It was very amusing :) We will have to visit again soon. It turned out to be a lot of animals for one day!