The Heard Nature Museum

Yesterday was adventure day 2. We went to the Heard here in McKinney. The animatronic dinosaurs are back and Katharine has been asking for a while to go see them. So we did.
After we walked the 1/2 mile dinosaur trail we visited the handful of wild animals that the Heard has: mostly raccoons and other small animals that people kept as pets and then dumped. Now they have a safe home. Then we went to the butterfly house and from there we hiked the prairie and wetlands trails. We walked around 4 miles and the kids only complained once during the last 5 or 10 minutes. The promise of candy got them going again, they all ended up picking out a snack instead. Needless to say that they were tired.



After the hike and they are still smiling:)








They all needed a snack and drink.














Rosehips





Oops, just noticed that this is in here twice. Oh well,...








A butterfly slowly coming out of the crysalis.

















Kassidy was really scared of the dinosaurs. I ended up having to turn the stroller away from the dinosaurs and pull the canopy done as far as possible.


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Fall into Color

After Keira's eye exam yesterday morning, we spontaneously decided to go to the Arboretum. It's been a long overdue and right now is the perfect time to go. Thousands of pumpkins line the trails and Cinderella Fairytale structures adorned with all kinds of that strange yet beautiful fruit.

I took over 800 pictures, here is a small collection: un-photoshopped. Erik's computer is "sick" at the moment and I don't have the fancy stuff on my computer, so this is what you get - perfect imperfection.

Kassidy was not in picture taking mood yesterday, so there are only a handful of decent pictures of her.

An uninvited guest during lunch.

I took this set of pictures in the Beast's Castle.

"How am I going to get in that fountain?"

I really liked the texture and color of the fountain, the slow running water and the purple blossoms in it.

The tile at the bottom of this pool is gorgeous.

My favorite part of the arboretum has always been the Women's Garden. I have a picture of the statue's head on my fridge. The kids and I could have stayed among the butterflies and flowers forever. It was so quiet and relaxing, away from all the people.

Katharine seemed to be in a bit of a sultry moon yesterday, which made for some interesting pictures.

What's inside this old pecan tree?

That girl LOVES to get messy!

New Art

I found an assortment of art lying around when I got home tonight.




The first is a Wolverine puppet, by Lukas. He made one for around a dozen other superheroes as well..




Next up is Katharine figuring out the new hierarchy at Hogwarts once Potter's kids start attending.




Lastly, here are some "power cards" by Lennon and Lukas. It is interesting that the boys are already thinking this kind of stuff up before they even know that these kinds of card games already exist.

Boy bed, girl bed