Sunday, August 4, 2013

The Rest of Our Back To School Fun Day

Saturday we took the kids to Memphis for a fun day before school started back. We started the day off with a reptile exhibit called Repticon.  I told Brad that I deserved some sort of award for making it through that, so I guess the rest of the day could be considered my reward.

After bidding the snakes good-bye, we decided to visit Lichterman Nature Center.  It's part of the Pink Palace, but we had never seen it before because it is only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and we had never made it during those times.  Also, it's mostly outside so you have to do it when the weather is pretty.  It was a great day for it.  It rained some earlier in the day, but by the time we got there the rain was over, and it was just kind of overcast and felt really good outside.

It's mostly nature trails to walk, so the staff there gave us a map and a bag of food to feed to the fish and we set off.  It was so beautiful!  This is one of my favorite kinds of thing to do, and everyone else liked it too. 
Here's my crew on the bridge feeding the fish, although I think we saw more turtles than fish.  No one was complaining though!
 
See?  All those brown things are turtles.
 
This is on one of the walking trails.  Selah said we were going on an adventure like Dora and Diego.
 
 
Isn't that lovely?
 
Selah loved these big plants.  So did her mama!
 
Walking the boardwalk over the marsh was my favorite part.
 
It's so hard to get a decent picture with the kids.
 
Know what I mean?
 
 
 
Found this in the gardens and the kids really enjoyed it. 
 
We told her not to pick the flowers...
 
But she slipped and got one anyway...see that guilty face?
 
Taking a rest on a big butterfly
 
We stayed until it closed at 4:00, and really enjoyed our time there.  We were hungry by then, and trying to decide where to go.  Brad checked the Living Social app on his phone--Living Social is a site very similar to Groupon--and found a deal for Incredible Pizza.  Better yet, he had accumulated Deal Bucks, and we were able to use those to pay for it!  The kids LOVE Incredible Pizza and were very happy with that surprise.
 
This is what my pseudo-vegetarian's plate looked like.  We are at a pizza place, and she wanted green beans, corn, carrots, and black olives.  I'm not complaining!
 
This game squirted water, so Selah thought it was especially cool.
 
 

Brad and Selah got to ride Go-Karts again.
 
She gave it two thumbs up!
 
Korban refused to ride, but he sure was happy to watch!
 
They found Korban's favorite dog game.
 
 
While Selah was riding this little car, Korban called her name and waved to her, and she honked the horn at him.  Not even kidding!
 
We played up such a sweat some of us resorted to using the hand dryer as a hair dryer.  I won't mention any names, though.  ;)  Seriously, they have a family bathroom and Brad went in with me to help with the kids, but decided to tend to personal grooming instead.  NO help--the kids were absolutely screaming with laughter, although they declined to style their hair this way.  If you know Brad, you know he sweats.  We might need one of these at home!
 
We got slushies off the food bar to cool us down.
 
Brain freeze!
 
And Daddy learned the hard way that Selah cannot be trusted around his ice cream. 
 
 
 
We had such a good time that day, and I'm so grateful we got to take the kids for some fun before school starts.  Other than the gas in our van that we used, we spent $9.00 yesterday.  Brad bought the Groupon for Repticon a couple of weeks ago, and it was $15.00.  While we were there, we let each kid get a treat.  Selah choose a snake necklace that cost $8.00 and Korban picked a balloon with a picture of a bearded dragon on it that cost $1.00, so that's how we got the $9.00 amount.  Lichterman Nature Center was free with our Pink Palace Membership, and the Living Social deal was covered by Brad's rewards bucks.  It included the buffet and drinks for four, and a $20.00 game card.  We got to spin their prize wheel three times: one because August is my birthday month, and they also have a promotion where you can get a free spin for checking in on Facebook, so Brad and I both did that.  We won two free attractions (like Go-Karts) and a $5.00 bonus on the game card by spinning the prize wheel.  That's a lot of fun!  I love getting to spend time together as a family--I love seeing my kids enjoy themselves and try new things and I consider us so blessed that they have a daddy who wants to be with us.  Even if he does like snakes...  
 
 
 
 

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