Blanche

We met this girl at the rodeo too. She is NOT the llama who ate out of LM's hand. I don't know if it is the underbite, but something about her face seems so HUMAN. I've decided to call her Blanche. You know Blanche, don't you? I do:

Pretty eyes, that Blanche

Teeth - not so much. Ever heard, of floss, dear?

Showing her good side for a photo with Michael.

I love her, don't you?

See you soon.

Rodeo! Rodeo!

I have lived in Texas for 20.5 years and never had I gone to Fort Worth for the biggest Stock Show and Rodeo until this year. We all (S and LM and I, as well as S's brother's families) traipsed over there to check it out a couple of weekends ago, but I'm just getting a post up for you about it.

It was GREAT fun. We will go every year. And YOU can go too - we have amazing weather for the weekend, folks, and it's the last weekend of the show, so go on over and check it out for yourself! We only scratched the surface of this great event - we had little ones in tow - and we still had a blast. When they are older, we will definitely have to check out the actual RODEO part. Ahem. Here are the highlights:

There were some of THESE around.

This is the side of the Cowgirl Museum.

There is a small admission price to the show - it includes admission to the museums within the grounds, which includes the cowgirls as well as the Museum of Nature and Science, for sure. Maybe more.

We went through pretty much all the animal buildings.

I mean, kids LOVE animals. And so do big kids.

Michael came with the kiddos alone, because Brooke was out of town.

He did a great job keeping up with these two.

Humiliation by paper hat.

I was quite taken by the chickens.

I'm not kidding. These were the prettiest chickens you've ever seen. They had beautiful feathers and colors on them. They were really gorgeous creatures. 

I mean, look at those feathers!

There were various judging contests going on as we walked through the buildings.

Also fascinating. I mean, WHAT are they looking for? Seriously? They are IN to chickens, and pigs, etc. It's just so easy to forget how much you don't know. Yeah, not here. I don't know jack. Or cow. Or sheep.

Then we stumbled into an open fire station.

Where they invited the kids in.

Three cuties.

Then we headed over to the petting zoo.

Where crackers fed the chillin's while we waited in line.

Oh, the petting zoo was a blast!

The llama ate right out of LM's hand.

He LOVED that part especially.

Onto the rides.

Waiting for the rides to open.

Here was the bummer about the rides.

The rides signs were TALL - 36 inches to ride alone - and sometimes at all. These were the same rides that were at the State Fair at 30 inches to ride. No matter, I thought, we'll let the two bigger kids ride, then we'll have some lunch. I didn't figure LM would care. Um, that's where I was wrong. He threw a FIT when the big kids got to ride and he didn't - you can see some of his fit in the video below. He was MAD!!! I couldn't believe it! So, we found some rides that allowed smaller kids to ride with an adult. 

Miss S didn't think being left out was very cool either, by the way.

Big A on the "big kid" ride.

Here is a video sure to make you lose your cookies.

It's so shaky! But, you can see the big kids on the ride, poor Andrew getting scared halfway through and all the adults laughing. We are so kind, no? And, LM having a meltdown that he can't get on. Fun times.

One of the daddy-LM rides.

This one - not such a hit.

But this one - super fly!

He LOVED it. We rode it several times.

Kim and Sophia

S and LM, try 2

Mark and Alexandra preparing to slide...

...somehow I can't find the one of them at the bottom!

Mommy and LM!

I think the big kids liked it just as much as the little ones!

After the Midway, we ate some lunch - that was crazy - LONG lines - but we got it done. And, then we walked through the exhibit halls for a while. Also crazy but fine. I bought a new pair of cowboy boots! I outgrew mine when my feet grew with pregnancy, so it was fun to find a new pair. I love them. They are super comfortable! After that, the boy had fallen asleep in his stroller, so we headed out. We had done a TON of walking too, so we were pretty patootied ourselves. 

It was a really fun time, though, and we'll definitely go again.  Any big plans for the weekend? Ours will be mostly more of the same - my class grading and preparation sprinkled with hopefully some family time. I'm getting my hair done Saturday morning - that will be nice - and we're going over to the in-laws to watch the big game Sunday afternoon/evening. Whatever your plans are, I hope it's a nice weekend for you. 

See you soon.

Super Bowl Food: Parmesan Shortbread

The last of the Super Bowl Food inspiration posts from me: Parmesan-Pepper shortbread bites. You can find the other two recent Super Bowl-esque recipes here and here. I actually did NOT find this on Pinterest. But, I got to the site via Pinterest, where I meandered off and found these.

Click through up there for the recipe.

What we have here is basically flour, butter, parmesan, seasoning, and some egg yolks. I again had to add some water to make dough. I'm dough challenged. Add them all together and then make a couple of logs like pictured above. Refrigerate the dough so you can slice it into little shortbread cookies.

Place onto a cookie sheet - with the amount of butter involved with these, greasing isn't necessary.

See? Uh-huh. Plenty o' butter.

I cooked them until I thought they were done - golden brown and all.

They could have used another minute or so to really be super crispy.

They will crisp up a bit while cooling on wire, though.

Add them to the now-overflowing plate.

And you're all ready for FOOTBALL!

Amen to that.

See you soon!