greatest hits

just to give you a clear idea of my brain-function this week, i got the boys up and dressed and out the door on thursday morning (for those of you that have young children, you KNOW how difficult a task that is on most days).  i sped to ben's school, not wanting him to be late, only to pull up to a closed school.  easter break.  mommy fail.  

our week has been busy, i have been up to my ears in carnival-planning, and the boys have been up to their ears in being wild, loud, crazy boys.

1) my sister had a birthday party at her new house.  it was a good party and she deserves it.  i love you, choo.

 {addy's dress says "cute and crabby". teehee.}

 {grandpa's girl}

 {i can't keep that little one out of the dang beer cooler.  like mother father, like son.}

 2) ben's new camera face.

 3) crosby's two best things currently: sunglasses and shopping cart.  those happen to be two of my best things also.

 4) fort building and movie-watching.

looking forward to: easter egg hunts and family feasts.

how was your week?  what are you looking forward to?

xoxo,

coco

random bits

a few things are on my mind this monday morning:

1) blackboard wars.  does anyone watch this show?  it is all about teachers trying to turn around one of the worst high schools in new orleans.  it's a reality show on own.  i cry like a baby each episode (leave it up to oprah!).  it's so strange how it can make me want to sprint back to the classroom and want to never, never teach again all at the same time. (oh and one of the most wonderful/cringe-worthy parts of this show is how perfectly they portray how awful your first year of teaching can be.  i remember crying in the classroom.....ugh.)

2) stevie nicks.  i have always loved her and watching her on own last night just confirms it.  did anyone see it?  have you seen fleetwood mac's behind the music?  best. one. ever.

3) these songs made my commute this morning:

this sing-a-long oldie but goodie (which makes me want to run away to an island somewhere),

and this brand new-to-me goodie.

4) i walked into the office this morning and found these.  i have since eaten half of the damn tub and had to physically remove them from the room before i eat the whole thing.  oh my word, delicious.  crunchy and salty are the two criteria for a food to qualify as my favorite.  have you had them before?

well, that's all i had on my mind.  off to do some real work (or eat okra snax, whatevs).

the lab at lakewood

i love ben's school.  he goes for half-a-day, everyday.  they offer a program called extended day where the kids can stay until two and depending on the day of the week, they focus on different themed enrichment activities.  for example, one day offers kindermusik, another offers an art class, science class, etc.  (of course, i shoved ben in the tuesday afternoon art class.)  

the school has a partnership with the lab at lakewood for their science extended day.  the lab offers camps, parties and programs that introduces the kids, and basically makes them fall in love with, science by having them make slime or play with bugs.  they learn without realizing it.  genius, really.

this spring break they offered a camp all about animals (right up ben's alley), so i signed him up to check it out.  

here's an example of my typical after-school conversation with ben:

me: ben, how was school today?

b: good.

me: what did you do?

b: i don't remember.

me: what was the best part of your day? 

b: playing ninja gorillas outside.

me: tell me the best part that happened inside the school.

b: daniel called me a genius.

me: what did ms. brooks teach you about today?

b: i'll tell you later, i'm too tired to talk anymore.

in summary, i get no where. (mind you, this has nothing to do with his teachers or what he is learning.  it has more to do with ben torturing his former-teacher/mother by providing little to no information about his education.  throw me a bone, kid!)

after spring break camp at the lab, i learned that he: dissected an owl pellet, found little mouse bones, made eagle tracks, put a snake around his neck (gross), observed millipedes and scorpians, learned about worms/compost, made stamps out of a dried fish, learned about bees and honey production,  painted and brought home a bat house.

all from ben!  i was so excited to pick him up everyday to hear about all of the awesome/gross things he got to do that day.  they also offered a cooking camp where the kids were able to tour a food truck and learned how to garden.  ummmm, can i go to that camp?

anyway, my point is: the lab at lakewood is awesome.  i wanted to stay and hang out all day and ben didn't want to leave.  if you have school-age(ish) children, consider checking it out.  here's a link to their summer camps.

you are welcome.

greatest hits

it has been a good week.  spring has sprung and all i want to do is work in the yard.  we are in the middle of improving the outside of our home; we've painted it dark green (gorgeous), planted grass, herbs, trees, flowers, you name it.  things are getting pretty, y'all.  i'll post pics of the home improvements at a later date, so for now, here's a peek at our week:

1) i ran around white rock lake (over 9 miles).  no pictures, but it should go down in the books, for sure.  i'm high-fiving my computer screen right now.

2) late nights at the dallas museum of art.  you know, dance parties at the nasher, dinner at the food trucks, etc.

2) the weather was insanely beautiful, so we spent saturday morning at the new location of white rock local market.  then on to the bishop arts district where we ate barbeque and more importantly, crosby ate macaroni and cheese at record speeds.

{check out all of the cheese products in this picture: nacho cheese doritos, mac-n-cheese, and a chunk of cheddar.  smh.}

3) we celebrated my hubby's 34th with margaritas, mexican food and cupcakes.  (we actually celebrated a little early by breaking in his new garage "beer-fridge" on saturday night.)

4) crosby helped me plant flowers.  and by help, i mean took a mud bath.

5) a happy hour to celebrate the birthday of one of my oldest and dearest friends, robin.  birthday season is officially upon us.

6) one of these bunnies is excited to help momma decorate.

looking forward to my sister's crawfish boil and celebrating more birthdays with some of my dad's fried chicken.  

how was your week?  what are you looking forward to?

love,

coco

on my radar

here are a few songs i'm sweating.  i hear them on the radio and type them in my phone for safe keeping.  maybe you'll like them too?

alt-j: breezeblocks

(i didn't post the official video because it's scary.  yikes!)

leagues: spotlight

(this song is dance-party-in-the-car worthy)

kopecky family band: heartbeat

(the radio is doing it's damndest to play this song to death.  but for now, i still love it.)

tame impala: feels like we only go backwards

(love, love, love this one)

pacific air: float

a little something pretty for your ears this fine tuesday.

hope you are having a great day.

greatest hits

our internet/phone/cable went out on thursday and i panicked.  i have no desire to be unplugged.  thank goodness, it was fixed on friday but i was still recovering from the shock of potentially not having internet all weekend that i forgot about greatest hits.  are you buying that excuse?

me neither.

here's a peek at our week:

1) this motley crew are old friends.  we were lucky enough to celebrate one whole year of nolan brown being in this world.  happy birthday, nolan!

 {we finally met susan and camilla's angel, harper.}

 {nolan took care of business.}

2) we took the kids to check out the chagall exhibit at the dma.  crosby was not impressed, so chris and i appreciated art in shifts that day.  however, our tasmanian devil was impressed with the center for creative connections.  if you live in dallas and have children, take them here.  it's free now!

 3) crosby and i spent a whole day with my niece, the swimsuit model.

 4) we are painting our house (green!).  some of the painters have been with the company for years and years.  they love my children and my children love them.

 5) ben doesn't hug often, but when he does, he hugs the hell out of you.  crosby was trying to escape this particular embrace.

looking forward to giving my honey 34 birthday spankings!  happy birthday, chris-bo.

how was your week?  what are you looking forward to?

love,

coco

take me back to tulsa

did you know that tulsa is awesome? i had no idea.  i seemed to have stereo-typed the entire state of oklahoma (shame on me), so when we arrived in this beautiful metropolitan city, i was surprised in the very best way.

chris and i took one of our now signature 24-hour trips out of town.  

we stayed in downtown tulsa where building after building is in the art-deco style (tulsa boomed in the twenties).  art schools, city parks, small bars, quaint restaurants, gallery after gallery after gallery.

it reminded me a little of ft.worth: a "big" city with a small town feel.

we stayed downtown, ate downtown, went out downtown.  for dinner we cozied up to the bar of the restaurant tavern, where we shared bacon-maple popcorn, the devilled egg trifecta (horseradish, wasabi and bacon), and roasted chicken.  we drank local brews (tulsa has breweries, of course they do!). 

 it was divine.

the year ben was born, i saw robert earl keen perform six times.  since the birth of our babes, we have had to be more selective about which shows we choose.  we see him annually at bass hall in ft.worth, which is so nice, but robert earl keen is meant to be seen in a dancehall.  

cain's ballroom is just that; a dancehall with history on the walls, plenty of room to twirl and stomp, and bartenders who sell you a six-pack at a time (on the rings, mind you) so you don't have to miss the show by standing in a bar line.

genius.

art, good food, beautiful architecture, and a historical honky-tonk.

how could i not fall in love with tulsa.

have you ever been?

what did you think?

greatest hits

so sorry i'm tardy for the party (that was for you, sarah).  i left town on my normal greatest hits day (more on that another time).  i'm getting bored talking about myself.  i wanna know about yooooooou.  leave me a comment and tell me how you're doing.  k?  thanks.

here's a sneaky peek at last week:

 1) i ran in a race last saturday.  a very, very cold 10k.  i warmed up (because i am a sweat machine), but my poor cheerleaders were frozen solid.

 i was a little nervous because i had felt like poop leading up to the race, but on the day of i woke up feeling great.

 we ran over the margaret hunt-hill bridge (gorgeous) and throughout the design district.  a great race overall.

2) my ladies met for dinner at the gin mill to hand-over all of their hard-earned cash money.

 who has two thumbs and is planning our mystery girl's trip this year?

this girl!

{one thing i dislike about age 33: all of a sudden my upper arms have the same girth as an offensive lineman's neck. what is that about?}

3) an after-school stop at the lake to see the ducks.

super-grover had the time of his life.

he sat on stumps, attacked innocent pigeons,

carried around heavy blocks of cement,

and harrassed geese.  i was just waiting for them to harrass him back.  he got lucky.  this time.

4) you may already know, we signed our big boy up for kindergarten.  i was a weepy fool, but managed to keep it together for the actual meeting.  it was a close call.

looking forward to: spring break.  not really, my schedule stays the same although my kids are out of school.  it makes scheduling a little trickier.

how was your week?  what are looking forward to?

love,

coco