Happy Father's Day, Poppi!

A little tribute to Poppi (Niki's Dad) from our kids. Starring Scott as Poppi (hence his full head of white hair).

The Butterfly Flutterbye

We went again this year to Grapevine's Butterfly Flutterby, a celebration of the monarch and little girl heaven. We had a blast again, and I think this year was an even better experience than last year, if that is possible.

Here is Addie with friends Isabel, Acacia, and James.

Addie and the giant scarecrow.

Cute pic of a happy girl.

The Parade

This year, instead of marching, Greg took Scott to the sidelines and played spectator. Much better for pictures, I must say.

Here is the front of the parade as it advances down the street.

Keep in mind, by "parade" I mean bagpipes in front, playing away, a scarecrow on stilts just behind, and then a mob of little girls in butterfly wings and just as many parents. Oh, and dogs too. There are plenty of dogs in the parade.

Here is Addie!

Greg's artistic shot. :)

And a shot from the back, to show how cute Main Street Grapevine is.

The Release

Sure the parade is fun, but the best part of the flutterbye for us is the butterfly release. Each child gets a monarch in a special envelope, and at the designated moment, hundreds of butterflies are released into the air.

Here is Ads with her butterfly, which she named "Flier."

Flier was a little sleepy, and didn't take off right away. We had to open the envelope really wide....

then he flapped his wings.....

began his departure...

(look at her face!)

and took off!

There he is, right above her antennae.

"They Landed on Me!!!"

Addie's favorite part of the whole day was that after the butterflies were released, a lot of them looked for somewhere to land and warm their wings up. They landed all over the place, but the best part for this little girl was that some landed on her butterfly costume! They even stayed there for a long time, even while she was walking around!

If you look below her outstretched hand, there is a monarch there.

Here is a close-up.

A few minutes later, two landed on the back of her wings. She loved it!

We had her stretch out her wings to get a better picture.

Male Participation

Though this was a pretty girly event, Greg and Scott managed to have a fun time as well. Here is Scotty waiting in his spot for the parade to come.

And Scott as a really cute butterfly.

There are a lot of reasons why I love my husband, and this is one of them.

State Fair of Texas

An important first for us was achieved last week. We went to the State Fair of Texas! This is the biggest fair in all of the US of course, because it's Texas after all. We did our best to take it all in.

Gotta say hello to Big Tex! And he is BIG!

Addie got to participate in the backyard circus, which was ridiculously cute. She was a butterfly ballerina. Here she is with the ring master.

We also got to watch a dog show, which the kids loved.

The Rides!

Nothing like a spin on the carousel!

And Addie liked it too!

She was nervous about the carousel, so we weren't sure her choice for bumper cars would go so well.

Ha! She was fine!

If you look close, you can see her stinking out her tongue in concentration trying to ram the cars around her. She loved it!

Animals!

A real hit- the bee hive, where Addie got to see the queen bee. She was REALLY excited about that!

In the petting zoo area, where the camel freaked out Scotty. Look at that nervous face!

An ostrich is a really big bird.

And in the cow barn, where the kids played for a long time with the farm toys. Sure it smelled like cow dung, but the parents got to sit and rest!

Play Time for Ads

Which did she enjoy more?

The play farm, where she got to collect eggs...

and drive a tractor?

Or the pottery wheel,

where she made her own vase?

The pottery for sure! She loved it! (and she made a beautiful vase)

Arts & Crafts

For me, a fair trip MUST include a visit to the arts and crafts exhbits. I love to see the quilts especially. This quilt won grand champion and was fantastic.

At the photography, we noticed this wonderful picture, then we noticed the name of the photographer. If you look close, you can see her last name is La Londe. The same as Addie's name sake. We thought that was wonderful.

And here is the Texas version of arts and crafts, a life size sculpture made out of butter. Yes, for real.

Addie and the butter cow. :)

Fair Food!

The Texas State Fair doesn't just do regular fair food, they do it big! The food vendors here have gone to such extremes in the last few years, that the yearly offerings usually make the news around the country, and the fair now gives out the Big Tex awards every year for the top ten newcomers, the best new taste and the most inventive. For us Spanglers, this was what we came to the fair to do!

Here we are, about to go into the food court. Bring it on!

Greg's first choice was the fried rib...

pretty good, but a little dry.

I figured "go big or go home," so I selected the koolaid pickle. Yes, you read that right, koolaid pickle. A big 'ol dill, soaked in koolaid, then sprinkled with koolaid powder.

Here we go- giving it a try.

It was pretty much what you'd expect.

Overpowering sour, overpowering sweet. Makes your hair stand up on end and your eyes bug out.

None of us could do more than three bites.