The Little House on The Prairie Musical

When I was a kid I didn’t really go tot he theater that often, but it’s something I always thought was really cool. I try to take the daughter as often as possible.

You know, so she’ll be cultured and such.

We have season tickets to the Casa Manana Children’s theater, and have never missed a show. They always make me smile, and this year the production quality went way up, so I really enjoy the plays that much more.

But, it’s nothing compared to seeing a play at the Bass Performance Hall. We took the daughter to see the most fantastic play there: The Little House on the Prairie Musical.

We had a blast, the actors were amazing. Especially the girl who played Laura (Kara Lindsay). Seriously, that girl knocked it out of the park. Her voice was phenomenal, she got laughs from the audience in all the right places, and she made me want to homestead on the prairie. (Or, you know, watch a movie about homesteading the prairie.)

The best part of the evening? I got to give my first ever standing ovation. They totally deserved it too. It’s really cool watching an entire theater rise to their feet in honor of someone’s art.  

Although Little House on the Praire has moved on to other venues, Casa Manana has many more productions set for the 2010/2011 season. Check out their Broadway schedule here and their children’s theater schedule here.

So, have you ever been a part of an audience that gave a standing ovation? Have you ever been given one?

Cheap fun in Lewisville

I’m a country girl. I grew up in a farm town, and I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a community pool. Well, I saw them on television, but they looked kind of gross and dirty. So, when a friend mentioned taking her kids to the Lewisville Pool I was a little shocked.

She’s a good friend though, so I decided to trust her. I loaded up my kid, and we headed to the Old Town Lewisville Pool. This park is so cheap, and you bring your own food, so you can get out of there for next to nothing. It has a water slide for the bigger kids, and there’s almost never a line so they can slide down it all day. Your little ones can play in the beach entry pool or in the fountains.

My daughter brings her tea party set and just sits on the side all day serving tea to her friends. (Don’t bring toys you don’t want to get lost though–I had a small altercation with a woman over an ice cream cone scoop last year.)

They have season passes if you’re into the swimming thing, and they are good at both Lewisville Pools for the year. That’s nice because the other, more expensive pool across town has a lot more for kids to do as a special treat, but we usually avoid that one because of the insane crowds.

If you are like me and looking for some cheap fun this summer I suggest you check out the Lewisville Pools. Here’s all the important information you need to know!

Remember, each pool is closed one day a week, so that means the other one will be way more crowded that day, so I usually avoid Wednesdays and Thursdays all together.

SUN VALLEY AQUATIC CENTER
801 S. Valley Parkway
click for map
972-219-3743

HOURS

• Sunday 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
• Monday 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
• Tuesday 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
• Wednesday CLOSED
• Thursday 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
• Friday 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
• Saturday 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Lap swimming will be available on weekdays at
Sun Valley from 6:00 pm. to 7:00 p.m.

ADMISSION

• Sun Valley Admission Cost $5.00
• Resident Admission Cost* $4.00
• Twilight Admission Cost $3.00
• (Monday – Friday from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.)
• Under 3 Free

OLD TOWN AQUATIC PARK
535 W. College Street
972-219-3744

HOURS

• Sunday 2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
• Monday 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
• Tuesday 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
• Wednesday 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
• Thursday CLOSED
• Friday 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
• Saturday 1:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.

ADMISSION

• Old Town Admission Cost $3.00
• Resident Admission Cost* $2.00
• Twilight Admission Cost $2.00
• (Monday – Friday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.)
• Under 3 Free

SEASON PASS

• Individual Season Pass $65.00
• Individual Resident Season Pass* $50.00
• Resident Family Pass** $175.00

Season passes are good at either facility for the entire swim season.

*Proof of residency is required for discount.
**Up to 6 family members.

Jamie Harrington is an aspiring author that spends her days frantically writing about super heroes and band geeks. She’s married to a pretty cool guy, and has a beautiful three year old daughter that’s the topic of most of her blog posts at Totally the Bomb.com. You can also find her mindlessly chatting away all day on twitter.

I Just Lied to My Kid’s Teacher

Straight up flat out lied like a bandit.

Really, I totally lied to her. I walked in late with my daughter to preschool and the teacher says to me–Is the Discovery bag (Show and Tell bag with snacks) out in your car?

*Panic Face*

Dammit.

I forgot. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes with a really cool toy my daughter loves and some fruit snacks.

That’s what I should have said. Instead I said this:

“Oh, yeah–let me just run out there and get it.”

What? Seriously? Let me just run out and get it? What did I think? I had a secret stash of kid appropriate tasty treats and an educational toy that doesn’t make me look like the worst mom ever just sitting in the backseat of the Jeep…

So, here I am in my big pile of lies. I actually step outside, walk to my car, pretend to look around (the teacher’s in the classroom, mind you–she has no idea I’m pretending to look around in my car, but still I do it anyway) and then go back in the room and

Tell the Truth Lie Some More.

“I totally forgot it at home. Do I have time to run and get it?”

“Sure, snack’s at 10:30″

So I make a mad dash to my car, frantically call my husband and have him meet me at the curb with instructions to ‘find anything made by LeapFrog and make sure the batteries work.’ I haul ass to the grocery store, buy like four things of fruit snacks, (why four I have no idea–apparently I thought the act of giving an inappropriately large amount of fruit snacks to the teacher would help atone for my sin) and sneak to the back to shove the bag in my daughter’s cubby when she’s not looking.

On my way out the door the teacher mentions to my daughter that she can’t wait to see what brought in the Discovery Bag.

My daughter’s response?

“Me too, it was sitting next to me empty this morning on my way here.”

Well played teacher, well played.

Jamie Harrington is an aspiring author that spends her days frantically writing about super heroes and band geeks. She’s married to a pretty cool guy, and has a beautiful three year old daughter that’s the topic of most of her blog posts at Totally the Bomb.com. You can also find her mindlessly chatting away all day on twitter.

Off to the races

Recently I was invited by Chevrolet to the Texas Motor Speedway for the races.

I live about ten minutes from the Speedway, but I’ve never been inside. I think my favorite part was the midway. Who knew they had their own mini fair?!?

My favorite part about the races is that everyone was giving away hats. You see, I love hats, even if I look like a goofball in them.

We were supposed to get to drive the drivers around the track. How cool would that have been? Unfortunately, we got rained out, and the races were canceled.

But, Chevrolet still took care of us. They fed us, gave us cool stuff, and just made sure we had a good time.

So, even though we got rained out and didn’t get to see any actual races… Chevrolet took care of us, and we had a blast!

The Donated Room – Vinyl Wall Decals

I love vinyl wall decals because they mean less painting time for me. The thing is, the really work! They look great on a kids wall and when you pull them off they don’t leave any sticky residue or mess up the paint.

Check out these great ones we used in the donated room from Studio jk Vinyl.

The Donated Room – Bow Holder

I’ve seen cute bow holders before. But I’ve pretty much never seen anything as adorable as the bow holders from Add a Lil Charm (A local etsy store out of Southlake, by the way) is pretty much the cutest I’ve ever seen.

It looks so cute with bows on it!

Yeah, it’s really that cute.

Thanks for the donation Add A Lil Charm!

The Donated Room – Peace Sign Stool

No room is complete without a little peace, right? Well, this stool donated by Ali Katz Design pretty much ended up making the donated room of awesomeness about nine times more awesome.

Ali Katz Design has some of the cutest hand painted wood stuff I’ve ever seen, and it’s high quality, too. I love that she takes the time to seal her work and even add some funky fiber.

Look at these adorable hooks. I think I will have to get one in blue just to… you know… complete the room.

The Donated Room – The Mobile

What room is complete without a super cool mobile?

As it turns out… pictures aren’t really the best way to showcase a mobile.

I have to say that a mobile pretty much makes a room. You can get yours here from The Wonderland Studio. They have some really great mobiles in all sorts of crazy colors!

If you end up purchasing one, I’d love to hear how you like it!

The Donated Room- The Bedding!

This little girl’s room was done entirely in donations from ETSY, and the bedding was the inspiration for pretty much all of it. I was going to wait and reveal it at the very end of the feature, but I just couldn’t. So, without further a due, I give you:

This bedding was provided by this super awesome custom bedding store (and– get this they’re sort of local they have a shop in Canton for first Mondays!)

The cool thing about this place is that you get the WHOLE bedroomset. The Bedspread, the pillows and shams, the curtains, the lamp shade, and even a super cool memory board to coordinate!

Here’s one of my favorite memory boards:

I am in love with their stuff. It has just the right amount of girly mixed in with super sassy and fun. Really, for everything you get, and the amazing quality it is, it’s a great price without any of the hassle or guesswork that goes into actually coordinating a room yourself.

If you pick up some bedding from them, I’d love to hear about it!

(to catch up on Jamie’s Donated Room series click here!)

The Donated Room – Ceiling Fan Pulls

For those of you new to the series, you can start by reading about the donated room here.

We wanted the room to be perfect, we wanted every last detail to be taken care of, and that’s exactly what ceiling fan pulls do. I mean–sure you could have one of those boring ‘ol ceiling fan chains with nothing cool on the bottom of it, or you could have one of these:

This chain is SO sparkly in the room. One little girl asked if it was a REAL star. I told her that it was.

How great are those? They came from two really AWESOME Etsy stores. The first one came from Crystal Blue Designs. She has some of the coolest stuff for your house, jewelry and even cell phone charms. (I just love cell phone charms, they make me feel all dressed up.)

The second chain came from Dragon Lady Designs. I love the quality of this chain. I was worried it would be flimsy but it’s super sturdy and I know it can stand a million tiny hands pulling on it a million times a day.

Both of them together just make the CUTEST combination, don’t you think?

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