Ahhh…Summer time in Dallas

My kids got out of school on May 10.

*gasp*

We have already been on our week-long family summer vacation.

We have been to Six Flags twice.

We have been to the Roanoke Splash Pad three times.

We have been swimming twice at pools and have spent four full days at an area lake.

We have been to countless parks and areas of recreation.

We are less than a month into summer and I am exhausted!  Oh, and to make matters worse, I don’t seem to be wearing them out at all.

THANKFULLY we live in the Dallas area where we couldn’t possibly run out of summer time activities…even if we tried.

Which we will.

I am really excited for this summer with Burb Mom.  I love reading all the stories about what other moms in this area are doing with their kids.  We had quite a few last summer that we will re-run…and we are getting new stories every day.

There is NO reason to be bored around here…check out our daily articles or skim through our archives to find something that would fit YOUR family.

Oh, and if YOU have a story to tell, please let us know!

The other thing I want to mention is that ALL of our contributors live here in the Dallas area and most have blogs of their own.  Please stop by our contributor page when you have a few spare minutes and click over to these bloggers personal blogs.

Oh, and if you find me collapsed from exhaustion in one of Dallas’ many venues for family fun, please make sure I am still breathing…

Contest Gives Dallas Students Chance to Win $1000 Literacy Grant & Free Milk for a Year!

Borden Milk has teamed up with Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. (RIF) for a fun kids’ “Elsie the Cow’s Reading Adventures“ art contest.  The contest is to promote reading among Dallas children as well as 9 other cities throughout Texas and Louisiana.

Once artfully lucky Dallas winning child will be awarded:

• $1,000 literacy grant for their local school or a non-profit organization of their choice
• a year’s supply of fresh and delicious Borden Milk
• $50 book-retailer gift card
• Borden T-shirt
• Elsie the Cow stickers, Borden pencils & Borden growth chart
• and a certificate from RIF

Entrants can submit an original drawing inspired by the theme “Elsie the Cow’s Reading Adventures.” The art should convey the joy of reading and can include images of books, milk and Elsie the Cow. The contest begins on May 10 and ends on June 30 – winners will be announced in August. The contest is open to children ages 6-12 in the following cities in Texas: Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Laredo, McAllen, San Antonio, and Texarkana.

For more information about “Elsie the Cow’s Reading Adventures” Art Contest, including the entry form and official rules, please visit please visit www.bordenonline.com.

Good luck!

Opportunity for Kids to Contribute in North Texas – SLANT 45

The Super Bowl is coming to North Texas next year. It is something that we are all excited about. It is a novelty of epic proportions.

We are all looking forward to the game, the circus of events that surround it and the positive economic impact it will have on our community.  The Super Bowl planning committee has given us an additional reason to cheer…

SLANT 45

SLANT 45 stands for - Service Learning Adventures in North Texas – for Super Bowl 45.  It is a way for kids to get involved and take volunteerism to a whole new level.  In fact, it is the LARGEST service learning initiative ever undertaken.

Everything is BIGGER in Texas.

What is SLANT 45?

An adult coach gathers a group of kids to plan and implement a simple project to improve the community.  The group could be a family, a group of friends, a soccer team, a girl scout troop, a classroom…you get the idea.  They are trying to keep the numbers to less than 25 kids per adult coach.  The team submits the idea/project through the SLANT 45 website and utilizes the resources and information provided there.  No project is too small.  After the team completes the project, the kids submit a simple art project that reflects their experience.

The art project will become part of a traveling art show.  The SLANT 45 experience throughout North Texas will be captured by a documentary film crew.

And at the end there will be a super big party for all the kids that participate…so fun.

I went to one of the first training sessions last Friday at NISD to get more information.

You don’t have to attend a training session to participate.  Everything that they showed to us is available on the website.  Once a coach signs up, they will be sent a Coach’s Playbook and teammate playbooks for each child.  The coach’s playbook takes the adult step by step through leading the kids through the service learning process.

The kid’s playbook is written at a 3-5th grade level (any age child is encouraged to participate) and helps the child record each step of the project.  It is colorful and just looks like a lot of fun.

The whole process is very simple and will be advertised throughout North Texas on all sorts of media.  Here are some billboards you may see throughout the metroplex.

During the meeting I took notes and posted them to Twitter.

I am posting a copy of these notes because I am afraid that the room full of teachers were a little disturbed that I was on my phone the whole meeting and appeared to be texting.  You can find out more information about SLANT 45 on Twitter by searching for #SLANT45.

For the record, I was being productive!

I am really excited about this project.  Big Thought, the people behind the plan, are hoping for more than 20,000 kids in our area to get involved.  I am planning a project with my boys and will be pitching another idea to my homeschool group.

Burb Mom would LOVE to follow some of your SLANT 45 stories…how YOU get your kids involved in service learning through this really amazing project.

Check out the SLANT 45 website by clicking here.

Art Museums in DFW with Kids

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has some distinguished art museums.  They are often discounted as a place for children, but here are some reasons why you SHOULD be taking your kids with you.  These museums have gone out of their way to be family friendly and offer fun and education to “artists” of all ages.

Dallas Museum of Art

The Dallas Museum of Art has three different Family Audio Tours.  Arturo, the Museum’s Mascot leads the tour geared for 5-11 year old children.  The tours are available at the Visitor Services desk and are free.

DMA hosts Late Nights, (We)ekends at the Museum and Family Films.  For the younger children, The Dallas Museum of Art offers Arturo & Me.  3–5 year olds and a favorite grown-up will work together to look at works of art, read a related story in the galleries, and do an art-making activity in the museum studio.  For the even younger kids they offer Toddler Art.  2 and 3 year olds and a favorite grown-up will participate in art-related activities and play in Arturo’s Nest, the Museum’s kid-friendly space.

Meadows Museum at SMU

The Meadows Museum hosts Family Days which include gallery games, hands-on activities, and performances highlighting the temporary exhibitions at the Meadows Museum.  There is also a series of Drop-In Art experiences on select Saturdays from 11:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.  More information about both these Meadows Museum events can be found on their website.

Kimbell Art Museum

The Kimbell Art Museum has new family gallery guides focusing on masterpieces in the Kimbell’s permanent collection. Picture cards for each artwork provide fun facts and discussion questions that encourage children and adults to explore new ideas together. This free Kimbell family resource at the Information Desk to enrich your next Museum visit.

The Kimbell also hosts summer camps, school break camps and workshops for kids along with Family Festivals that include hands-on activities and film programs, along with storytelling and other performances.

Amon Carter Museum

The Amon Carter Museum has a series of guided tours for all levels of participants.  Advance reservations are required for a specialized tour.  The other thing that this museum provides is quite a few online learning resources.  These might come in handy for school projects or at home adventures.

Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art

The Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art offers Wonderful Wednesdays which is a free gallery program for families is designed as an informal introduction to the collection and special exhibitions.  It is offered once a month and consists of a focused tour and is accompanied by a gallery project designed by the Modern’s education staff.  Admission is free for participants of the program.

Due to popular demand, the Modern is starting a new series this spring for teens age 12 to 16 age of 12 about Andy Warhol.   Andy Warhol:The Last Decade,  is designed and led by the collaborative efforts of the Modern education staff. The program includes tours, group discussions, and gallery projects and concludes with a studio project.

The Modern will again host summer camps in 2010 for young artists – ages 5 through 13.  These camps emphasize learning through direct observation of art and thoughtful art activities inspired by the current exhibition. This introduces students to some of the complex and challenging concepts and practices behind modern and contemporary art.  Activities will include everything from art making in the traditional sense to interdisciplinary exploration.

More information on all these programs can be found on each museum’s website.

Have I missed anything fun? Please add it to the comments below and I will update the article.

Children’s Museum – Museum of Nature and Science – Dallas

I don’t venture out to the “big city” very often by myself. Frankly, I almost break out in hives whenever I’m faced with getting around downtown Dallas. I have zero sense of direction, so the thought of bringing my kids along for the adventure is not so appealing to me.

However, I read an article in Dallas Child about the Children’s Museum at the Museum of Nature and Science in Fair Park and I decided to suck it up, be a grownup, and just do it. I made it all the way into the Fair Park area before I had to call the place to get better directions to the actual museum – Mapquest kind of steered me in the wrong direction on that one. But we got there.

First word of advice, that place is Fuh-reee-zing. If you are wearing summer clothes you may want to bring a sweater along. Prices weren’t too bad, $8.75 for me, $5.50 for ages 3-11 (free for Presley, my 2 year old).

The first thing we encountered was this:

A small Dinosaur hall where you could go on a Dino dig for fossils. Rylan looked at me with (I think) tears in his eyes and said, “Mommy, THANK YOU for bringing me here!!!”

After that we took the elevator down to the Children’s Museum and started off in the Explore Your Backyard exhibit. They have snakes, tarantulas, etc, plus an ant tunnel for the kids to crawl through. It’s also where they have a play area for little ones 0-2.

Next we hit the Explore Your Town area where they have firefighter costumes and a fire truck play structure, along with fire truck books and puzzles.

There were lots of other little exhibits around that – a sand table where you drive construction trucks, a builder’s area where you put on a hardhat and tool belt, a Fine Arts station where you can put on costumes and play on a stage…So many things to do and see.

My kids loved the water area…

and the Little Urban Farm exhibit was also a big hit. I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but the kids got to “milk” a fake life-sized cow.

Way cool.

We spent about an hour and a half there but could have stretched that out quite a bit. But we were hungry and also had a nap schedule and long drive time to contend with. I brought our lunch and we went outside to the picnic tables next to this cute lagoon. (They have a cafe but I wanted to save $$).

The Children’s Museum was geared for the under 7 crowd. They also have the Science of Spying exhibit going on (for an additional fee) but it looked to be for older kids. The dinosaur IMAX show comes out in September and I’m wondering if it would appeal to my kids, ages 2 and 5, or if it’s more documentury-ish. Someone let me know if you see it.

Other than losing Presley once for about 2 panic filled minutes when she decided to go into a completely different area while I was helping Rylan get his fire costume off, the trip was a success! And I even found my way back home with no incident. Although driving through that bad side of town to get to the highway was a big disconcerting.

But we did it and I highly recommend it.

Slime

Nicholas just LOVES science experiments! He is always asking me if we can do an experiment of some kind. If I don’t have one for him, he will often do his own “experiment” which often just consists of measuring out and mixing up a weird combination of ingredients and seeing what it looks like.

So today, as part of Swine Break ’09, we did a science experiment and made our own slime. It was fun but while he was making it I also talked about the processes of saturation and chemical bonding to make it educational too! The slime stuck to itself well but didn’t make a mess by sticking to everything it came in contact with which I appreciated. I’ve included the recipe below in case you want to try it out too.

You will need:

Basic white school glue
Borax (found on laundry aisle)
Water
Mixing bowls
Spoon
Food coloring
Measuring cup
Measuring spoons

To make, mix equal parts of glue and water in a bowl. Set aside. Pour one cup of water in a bowl and add about one tablespoon of Borax and mix.

You want the Borax to completely dissolve in the water so that the water is saturated. Ours didn’t completely dissolve so we added a little bit more water until we got it just right. Once the solution is saturated, add two tablespoons of the glue and water mixture and stir quickly. The Borax binds the glue molecules to each other making the whole mixture a thick slime.

Add food coloring and knead into slime until color is thoroughly mixed throughout the slime.

You can make multiple batches of different colors and store them in Ziploc bags to keep them from drying out. Ours didn’t last that long. Nicholas wanting to take the slime outside and play with it.

He checked to see if it would stick to the side of his fort. Nope.

Then he took a stick and said that we were now playing Man vs. Wild again (he loves this game!). He said that the slime was a giant marshmallow that we found in the wild and that we could put it on the stick and cook it over a fire (aka his old turtle sandbox).

Once we were done playing with our slime, it had an entirely new texture to it. It now contained lots of little pieces of dirt, leaves, sticks, grass, etc. so we decided to chunk it in the trash. But what fun we had with it and it was so easy to make!

When Kim and Nicholas aren’t experimenting they are exploring the metroplex with Nicholas’ little sister and Kim is reporting it all in Savor the Days.

The Chipmunks: Squeakquel at Studio Movie Grill – Lewisville

Opening day of the new Chipmunk movie, Squeakquel found Shauna and I herding six kids into the theater for the 1:35 showing. Yes, I said 6 kids. Between us we have four boys and two girls between the ages of 4 and 9.

Yes, we are brave, brave mommies with the intense desire to get the kids out of the house for a few hours.

We decided that the easiest place to manage our crowd was at Studio Movie Grill where there is room for kids to move around…and there is food.

Real food.

The Lewisville location of Studio Movie Grill is closest to us, but we did not count on the holiday traffic around Vista Ridge Mall.

Oh, and we didn’t count on the fact that Shauna was about out of gas.

We had pre-purchased our tickets online, but still had to get in the purchase line.  We aren’t quite sure what the benefit of online ticket purchase is supposed to be since they are non-refundable.

We did make it before the movie started and we settled into our seats which always remind me of those office chairs you buy at Costco for your home office.

The theater is set up with bar type seating at the front of each level and table seating on the back.  It is all movable and easily adapts to groups.  If you invade a portion that has both the front and back area of a section, your kids won’t bother anyone when running back and forth between the table and bar seating.

The four boys settled in the front seating which opened up the tables for us girls.  We ordered lunch.  Lots of lunch…

Two cheese pizzas

Coconut fried chicken

Sweet potato fries

Popcorn

5 kid Root Beers

1 kid Dr Pepper

2 adult Dr Peppers

Overall, the food was yummy and we ended up with the right amount for the eight of us to share.

The Chipmunk Squeakquel movie was cute.  It was silly and very chipmunk-y.  The kids had a really good time and were very attentive.  I was surprised at Rhett, my four year old because despite really needing to pee mid-movie he didn’t want to leave and miss any important Chipmunk plot twist.

Studio Movie Grill was giving out Squeakquel movie posters on the day we went.

And that is how Shauna and I took six kids to the Chipmunk movie and lived to tell about it.

Dallas Arboretum – Storybook Playhouses

I love the Dallas Arboretum.

My kids love the Dallas Arboretum.

Through December 31 the Dallas Arboretum is featuring a collection of Storybook Playhouses.  They are nestled along flower bordered trails, under leafy shade trees and in breath-takingly beautiful surroundings.

My boys took the trail map we were given at the entrance SERIOUSLY.  We explored all 15 of the amazing houses.  Here is what we saw:

Each playhouse is inspired by a children’s book.  At each stop there is a large book display that tells the story behind the house.  Many of the houses were from stories that we had read, but there were a few surprises – books that I didn’t knnow!

Starting at the top, left to right:

1. Temerok
2. The Little Prince
3. The Owl and the Pussycat
4. City Green
5. Eragon
6. Treasure Island
7. One fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish
8. Alice in Wonderland
9. James and the Giant Peach
10. Peter Pan
11. Thumbelina
12. Hope for the Flowers
13. The Lorax
14. The Bamboo Cutter’s Daughter – was closed this day so we didn’t see it so here is a pretty sunflower.
15. Hansel and Gretel
16. Another house that I have pictures of but can’t identify.

There was a clear favorite among my boys.  It was the City Green House:

They ran for a 1/2 hour through the two houses, the connecting garden and through the swinging gate.

Pure kid bliss.

There is no doubt that we will be back to visit this again.  We didn’t even make it to our favorite area, The Texas Village because we were having so much fun on the other side of the Arboretum.

Bureau of Engraving and Printing – Fort Worth

We recently visited the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth, Texas. It is on the North side of the city so it didn’t take long at all to get there from my Flower Mound home. I had my 5 and 3 year old sons along to meet a group of other moms with kids in that same age group. None of us had been there before so we weren’t sure what to expect other than….MONEY!

We went to the public entrance of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and parked in the parking lot. There is a building in the parking lot where we went through security and then boarded the shuttle bus for the 3 minute ride to the main building. There is an extensive list of what items can NOT be brought onto the Bureau’s grounds that you might want to review before visiting. The hardest one for me was a camera. That is why this is the last picture in this article:

There is a large exhibit hall inside the main building with all sorts of fun money facts. There are also cards that you can pick up near the front desk that has activities and questions for different age groups. Our kids seemed pretty interested in the exhibits so we didn’t even start on the activities.

After about 20 minutes our group was called for our tour. We went upstairs and joined a tour guide that took us through the money making process.

The tour is conducted from glassed hallways above the large warehouse plant. It goes at a nice pace and lasts about 45 minutes.

There is a lot to see. My favorite was seeing the forklifts lifting huge pallets of money sheets. The kids seemed to like the money bundles near the end and the description of the shredding of improperly printed bills.

After the tour there is a 15 minute movie you can watch.  We collectively had 12 kids under 6 with us so we opted out of that.  The gift shop is nice and has some fun money-related items.

There are only two places that print money in the country and one of them is just a few miles away. Pretty cool.

Oh, and because I just can’t resist one more picture here is one I took at home:

Next time you pull a dollar out of your purse, take a peek to see if it was printed locally. All bills printed here in Fort Worth are marked with a small “FW”.

Central Park – Lewisville

I think Central Park in Lewisville is one of the prettiest places in North Texas. The trees are large and cover the majority of the park. Even a majority of the two massive play structures remain in the shade during the summer.

There are wide open spaces at Central Park and paved trails to explore. The park provides multiple gazebos and covered picnic areas. There is even a large restroom facility.

A winding road with parking weaves through the park. This allows for parking near the play areas without a problem on most weekdays – in the shade.

Picnic tables are everywhere in Central Park that seem to get good use. We weren’t the only ones picnicking this week on a school-day around noon…

What a happy place.

Central Park is located off Edmonds Lane just North of Corporate Drive.