Geocaching

Stuart and Nicholas set out on a new adventure today – Geocaching! It’s kind of like Letterboxing which we’ve done for a while except instead of having only clues to help you find the hidden treasures, you use a GPS system to locate the coordinates. You can go online at www.geocaching.com to find coordinates for geocaches hidden in your area. You can find ones that required a bit of a hike or ones that are more easily accessible. Then you go out with your GPS and try to find them. And they aren’t always easy to find, even with a GPS unit. They are usually very small containers that may be camoflauged and are well hidden in a tree or under a log so that other people just passing by are not likely to disturb them. Once you find the geocache, there is a log inside that you write your name and date that you found it. Sometimes there is a little trinket inside. You can take the trinket if you replace it with an equally interesting trinket. When you get back home, you go online and record your findings so that the owner and others can keep up with whether or not the geocache is still there and the condition it is in.

Lots of people in our area have placed geocaches. The Town of Flower Mound even has a geocaching program called GPS Adventure in which they have placed 15 geocaches throughout the town to get people out to visit local parks that they may not go to otherwise. They even have GPS units that they will let you check out for 3 days at a time and they offer a class to help you get started on your hunt.

Stuart and Nicholas learned all about geocaching online and picked out 5 caches to search for. The coordinates took them to local parks and businesses.

They struggled a bit in the beginning, partly because we are still figuring out how to use our GPS. But on one of their hunts, someone approached them asking if they were out geocaching. The man also liked geocaching and he knew that they were near a cache – plus the GPS in hand and constant looking around probably helped to give them away. He showed Stuart a different screen to use on the GPS to make it a little easier to use. They talked some and traded hunting stories.

Then finally – Success! Nicholas was excited to open this geocache and find a foreign coin. He didn’t have another trinket to replace it so he left it there for someone else to find.

Once Rachel was up from her nap, the boys came back to pick us up. We headed over to a park for a picnic dinner. They had already searched this park earlier for a cache that they could not find. But now armed with a better understanding of how to use the GPS, they decided to try to look for it once more. They found it!

“Give me Five!”

This is it. A little yellow container hidden deep in a bush. Very hard to see if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

We decided to go to Rita’s to celebrate with some Italian ice. Yum!

We talked more about geocaching while we enjoyed our frozen treats. Nicholas said that he liked geocaching because he loves being outside and he had fun spending time exploring with Daddy. He said that it can get frustrating though when you can’t find the geocache. But since most of them are placed at a park, he didn’t mind so much as long as he got to play on the playground while he was there.

FREE Event at Flower Mound Boomerangs

Burb Mom is so excited to be co-hosting a great FREE event for moms…did I mention FREE?…at Boomerangs in Flower Mound Wednesday, July 29, 2009 11:00 am to 2:00.

Bring your kids for a day of bouncing, playing, laughing, & fun at Boomerang’s Party & Play – 2301 Cross Timbers Rd Lewisville, TX 75028.

Burb Mom editors will be there ‘cuz it is FREE.

Other amazing activities will be set up for both parents and kids to enjoy.

Boomerangs will be selling Papa John’s Pizza and refreshments from their concession area.

Admission is free, but is limited to 250 children.

Sign-up today to reserve your family’s space!  As with All Playin’ Around Town family events, you need to be a member.

But that is easy…and FREE.

Northwest Regional Airport – Blue Hangar Cafe

When searching for things to do with my kids, I often overlook the simple.  I get caught up in events and attractions that are marketed as family fun which frequently include crowds, high admission and over commercialization.  Sometimes in the middle of all that tailor-made fun, the fun gets lost in the shuffle.

This week we went off the beaten track and found some good old fashioned FUN.  Fun unfettered by crowds, admission or commercialization.

We went to our local regional airport and met some friends for lunch – The Blue Hangar Cafe at Northwest Regional Airport.

As this outing was loosely planned (by Deb), we all kept mentioning to friends where we were going.  Each friend responded, “Oh, I want to go!” And when we finally counted, lunch with friends was a table for 30.

A table for 30?

We better call ahead!

The call was placed and picked up by the owner of Northwest Regional Airport.  He encouraged us to come on over and enjoy the day.  He surprised us by relating that Northwest Regional Airport is the largest privately owned airport in North America.  There are over 500 planes on the ground.  He mentioned that if he was available while we were there he would show us around.

When my minivan full of children arrived at the airport, I was taken aback by the fact that an airplane was driving on the road toward me!  Once inside the airport, the cars and the planes share the roads surrounding the runway.  The cars are expected to yield – which I did.  We found the Blue Hangar Cafe and sat down on the patio to wait for our friends.  The Blue Hangar was buzzing with lunch activity and just outside the runway was buzzing with airplanes taking off and landing.  We saw 7 in the first 5 minutes we were there.  My boys were thrilled.

While waiting for our friends to arrived we noticed this really cool plane pull out of a nearby hangar.  We walked over to see if we could get our picture in front of the plane.

The pilot/owner was so friendly and helpful and suggested that he could show the kids some of the different parts of his 1941 plane – if they wanted to see…

Did they want to see?

They were so excited to be up close.

No touching! Fingerprints will show on this shiny plane.

The kids listened attentively while they were shown how the wings worked.  This particular plane has places on the wings where you can look through to the ground near the front.  I am sure if I had listened better I would know what that was called, but it was something I had never seen before.

After the plane anatomy lesson and a tour through his hangar which included some really cool old cars in various stages of restoration, the pilot suggested a place where we could safely stand to watch him take off.

The plane passed by the children and took a corner to the end of the runway…

…then up, up and away.  It was easy to see the sun reflect off the plane even when it was in the air.  The pilot even flew the plane back by the airport so the kids could wave again.

We then descended on The Blue Hangar Cafe and took up their entire back room with tables full of moms and kids.  I had a chipotle chicken wrap and the boys all had burgers.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cafe had a children’s menu.  Food for myself and my three boys was under $20.  Mid-meal the table of older boys I was supervising decided they couldn’t handle eating INSIDE when planes were taking off like crazy OUTSIDE.  So, despite 100 degree temps they picked up their plates and went out to the patio.  Being a responsible adult…ugh…I went to.

BUT it IS amazing.  You sit right next to the gas pumps that are alongside the runway.

Planes come in, fill up with gas, park for awhile, load, unload, taxi, take off and land all within a few feet.

After lunch we caught up with the Northwest Regional Airport owner.  He took us down to a hangar where he was restoring this amphibious aircraft that easily seats over 30 people:

Inside we could see the work in progress and how the interior of the plane is under construction.  Outside we could see the tail sticking out of the hangar.  A perfect place to find some shade.

We then went down to what all the kids agreed was the coolest thing we saw all day…this Marine Helicopter.

They were able to get inside and sit and “fly”…

Overall it was one of the most amazing adventures we have had.  Everyone we met at Northwest Regional Airport was friendly, nice and went out of their way to make our visit special.

We also visited the Pilot’s Shop which has some flying collectibles and toys.  There were allowance-friendly toys starting at 50 cents.

The Blue Hangar Cafe is open Monday through Friday from 10:30 to 2:00 for lunch.  They open on Saturday at 7:00 for breakfast and boasted that they have the best pancakes in town.

Not wanting to let perfectly good pancakes sit uneaten, I returned on Saturday with my husband and boys to test them out.

The verdict?

Pretty amazing pancakes.

Pretty amazing view since the airport is even busier on Saturday morning.

Oh, and we ran into 3 other families from our initial adventure trip…I guess we weren’t the only one who think Northwest Regional Airport is a cool place to visit.

Northwest Regional Airport is located 1/2 mile east of I-35W on 1171 just North of Texas Motor Speedway.  The Blue Hangar Cafe can be reached by phone (817) 490-5146.

Gaston Park – Flower Mound

Gaston Park in Flower Mound is a quiet little park that has a lot of features.

There are two things that I love about Gaston Park.

1. A shady bench in the afternoon.
2. Super close, convenient parking.

The parking is so close to the play area that it was a place on a breezy afternoon I could park the minivan with a sleeping baby, open both minivan doors for air circulation and sit in the van while watching the older boys at the park.  Not very many parks can boast such a feature – there is even shade on some of the parking lot in the afternoon.

Thankfully we are now beyond the baby sleeping stage at my house, but we still go back to Gaston Park.

The boys love it because they believe that this the best slide in the DFW metroplex:

The slide is tall.

The slide is long.

The slide is awesome.

Gaston Park also has a large field area for running around, a baseball field, a basketball court, trails along a little stream, swing set and several benches.

Gaston Park is located at 2651 College Parkway in Flower Mound, Texas.

Have you slid down that slide?

Lewisville Library Summer Special Events

Our local libary hosts a summer reading challenge, & Reese completed reading the required 24 books (listening to Mommy read) and he was ready to turn in his paper for a prize.

Since we were going to be at the library anyway, I figured we’d catch the Friday Preschool summer special performance. This week, it was a group called “Boitumelo”. I thought it was going to be a storyteller, which is nice, but I wouldn’t have made a special trip just to hear a storyteller that particular day.

Boy, was I wrong!

Boitumelo is a performance group that specializes in Caribbean music!
Reese was totally in his element…the performers were so animated & all the songs they sang were ones that I recognized. I didn’t realize that so many popular songs actually came from African songs or rhythms. Like this….who knew?

At one point, they called for volunteers & Reese was right up front with his hand raised. I was so thrilled when he was chosen, because he was able to play the drums & it made his day like you wouldn’t believe!

And every good performer must take a bow at the end of their performance:

The very last song Boitumelo performed was the Limbo! Apparently, Reese has seen this done somewhere (SpongeBob perhaps?) and he was so funny trying to bed backwards to go under the limbo stick.
**Reese is wearing a black t-shirt**

I felt so glad we decided to attend the Preschool special that day. And I feel extra lucky to have a library where things like this are free!

Wild About Flower Mound Festival

UPDATE:  Due to inclement weather all FRIDAY NIGHT ACTIVITIES AT THE WILD ABOUT FLOWER MOUND FESTIVAL ARE CANCELED.  The festival will start on Saturday at 10 am.  Please check out the Wild About Flower Mound website for more information.

The Town of Flower Mound is presenting the Wild About Flower Mound festival to celebrate the fun and festive family atmosphere of the Town of Flower Mound. The festival will include non-stop family entertainment on two stages, great food, arts & crafts vendors, a large children’s area and other events and activities for the entire family.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a festival without live music! Dallas Mavericks house band, Emerald City will be featured on Friday night and local disco favorites, Le Freak, will headline the festival on Saturday night. Be sure to grab your friends, your family, your dancin’ shoes, and boogie down at the Wild About Flower Mound Festival!

Visit http://www.flower-mound.com/wild/ for more details!

Start Planning Summer Fun on Saturday at the Flower Mound Library

UPDATE: Watch burbmom.net over the next few days for a comprehensive list of local businesses that participated in this event to help YOU plan YOUR FAMILY’S SUMMER ACTIVITIES…I am still working on inputting tons of great summer time activities! My fingers hurt, but I do it because I love you.

The Flower Mound Public Library is hosting a Summer Fun Showcase on Saturday, March 28 from 11-2:

Don’t miss this opportunity to plan your family’s
summer fun! The Flower Mound Library, Community
Activity Center, and over twenty area businesses
and organizations that offer summer camps,
programs or activities will be on hand to take
registrations and distribute information.

Visit the Flower Mound Library website for more information.