A Week With Miss Elena and Miss Malea in Dallas - Days 1&2

Let the week begin!  We are so excited to have these two beautiful little girls with us for a few days.  It certainly livens up this quiet house.  Once again we are amazed at the number of toys we have accumulated the past few years and it doesn't take long before the den is covered in bright colors and the girls are happily playing away.

Even the living room gets put into use as a place to do puzzles.  Elena has such a good time doing the Dr. Seuss alphabet puzzle.  She does a great job on it and is patient and methodical at moving the pieces in all directions before giving up on one.  Once she has it completed, she is quite please and we have to talk about all the items in the pictures.

What to do, what to do?  After some discussion, we are off to the Children's Aquarium at Fair Park.  As we are walking up, Elena finds a fountain and runs over to it to check it out.  I give a shout to her to pose and snap a quick picture.  Does she have my love of fountains?  I so hope she does.

As we are entering the Aquarium, a couple of school buses pull up.  Drat -- now we have to be smart in order for the little ones to get  a chance.  As we enter, we make a beeline for the back area and the Stingray tank knowing that the school groups will have to go through a talk with the guides first.  We are the only ones there and so get definite solo time.  Elena is very hesitant to touch -- can you tell?

She gives a quick look at me for approval.  I let her know that it is okay and Grandpa shows how easy it is.

Soon, her little hand is down in the water and tentatively touching the ray.  She is fascinated and giggles now and then.

As the school groups enter, she and Grandpa move around to a different area of the tank and within just a few moments, a few rays come over to her and she pets with no fear, smiling the whole time.

As the area fills with other children, we go to areas that are not as crowded and soon the fish tanks are holding even Malea's attention.

Mister keeps watching one tank in particular and finally I ask what he sees.  There are babies being guarded by adults and it is so very interesting.

Once I point it out to Elena, she sits mesmerized for at least 10 minutes, not wanting to move even a little.  It almost looks like she and the momma have bonded.  Look real close, you can see the babies in the picture as well.

Our next stop is the touch tank out front which is filled with hermit crabs, anemones, and sea urchins.  Elena is very, very hesitant with these, but soon allows Grandpa to pick up a hermit crab and touches it.  It walks away as soon as they put it back down and that makes her smiles.  No chance at touching the others though.

Malea has fun with the "octopus" while just around the corner, there is an actual one in a tank.  We get just a glimpse of it as it moves to another hiding space.  After a couple of hours there, the girls are ready to leave.  It only takes Elena a minute to take off running for the fountain and soon she is playing with a couple of other kids and laughing her head off.  She is soaked in no time.  Do we have towels?  Of course not.

Realizing that we still need to get her to the car, we take off before it starts to cool off.  Once we get to the car, we strip her down to her soaked undies and wrap a blanket around her to head home.  It was a great afternoon and we have tired, hungry girls.

After dinner, it is off to bed and not a sound out of them.


After twelve hours -- yep you read that right -- twelve hours of sleep, we are up and ready to go again. I told you they were tired.  It is time for breakfast, baths, and getting dressed for a trip to the park to play for awhile and then we have an event with Mister's family.  Busy day so let's get going.

While Mister is getting dressed, Malea is helping him to pick out a shirt to wear.  Which one do you think he should choose?  Once hair is finished, we are ready to go.  Now perhaps Gammy should get dressed.

The park that we are going to is the same one we took Elena to two years ago.  I think it will be fun to compare some of the pictures with the ones on here.  The minute we park the car, both girls are ready to play and so are we. It is time to run off some of the energy bottled in these small bodies.

Check out this face - are they having fun together or what?

And then the tables turned:

Back to the slides -- oh this is so much fun.

Grandpa has Malea while Elena and I are sliding and takes the opportunity for a small photo shoot --- WOW!

Too fun!  This picture is a great ending to that set.

Alas, it is soon time to go as we are driving up to Irving to meet up with Mister's family for a Mother's Day luncheon.  It is great to see everyone and meet others that I had not met yet.  The girls are great and very happy for their food.  Elena did think the pizza took a little too long to get there though.

After a great visit, we head back to the house and our two little charges are soon asleep making the ride back very quiet.  Once we are home, we take a little time to play in the front yard before calling it a day.  We are checking out the peach tree and the girls are happily playing alongside.

It has been a wonderful day -- once again though, everyone is beat and not a sound comes from bedrooms.  See ya tomorrow.