Ranger's Ballpark

The little man and I went on a wonderful tour of Ranger's Ballpark. It is a beautiful building. There was only one other person on the tour with us a lady from Rhode Island. The guy who showed us around first asked where we were from and said we must be Astros fans! He talked about the open design of the park and then took us up a big escalator which Maddox loved. Once we got up we had our first photo op. The guide told us it was Jerry's World. I thought that was so funny. 

I must say it is a huge, shiny beacon for the Cowboys. We then went into the press box. I thought that was nice. Reminded me of college at Southern Miss working the football games in the press box. A few more seats and nicer chairs. 

The guide told us all about the architecture of the stadium. How the outfield had parts patterned after Giant's stadium and Yankee stadium. It also had some of the original bleachers from Arlington field. After we left there we viewed a couple of the suites. GW Bush has his own suite. We checked out the suite for the City of Arlington. Very nice. All the other suites are named after Hall of Fame ball players. Joe Dimaggio is the suite next to GW Bush's. The guide showed us where Nolan Ryan sits for the games. After checking out the nice suite we went down to the press room. 

Maddox really liked the stage and all the chairs. I think if I would have let him he would have run up and down all the aisles. One of his favorite parts was up next. The indoor batting cage.

Since there was only the lady and us on the tour, the guide gave us each a ball out of the batting practice bag. 

The bleachers inside the batting practice room. 

He wanted to know when he could go hit a ball. After we left here we went down the tunnel under the stadium a little farther to the players locker room. As we were reminded several times on the tour the team is in Arizona at Spring Training. 

Maddox really wanted to go sit down at this point and take a rest on one of those comfy couches, but we pressed on to the dugout. 

He wanted to run out on that field so bad. That was the first thing he asked when the tour started. He wanted to know when he could go out on the grass. The guide told us that they had watered the field earlier and it was in no condition to run on. Maddox told him it didn't look wet. LOL

Maybe someday Mom I will be a ball player too!

View of center field from the home dugout. 

View of the press box and suites from the dugout. 

A little luck never hurts.

We enjoyed our tour of Ranger's Ballpark. We got the ball and a certificate. I also got the little guy a miniature bat for being well behaved and not running around like a mad man. This made me want to see about taking a tour of Minute Maid park just to compare. It would have been nice to take a tour of the new Cowboy's stadium as well, but there was an event there that night and we were worn out. 

Arlington, TX here we come!

Max had a convention this weekend in Arlington. Originally it was supposed to be in Dallas, but got moved at the last minute to Arlington. We were at the hotel right smack dab in the middle of Six Flags Texas, Ranger Stadium, Jerry's World (AKA Dallas Cowboy stadium), and the Hurricane Harbor Water park. It was a nice central location. Six Flags doesn't open till next weekend but that was alright with me.

When we got in Friday afternoon it was overcast, rainy and COLD. Daddy had meetings, so the little guy decided that room service was in order while we watched cartoons on the laptop and Olympics on the TV. 

He had nachos. I had a salad and we split a Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake....(awesome!) He ended up with a chocolate mustache. 

More meetings on Saturday for Daddy. The little guy and I headed out early with a general idea of things to do but nothing concrete.

We ended up getting some breakfast and then riding around the area to take in the sites in the big ole' Grand Marquis. We stopped at the Wal-Mart right across from the new Cowboy's Stadium. That thing is HUGE! 

We grabbed a few snacks for the day and headed out. We decided to walk down the block to Ranger Stadium to get a closer look. We stopped along the way to catch up with Auntie Shyra on the phone. 

Then the little guy decided he wanted to go check out the water. We followed an egret.

He climbed a tree.

Ran up a hill.

We watched the ducks. 

Then decided to make our way to the stadium. 

While we were there we grabbed a tour. It was us and 1 other lady on a tour of the stadium. It was pretty awesome. 

To Be Continued...

I have really done it this time!

I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I have created a MONSTER in the kitchen. All the little guy talks about when he gets home now is cooking. The only problem is he has decided that he doesn't want to help me cook anymore. He wants to make his own dish. He told me today that he wants to be an Iron Chef and a ninja when he grows up.

The Next Iron Chef

We like to watch the Challenges on Food TV. We watch the cake challenges, the throwdown's and the Iron Chef series. So tonight while I am making dinner Maddox tells me that he wants to add a special ingredient of his own to dinner. I didn't realize at first that this meant he wanted to cook his own special dish.

 I had left a quarter of an onion on the cutting board. Thankfully I had put the big knife I had been using away. Next thing I know he has cut it into chunks using a spoon and put it in my liquid measuring cup. He brings it over and puts in the small skillet I had just finished using to saute my onions. He pulls up his cooking chair and starts stirring. He tells me we need more special ingredients.

So he adds: some ground turkey that I had just cooked, some mashed sweet potatoes, some apple juice and apple sauce, a quarter of a banana, some honey, and pinch of salt & pepper. Right about that time I send him on an errand so I can do something with the HUGE onion slices and banana in the skillet. He thinks they are going to cook down. So I decide to throw it all in the blender and puree it for him. He comes back when he hears the blender and thinks that is a great idea. We return the blender contents to the skillet for further cooking. He then decides his master dish needs a little something more.... ketchup! Oh and of course more honey.

So he tries his lovely mix and declares it a winner. He then makes me try it. I will give him props, it was better than I thought it would be. A little sweet for my taste but it wasn't the worst thing I had eaten by far. He was so excited for Daddy to come home to judge our food to see who would be the winner. Lets just say that even though mine was a good meal Iron Chef Maddox got points for creativity and plating in the snowflake Christmas bowl. So as you might have guessed this evening Iron Chef Maddox reigned supreme. He came out the victor of the first Vige Kitchen Challenge. I have a feeling there may be a few more of these in our future. He really had fun.

Park & Pizza

This weekend was marked by pizza & the park. We made homemade pizza's. Maddox was a big help even though he was pining for his friend who ended up having a very rough weekend with a stomach virus and couldn't come visit. (Get well soon!)
My little man made himself a pepperoni, canadian bacon, hamburger, shrimp and black olive pizza with extra cheese. Maddox said it was the best pizza he had ever eaten.

He also helped make our pizza which was hummus, ranch, cucumbers, tomatoes, avocados, black olives, shrimp, basil, green onions and feta cheese. I can personally say that our pizza was wonderful.

We actually got a little nice weather this weekend and decided to go to the park. It was a nice day to play. Maddox played on the slides and swings a little and then we spent the rest of the time kicking around the soccer ball. It was nice to get outside for a bit.

Sleeping Beauty

I absolutely love this picture from a night last week when he was so tired he fell asleep on the couch next to his daddy.

A BIG Crush

So my little man has a crush on a girl. He has always been quite the ladies man and has always noticed pretty girls/women. I figured it wouldn't be long before he came home saying he had a girlfriend at school. Well he has a crush, but it isn't any little girl at school. It is a Food Network star. I bet your asking yourself... Paula Deen, Rachael Ray, or even Ina Garten. All lovely choices but the lucky lady of Maddox's heart is Giada De Laurentiis. He asks about her all the time. She has a new kitchen line of products at Target. He was so excited to see her picture while shopping the other day. He sits mesmerized by her cooking demos on the computer. So I may use this to my advantage.  Have him watch a demo and then help me make the meal. This might be the key to getting him to try things he might not normally go for. Then again he is a 4 year old boy so he might still think it is yucky no matter what it is.

Valentine's Day

So this year for Valentine's my little man was dead set on having this item at his Valentine's party at school...guess? Chocolate..No, Candy.. No, Girls.. No, Valentines Cards..No...Give up? He was dead set on having cornbread for his party at school. Don't ask where he got that idea. I have no clue. His teacher asked me when I got back in town if I was actually planning on making cornbread. I told him we would see. At the school you can't bring homemade items anymore everything has to be store bought so I wasn't sure if I would be able to bring any cornbread at all. I asked his teacher who sent me to the front to ask the lovely ladies in charge. Believe it or not they said sure as long as he didn't share with the other kids. I really didn't think that would be a problem since the day before most of the kids in the class told me they didn't eat cornbread it was yucky. I decided to make his cornbread a little festive and put a few drops of red food coloring in the mix which made it a very pretty shade of pink.

Haven't you all thought of bringing pink cornbread to your kids school for Valentine's day? The cornbread was sort of a hit, I mean next to all the cookies and decorated cupcakes and pure sugar I couldn't imagine it being the star of the show. He did eat a little cornbread so as not to break his mom's heart for going to all that trouble.

Wii

The little man got a Wii for Christmas. He has really enjoyed playing the games. His favorites so far are the boxing and the sword fighting. He wants to play all the time. The other weekend he had all of us playing so much I thought my arm would fall off. The funny part is that he always asks "Mom can we play the Wiid (pronounced weed)?" I smile every time he says it.

A Rocket & A Turtle

Before I went away to Florida to support STS-130/20A space shuttle launch I asked the little man what he would like for me to bring back for him. He told me very emphatically that he wanted a Rocket and a Turtle. Not exactly sure why he wanted each of these. So while I was there I was on the lookout for each of these items. I knew I could find the rocket very easily, but I wasn't as sure about the turtle. Well while I was away he would check on my progress daily on whether I had obtained his items. As the conversation grew about the rocket & turtle it grew into a rocket with a man & a turtle with a man. He also decided that in Florida one must attend the Circus (Also not sure where this information came from). So I brought him home a Rocket pencil holder, a turtle that swims in the water and a surfer that glides across the water. With all the grief he gave me about the Rocket & the Turtle his favorite is the Surfer. I must admit the surfer is pretty cool.