December 3 North Park Mall.

Well we did not see the trains but we saw Santa Claus. He told us a story and the kids sat on his lap for a photo. The mall was beautifully decorated and very festive. There was a children's choir, orchestra, ballerinas, and puppet shows. It was a splendid time.

Abby was so happy to meet Santa.

Santa telling us a story.

Happy Luke.

Diedra, Miranda and Johnny at Santa's story time.

December Events

It has become our traditions to plan on packing or buying a lunch at the event. We meet around 10 AM and head home around 12:30. We would love for you and your little ones to join us.

December 3rd- The Trains at NorthPark Mall.
All aboard! The Trains at NorthPark™, presented by Bank of Texas, is the most elaborate toy train exhibit in Texas. Celebrating its 11th year at NorthPark Center, the exhibit features more than 40 vintage locomotives chugging along 2,500 feet of track on a magical journey across America. See the trains wind through captivating scenes and national landmarks including the Washington Monument, the White House, Golden Gate Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Times Square and more.
Ticket prices are $6.00 for adults, $3.00 for children (2-12 years) Let Stephanie know by December 3rd if you want a $1 off your ticket price.

December 17th- Play Date at The Cobongs. If you need directions please let Jenn or Stephanie know.

November 19

We will be meeting at Meredith's house on Thursday November 19 at 10AM. If you need directions please contact me or Meredith.

November 5th

Please join us for a play date at The Galleria mall play area on Thursday November 5th at 10 AM. If you would like to stay for lunch plan to buy or bring food.

A Brisk Walk

Today Diedra and I along with my friend Lisa went for a brisk walk through The Village park. The ducks were all sleeping and the turtles were hiding in the lakes to stay warm. All the kids were bundled up in the strollers. After the walk we sipped a cup of hot coffee and enjoyed some cookies.

We will meet again in November! Please mark your calenders.
November 5th: Galleria Mall
November 19th: Meredith's home

October 22

We will gather at my house this week! There will be coffee and pumpkin-spice cookies for the moms and a snack for the kids. Bring your stroller and walking shoes, because we will go for a stroll around The Village lakes.

Please come at 10 AM. If you do not know where I live you can call me at 214-608-7163. I really hope you can make it!!

The Dallas Arboretum

At last we made it to this most beautiful park. It was filled with thousands of pumpkins! Every where you looked was another perfect picture moment. It truly felt like a fall day with the cool foggy weather.

Gracyn and Grady are happy to be here.

Diedra taking "just one more picture" of Johnny. We kept saying just one more!

Who would have thought that pumpkins are the new jungle gym?

Abigail belongs with the little pumkins.

Hand in hand. True friends.

The Dallas Arboretum

Johnny is holding the pumpkin in place.

Johnny, Diedra, and Miranda smile for a picture.

Luke, Meredith, Gracyn, Angela, and Grady are having fun in the house made of pumpkins.

Kristin is helping Johnny at the wheel barrow. While Miranda holds the baby pumpkin.

Abigail sits pretty in Stephanie's lap. She could fit inside this huge pumpkin.

The Dallas Arboretum Take Two

I hope the sun is shining and you can join us on Thursday October 15 at the Dallas Arboretum.

We will meet at the park on Thursday at 10.
Admissions fees:
$10 adult
$7 children (4-12)
Free 3 and under
$7 parking

Rainy, Humid, Wet, Cloudy Day

The weather kept us from the Arboretum, but it didn't stop us from having a good time. We meet up at the Galleria play area followed by lunch. Gracyn, Grady, and Miranda climbed the rocks and animals with out a problem. Johnny managed to make his way around and Abby took a nap. Fun times were had by all.

The Arboretum is postponed to next Thursday! Hopefully the sun will be shinning.

Arboretum This Week

I hope you can join us on Thursday October 8 at the Dallas Arboretum. Please indicate if you are coming! If you did not receive an evite please let me know!

We will meet at the park on Thursday at 10.
Admissions fees:
$10 adult
$7 children (4-12)
Free 3 and under
$7 parking

New Blogger

I am the new blogger and can answer any of your Highland Mommies questions. Please feel free to make a comment, e-mail me at sjgaylord@gmail.com or call me at 214-608-7163 if you have any questions, ideas, or concerns!

Stephanie Gaylord

October Events!

Please mark your calendars for the October events! All events will occur on Thursdays at 10 AM.
October 8 - Dallas Arboretum Autumn Festival
October 15 - Pumpkin Patch
October 22 - Stephanie Gaylord's home

October

First, no one was able to show up on Thursday for playgroup, and I was sorry to hear that. I think we'll try for a new way to let the hostess know when it's an in-home play date. Maybe if you're not able to make the playdate we can let the hostess know? How does that sound. That way she will know who and how many to plan for.

Second, we have no more play dates scheduled for this month.

Lastly, start planning for our next play date. We'll be at the Dallas Arboretum on October 8th. I'll get all the details out about a week beforehand.

Okay, I think that's it.

I hope ya'll are having a great week!

THIS WEEK

Hello!

Here's the info:

Place: The home of Meredith Seabourn

Date and Time: September 17th, 10:30am

What to Bring:

A sack lunch for you and your kiddos.

Sunny and dry: something to play with outside

Rainy: puzzles, inside toys (for the older kids)

and if you need Meredith's address send me an email I will get it to you right away! Have a great week!

Next Playgroup

Hello!

I hope that if you were able to make the museum today, that it was fun!

Any updates about it would be great!

So, our next Play date will be on September 17 at 10:00am. If someone would like to host this, that would be great! Let me know so I can get the info up soon!

September

Due to my really bad planning and crazy week, I totally forgot about play group this week....I'm very sorry.

So, here's what I thought would work. I'll be updating the TO KEEP YOU UP TO DATE link over on the right there, just glance it over and figure out what you think will work with your schedule, then just check back on the blog around those dates to get more info. And if anyone would like to host Playgroup on September 17th at your home, let me know.

Since we did miss this week, we'll just have a playgroup next week, on Thursday. The outing, instead of story time and picnic, because I think it'll be raining, we'll do what we didn't get to do in August and go to the Children's Museum.

INFO:

Date & Time: September 10, 2009 10:30 am

Location: Click HERE for directions and maps

Cost: Adults $8.75 exhibits only

Children (3-11yrs) $5.50 each for exhibits only

I will not be there, I will be on my way back from Oklahoma. I hope that you all have fun!

Wednesday, August 12th Movie Day

Alright, the next playgroup "off week" outing will be to the Studio Movie Grill located off of Royal and I75.

The movie we will be seeing is The Prince of Egypt, starting at 11:00am

Cost: Entrance=children $1.00 adult $2.00

If you choose to eat lunch there:

Food: kids meals are $5.99 (if you have more than one you can have them share!)

Adults I would say at least $8.00.

So, I'll plan on being out front about 10:40 to meet anyone that will be there, then I will go on in about 10:50.

I hope to see you there!

Today's Cancelled

The Children's Museum outing has been cancelled, but it will be rescheduled SOON!

Hope you all have a great day!

An Encouraging Note

Hey Ladies, I was scrolling through the blogs I read and found the title of this one caught me enough to read the post and it is so very encouraging. So, if you take the time to read it, I hope you enjoy it.

http://theologyforwomen.blogspot.com/

Our Guest Writer...

The other day I (Diedra) saw a For Better or For Worse comic strip depicting two ladies trying to sit at the table and have coffee and conversation. One lady had a toddler with her who needed one thing after another, and, as you can imagine, hardly a word was said between the two friends. In the end, the mother of the toddler gathered up her things, smiled and said, "We should do this again sometime." The other woman was just kind of staring at her with an exasperated look on her face. Sometimes I feel this way. It's not always easy to get together with other moms when children are at the stage of having so many needs, but it's important.

"Why am I doing this?!" You may ask, when you have to wake a sleeping baby, and it takes longer to get out the door than the time you actually spend at the play date (at least sometimes it seems that way).

I asked myself the same question and here is what I came up with: We need each other. We need to see other moms doing what we are doing--even if we don't get a lot of deep discussion time. We can learn things from each other. It's easy to start feeling isolated spending the majority of our time with one or more children. God created us to live in community, to sharpen each other, to love each other. Our society is so individualized that we begin to think nothing is wrong with doing our own thing all of the time. I struggle with this probably more than most, being somewhat of a homebody with a type A personality that keeps the kids on a pretty tight schedule, chaffing a bit when something throws it off. But I thank God for the lovely women of HBC and I commit to take advantage of this ministry- so that I can grow in community. Won't you please join me?

Thursday Playgroup

HELLO! Happy Monday!

Okay this week we're meeting at the home of Jenn Cobongs. If you need her info just shoot me an email and I will get that to you ASAP!

We'll be meeting at 10:30am, and you can bring a lunch with you for you and your kiddos!

Looking forward to seeing you then!

Have a blessed week!

Friday Fun

Okay, so here we are again, another Friday. I love Fridays. For our family it means the start of new weekend. Even with hubby in school, it's still nice to know that he's here, even if he's not here. :)

So this week I thought I would post a link to recipe for Homemade Ice Cream. I got the recipe off of Kaboose, which I think there is a link over there in the link list for this site. So here you go, I hope if you try it you enjoy it! Maybe one day around here soon we will! :)

HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

Have a great weekend!

Movie Time

Well, today we had a lot of fun, and missed those of you who were not able to make it. Definitely a place to go to let the kids play hard and then take a GREAT nap! :)

Well, next week we'll have an "off" week outing for those of you would like to go. I would have picked a more central place, but this has the best deal (thank you Angela for your research!!!).

We'll meet at Valley View Mall for a movie with our kids.

Day: Wednesday July 15th

Movie: Horton Hears a Who

Time: 10am, we could meet at 9:40 out front

Cost: $1 entry and $3 kids pack (includes popcorn, skittles, and drink)

Once again, if you would like to meet us there, just let me know so I know to look for you there!

Until the End of the Year

I've been thinking and planning things for us to do--enough to get us through the end of the year. This is truly exciting for me. I love to plan and research and then make it all happen. It's a blessing to me to serve you ladies and your children this way.

Today I was thinking that we might meet more than twice a month. If there is something happening that would be fun and we'd only have one chance to do it, or if there is something that would work better for the older children, then I will have those sorts of things planned as well as our normal every other week plan. This is simply dates, times, and places. I will update with more details the week of the event.

So here we go:

Here's a key for you: FREE=FREE :)

$=$1-5 per person

$$=$6-12 per person

$$$=$13-20 per person

OCTOBER

8th: Dallas Arboretum 10:00am and bring a picnic lunch=$$+parking

15th: a local pumpkin patch, there are TONS and a few good ones We can discuss this one the closer we get and see who all would be up for it. :)

22nd: in a home 10:00amTBD=Free

NOVEMBER

5th: Galleria Mall play area 10:00am = Free+ you can bring your lunch or buy it

19th: in a home 10:00am TBD=Free

DECEMBER

3rd: The Trains at NorthPark 10:00am=$

17th: in a home 10:00am TBD=FREE

That would be it for the year. I was trying to keep it light in November and December for the holidays. :) I know we're always very busy during that season, so I tried not to add too much for us.

Okay, that's it. I WOULD LOVE some input, so if you have any please send it my way!

Happy 4th of July and More

Hello Everyone!

I had previously posted about posting recipes and such on Friday, so I thought I'd start today.

Even though the 4th is tomorrow, if you need a last minute idea here you go. The quick and easy version (my version)

Flag Cake

1 box (any brand) white cake. Prepare as the direction say.

1 pint strawberries, halved

1/2-1 pint blueberries

1 container of Cool Whip

Bake the cake, let cool. I keep mine in the pan to keep it quick. Then just top with the cool whip, and lay the strawberries and blueberries in the flag decor. :) EASY!

It's yummy, and festive!

Okay for anther update...

Our next playgroup will be at the spray park in Dallas where we were supposed to meet last month. Here is the info, and I hope to see you all there!!!

Location: Lake Highlands North Park (on the corner of Church Rd and White Rock Trail)
Time: Thursday July 9 at 10:30 am-12:00/30 pm.
What to bring: This park has a playground and spray park, so bring your little ones ready to play in the water (if you want them to). And bring something for lunch and we can picnic while we're there. And bring a friend!

Have a safe and blessed Weekend!

This Friday

Hi out there!

I haven't been real great on updating this, we've been a little busy around here.

Well, there has been a change of plans from my last post. Instead of meeting on Thursday, we'll be meeting on Friday. Here is the info:

Date and Time: Friday June 26 from 10am-12pm

Location: The Home of Angela Gassiott

What to bring: Lunch for you and your kids, swimsuits and towels. There will be two kiddie pools set up for your kids to play in.

I won't be there this week, so I hope you all have fun!

Our Next Play Group

Hi out there!
This week was crazy with all the changes, due to weather, and I tried to keep everyone up to speed on the changes by email, I hope everyone was able to stay in the loop. On that note, I'm thinking for days like yesterday, I'm going to need phone numbers to make sure I can call last minute for last minute changes should we have any again. I'll send out an email in the next week or so asking for that information.

We'll try that same park next month for our outing day. Our next meeting will be on Thursday June 25. Location will be announced as soon as I have it confirmed, we will be meeting in a home.

After receiving feed back from you all it looks like Thursday's are the day that will work best for most, if not all of you. Remember you don't have to come every time we meet to part of the play group. This is for you, and come when you can.

Okay, I think that's it. I hope to make Friday's a day where I post something fun...creative ideas for you and your children, a recipe or something like that.

Until then..have a great day!

What this could be...

I was thinking, as I was putting this blog together, that we could make this an actual "community" blog. Like, I don't have to be the only writer on it. So, as I get to know each of you more, and about your life and things you're interested in, I might just ask you to do a post sometime. OR if you have something you would like to post, let me know and we'll get you on here. AND, it doesn't have to be anything deep or insightful, it could be as simple as a recipe or a craft idea, anything!

On that note, if you'll notice to the right, I've added several lists. We have one for resources on the web. These range from blogs to web sites that could come in useful for you the mommy. The others are book lists that I came up with. I have read most of these in their entirety, some just parts of them. All I recommend. If you have a book you would like to list, let me know and I'll get it on here.

Okay, I think that's it for tonight. For those of you able to come to the outing on Wednesday, see you then! The rest of you, take care and have a great rest of the week!

For HIS glory,
Francey

JUNE

HELLO!!!
Okay, I thought I'd go ahead and plan our first outing, to kick this off.
This will be the only playgroup I'll plan with out the input of you all in your schedules and stuff. I was originally thinking we could meet at a park on Tuesday, but I checked the weather out, and as of right now it's supposed to be raining. So, let's try for Wednesday.

Location: Lake Highlands North Park (on the corner of Church Rd and White Rock Trail)
Time: Wednesday, June 10 at 10:30 am-12:00/30 pm.
What to bring: This park has a playground and spray park, so bring your little one's ready to play in the water (if you want them to). And bring something for lunch and we can picnic while we're there. And bring a friend!

Okay, see you all this weekend!
Francey

Starting the Summer

Hi ladies!
So here is my first post for the playgroups. I'm still working on the layout and stuff, just bear with me.
I am looking forward to serving you this way, and please let me know if there is anything I can do for you!