DIY Hammock

I love my kids' creativity.  Rachel wanted a hammock in her room so she tied one end of a sheet to her bed and the other to her door knob.  It's a perfect fit...well, unless she needs to close the door.  Although she may need to tweak her design a bit, I love her ingenuity and resourcefulness.

Breakfast in Bed

Nicholas is so thoughtful and sweet.  He enjoys doing little things to show us how much he loves us.  I particularly love it when he serves us breakfast in bed!  Orange juice in a thermos and hot scrambled eggs.  He even thought of the salt and pepper!

Tour of the MCL Grand Theater

Both kids are taking homeschool classes at the School for Dramatic Arts at the Actors Conservatory Theatre.  Rachel is taking Imagination Station II and Nicholas is in Introduction to Theatre.  Today all of the classes got together for a tour of the MCL Grand Theater in Lewisville.

We viewed some mixed media art work in the hallway.  Since Nicholas is always catching bugs in jars, I fell in love with this piece called Turned Tables.  So creative!

In the painting gallery, Rachel picked the Roadrunner as her favorite piece.

Nicholas liked this painting of a tree from the perspective of someone looking up from the ground.

We got to tour some of the different performance theaters and learn about lighting.  The kids loved the disco ball!

We learned how the tiles on a ceiling can affect the acoustics of the performance.

This theater is the Black Box.  It is completely scaled down with black walls and black floor.  Productions can use it in any way they like - the stage and audience where ever they want them to go.

Rachel fell in love with the dressing rooms!

....and being on stage.  What a ham!

All the kids had fun in the locker rooms.  Who knew lockers were so exciting.  They climbed in and out of them over and over.  We eventually realized that as homeschool kids, lockers were a new experience for them.  :)

Reunion Tower Geo Deck {Dallas}

While Stuart's mom was in town, we decided to show her around Dallas.  Well, not really.  We just took her to the Reunion Tower Geo Deck so she could get a 360 degree view of the city for herself!

The ball on the top of the tower is always a recognizable piece of the Dallas skyline.  It's cool to watch the various light shows displayed on the ball.

However, inside the ball is pretty cool too.  We had lunch at Cloud 9.  The food was just cold sandwiches (and rather disappointing sandwiches at that!) but the view was amazing even on this gray overcast day!

The outer ring of the floor rotates so you can sit and eat your meal while your view is constantly changing.  It takes about one hour to rotate one time around.  What a fun way to see Dallas!

Nicholas thought it was fun to test the limits of physics.  He put his feet on the part of the floor that rotates and his hands on the stationary part of the tower!  That didn't last long :)

After we ate, we headed upstairs to the Geo Deck.  Inside there are lots of interactive high definition cameras and computer screens.  There are some that play historical information such as the story of the assassination of John Kennedy which happened in downtown Dallas.  I enjoyed watching a screen that showed the different light displays that are seen on the ball during each major holiday.  I love how the light displays can be so customized.

The kids were excited about the screens that they could control like this one that Rachel played with.  She was able to control the colors and numbers of lights that shone from the tower ball by the number of fingers she used to touch the screen.

We found that we could control several cameras on top of the tower.  We were able to use one of them to find our van in the parking lot!

We went outside at the Geo Deck to get a better live view of the city from 470 feet above it.  The telescopic lenses were free to use and we all had fun taking a closer look at the city and people below.

The Geo Deck is located at the top of Reunion Tower in Dallas.  The address is 300 Reunion Blvd. East.  Admission is $16 adults, $14 seniors, and $8 for kids.  The Geo Deck is open 364 days a year, closed on Christmas Day.  Their hours are 11:00 - 9:00 Sunday - Thursday, 11:00 - 10:00 Friday, and 10:00 - 10:00 Saturday.  For more information, please visit the Reunion Tower Geo Deck website.

iFly {Indoor Skydiving}

We had to find something really special to do with Stuart's mom while she was visiting us....so we took her to iFLY to try indoor skydiving!

iFLY's amazing wind tunnel creates a cushion of air that lets you get the feeling of free fall without having to do something crazy like jump out of a perfectly good airplane!  I won't try to explain all the geeky science behind it but you can check out their website to see how the technology works.

Both of the kids wanted to add a "High Fly" experience to their flight so we paid just a little more for the experience and they got a special stamp on their hand to remind their instructor that they were extra crazy brave.  With the High Fly experience add-on, the instructor will fly with them up to the top of the wind tunnel and then float back down and they will do this several times together.

We went through a training class.  It was very straightforward and even Rachel who is only 6 years old got the most important lesson - the four hand signals that the instructor will give during the flight.  He will motion to straighten your legs, bend your legs, lift your chin, and relax.  Easy!  iFly states that even children as young as 3 can fly.

Everyone got geared up in their flight suits.  Aren't they a cute bunch!

Nicholas was excited and wanted to go first.  He was a little wobbly at first.  It is important to keep your body in the correct position and not kick your legs or flail your arms because it will make your body spin or fall when you may not want it to.  But with a little practice Nicholas soon got the feel for it and he did great!

Here's a video of Nicholas' first flight at iFly (remember you can't see the video if  you are just reading this through email.  You have to click over to the actual blog to see them!)
He did even better on his second flight.  He was flying pretty high!

And on the second flight is when the instructor takes them on the "High Fly" where they go WAY, WAY, WAY up in the shaft!  Oh my goodness!  It looked like so much fun but my mommy instinct was still cringing for my little guy.

Here's the video from his second flight!  Doesn't it look amazingly fun!!!

Rachel was next.  She had good form in the beginning and showed us a few smiles.  She's only 6 years old so she was really brave to even try this!

I think she may have gotten scared when she flew a little higher but she did great.  I'm so proud of her!

Here's Rachel flight video:

Stuart's mom was third in our group.  She is one adventurous lady!

Here is Janet's first flight video:

I am so proud of her!  She was excited about trying this from the moment we mentioned to her.  How many grandmothers want to experience the feeling of skydiving?  Not many that I know!  She is Super Grandmother in my book (and she even looks like it in this picture!)

She did great and had a smile on her face the whole time!  

Here's her second flight video.  Notice that as she enters, Dustin looks over at Stuart and asks him (through hand signals) if he should take her up on the High Fly!  He shook his head no...but oh how funny of him to ask!  That would have been quite a surprise!

iFLY is a once in a lifetime experience....it is a little pricey so you might only be able to afford to do it once in your lifetime!  But it would be a fun thing to add to your Bucket List.
iFLY is located at 8380 Hwy 121 in Frisco.  For more information, please call them at 214-618-iFLY or check out the iFLY website.  You can also follow them on Facebook at iFLY Dallas.