Date Night With the Girls

When I was making preparations to go to UG this past summer, I knew I'd be gone on Father's Day so I wanted to plan a little surprise for Steve and the girls to do for a special date. Living Social just happened to be offering a Pedicab Tour in Downtown Tulsa so I bought it thinking Steve & the girls could do it while I was gone. However, when I called to make reservations, they were booked for several months out. Well, time passed and I realized the expiration was coming up so I quickly called and again they were booked until January. I went ahead and scheduled it but was not looking forward to the tour because I knew it would be cold and miserable outside. Well, the tour was scheduled for last night and the weather could not have been more perfect for January. It was in the upper 50's and they gave us blankets to keep warm so it was really quite comfortable. Steve suggested I take the girls because we needed some girl time together and we had so much fun!

Beautiful sunset!

Touring downtown Tulsa

So our rider took us on a tour of downtown...

First stop - Spaghetti Warehouse...

Second stop - the "Center of the Universe"...

Third and last stop - Mod's Coffee and Crepes...

Gelato!

Chocolate covered strawberry crepes

Mod's is next to this building. I love the art deco ceiling!

Boston Avenue Methodist Church looks so pretty lit up at night...

This was my second Pedicab tour - Steve and I took one 2 summers ago celebrating our 19th anniversary. I highly recommend them. They are a fun way to see downtown & you get to try out new restaurants you might not normally choose to visit.

Grown Up Field Trip to Pinot's Palette

I recently went to Pinot's Palette with some friends from the Art Community for Christ for a fun night of painting. We mostly wanted to learn how they do their paint nights because we would like to offer something similar at The Studio: Art on Main. In fact, our first paint night is scheduled for December 1st - should be great fun!

Here's the description for the painting we did...

"You can’t deny there is something mystical about dragonflies. To the Japanese, it symbolizes summer and autumn and is admired and respected all over. The Chinese culture associated the dragonfly with prosperity, harmony and views the image as a good luck charm. Amongst Native Americans, it is a sign of happiness, speed and purity. At Pinot’s Palette we think the dragonfly is a whimsical and enchanting muse, perfect for a relaxing night out!"

And here's pics from our fun night...

Open Camp Night at the Urban Campout

Urban Campout

Tulsa, OK

Abby & Mackenzie with their friend, Emily

Let the campout begin!

Pizza!!!

Scavenger Hunt/BINGO

Scavenger Hunt/BINGO

Beach ball volleyball

Warming by the "fire"

Musical chairs

Time for hide-n-seek in the dark!

Movie time!

 

Awesome big screen!

The girls had SOOOO much fun & can't wait to go back again soon!

Field Trip to Tulsa City Hall

Photo by Abby, age 9

Our homeschool co-op had a great field trip meeting Tulsa's Mayor, Dewey Bartlett, yesterday at the Tulsa City Hall. He has such a busy schedule but was gracious and made time to talk with our kids...

At one point Mayor Bartlett said, "If any of you have any problems with Tulsa, call me and we'll talk about them." Then one of the little boys in our group said, "But I don't know your phone number!" So Mayor Bartlett gave him and the rest of the kids his business card and said to call him anytime ;-)

Mayor Bartlett also encouraged the kids to dream big and asked them to write him a letter with their dream for Tulsa. My girls did theirs today as part of their school work.

Dear Mayor Bartlett,

Thanks you so much for letting my Co-Op group come to visit you! We all really enjoyed it. I appreciate that you are concerned about my dream so here it is! Some of my friends and I work together and make crafts and sell them for the good of orphans in Uganda (Africa). Perhaps you have heard of Project Hope Worldwide? This non-profit organization built an orphanage here because the plight of orphans in the area are grim. My dream is that this ministry, which is called Girly Me Missions, would be very successful and raise a lot of awareness. If you could possibly do anything it would be GREATLY appreciated!

Sincerely,
Mackenzie
Age 12

Dear Mr. Mayor,

I came to your building with Heritage Homeschool Co-Op yesterday. This is my dream for Tulsa: I think there should be more homeless shelters for the homeless people and they will give food away and blankets and stuff.


FAITH
HOPE
LOVE

From, Abby
Age 9

And here's a few pics we took after our field trip driving around downtown. We love to look at the interesting architecture of the buildings and people watch ;-)

Photo by Abby, age 9

Field Trip on the Tulsa Transit Bus

Our homeschool co-op took a fun and unique field trip today. The kids received coupons to ride the city bus in Tulsa for the Summer Reading Program so we took the bus...

to Woodward Park! We learned about the Tulsa Transit bus system, ate a picnic lunch, fed the squirrels and toured the Linnaeus Gardens.

It was fun riding the bus with friends and something I don't know that I would have ventured out to do on our own ;-)

Life is Full of Surprises

Steve and I celebrated our 19th anniversary today! 19 years?! Where does the time go?! I can still remember the first time we met. We were going to school at OSU and we were at a dance club on one of my first weekends in Stillwater. He asked me to dance and I told him, "No thanks." Four years later, we were married and the rest is history ;-)

We already celebrated early last month when Steve surprised me with tickets to see my favorite band ever, U2. It was a quick, but fun, getaway to Denver and back in one weekend.

But we had to do something to celebrate on our actual day - well, the day before anyway. (The girls had a Swim Meet tonight so we went out last night instead.) This time I surprised Steve with something I wasn't so sure he'd actually like. In fact, I was a little afraid he would think it was silly and super cheezy. I bought a Groupon from Golzern Pedicabs - you know, the little cabs that are pulled by someone on a bike? I have to say, it was so much fun and yes, Steve actually liked it!

We met at 8th & Boston in downtown Tulsa. We were given a list of about 15 restaurants in the area and could pick up to six that we would like to stop and visit (the cost of the food was also included in our Groupon!). Our tour guide, Beth, then drove us to our first stop, Joe Mommas Pizza, where we ate yummy pizza bread and marinara sauce...

Next stop, a restaurant called Trula, which was located at the Mayo Hotel. We had some really good sliders with sweet potato fries. While there, we ran into an old friend of mine from college who knew Steve and I when we first started dating! Small world! ;-)

After stopping twice for food, we were already getting full and we knew right away we wouldn't be able to eat at 6 restaurants in one night! So we decided to make our last stop El Guapos. They have outdoor seating on their roof so we just hung out, watched the sun go down, and snacked on chips, salsa & sopapillas...

When it was time for our evening to come to an end, Beth took us on a scenic route of the downtown area. She was very knowledgable about the history and architecture of the buildings and shared all kinds of neat info with us. She also gave us "the scoop" of what new things were coming to the area such as an art gallery, upscale apartments and a park that will host outdoor concerts...

Since we only used 3 of our 6 restaurant choices, Beth gave us gift cards for the last 3 restaurants we wanted to visit, and now we can just stop by whenever we have a chance! So now we look forward to trying out Elote', Mod's Coffe and Crepes, and Yokozuna soon. Beth also informed us that they'll be offering another Groupon in August but this one will also include a hotel stay :-)  I highly recommend Golzern Pedicabs! We had such a fun and romantic night and it was a neat and unique way to see downtown!

So that was yesterday. Today our girls surprised us! They decorated our house with streamers - something they like to do for most any occasion ;-)

Then, after the girl's Swim Meet, they planned a surprise party for us - something that was apparently in the works for several days now ;-)  Steve's family were at the Meet so they stopped by on their way home and brought brownies for desert. The kids played in the sprinkler and gave Steve & me homemade cards...

It was the perfect ending of celebrating 19 years together. I'm one lucky/blessed girl to have Steve in my life and I truly believe God brought us together. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Steve and I met on one of our first weekends at OSU - thing is, I wasn't supposed to go to OSU. I was supposed to go to OU. I come from a family of HUGE OU fans and everyone in my family attended school there. When I was in high school, I applied to OU and was accepted but just weeks before school was to start, I received a letter in the mail that said they were not going to offer my degree anymore (fashion merchandising). So I quickly had to apply to OSU (at the heartbreak of all my family). Had I gone to OU, I'm pretty sure things would have turned out much differently - can't even imagine, nor do I want to. Steve is everything I could ever want in a husband and father of my children - and more.

So next year's the Big 20! Better start thinking about it now! Any suggestions?! ;-)