Our little conservative, Owen, has decided he would like to sport a mohawk hairdo. He asked me to "spike it up" the other morning and, being the cool mom that I am, I said sure! We put some hair paste--that is some seriously sticky stuff--and combed it up. I hit it with the hairdryer to "set" the paste and voila! Mohawk madness!
OK, call me crazy, but I let the girl convince me that we needed to go and buy our copy of Twilight when it came out at midnight. Midnight? Really? I mean, I am all about going to a midnight movie with some great girlfriends or buying a much awaited book at a midnight release and then spending all night reading...but a DVD? I don't know where she gets these ideas...(I suppose a comment like 'the apple doesn't fall far...would be in order!)
Of course, the girl wants to watch it when we get home and who am I to say no? So...we watched it together--with our previously purchased snacks and Sonic drinks--at 1:15am. Definitely fun and definitely something I will want to do with her again in the future!
We went to see Race to Witch Mountain, a surprisingly good movie. I remember the original from when I was a kid, so I was not overly excited to check this one out, but I needed to get the Fighting Shaws out of the house, so to the movies we went.
I thought this would be a great way to kill a day, get some fresh air, and learn a little about our animal friends. Yeah, so did about 10,000 other people. The 5:00 news showed footage of the absolute chaos at the zoo earlier in the day. Truly, I don't think I have EVER seen that many people (and strollers...grrr) crammed into one place at one time. Despite the craziness and crowd, we did have a good time. Big Owen especially loved the herpetarium. He spent his time telling me, and anyone else close enough to hear, facts about each reptile--most importantly, whether or not they were venomous. I guess knowing which ones will kill you is a life skill...or at least will impress some girl some day!!
Again, I think the entire northern half of the metroplex joined us, but is was fun nonetheless. Owen was not too jazzed about the whole thing at first, but he soon channeled his inner Mike Modano and was shuffling all over the ice (note his sporty mohawk...more on that later). As we were leaving, he said it was the best thing he had ever done and could we come back tomorrow?? A successful outing for the Shaw clan!
Overall, we had a lot of fun together and I am thankful for the opportunity to spend time with the amazing people that are my kids (and hubby, too!!)
We went on buses with about 200 other gifted students from LISD--including 3 of my students. We had a blast breaking open geodes, getting henna tattoos, and having our names written in about 10 different languages. The best part of the day was when Abby got to give a mock newscast on the actual set of the campus TV station. Prior to her time on camera, she was taught how to run the sound for the opening and closing credits--which she did like a pro! 
When it was her turn to "do the news" she hopped right on the set and got her mike. The director did a sound check by asking her to tell what she had done so far that day at Explore UT. Well, my precious girl child responds with "Oh! We all got tattoos and...". She was cut off by the loud, raucous laughter from the control booth, the studio, and the waiting room. The adults all got a kick out of the fact she said we got tattoos...you see, Austin is the tattoo capital of Texas. After several minutes of laughter, I piped up and said "HENNA tattoos...we got henna tattoos at the children's festival". Sigh. All I could think about was this scenario:
