Happy Easter!

We enjoyed a nice Easter. The girls colored eggs with daddy yesterday while I was decorating Hayley's birthday cake (blog coming up next). We did a small egg hunt at home last night, then they woke up this morning around 8 to see what the Easter Bunny had left for them and to hunt eggs again! I made a great lunch, if I do say so myself! After that, the girls and Bill blogged all day long...on my computer! ugh! LOL!! Oh, well, I got to play Guitar Hero and Sing Star all alone, so there! I'm kidding, I'm kidding! ;o)

Surprise by guest Blogger: Sydney Mullen (age 11)

DALLAS - Friday, March 21, 2008 was “Fun Day” for the Mullen girls and their favorite dad. Our mom was birthday shopping for middle child, Hayley Mullen, who turned 7 that following Sunday. Our dad had planned several fun activities for that day. We would go to his work, Toys ‘R’ Us, Target, and a mysterious surprise place. So, first, we hopped into The Captain Jack, our dad’s new Nissan Titan he bought two weekends before. So after that we went through the car wash. After the car wash we headed for Dallas.

Once we got to Dallas, we made a quick stop at the gas station. We had gotten into a small fight, so our dad threatened us with taking Toys ‘R’ Us off the list of fun things to do. So we were quiet for a few minutes. We finally arrived at our first “fun” stop… our dad’s work! We had to stop there to get his iPod and laptop computer. Then, we finally headed toward our surprise place. So we thought. Actually, we were going to the train station, our first stop on the long journey to the mystery place.

We started at the Forest Lane train station, and we ended up at the West End. It was about a 30 min train ride. We, then, started guessing where we were going while we walked around the West End. We sat down for awhile and eventually got bored. Dying of boredom, I looked at the piece of paper my dad had been carrying around all day. It was a map to….The Dallas World Aquarium! We finally started walking again and quickly found our destination. Hayley whined after seeing the line. But, that day was fun day and we all had the time we needed so we got in line.

A few moments later we were on the third floor getting something to eat. I ordered chicken nachos (nachos covered in cheese and chicken), our dad ordered a taco salad, and the two little ones had chicken strips. Unfortunately, after we had finished eating, our field guides had stuck to the table, so we went down to level 2 and got new ones. Then we went back to the 3^rd level and got in line to view the rainforest. It was beautiful!

We had seen one side of the rainforest from the restaurant. That side that we were seeing from the line looked like a river going around a small island. I saw an orange bird, 2 swans, and a couple of monkeys. As we went down (what we stood on was slanted so you could see the exhibit from 3 levels) we could see each animal more clearly.

On the second level, we saw a small bird sitting on the rope railing. We wanted a picture with it (not me!), but it pecked Emyley on the head so only Hayley was in the picture. We finally got down to the aquatics level where we saw turtles, sting-rays, frogs, snakes and fish. After we saw those animals, we found ourselves in the underwater view room where we saw giant fish and manatees. After that, we found the penguins that I had been dying to see! They were so cute! After that we bought Emyley her very first penguin that she has to share (she had complained about my six, Hayley’s one, and her having none). Then we saw the flamingos and the jaguar.

Finally, (after more complaints from Emyley) we walked underneath the sharks. We got really good pictures of the sharks. After that we saw the rabbits as our final aquarium attraction. We left after a short restroom break. We got back to the train station and had another 30 min ride. After that we got in The Captain Jack and went to Toys ‘R’ Us where we got SingStar Rocks and candy. Then we went to Target to get dog food. Then, we got food and drinks from Starbucks. Finally we got our mom dinner and went home. That was the end of our “fun day”!

The End

The Aquarium by guest Blogger: Bill Mullen

DALLAS - For Spring Break this year, we didn’t get to go on a fancy pants vacation or even a not so fancy pants vacation. I worked most of the week and the girls stayed home and drove Steph nuts. We did get to go to The Zone, that Steph blogged about before. Thursday for work, we were scouting locations for our next quarterly meeting, and our event coordinator thinks of Efrem and I as her technical gurus so we tagged along to see if the location would work with our presentation tools. We have been using an iPod for our presentation, but we can use DVD or a laptop computer. The location we scouted was the new Studio Movie Grill at Royal Lane in Dallas. It was really cool. I had never been to one. They had rows and rows of nice leather desk chairs and alternated with tables and a bar where you can sit and eat during the movie. During our tour, I thought to myself that this would be a great place to bring the girls for the last day of Spring Break.

Since Easter fell so early this year, I had Good Friday off from work, and I wanted to do something special for the girls. So Friday comes along and I start looking at the listings for the theater. The only movie showing on Friday was Horton Hears a Who, and I took the girls to see that last weekend. Plan foiled. However, I was not giving up so easily. I started looking at stuff to do and decided on a train trip to the West End in Dallas and a trip to the Dallas World Aquarium. I had errands to run, and one including getting some stuff that I left at my Office on Thursday. There is a train station not far from my office and since I got my truck (blog to come), I am always looking for a way to save gas. After I planned out our route, I told Steph the plan (she thought I was crazy, [I told you last time she thinks most all of my plans are crazy]) and kept it a secret from the girls. I told them we had several things to do, and that two of them were secrets. So here is our plan:

· Drive by my office
· Drive to the train station at Forest lane
· Walk to the Dallas World Aquarium where we ate lunch and toured the Aquarium
· Walk back to the train station
· Take the truck to Toys R Us – Emyley wanted to look at Weebles
· Stop at Target to get some dog food
· Take the girls to Starbucks for a snack
· Go home

Piece of cake.

I won’t write everything about the Aquarium since I am having all the girls write a story about the trip, but I will hit the high points for me, and put some pics I took with Steph’s new camera!

The train: was very fun for the girls despite the fact it was packed and we had to stand most of the way.

The trip route for the Aquarium that I printed off had us taking a bus from the train station, to the aquarium, but it was a nice day and I thought we could walk to the aquarium. It was not far, but I led us on a big circle that forced us to walk further then we needed to, and the girls let me know they were tired of walking. So we get to the Aquarium and we see the education entrance, and a line that led around the building. I figured it was just a short line, since we were right by one of the entrances. The line moved quickly and as we made our way around the first wall I noticed a small laminated sign on a tree. It read: “NOTICE: Remember it is spring break and the Aquarium is busy, it is a 45 minute wait from this point”. Great! We were going to stand in line another 45 minutes. It didn’t take that long and we quickly moved to the entrance. It was very crowded. It was all of us first trip so we had no idea what to expect. I bought our tickets, and we were ushered up the stairs to the Aquarium. When we got to the top of the stairs, we had a choice of which way to go, right was the rainforest (yay!) or left was the restaurant. It was lunch time, so I thought it would give us a chance to rest our legs, recharge our batteries, and get some food in us to power our trip through the Aquarium. It was probably the best Idea I had all day. We sat right down and the restaurant was not crowded at all. So we ate lunch, since the Aquarium is Mayan theme, we had Mexican food. I had a very good taco salad, Hayley and Emyley both had chicken strips (very Mayan btw), and Sydney had some chicken nachos. Now everyone had a full tummy, and we were able to rest our feet. The restaurant overlooked the shark tank and part of the rainforest. It was very cool. We paid our tab, made a pit stop and were on our way.

Like I said, I will let the girls tell you all about the aquarium so I will just touch on some highlights.

The rain forest was first, I saw a beautiful reddish orange bird taking a bath in the waterfall.

There were monkeys and lots of birds to look at.

As we were leaving the rainforest we noticed a young couple taking pictures of a bird on the railing. I had the girls go stand by it so I could take a picture. As I was getting the camera ready, it pecked Emyley on the head causing a minor freak out on her part. The picture of Hayley is after the pecking incident, notice she is not too close to the bird.

We saw some tiny monkeys

Some neat turtles (Emyley loves turtles and frogs)

We saw a huge crocodile.

Then we were looking at some hammerhead sharks and sea turtles when a young lady arrived with a bucket. She started feeding the sea turtles whole squids. It was very cool.

Sydney loves penguins so we headed to the penguin habitat.

Sydney had heard from her friends that there was a tank that you could walk under. We found that and walked in. The tank was huge, crowded, and awesome! There were several very large sharks swimming right over us, very threatening and very, very awesome!

One of the coolest animals was the Jaguar, and Steph loves cats, so I tried to take a picture, but none came out because the flash reflected on the glass, and the jaguar was pacing quite rapidly.

However, I got a great little movie so here it is.

That’s about it for the aquarium. So we walked back to the train and headed to Toys R Us. They had their Easter candy on sale, so we stocked up, everybody got some and we were on our way to Target.

We got the dog food, and some other staples, and were off to Starbucks.

Thursday at work, I went to a lunch and it had a March Madness theme. At the start of the meeting, they asked several trivia questions for Starbucks gift cards. I got two correct and received two $10 gift cards. So we had never been so it was quite an adventure for us. We got a couple cinnamon rolls, I got a slice of banana chocolate chip coffee cake. Sydney and Emyley got chocolate milk, and Hayley and I got hot cocoa (I don’t drink coffee). We relaxed and enjoyed our snack and talked about our big day. Lots of fun! Here's a video of our day!

Wonderful World of Daddy's Day by guest Blogger: Hayley Mullen (age 7 as of today!)

DALLAS - On Friday, March 21st, Daddy took Hayley, Sydney, and Emyley Mullen to the Aquarium. I, Hayley, did not like the restaurant's food but after we went to my favorite part of the whole entire trip... (Editor's Note: Hayley like ellipses too) THE RAINFOREST!!!! And daddy tried to take a picture of Emyley and a bird right next to her, but before he snapped the picture, in a blink of an eye, IT BIT EMYLEY ON THE HEAD! After we got out of the Rainforest we saw bunnies and one of the bunnies got bit on the ear and half his ear was missing. When we went to another place, we saw my friend Angelina and her family and her sister and brother. We got off at Forest Lane just in time. Then we got in Daddy's new pewter Nissan Titan The Captain Jack. Then we went to Toys R Us. Emyley probably wanted the most things there! Then we went to Target and bought household things. Then we went to Starbucks and ate dinner. I, Hayley, got hot cocoa then we got Mommy’s dinner then we went home to get a good night sleep to celebrate a little girls birthday the next day and the little girl was me Hayley!

Emyley in the Jungle by guest Blogger: Emyley Mullen (age 5)

DALLAS – Once upon a time, that’s the beginning. Daddy and The Captain Jack (Editor Note: Daddy’s new truck is nicknamed The Captain Jack, like a pirate’s ship) and my sisters and me went to get gas. Then we went to daddy’s work. Then we went to the train station in The Captain Jack. Then we went on the train. Then we went to Aquarium. At the Aquarium we saw lots of animals. I remember my daddy buying me a stuffed penguin that I have to share with my sisters. I got bit on the head by a bird. We saw fishes and sea turtles and baby sea turtles. We got back on the train, then we took The Captain Jack to Toys R Us. At Toys R Us we got candy, I got a carrot bag of Reece’s Pieces. Then we went somewhere else. Then we went to Starbucks and got a snack. I had a cinnamon roll and chocolate milk. Then we went home and told mommy all about it.

Then End

In the Zone!

So, yesterday Nana brought MacKenzie and Zachary down to McKinney and we took all the kids to the Zone. For those who don't know, it is a pizza buffet with Laser Tag, a huge Bounce House and small arcade (similar to Chuck E Cheese, just for more grown up kids). We all had a blast! After that we went back up to Nana's to have dinner with them and Bill's sister (Mac & Zac's mom) and got to play a Wii for the first time! It was soooo cool! Hayley and I played bowling, and she was awesome! We ended up in a tie....not sure how since she was kicking my butt! Bill and Zac played tennis, baseball and boxing. I think we are all a little sore today! ;o) Anyway, here is another video courtesy of SHE Productions. Enjoy!!

Tater Tot Invasion

The Tater Tots are invading earth! Everyone run for cover!

Okay, not really. We went to Sonic for lunch today and the girls each got a Holographic Astro-Tot spaceship in their Wacky Pack. The Tater Tot Dude is actually sitting down in the spaceship and the mirrors all around project his image in the air. I wasn't sure if a picture would actually work, but it turned out soooo cool! At least we think so! Oh well, it is Spring Break here, and we were a little bored!

Disclaimer: Bill thought I should add a little something here about the photo itself. I took a picture of the 3 spaceships on white paper with a white background. I then opened it in my PhotoFiltre program and made the white transparent. I searched for a space photo on Yahoo! and the picture above was the first image shown. I copied my spaceship photo onto the space photo and then saved it. That is how this really awesome picture was created!! Bill thought people might think I found the complete photo on the web, when in fact I made it myself. So there ya go! LOL!