Lot of Hot Air

Festivals can be hit or miss for family fun. They do have ambiance and entertainment, but they also have lots of crowds, overpriced goods from vendors, expensive or hard to find parking, and lots and lots of walking (not to mention a slim chance of pleasant, bug-free weather; we're talking Texas here). With small kids, we just haven't risked it very often.

So even though the Plano Balloon Festival takes place less than a mile from our house, we've never been. We know when it is because they block off roads, put streamers along medians to keep people from parking on them, and send traffic cops out to direct the enormous flow of incoming and outgoing people. We know that is the weekend to take the northern alternate route out of the neighborhood if we want to get anywhere on time.

One perk is we can see a lot of the balloons from our house. It is sort of fun to look up into the sky as we drive to church or the grocery store and see a REMAX balloon or generic rainbow balloon with Elliot's Hardware pasted on the side.

This year, we got an extra special treat. We were all inside lounging in the living room Friday night, when Michael interrupted a conversation to ask what was that noise?

It sounded like an airplane to me, but his face lit up, and he jumped from his seat and ran to the window. Sure enough, there was a Balloon landing in the culdesac behind our house.

We all ran outside and saw that a dozen or so balloons were lowering themselves into our neighborhood. Some were ordinary and some were fun like the shape of a pirate's head. They all found some large empty area, like an undeveloped lot, green belt, or park, and landed, deflated, and packed up and went home. The whole thing lasted about half an hour. It was amazing. And we got to see it all without leaving our driveway.

That night, Ansley thanked God in her prayers that hot air balloons could land in our neighborhood.

All the Big To do's

Here is a compilation of big events from the last two months.

At the beginning of August, Michael's friend Dan married our new wonderful friend Vickers. My mom flew in to watch our little ones and we enjoyed of weekend of freedom in beautiful Arkansas. The trees were gorgeous there, not to mention the weather. The festivities were the kind of grown-up fun I always dreamed of. Fancy parties with fancy dresses and fancy food, not to mention wonderful people to keep us company. It was an awesome getaway for just the two of us.



Ansley had her first day of second grade on August 25th. This year she has Karla Hughes as a teacher, who we know and love from when she taught Ansley in Kindergarten. She is an awesome teacher and Ansley loves being in her class.



Then we had the Spongebob dual birthday party for madam 8-year-old and madam 5-year-old. Hailey picked the theme since Ansley is now eight and got a special trip later in the month with two friends.

Of course, I had to get creative with the cake, like I do every year (except last year's mermaid minimum, but we won't talk about that).


I also made these party favor bags out of lunch sacks. I had a fun time with the craft paint.


And what party is complete without a pinata? Spongebob was reinforced with concrete, apparently, and needed extensive whacking to break open.


Unlike motion pictures that promise no animals were harmed in the making of their movie, I openly admit all kinds of Spongebobs were harmed in the making of this party. The party bags were crammed with candy and mashed in little kiddie hands. The Spongebob pinata was beaten mercilessly by a pink metal bat. The spongebob plates and napkins and tablecloths were smeared on, stabbed with forks, and wadded up before being thrown in the trash. And the cake, well, see for yourself...




Hailey started private Kindgergarten on September 8th. She has Mrs. Hannon as her teacher, who is new to us, but Hailey comes home from school every day bubbly and bursting with happy stories to tell, so things must be going well.



Ansley took two girls from her church class to Planet Pizza to celebrate being eight with her friends. They enjoyed roller coaster type rides and chuck e cheese style games for several hours before a happy meal at McDonalds (you don't go to Planet Pizza for their pizza, trust me). There was a lot of giggling and fun.

Save the horny toad!

While the horned lizard is not officially on the endangered species list, it's range has declined 30% in Texas and California.

Oh, no! You say. How can this be? What would become of this world we live in if there were no horned lizards to bring us joy? What can I do to help this lone star treasure?



The horned lizard, commonly known as the horny toad, feeds mostly on red carpenter ants. You might know them as Texas Red Ants or native fire ants.

But Texas Red Ants are declining in population. For a very sad reason. They are competing with foreigners and losing.


That's right. In the 1930's, a boat docked on the Eastern Seaboard with cargo infested with another breed of fire ants from South America. These red imported fire ants (RIFA) spread slowly across the country, settling in Texas in the 1950's. And they love it here. Lots of open plains, average rain, mild spring and falls, and best of all, no natural predators.

Some might say good riddance to Texas red ants. While both fire ants are a pain (literally), the Texas red ant has a much much more painful sting. That's right. Sting.

Fire ants, unlike other biting ants, do not spray venom on the bite they make. They simply bite to get a foothold, and then inject an alkaloid venom from the stinger in their thorax that gives humans the sensation of being on fire. Thus the term fire ant. This is also the reason you can get multiple welts from a single fire ant. They clamp down and then sting you over and over. They can make it seem like a sneak attack and get halfway up your leg sometimes. But that is simply that they go by their built-in motion sensor, and only bite things that move (or things that their other ants buddies are biting). I have never been bitten by a Texas red ant, but I have been bitten hundreds of times by a red imported fire ant. And that was not pleasant; I don't feel the bite, but I do feel the slow onset of the sting, and man, it it burns for quite some time. And the next day the white puss shows up and it itches like crazy. I don't think I would want to have an encounter with a native ant.

You can tell the difference not only in the ant, but also in the mound. Imported fire ants build up a soft mound of dirt, especially when it is humid and moderate in temperature (this is perfect condition to raise young in the dirt above ground). Texas red ants have a hole in the ground surrounded by pebbles of mud.

The problem with the newcomer is not only their negative affect on the horny toad population, but also their pervasiveness. The RIFA are like the weeds of the ant community, and will pop up anywhere and everywhere. You are much less likely to see a Texas red ant community in the city or suburbs, but mankind is no barrier for the maniacal genius of the red imported fire ant.

So even if you are not a friend of the horny toad, it is still in your best interest to control the imported fire ants. They are simply too entrenched for us to eradicate completely, but there is hope for your eighth of an acre. The Texas Imported Fire Ant Research and Management Project suggests using the two-step approach.