Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Some Outdoor Fluffing?

Hosted by "Southern Hospitality"

Another fluffer over here! I'm ready for Spring and Easter!
I can't wait to put together my table!
Thank you Rhoda for hosting such a fun event!

Hosted by "A Southern Daydreamer"

In light of our current economy, we put our whole family on a 10-day "Being Self-Reliant" project. Meaning, we will not be spending money on anything outside of bills and necessities. Remember my newly organized pantry?
That was the part of the preparation step for this project. We made sure to have a good handle on our inventory to see if we really can live on what we have. We also turned off the TV and minimal computer use during this project as I am a blogger and an online college student. For 10 whole days, We will handwash most of the dishes, only use lights as needed and make big batches of meals so we don't cook everyday.
Monday was the last ditch day to get what we needed and things we can do in the house and to kick off Spring Break on a good note. Well, this past Monday, we took the kids to the Dallas World Aquarium, where you have to go outside, to see what's inside!



That's the view from the parking lot. Let's go inside - they have an almost cave like entrance to start your illusion that you are entering a whole new world...

See the exotic "elephant's ear"? But if you look beyond them, you'll see across the street in Downtown Dallas!

Now further inside is this main waterfall that crashes down into the main aquarium below. Yes, to see how big this small place is, you have to go down, down, down...

This is the surface of the main aquarium where a HUGE manatee resides with his friends; several gigantic catfish, humongous turtles, and various other big fish!

They also have funky looking succulents if you look hard enough and tons of bromeliad varieties to simulate a rainforest jungle!

Of course, they also have penguins to greet you on the next floor up after you pay for admission, right by the stairwell.

And in the middle of it all, a mini ecosystem perfect for exotic monkeys,

And toucans that love their blueberries, especially those hand fed to them.

They also have Sea dragons that look like floating weeds, in their international oceans bubble aquariums. The name of this particular one, I forget of course, inspired the dragons in the Chinese Mythology! How cool of an information is that, huh?

And even giant clams from Australia!


They even have a shark viewing tunnel as well as glass wall to see the manatees and huge ocean creatures they house at the very bottom! They also had spiders that eat birds and bats as small as a mouse!

TABLESCAPING IDEA: ("Brain loves seeing animals, so she was very inspired!) Take your pictures and learn some cool trivia about the animals you choose. Print out those pictures and place them in plastic bags (to protect from spills) and faced down on the table scattered around a low floral centerpiece of anemones or anything related to the animals you choose. Tie your napkins with a piece of 1-2 trivial info on it and when your guests arrive, use these as games throughout dinner! Take turns saying the info and shuffle the faced down photos and see if they turn over the right one! If they do, they get to choose who's next, but if they don't, the person sitting next to them gets the next turn!

I hope you enjoyed our trip to the World Aquarium here in Dallas, Texas. I sure enjoyed your company! Thanks Susan for another wonderful Outdoor Wednesday. Visit as many blogs today so you can have a great Spring Break as well as your children!

24 comments:

  1. Happy Outdoor Wednesday Chandy! Great pictures. my favorite...the penguin! How cute!!! Thanks for sharing your photos.

    Susan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy St. Patricks Day!
    blessings, kari & kijsa

    ReplyDelete
  3. Me too, I like the cutie little penguin! :-)

    Thanks for bringing us along in your tour. Must have been a wonderful tour with nature :-)

    I'm sure your family had a wonderful time, especially the kids :-)

    This reminds me of where we used to live were waterfalls are just a walking distance/ a hike away and where we pick our own food/snack to bring along from trees :-(

    =====
    I agree, I didn't mind as well that I don't know the names of the flowers. That won't simply stop me from enjoying such beauty :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Susan, I love them, too!

    Kari & Kjisa: To you as well!

    MTMV: I miss those days... I used to climb trees, just to read and relax. When I got hungry, I'd climb another branch and grab a fruit! We all had a great time!

    Thank you ladies!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy Outdoor Wednesday!!
    The little penguin is simply adorable

    ReplyDelete
  6. Muna: Welcome and thank you, we thought so, too!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I enjoyed your tour through the Dallas World Aquarium. My favorite was the penquin. Neck and neck for favorite was the toucan. Penquin...toucan....#1. It is a tie!
    Joyce

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fun day!
    If you have time, April 4th, come down and do Wimberley Market Days with Dixie (French Lique, Texas), me and others.
    Happy Day, Candy

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am looking forward to seeing your tablescape. I like your ideas about saving money. I've thought about the 10 days without spending idea...I don't think I could do it!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great pictures! It is like entering a whole new world, and I love the penguin!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow...what a fun outing...Mr. Penguin looks cute! And best of luck on your 10-day self reliant project...discipline is the key! Let us know how it turns out.
    -marie

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a pretty post. Sounds like you had a great time on your trip.
    Hugs,
    Sue

    ReplyDelete
  13. Chandy, Took the "Grands" there last year & it was a blast! I live near you here in the great state of TEXAS

    ReplyDelete
  14. Looks like a great place to visit in Dallas.

    Kathy b

    ReplyDelete
  15. Wow, ladies, as always you make my heart puff up with your kind words! Love you all!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi, Chandy, thanks for joining the party! Oh, and I see you are another Bordallo lover like me. You have way more than I do, I just stick to the bunnies & cabbages.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yes I did enjoy this trip to the World Aquarium, One thing I like about blogging is that you get to go to so many exciting places right in your own home. I know you all really enjoyed your day, and thank you for sharing it with us.And thank you for visiting me and for your sweet words.
    Blessings,
    Sue

    ReplyDelete
  18. What a wonderful trip to the aquarium! We have one here in Chicago which is also fab! I can look at the penguins all day! Your photos turned out very well from behind thick glass.

    Happy OW!

    xoxo
    Janie

    ReplyDelete
  19. Looks like a wonderful day!! :-)
    And good luck with your project! :-)

    Monica

    ReplyDelete
  20. Rhoda: Welcome! I mainly have the "Hen & Rooster", Cabbage and "Bunny" series. I sure do love them though. Thank you!

    Sue: I'm glad you had a great time! Welcome and thank you!

    Janie: My husband took most of the photo and he did great! Thanks!

    Monica, hello again! We did have a wonderful day! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Yes, I like this blog...am letting you know (smile). Thank you for taking us on a tour of the aquarium...was most enjoyable.

    ReplyDelete
  22. My son loves to visit the aquarium too. Cute photos! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Very pretty.... Oh I so hope you decide to participate in our Spring Party... is very simple, all you have to do is bake or buy some chocolate cookies and set up a pretty vignette... then send me a pic so I can add it to my post the day of the party so poeple can come over here and visit and see more pics... that's all you need to do.... simple ;)

    cielo

    ReplyDelete
  24. Elisabeth: You're a sweetheart! Thank you and welcome to my blog!

    Pam: I'm glad you enjoyed the tour! Thank you and welcome!

    Cielo: Hello! I will see you with my cookies!

    ReplyDelete

If you like this blog, let me know. If you really like this blog, let me know. The key is let me know. Thanks for peeking!

Niceties first

HELLO AND WELCOME to this blog dedicated to my obsession of tablescapes, and ONLY TABLESCAPES!
That means that whatever I post will be redirected to tablescapes or you will see tablescapes or the dishes and glassware that I used AND wish to use.
I hope you like you what you see; but you can't do that unless you take the tour- the TABLESCAPE TOUR that's on the side bar! I'd also love to take you on my adventures on finding great dinnerwares to display and use while leaving some serious change in your pocket, so stay a while and see all of my great deals!
Wanna know the reason behind the madness, too? Then make sure to read, Why this blog for my philosophy.