Abilene CALF 2012 Day 3

Moving on to day 3 of the Abilene Children’s Art & Literacy Festival. If you’d like you can read about Day 1 and Day 2 first if you have not done so.

We started off with breakfast at Cypress Street Station. I had purchased tickets in advance for the Green Eggs and Ham Brunch. So, of course, we were served none other then green eggs and ham with a biscuit. A reporter actually came over to talk to Connor and when he was asked about the green eggs I believe Connor answered that they tasted like white eggs.

While we ate there was a piano man playing music on the piano. You could also see him from the window walking passed the restaurant. I remember him well because he had on a cool piano outfit including piano shoes. Cypress Street Station was also the location of the Green Eggs and Ham reading so we were able to listen to the reading after eating breakfast. We had to wait a little while though because we were done eating before the scheduled reading time. So the boys took pictures with the statue of Sam I Am outside of the restaurant.

We really enjoyed this breakfast. I am a fan of being able to have a themed meal like this and I think it was a really nice addition to the festival. The boys wore some eggs and bacon t-shirts for this, it was the closet thing we could find to green eggs and ham, and now every time JT puts it on he asks if we are going to go eat green eggs and ham.

For some reason this reading was very short so we attempted to rush over to McKay’s Bakery for the reading of How the Grinch Stole Christmas. We actually were able to hear most of it and the boys got to decorate sugar cookies which they were very excited about. Sadly though one of them dropped their cookie, I think that it was JT and Connor was sad and crying because his brother dropped his cookie…it may have been the other way around though. *Update-Connor told me it was him that dropped his cookie.*

Once we left the bakery Connor took pictures with the Grinch statue outside of McKay’s Bakery and the Cat in the Hat statue outside of the Center for Contemporary Arts. We also bumped into Yertle the Turtle and the boys took a picture with him.

After that we went over the T&P Depot to purchase tickets to the Hop on Pop picnic at the zoo. The boys also got a stuffed animal each and Connor bought a Cat in the Hat hat. Then we went over to Everman Park and the boys took some pictures with their new stuff. There is a sculpture called Childhood’s Great Adventure that the boys took a picture with as well as with another Cat in the Hat sculpture. Since then they have added the other Dr. Seuss characters to this park as part of their Storybook Sculpture project. You can take a look at Childhood’s Great Adventure and some of the other sculptures around Abilene here.

I was trying to remember where we ate lunch and I remember just grabbing some hot dogs from a hot dog vendor. I don’t necessarily remember if it was this day but it had to have been. I’m pretty sure after looking through the list of Abilene restaurants that it was Marie’s Top Dogs. I looked at her twitter and her picture looks just like what I remember. After this we went to the Abilene Zoo. Connor brought his hat to wear that he made in his Young Zoologist class a week or so before. They went on a fieldtrip to the San Antonio Zoo and made that hats to go on their field trip so he wanted to wear it here too.

I remember it being really hot that day and of course it’s Texas so that’s to be expected. My grandparents actually met us at the zoo but only my grandma walked around with us because it was so hot, my grandpa waited at one of the tables in the shade by the gift shop. He did however ride the train with us first. We bought tokens for the train before we saw the train and I was surprised at how small it was. I was expecting a train like the one we have at the zoo here in San Antonio, although the train we have isn’t actually inside the zoo, it is in the park. It was a bit difficult but we all managed to squeeze in.

The boys also bought tokens to feed the giraffes but the giraffes didn’t want to be fed. I think it was too hot for them because they seemed to be hiding in the shade. The boys ended up just throwing their crackers down for the giraffes to eat. However, there were so many crackers down there that I doubt the giraffes eat them from the ground.

After walking around for a little bit and seeing some of the other animals we went back to the front and the boys rode on the little safari car ride.

It was nice that my grandparents got to come to the Zoo with us, I wasn’t sure if they would come since it was so hot but I’m glad that they did. We only see them about once a year so I’m happy that the boys got to see them a little longer this time.

It was almost time for the reading of If I Ran the Zoo so my grandparents left and we stayed for the reading.

After that we headed over to the Abilene Public Library for the reading of Horton Hears a Who. The balloon man was at the library when we got there so the boys got some balloons before we went upstairs to the reading. Then when the reading was over they made clovers with a speck on them for a craft. The Horton sculpture was in the library so Connor took a picture with it.

I read on the Abilene visitors website the top ten things to do in Abilene. One of them was eat a rib-eye so we went to Sharon Riley’s Lytle Land & Cattle Company for dinner. JT was asleep by this time so he didn’t eat but Connor enjoyed his kid’s steak and he also enjoyed taking pictures of the décor even though all of his pictures came out blurry.

After dinner we went to the Mall of Abilene because there was a book that we didn’t buy that the boys wanted, I can’t remember which one it was. I think it might have been Horton Hears a Who because they weren’t selling books at the library. We had a pretty packed day but it was really fun and the boys enjoyed themselves. Coming up next is the last day of the CALF.