Giggle

President's Day!

President's day ='s a holiday from work for me AND the kids had the day off from school today for a teacher in-service day.

So we swung by Nancy's house picked her up and then spent the morning at the Minnesota Zoo with what seemed to be all the other kids and their mom's in the metro area too! It was a tad nuts there today. Oh well.

We started outside because the kids were still all bundled up from driving to the zoo...

Elaina all bundled up checking out the animals outside at the zoo

Zach stylin' in his shades and MN Wild Hat Daddy Dave received FREE at the Wild Game he went to recently. Zach has decided that it is his hat now.

We walked outside and saw the sea otters, bears, wild boar, amur lepords, siberian tiger, takin, gazzels, bison, prairie dogs, camels, dholes, moose, caribou, amur tigers, and snow monkeys.

Zach checking out one of the amur leopards up close

Amur leopard pacing in its' habitat

Zach (holding Pumpkin Batty, his penguin lovey) at the moose habitat.

After exploring and walking the Northern Trail it was time to retreat inside to the masses of people and check out the aquariums, penguins, tropic trail, and the Minnesota Trail.

 

Zach kissing Elaina after removing all their coats. Zach and Elaina are so sweet together.

Elaina LOVED the birds on the Tropics trail. She couldn't get enough of them!

She looks a little annoyed here - "Mom! What do you want?! I'm busy looking at BIRDS I can look at you anytime!"

Wonderment!

This is fun!

Elaina heard the birds call to each other and sing and she started copying their sounds.

Orchids - I love orchids so I had to take a photo of the orchids in the sunshine

Orchids up close...

Elaina and Zach -- Elaina is blowing you kisses!

After exploring the zoo we escaped the masses of people and had lunch at Axel's Bonfire grill with Nancy. (NUM!) They had Zach's favorite, PB&J on a bun and Elaina's favorite Mac & Cheese.  The kids ate a fabulous lunch then we dropped Nancy off at home and both kids fell asleep in the car. When we reached home Zach was so sacked out that I carried him up the stairs and put him in bed and he didn't wake up. He hasn't taken a nap at home in ages.  Elaina of course stayed asleep during transport from car to crib.

What has this mom done with this 'free time' while the kids napped? Put some laundry in the washer, downloaded the photos from the camera, and caught up on a little blogging.  I suppose I should get some other things done around the house since I won't be around next weekend, but THAT is another blog post for another time.

Thanks for reading!

H+L+L Playdate

This past Saturday we had a H+L+L families playdate planned. (No inserting an "E" in there because these playdates are FUN!!)The H is our family, the first "L" is Marie & Brian's family, and the second "L" is Christie and Brad's family. Brian and Brad are brothers so they share the same last name. *wink*

Unfortunately, the stomach flu hit little Rylee on her way over to our house.  So Marie and Brian turned around to head home. *big frown* However, they coordinated with Aunt Christie and Uncle Brad to take their son Joshua with them to our house so - Joshua, Zachary, and Ethan could all still have a fun playdate together.

The boys played and made a "BIG MESS" (as Zach would say) in the basement which is GREAT because that means they had FUN!! 

While the boys played in the basement, the adults chatted upstairs enjoying wine and snacking on appetizers and other goodies.  We got so busy chatting I didn't take my camera out until the end of the night to take photos of the boys. And this was after they 'ran the circuit'.  Running around the circle -- through the dining room, through the front hall, around the corner of the great room, through the kitchen and through the dining room again.

Zachary, Ethan, and Joshua. (Joshua is the only one cooperating for the photo and his parents weren't even there...) Hopefully Brad snapped a better shot with his iPhone.

Josh smiling for the camera. (Mommy Marie is a mommarazzi just like me...)

It was a fantastic night and we'll have to do this again soon. This time with Marie, Brian and Rylee!

Window Peeking

Zach and Elaina LOVE to stand on the couch and look out the windows into the back yard.  They'll see bunnies, pheasants, chickadees, squirrels and even large owls from time to time.

Zach and Elaina checking out what is going on outside...

Elaina's new favorite thing to do is walk along the couch.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Aren't these Red Orchids gorgeous?!