Field Trip to the Zoo

Today, for the first time, I boarded a school bus with Nate and Graham and we took a field trip together. All of the 4 year old classes in his preschool took a field trip to the Baltimore Zoo. The kids were super excited to ride on the bus. And just a side note- the last time I rode on a school bus, I was also pregnant. We started with the polar bears. You can see that my mom came with us on the trip. It was nice to have her there since she is leaving on a two week trip to the Holy Land and Egypt in a few days. It was also very helpful to me, especially getting on and off of the bus with our cooler, backpack, two kids and a stroller. I would have had quite a bit of trouble doing it on my own.

Nate and Graham especially love seeing the giraffes. It helps that they get so close to where we can watch them. You can pay a little bit of money and feed them, but we haven't done that yet. I don't know that my kids would even want to. They may freak out from the freakishly long tongues that the giraffes have.

Graham got onto this turtle and then asked me to take his picture. He asked me to take his picture periodically through the day.

The giant tree slide is always a favorite.

Can you see the look of pure joy on his face?

I was a little surprised by this one- Nate actually got close to the goats and wanted to brush them. He has never been into petting zoos, and rarely would touch any animals. He even took the brush off and pet the goat for real at one point. You notice Graham is nowhere to be found in this picture- He was not at all interested in getting near to the goats. He's more comfortable with a fence to protect him. He spent most of his time at this point playing in the bin that held all of the brushes.

So all in all, it was a fun day for all. It was a little drizzly here and there, but it never was really rainy, which we appreciated. The kids had fun, and my mom and I even survived- the grandma and the pregnant woman- who thought to put us in charge? :)

Tomorrow is take your child to work day at Jesse's work. So more fun adventures are in store for us! The kids will be extra excited, because not only do they get to see Jesse, but they'll get to see Grandad and Aunt Cammi!

Catoctin Zoo

On Saturday, Nate was invited to a birthday party (OK, the whole family was invited, but it was Nate's friend.) Anyway, Jesse decided to use the time to have a one-on-one trip with Graham. A few weeks ago he had taken Nate on a hike, so now it was Graham's turn. They went up to the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo. We got a membership there this year instead of the Aquarium. It's nice because it's less than 15 minutes away, and it's a beautiful, non-crowded zoo, so I can easily take both of the kids there myself. As you can see, Graham was wearing the monkey leash, but Jesse never even had to use it, that's how non-crowded this zoo is.

Buddies

Easter round up

Our final Easter celebration this year came at Grammy's house. She did an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Nate and Graham always have tons of fun playing with Meckenzie. So we had some lunch, went out and found the eggs, and then had to put them back in the refrigerator on account of the 90* weather that day! It's not often that we have egg hunts in heat like that.

Thank you Grammy for such a fun afternoon!

The Winner!

And the winner is......
Dantzel!!!!

Did you ever send me your address? Do you have one? Are you living on the streets? Email me!

Happy Easter

Tomorrow morning I'll post the winner of the give-away, but for now let's talk about Easter.
We had a pretty nice Easter over here. Last night both Jesse and I were gone in the evening, so we didn't get a chance to be as prepared as I would have liked- mostly the house was a mess. So I told the kids that they had to clean the living room before they were allowed to get into their Easter baskets. Graham woke up fairly early, and he never even noticed the basket on the table. I guess because the baskets had been out for a few days before hand. It took Nate a while to wake up this morning, and then even longer to find his basket. It was maybe 9:30 before they realized they were there.
So after the toys were all cleaned up, they dug into their baskets. Nate was really excited about the large chocolate bunny. He started into it right away. (Don't mind his seasonally challenged pjs.) Graham was excited about his as well.

And it did not take him long to figure out how to unwrap it.

Nate was excited about the Peeps.

Whereas I did get this cute picture of Graham eating his, he was not so excited about it.

hop hop hop.

Once I cut them off this morning, they really kind of forgot about their baskets full of candy. They still have not really dug into them too much. I guess that's a good thing.

As for what happened after the baskets, well, it was a pretty quiet day. It's rare that we stay home on a holiday, since we have two sets of family in the area. However, a few years ago, I made the rule that we are always going to spend General Conference at our own home. It is just too stressful for me to have to make my children behave for 8 hours of church, and have other people who want to pay attention. So we stay home. It happened that Easter fell on General Conference this year, so that meant that we were staying home for Easter this year. So I made a roast for dinner, and we just had our own little Easter celebration here by ourselves.

I will say though, as I was putting Graham to bed tonight, he asked if we were going to church. Did anyone else feel a little weird not going to church on Easter?

And then I have another question- for those of you with small children- what do you do about the Easter bunny? Is it just like Santa? Or do you push him to the side, and right from when they're little you let them know that mommy made the Easter baskets? I found myself doing the Easter bunny this year, but well, I'm not sure I want to. So what are you thoughts, what do you do. I want to hear.

200th post giveaway!

Wow! I've reached 200 posts! Since I know about 7,000 people who are either having a baby, or just had a baby, or are thinking of having another baby in the next few years, I am giving away this suspended car seat cover. It is a must-have for everyone who has a child in a car seat. Use it as a privacy shield from prying eyes and germy hands while in public. Use it as a sun or wind shade. (Although please please please, make sure that when you have your child riding in the car that the seat handle is locked in the back position, not upright!!!!)

So enter all- it makes a great gift if you are not in that baby-having phase of your life- chances are, you know someone who is having a baby, or will need a baby shower gift in the future. The cover is reversible, with the fruit print on one side, and the brown with blue butterflies on the other.

Good luck. I'll hold the contest open through the end of the weekend.

Easter Eggs

Last night we dyed Easter Eggs. Nate loves this part of Easter. So does Graham- a little too much maybe. Nate is getting really good at putting the eggs in gently, and even getting them out and back into the egg carton. Graham in general makes a bit more of a mess. He was confined to using the Yellow, so that messes could be hidden a little easier.

He took his job as the yellow egg dyer very seriously.

Very, very seriously. Until of course he spilled the yellow dye. Then his job was over.

But Nate finished up, manning all 5 color cups. He did a great job!

Happy Easter everyone!

Easter egg hunt

This morning we were invited to go to an Easter egg hunt by someone who used to be in our ward. She has a little girl who is Nate's age. It was the perfect weather to go and search for the eggs in her front yard. The kids had a ton of fun doing it.

So happy Easter everyone! Tonight we plan on dying Easter eggs. We got to do some with Grandma yesterday, and the kids are excited to be able to do it again tonight. They love dying eggs, and talk about it periodically throughout the year.