My Boys

Just a couple of pictures of my boys hamming for the camera.

We Got A Zoo-Pass!

We had a family outting to the zoo!  When we got there, we made a quick decision: we could either pay $77 for one visit with parking OR $125 for a whole year of zoo visits with parking.  No brainer.  Before I get all tied up in a rant on the irrationality of the zoo for doing this, I'll quickly get into how much fun we had!

These pictures loaded funny, so they are not in the order that we went through the zoo or how I took the pictures.  But I took them and we did enjoy ourselves! :)  Also, Evie was there because we took her out of school so she could be with us.  Our justification?  It was a beautiful day, Grandma took the time to be with us, and what's one missed day of kindergarten in the long run?

Evie and Lizzie practiced balancing every time we had a curb.  Or a rock border.

We saw some really funny-looking giraffes...

Evie really loved looking at the big cats.  I loved this cheetah.  The pose and the look on it's face make me want to caption it with Drusella off of Disney's Cinderella, when she sees Cinderella in the dress and Lady Tremain asks if the beads 'give it just the right touch'.  Drusella answers "No, I don't! And I - Aah!  You little thief!"  This cheetah's face is the "No, I don't!" moment.

Evie was making funny faces at her reflection on a popcorn cart.

I can't decide which of these two sisters poses I like best.

The kids were pretty excited about the marble ball floating on the water.

What's got the sole attention of these two?

This dinosaur!  It moves and roars and is really neat to watch.  Carson couldn't decide if he was thrilled or terrified.

The girls loved this unconventional teeter-totter.  I thought it was pretty fun, too.

Every time we've been to the zoo, we've tried to get a picture with this baby gorilla in the monkey house.  We probably won't try to get it every time we go anymore...not if we go as much as I want to this summer!

After walking around for two hours, the kids needed to burn off some steam.  (More?  yes.  more.)  So we stopped at the playground area.  Evie tried the climbing wall for the first time.  It was a little tougher than she expected.

So Daddy helped.

Then Lizzie needed help.

All the while, Cole slept in the stroller.  He actually did wake up and eat while we were in the fish and reptiles house, but did really well in the stroller otherwise.

We are so excited to make use of our zoo pass and see the animals a lot more this year!

Playing Ten-Pin

Last weekend we went on a family fun day to a near-by bowling alley.  Neither of us adults could recall the last time we took the kids bowling - maybe two years ago?  Regardless of the last time, this time was a fun adventure!

We made sure to get a lane with both bumpers and a ramp for the kids.  Sad to say, even having the bumpers didn't help my score at all.  But then, I have no illusions as to my skill level at this game. :)

Lizzie stunned us all when she figured out early on how to position the ramp to get a good score.  Here, I'm asking here, "How many pins did you knock over?"  Yep.  She's holding up ALL TEN fingers to signify her awesome STRIKE!  She didn't get that athletic ability from me. :)

Carson had some issues with turn-taking.  As a two-year-old, it's ALWAYS his turn, if you ask him.  So he spent any time that wasn't his actual turn either riding Aaron's shoulders, dancing with Aaron, or taking a little walk.  He did pretty well for himself when it was his turn, though.

Aaron and I also got into the action, while Cole slept the whole time.  I love that I've got a kid who'll sleep through our own noise PLUS a teen bowling tournement three lanes away.

The Alligator on the Ceiling

We've had this fun toy alligator since Carson's birthday.  It's a silly dollar store item, kind of stretchy, kind of sticky.  The kids love it.  Recently, Evie figured out that if she flings it hard enough at the ceiling, it'll stick there.  Sometimes it stays for split-seconds, sometimes for a night.  The day she figured it out, it stayed a long time and I had a moment of "Aah!  There's something on the ceiling staring at me!" before realizing that it just hadn't fallen yet.

Easter 2012

Easter was a pretty low-key affair for us this year.  The kids' 'baskets' were the shoe boxes their (desperately needed) Sunday shoes came in, with a couple things Grandma thought to bring, beside a new Easter outfit.  Aaron's mom made Cole's blessing outfit, I made Carson's tie, and my mom made the girls' skirts from a tutorial I found and liked.  I even picked out a new sweater for me and a nice tie for Aaron, so we all had pretty spring Sunday clothes.

Decked out in our new Sunday clothes, we headed to church with all our family that was in town.  This included Aaron's folks, my folks, Aaron's sisters and their daughters, and Aaron's cousin.  Besides the men in our family, Aaron got our home teacher to join the circle and bless Cole.  It was a beautiful blessing and a very nice Easter program.  My parents even got to join our choir, since they'd just sung the same song for their own stake conference!

After church, we went to Aaron's parents' place for dinner.  We got to have some family pictures, though most ended up like the one below; we did manage to get a few to keep, thanks to my dad.

There was a craft, and each of the grandmas took one of our girls and played with sparkly stickers for a little bit.

The kids loved the annual egg hunt.  We missed having their second cousins there; they went to their own grandparents' for the holiday.  But Evie, Lizzie and Carson certainly seemed to enjoy the lack of competition, since they were the oldest ones there and Jess and Elle were less than enthused.

Just before needing to get to the airport, my dad followed our little tradition and sang his song, "New Eyes, New Smiles" for me and Cole.  It was really wonderful that he got to come at all, and I love hearing him sing to my children!

Not long after that, we all headed home.  It was such a great day, loving to be with family, celebrating Christ's resurrection and our love for each other.  What a happy Easter!

Some Random Pictures

Here's just a few pictures of a couple of the things we did sometime during my mom's visit.

We got nail polish and Aaron painted Lizzie's nails.  Cute moment!

For crazy-hair day at school, since Easter was coming up, we did pigtails with eggs hiding in them.  Cute, fun idea, and Lizzie insisted she get the same 'do! 

The girls had several opportunities to cook with Grandma.  This particular endeavor was rice crispy treats.  We made a big deal out of the fact that Lizzie wore marshmallow cream for the next hour or so.

This picture is two-fold.  Aaron has held all our babies like this, deeming them 'footballs'.  I only ever got a picture of him doing this to Evie and didn't want to miss my last chance.  Also, the darling little hat and bootie set Cole's wearing was knitted with love by his Aunt LaNita.  He also wore those booties with his blessing outfit, though, La, I just couldn't give up the super-cute hat Mom sent months ago.  I'm so proud of my sister for her new interest (andevident talent!) in knitting!