Mamma's taking us to the zoo tomorrow

Now that the kids are back in school, it's kindof nice to take Sarah and Rachy to the zoo for some special attention. The animals were all very active and we got to see some cool stuff. Sarah wanted to see the "monkeys" first, then she pulled the wagon through the Austrailian exhibit. There were birds and animals out and about everywhere you turned. This blue parrot swooped down on us and nearly hit me. Sarah took some pictures that didn't quite make the cut-I don't see a professional photography career in her future. The playground was closed for repairs, but we ate at the picnic area, then headed to the gorillas. After I pryed Sarah away from the tv screen, we saw a gorilla tearing apart a cottonwood tree and beating his chest. Next we went to the tiger trek where we got to see the trainers feeding/training one of the female tigers. She was doing all kinds of neat tricks for her food. And we finally saw the red panda out of it's little log house! Next we passed the grizzly bear on our way to the otters (mommy's favorite). The bear was in the water, the otters were nowhere to be seen. The penguins were our last stop-only one penguin came to say hello. Rachy by this time was fast asleep and Sarah had to get home for a playdate. That's what we love about having a membership-we can come and go whenever we want.

Labor Day adventure

About a week before Labor Day I opened my spice cupboard, noticed a tin of almonds and remembered I was going to make granola. Thinking about granola reminded me of hiking and thence sprang the idea of going on a hike for Labor Day (it is now Sept 14and I still haven't made the granola, but we did go hiking). We drove out to Toronto Lake in the Flint Hills; passing thousands of acres of cattle grazing land. The kids would've done better if we had brought a video, but it wasn't too bad for a day trip. We played lots of I spy and 20 questions. The hike was beautiful and had lots of interesting nature for the kids to explore: Tunnel spider webs just off the trail, silk worm "webs" up in the trees, mushrooms, bridges, rocks-even some pretty large hills. Instead of granola, we stopped midway and snacked on food from our 72 hour kits (we need to rotate them anyway). More I spy on the trail; a tree?, a rock?, the sky? And the thing they loved the most: Keeping an eye out for the blue squares on the trees marking the trail. The only casualties were some chigger bites and Rachel threw up in the car on the way home. Ahhh, that's what memories are made of.

Goin to the drive-in

The kids had a primary activity in August and they really got into it. The invitation was a "ticket" and the kids carried their tickets around for weeks and got extras for their friends. It was a drive-in movie and they were encouraged to make cardboard cars to drive. Mike got some big boxes and went to work helping them design and build. Bekah's was a motorcycle attached to her scooter that she colored orange. Michael's was a jeep with black tires that took him forever to color.

Rachy has pigtails!

Don't let those curls fool you, Rachy now has long enough hair to put in two pigtails. She didn't even mind me messing with her hair. She actully enjoyed sitting in the sink and sucking on toothbrushes. Isn't she cute!

Back to school

 

3 kids starting school this year! Here are Hannah and Michael all dressed up in their new clothes for their first day on Monday. (Hannah will be in 4th grade and Michael is in 2nd grade.) It was raining so they had to put raincoats on over their clothes. Then Bekah started Kindergarten (sigh) on Tuesday. She was very excited and asked at least once a day for the last week if it was a school day yet. My friend Kaye watched the little girls so I could take Bekah and get pictures. She did great!-just walked in and said hello, the teacher told her where to put her backpack and where to sit and she followed directions very well. When I picked her up she was full of details all about her first day. Sarah did not do so well without her playmate. Once Rachy went down for a nap, we played file folder games and board games for almost 2 hours before she would play on her own a little. I think Rachel is going to be played with a lot-whether she likes it or not.

Lake Afton

One last big outing for this summer vacation. We went with a few friends in the ward to Lake Afton and had a picnic and played in the water. It was a beautiful day. The kids wasted no time, as soon as we got there they jumped right in. Michael brought his "raingutter regatta" boat that Mike had made for him and the wind carried it out past the buoys where it sank :( He played the rest of the time in a dirty little pool of water off the beach looking for tadpoles and frogs. Rachel stayed out of the water for the first hour and then got brave and started venturing farther and farther into the water, only falling down one or two...dozen times. Sarah wore her rain boots for some reason and they became holding tanks for the tadpoles and frog - plus the sole inserts were a fun little raft to play with. (Multi-functional boots). Hannah and Bekah played "dolphins" out in the deeper water with their friends.

Hannah's birthday

We celebrated Hannah's 9th birthday by going to Golden Corral for dinner the day before. She invited her friend Irene and they had a lot of fun. Then on her birthday, she had Emma come over and they played hard all day. She wanted a sun cake so this is what we came up with. I will never make one like that again-what a pain to frost each ray! The Andersons came over for cake and Hannah got a new webkins from them. She loves to play in webkins world so she's so glad she'll have another year to do that. Her other request was that she get to take her leftover sun cake with her to activity days to share. Last but not least she was excited to buy some new hanging earings at the mall with her birthday money.