Finally...a Day at the Zoo!!!

Yesterday was a gorgeous day outside- I was not going to waste it indoors, so we headed to the zoo! The kids were very excited to go- Annabel had been begging for me to take her for ages- we needed this trip! It was a perfect day. Cool in the morning, but nice enough eventually that hats and mittens were not required and we didn't need boots- ah, good ol' sneakers! That felt good in itself! We had the most fun just walking here and there, following the kids' leads, seeing whatever struck our fancy, playing here and there, and we even ate outside! Fresh air cannot be beat! And even though everybody else in the world had the same idea (it was like the flood gates opened!) and it was really crowded, we had a great time.

The kids loved looking at their maps. They had a lot of fun in the play zoo building as always. We saw the crocodiles in the swamp building, the tiny baby gorilla in the monkey building, the penguins of course, ate lunch outside, played on the playground for a few minutes, saw the giraffes (indoors! Annabel was bummed all winter long that we couldn't see them- I had no idea you could even go in this building- I'd never been in there before! Duh!), rode the merry-go-round (Daniel just wanted to sit- he looked so cute sitting there on his own, Annabel rode the penguin- she was so excited and sat there so proudly- actually, she wanted me to leave but I told her rules were I had to stay- no way was I leaving her side!), watched the lions and tigers sleep and then we headed out. Annabel walked about 80% of the 4 hour visit, Daniel was content to sit in the back of the stroller most of the time. He was interested in going into buildings, while Annabel had very specific animals she wanted to visit. We got a little of everything done. The kids had fun looking back over the maps in the car on the way home, although this prompted lots of "Oh NO! We didn't see this animal!" from Annabel, which was too funny! We'll be back lots of times, I hope, now that Spring is trying, ever so slowly, to come through for us!

Strolling along with her map in hand!

Fun with sand and water bottles in the greenhouse room of the play zoo building!

 Annabel really wanted to play with the "puter" in the director's office room of the play zoo building!

 The vet's office is a must-do, too!

 Daniel in a boat in the swamp building- such a great smile!

Annabel stared at these crocodiles for the longest time and then one finally moved- "They ARE real, Mommy!"

 Daniel got his telescope out of his backpack to watch the monkeys way up high! 

(The kids packed their own backpacks with snacks, animal viewing essentials, stuffed animals, and juice boxes- they were so proud; their bags were pretty heavy, mine had two things in it I think!)

Annabel braved the playground!

Cute giraffes! I totally did not know you could see them indoors!

 We waved to Australia, but were too excited about the merry-go-round to go in!

Merry-go-round fun!

Annabel fell asleep in the car about five minutes from our house, of course it would be that close to home- I really thought both kids would totally be asleep the whole way home, but no. Still, I was able to bring Annabel inside and lay her down to nap some more. I ended up waking her up after an hour since I didn't want her to stay up all night!

A Birthday Visit For Grandma Mary Kay!

Last Thursday was Grandma Mary Kay's birthday and we decided to take the opportunity to visit her at school! First we made some large birthday posters- the kids worked really hard on their writing and decorating. For Daniel, I wrote out "Happy Birthday" on another piece of paper and he copied them onto his poster and did a great job. Then he drew a cake with 4 candles (Grandma is 4 years old, wouldn't you know?) and some presents with bows. He really worked very hard on his poster for her. Annabel has been working really hard on tracing letters, so I dotted her letters out for "Happy Birthday, Grandma" and "by Annabel" and she did an awesome job tracing those letters (I did not help her trace at all- that's all her you see in the pics below!)- everybody was so impressed! She then drew all over her poster. She was super proud of her work and carried it into the building oh-so-proudly. The kids were so excited to visit Grandma at school!

We found Grandma's office just fine on our own, but she wasn't in there, so a nice lady we ran into helped us find the room Grandma was in (all these gals love the little ones, they're all so super nice and so sweet to my kids). AND shocker of all shockers...Annabel literally walked 5 yards ahead of me next to this lady the whole way to Grandma- down a loooong hallway and then a short hallway, the whooooole way. I-I-just don't even have the words to describe my shock! She was just walking along like she owned the place- it was super cute! (Annabel did the same thing on the way back to Grandma's office- walking ahead of us by several yards- got a pic that time!- while Daniel was holding our hands tight!) We found Grandma and the kids had fun showing her their presents!

We had fun back in Grandma's office, snacking, playing, chatting away, visiting with whomever stopped in, and so on, until Grandma's lunch time. On the way out of the building, we stopped to see a few of Grandma's friends and the kids also saw some students blowing bubbles onto giant colorful sheets of paper (they were measuring the bubble circles). They thought this was so cool! The teacher gave Daniel and Annabel each a bottle of bubbles and even let them pick out giant sheets of paper to take home with us to do the same activity (well, except we didn't measure per se, we just traced- but hey, Daniel experimented with lights on/off to determine which was better to see where the bubbles landed and even had his magnifying glass out, too!)- to say my kids were excited about getting these things would be an understatement- they were over the moon! Such lucky kids! See- the staff are always so super nice and sweet to us at Grandma's school! So, of course, we came home, ate lunch super fast and got right to work on our bubble blowing and tracing project. The kids had the most fun!

Daniel and Annabel work hard on their birthday posters for Grandma!

 Brave Annabel walking way ahead of us!

 Bubble blowing experiment at home...just like the middle-school kids!

 Daniel traced a bubble that landed on his hand!

 Grandma, next time Annabel wants to stay for 4 hours!

Can of Worms Definitely Opened!

So, I definitely opened a can of worms that day we went puddle jumping a couple weeks ago! The next rainy day we had last week...guess what we were doing? More jumping in puddles! Such fun! Got a few more pictures I could resist sharing, especially since the kids used their umbrellas this time...although you'll have to excuse the quality of these pictures- I'm using my old camera, which is a whole other story for another day...anyway, it's not stopping me from taking cute pictures!

Daniel's Legos Deserve Their Own Post!

Daniel is definitely a builder. This kid LOVES Legos! He spends his quiet time building with Legos in his room and always wants to show me the things he's built after each quiet time/nap. I love it. I love every masterpiece he's created. The shelves in his room are literally covered with Legos- and I do mean covered- and every surface, too. He's moved stuff around and emptied shelves out just so he could display his Lego creations. This kid is obsessed.

And yes, we've seen the Lego movie, too- SO cute and SO clever. I took the kids to see it when Ben went to an event at the Museum of Science & Industry a while back.  Ben took the kids to see it again one day last weekend when I went out shopping. (Thanks for getting us in free, Uncle Brian!!) Daniel of course loved it and when it was over wanted to come home and watch it again! I explained about movies in theaters not being available for watching at home just yet...but told him this movie would definitely be on our list when it came out!

McDonald's was also doing Lego movie themed cups in their Happy Meals last month, which the kids were happy to collect. Daniel will never use them as cups of course, because they're collectibles he says- he's very adamant about this! Anyway, there were also these slips of paper advertising Legoland, which Daniel immediately pinned all over his bulletin board. Daniel talks about going to Legoland ALL the time- he really wants to go! Every time he sees a dollar bill he says we need to save it for Legoland because it costs 100 dollars to go there. He doesn't like me to spend the dollar bills I have- he wants me to save them for Legoland. Annabel was saying she wanted to go Disney World one day and Daniel was all- "No we have to go to Legoland first because if he we go to Disney World first we will use all our dollars for that instead, so we need to go to Legoland first"- smart kid.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our very own Legoland in Daniel's room! I love the things he makes- it really is so awesome to watch him being so creative and I love when he explains and names things, too. My favorite was his "garbage boat." Enjoy!

A Little of This and A Little of That

Lots of randomness to share, so here goes!

Annabel shuffling cards is about the cutest thing ever. Here's a quick glimpse, but you have to watch the video, too! She makes two piles and then flicks each pile separately, puts them back together, repeats, and then calls it shuffled. So cute!

Annabel loves to pick her own outfits, for daytime and nighttime, these days. I am actually shut out of the room, "so it's a prize (surprise), Mommy!" Interesting outfits result...here's a great example- this one is part nighttime/part daytime: pajama top, you can just make out the pajama bottoms (that also don't match the top), red striped pants pulled over pajama bottoms, and mismatched socks. Doing laundry and making matches is oh-so-fun these days!

Ben had this huge Lego set on his birthday list this year- a Haunted Mansion from the Monster Fighters series. The box it came in was just really big to wrap, the box it was shipped in was even bigger, plus I was SO sick on his birthday, absolutely NO energy...so we just simply decorated that large shipping box with wrapping paper, stickers, drawings, and you can see some pennies taped on, too. The kids told me what to write on the side there: We love you Daddy (from Daniel). So much (added by Annabel). Then Daniel wrote his name (totally backwards), he told me to write "Mommy," and Annabel made three lines for her name (we're still practicing with her on writing her name). Anyway, they had a great time decorating the box and simply could NOT wait for Daddy to open our present for him. Happy Birthday a month ago, Daddy!

The kids LOVED helping Daddy build this Haunted Mansion- they pretty much couldn't wait to start. It was a project that was worked on little by little over the course of a few days and the finished product looks so cool. Annabel loved playing in it when it was all done. She loves to play with houses of all kinds these days. I think the kids are a little miffed that Daddy keeps this mansion in his office!

Still working on the mansion....the kids would tinker with the pieces from the pie tins a little each day, making their own marks on the mansion, until Daddy had time to work with them on the next section.

Both kids have really been into doing "school work" lately. Annabel is loving tracing and getting pretty good at it. She also loves to do those cutting activity books. Daniel is enjoying his activity books, too. I keep buying all these different workbooks and they are just loving them and whipping right through them! I love watching them!

Here's a video of Annabel doing some tracing- you can see she's actually doing pretty well! So fun to watch her!

We've been helping our dance instructors, Norm and Jeanette, teach both the beginner and advanced classes for the past three weeks, since he had knee surgery, so we've been leaving for dance classes earlier. And since we're leaving earlier, we've been trying to have the kids go to bed with the grandparents. The first week, this is what we came home to- the kids sleeping together in Daniel's bed. So cute! We had tried this a loooong time ago, after Annabel begged forever to sleep in Daniel's bed and he finally agreed to try- but it didn't work, Annabel would NOT stop talking. It bugged him. I don't blame him. Well, apparently they wanted to try again when Grandma Mary Kay was here that first time- Annabel did chat away, Grandma went up once and said stop talking or you're out, and then, well, Annabel did fall asleep! Daniel woke up around midnight though and wanted her out, so it didn't last! Still, so cute to see them sleeping so peacefully together!

This Twister Hopscotch game was just about the best $2.00 spent at Goodwill EVER! The kids love jumping in the different colors, either with BIG jumps to certain colors that we spin or jumps in every circle but the color spun. We play it so often and it was the perfect thing to get over that cabin fever we were experiencing not too long ago! Here's Annabel getting ready to make a big jump (or for her, really, a series of jumps that make it look like she can jump just as big and far as Daniel!).

Annabel invariably wants to make sure she can jump to a circle right next to Daniel so she can give him hugs and kisses or tackle him!

Daniel came home from school one day with the big idea of making dinosaur bones for us to dig up. So we got out our giant sheets of cardstock, I drew some long bones for us to cut out, and then he and Annabel both ended up making their own bones and skeletons and pictures to cut out. It was the neatest cleverest collaborative self-initiated project ever! Daniel carried all these "bones" up to his room, laid them out all over his room, covered them with blankets, and then we used sticks to dig 'em up. We had so much fun and I loved his creative idea! What an awesome project for him to come up with. He's been like this lately, though- coming up with all these clever ideas and projects. It's really cool. (And let me just say this is the cleanest his room has been in ages...this kid is a collector, nothing leaves his room, but for this project- boy did he clean up and it was his own idea to do so, too! No complaints here!)

Later, Daniel put all the bones we made together to make a dinosaur skeleton- again, his idea. Loved it. (Can you tell he's been studying dinosaurs at school?!)

The kids LOVE using Daniel's old crib mattress as a trampoline; they started this from day one of it's demotion as a sleeping mattress. We just sort of kept it because of this. I can't believe I let them do this, but hey, it works to get their energy out! And it makes the big bucks spent on this mattress worth it in the long run! Anyway, this past week, they were just having the most fun running and jumping onto the mattress. It was fun to watch them do the biggest jumps they could. Annabel has finally learned how to do "tuck jumps" (where you raise your knees up to your stomach level while jumping) and this mattress was how she learned- she's so proud of herself! And both of my kids are awesome at somersaults- they do those on here, too! These pictures are blurry but still fun action shots of how high they were jumping and the somersaults they were rocking!

Here's a video of some of the mattress jumping crazy fun!

And now for some more videos...these go way back. I think I tried uploading them before, but there were issues. Or maybe I was successful and forgot to note it in my blog notes...in any case, I'm either catching up or sharing all this cuteness again!

This is Annabel reading her favorite book...that recipe book I told you about. Still pretty much on permanent check out!

This cute video of Annabel singing was taken when I heard her sitting on the steps singing away. She really sings all the time now, like pretty much nonstop when she's playing or in the backseat of the car. I'll hear her sing snippets of our music class songs from time to time, too. It's so cute. And just the other day, she was singing while painting. Loved it.

Listening to Annabel sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is just too cute! I love her take on the words! "Twinkle Little Star, how I know you are, up high in the sky, how I know you are" is the way she usually sings it. This take is a good one- you've got actions, too!

More songs I made Annabel sing one day, before she could steal my camera and take pictures. I'm not above bribes.

While we're on random, I have lots of cute things we've heard lately, too...

For Daniel:

One afternoon he picked the Disney movie Up for us to watch and I said I loved that movie. He immediately said, "No! You don't love this movie. You've never seen it before!" I simply said that I hoped I would love it then! He's funny sometimes- he just really likes to pick movies "we've never seen before, in a long time" and I think I rained on that parade in this case! Oops.

Lego instructions are "constructions" and the few Mega-block brand of "legos" we have from mixed up sets from when we were little are all "megos"- can't seem to get megA across to him! I think it's cute though.

For Annabel:

"Once upon a time" is "about time"- so cute!

Yesterday is "essday" and tomorrow is "on morrow." She still drops her beginning "y" sound in some words, not all.

I love when she says "I CAN do it!" so all-knowingly!

She's also not vain at all- "I'm sweet" which I tell her all the time, because really, she is, but when she says it, you know she thinks she's special, and of course she is. And the other day she'd figured something out that I was quite impressed by and when I asked how she knew that, she matter-of-factly said "I'm smart." She's too funny.

We hear Annabel say "Allll Daay Loooong" quite often- as in "I play xyz alllll daay loooong."

"SO much"- as in "I love Daddy SO much." She adds "SO much" to lots of her loves! It's the way she says it that is so super cute, too.

"That's why I..."- there's something about the way that Annabel explains things that is just so cute.

And the funniest conversation we've had lately: We were on our way to Target...
Annabel: "Mommy, Target is easy."
Me: ???
Annabel: "I can't say 'When be there?' Target is easy." (For the record, she asks "when be there?" ALL the time now when we're in the car whether we're heading out or homeward!)
Annabel: (a few minutes later) "See, easy!"
She was letting me know that she knew where Target was, that it was close by, and she didn't need to wait long until we were there. It was too funny! I loved it!