Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend. Here are the highlights, backwards.
Monday:Memorial Day Parade that is about 10 blocks long on Constitution Ave. It was fun (but really long). The very beginning service men and women marched. It was nice to be able to cheer and wave at these men and women and salute them for the job they do for us and our nation. The girls had fun, but it got a little boring to them especially when it was loud fancy cars revving their engines. Here are a couple of pictures of the Navy.


We actually started out our trip in the city at the American History Museum. We made it through 2 sections which is maybe 1/3 of 1 floor of the 3 floors of exhibits but those 2 sections kept the girls busy. The one area was called Invention at Play and the other was Sparks Lab. There was a lot of hands on activities for both of the girls.

And what kicked off our holiday weekend was a fun picnic and play time at a local park. Yummy food was packed in the basket (an actual basket even) and we headed off to fun and excitement.

The kiddos, eating or at least trying while I take a picture.

Who's driving this thing?

Let's Play Catch Up

Friday was Sophie's last day of preschool. We had a fun year being involved in a Co-Op Preschool. We all gained new friends, even Elanor who has gone over and played with friends while I was in the classroom. If you don't know what a co-op preschool is, it is one where the parents are part of the class everyday on a rotating basis. It was really nice being involved and getting to know the kids and parents in Sophie's class.

Here she is "smiling" with her teacher Mrs Kenneally

The class.

Silliness

Last week the girls had fun with some friends. We had 4 princesses dancing, playing and giggling. It was a lot of fun and the 4 girls got along so well, no bickering or whinning. It was just fun play.
Here is a video of them dancing (there is music, you can't really hear it)


We played inside then we took our little princesses outside.

The big girls are leading the little ones.

The Court

We hope our friends had as much fun as we did and they will come back and play again.

Puzzles and Worms

Elanor has a lot of similar and dissimilar traits to Sophie. One thing they both love is puzzles. I remember when Sophie was not even 2 and she was putting together a 24 piece puzzle (I looked and looked and could not find a picture so you will have to believe me). Now Elanor is loving puzzles and wants to put them together, she can go for any kind of puzzle but her favorite is this fish puzzle. She will finish a fish and say "I did it". It is really cute.
One thing that is all Elanor is the love of bugs and creepy crawlies. Sophie will look at them but not touch. Elanor is excited to see any little creature that moves and wants to investigate. She will get down on hands and knees to get a closer look at ants and she will pick up worms, gloves on or off. Sometimes I have to tell her not to chase the bees but other than that I am okay with her loving bugs, sometimes to their death.

Here's a picture of El when we were working in the yard and kept finding worms, she loved it.

Wii fun

Every once in a while Andrew (and sometimes me) is playing Wii the girls want to join in.

Our miis: Aunt Beckie, Andrew, Elanor, Michelle, Sophie

Here is Sophie concentrating on catching hula hoops.

Elanor is too light to stand on the board by herself, it doesn't register. She is just as happy holding onto the remote than actually doing any movement.

Andrew playing a balance game involving penguins and ice, tricky.

I played too but there are no pictures of me, so sorry.

And to finish off, here is a very short video of Elanor hula hooping.

Zoo with Aunt Sarah

Aunt Sarah is in town, or Aunt Sayah as Elanor says. We are excited to spend some time with her. Today we decided to head into the city to the zoo. I checked the weather and it just said cloudy but we took umbrellas just in case (Murphy's law right- to take means no rain, to leave at home means downpour). We got to the zoo and find a parking spot easily and then headed into the zoo. First we stopped off at the farm. Elanor loved looking at all the alpacas, cows, donkeys and goats.
If you look in the distance there is an alpaca or two.
Sophie had a fun time too, but she just wanted to read the signs that gave some info about the animals.
I've seen a zoo shuttle bus that takes you from the bottom to almost the top of the zoo, which is really nice for this very hilly zoo. Today I decided it was time to test it out. It took a little timing but we got on the bus, aka 15 passenger van, and rode to a higher elevated point. We got out and it downpoured. So we quickly set up the stroller and umbrellas and took cover under a tree. Sophie was very worried about her dress, she said "my pretty dress is getting wet." Oh well kid, that is rain. After waiting a few minutes, we decided that it let up enough for us to venture to see some animals.

It's still raining a little in the picture.

sloth bear enjoying our company.

It down poured a couple more times, spritzed and drizzled but we had a good time. A visit to the zoo can not be complete without a stop to see the elephants.
And the highlight of our trip was seeing the baby gorilla. Adorable. When we first got to the Ape house, mama gorilla was in the back nursing her sweet baby. And then all of a sudden she came up front were we could all check out her baby. She reminded me of any new mama wanting to show off her cute baby. Here are a couple of pictures, not the best but you can kind of see the babe.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

To my sweet husband on his birthday,
Thank you for supporting us in all that you do. For getting up early in the morning so you can come home and take over with the girls for a couple of hours. For being my best friend, loving my cooking, being such an awesome dad. I am so lucky to have you in my life.

I love you! Happy Birthday!