Skip to main content

Emus and Roos!

We've been blessed with beautiful weather for the last several days. And with lovely weather comes the chance to be outside, doing fun summery activities!

I took off of work on Monday so G and I could have a mommy/son day. We ran errands in the morning, got my car washed, took him in for a much needed haircut, and then headed to the zoo for the "Big Beaks and Wide Wingspans" class. We've taken a class at the zoo each summer for the last three years, and I was sad to realize this was his final toddler class. We will have to find some kind of replacement for next year!

It's been fun watching home become more engaged in the classes over the years.  He participated fully this year, and it was clear he was one of the older kids in the class. One woman had her hands full with a little guy, who didn't want to sit down, and was crying...I remember those days very well...

He was slithering on the ground like a snake...sssssss!


Holly the Parrot!


And a really big millipede...G didn't want to touch it, so he waved at it, and said hello. Good enough for me!


This was in 2015 - the first year we went to a class at the zoo. He only wanted to play at the table, and didn't want to learn about frogs/fish






This was in 2016 - we learned about the hissin' and hootin' animals! G was a little more engaged, but still mostly focused on the toys...



Back to 2017...after we learned all about birds and bugs (the bugs portion were a surprise...I thought it was going to be all about birds,) we headed over to the new Australia exhibit at the zoo. We walked among the kangaroos, wallabies, and emus. In my mind, kangaroos were always upright, but in reality, they walk on all fours!

Enjoying lunch in the sun



What a perfect bench!



It was hot and the kangaroos were sleepy...


Roo in the background!



We had a great time at the zoo, but we both hit our wall, and were happy to be back home for a late nap, and to cool off. I went to Wonder Woman with my mom that night, so I needed to rest up so I could enjoy it. What a fantastic movie! Perfect day and night!

Tuesday was Ava's last day of third grade. I cannot believe that we have a fourth grader. When did that happen?! Both of these kids are growing up too fast!


Scott took Wednesday - Friday off of work, as we didn't have childcare for Ava before her Summer Power program starts on Monday. They had some pretty excellent adventures...bowling, zoo, fun meals out... plus, Scott was able to get the beginnings of our irrigation system installed. For assistance, he recruited my dad for Friday, and then the neighbor/neighbor's father-in-law on Saturday. It's not done, but it has a good start to it!

We also celebrated my mom's birthday on Friday night...pizza and an assortment of mini bundt cakes. Yum! Happy, happy!



On Saturday, we had two grad parties to go to...it was good to relax, let the kids play with new friends, and be out of the house for a while. We've got another party to go to today, and that's for a cousin who is graduating. I'm excited to see the family we haven't seen in a while!

This Thursday, Ava, my mom, and I leave for NYC! I may take a hiatus from posting next week...maybe! Check back in to see what adventures we had while in New York!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

This is a post that I'm not very excited to write.  As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated.  He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play.  Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down.  I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...

Happily Ever After?

Lately, I've been adding to the Disney Princess movies in our collection.  Last week I bought Beauty and the Beast for Ava.  That was never a favorite movie of mine, but now that I've seen it several times in the last week, it's growing on me.  I figure this is a good chance for me to catch up on some of the stories that I missed out on! Watching all of these princess movies has me thinking about fairy tales...why is it that it's always the evil stepMOTHER?  Or the mom is dead, and no one has taken her place?  Very rarely is it the father who is evil, or dead.  This has actually come up as a topic in more than one conversation lately, and has me a bit intrigued.  Fairy tales are often not very happy - and usually someone dies at some point.  I was a giving an overview of Snow White to a friend of mine, and as I was going through the story, both of us were horrified at the message - mom dies, evil stepmother wants to murder her pretty stepdaugh...

What's Black & White?

It's officially summer in Minnesota.  We've passed the 1-2 weeks where it's pleasant outside, and have moved into the hot and humid midwestern summer season.  This calls for some FUN in the SUN!  We were hoping that Ava would enjoy the water a little more this year than she did last year (I took her to several weeks of swimming lessons in a lap pool, where the temp of the water was just a wee bit too chilly.  It didn't go well for either of us.)  Plus, she has a new swimming suit I was anxious to have her try out, so at the very least, I knew she would look cute. :) So, Daddy decided to set up the sprinkler for her one night after dinner.  This, too, did not go very well.  Perhaps it's because he sprung the sprinkler on her without warning, causing her to run to me, with fear in her eyes, and very wet hands...  After that, we never got her to come near the sprinkler (way to go, Daddy), and she decided to play with my potted flowers...with h...