zoo trip

The boys and I headed to the Zoo last Monday while they were out of school for Presidents' Day.  They have had so many days out of school lately, due to illness, holidays, work days, etc.  I knew that for all of us to be sane by the end of the day that we had to get out of the house.  For some reason they didn't really want to go at first,  but we went anyway with the agreement that we would eat lunch, see the 3D movie and a few animals and go home.

So we ate lunch (FYI, the Lakeside Cafe is closed for renovations so the Painted Giraffe is the only place to eat right now and it is incredibly busy!) and came up with a game plan.  We would head to the monkeys' winter house since we rarely see that and then back to the movie.

On the way to see the monkeys, we stopped to watch the prairie dogs.

They were really fun to watch.  I don't remember them being so active before - either I don't remember right or they really inactive during the warmer months when we usually go.  It's most likely that I just don't remember.  They would jump in holes, out of holes, wrestle with each other, chatter.  The whole time we were watching I was wondering what they were saying to each other, because during our trip to San Fran a marine animal expert was talking to us about the sea lions out there and how they aren't sure exactly how they communicate with each other but that there is a guy who has been studying prairie dogs for over 20 years and can tell that they are communicating things like "the coyote is coming back", etc.  I found it fascinating, but I'm not sure my trip-mates did.  But they will appreciate that that's what I was thinking about while watching this!

We saw the monkeys (and I will add that I enjoyed watching them in their winter house much more than in their summer outdoor environment because they were so much more active and interactive) and then it was off to the 3D movie.

Yeah.....what to say about that?  Let's just say that we've now learned to always ask to make sure that the 3D machine is actually working before we buy tickets now.  Elliott was about to drive me crazy asking where the 3D glasses were.  I don't know what I was thinking - maybe you didn't need them for this particular movie?  I finally let him go ask the lady but he didn't make it to her before she closed the doors.  So I notice that no one else has theirs on so we must be ok.  But just to make sure I asked the girl behind me if they got any.  "No, she said something about the 3D machine being broken".  Hmmm.....would have been good info before we bought the tickets.  Oh well.

Then we hurried through the penguins' habitat - you have to hurry cause it smells so bad in there!  And then were on our way home.  Not without some complaints about not getting any Dippin' Dots, though.  I said it was too cold and they didn't need it.  So we stopped and got FroYo on the way home instead.  Because it was cold and they didn't need it :)

We had never been there before, but will definitely be going back!  We tried a few different flavors and decided that the Thin Mint was our favorite and really didn't care for the Strawberry Banana much.  As you can see, the boys prefer gummy worms with theirs.  I do not.  

Such a fun day with them.  Reminded me of summer when we can usually just pick up and do things like this.  Already collecting ideas of things to do this summer - can't wait!

a few faves

I found this at Trader Joe's about a week and a half ago and have already been back to get more.  I think I pretty much ate the entire bag myself.  And then I did what any good friend would do......I told Nyla about it so that she could become addicted too.  Sorry!!  It's just so good!  Something about the salty and sweet combo along with the crunchiness.  Mmmmmm.....

Words with Friends and Scramble with Friends.  

We're addicts.  

All four of us.  

I've been playing Words for a while, just not regularly.  It especially gave me something fun to do during those weeks of recovering from chemo.  But I only just introduced Brian and the boys to it in the past couple of weeks, and they can't get enough of it either.  So fun!

Eye-Fi

This is one of the best inventions in my opinion.

Amber gave it to me for my birthday last year, but I didn't set it up until after Christmas.  I know!  Ridiculous!  But I LOVE IT!!

It's a memory card for your camera, but it works wirelessly, so anytime I take a picture, once the camera is in range of my wireless network it goes ahead and uploads it to the computer.  I don't have to do anything! This is what it looks like on the screen when a new image is uploading.  Then I get an email saying I have a new batch of images uploaded so that I don't forget about them.

I know there is more to it than that - you can upload to your iPhone, iPad, view online, etc. but this is as far as I've gotten.  Thanks Amber!

nerf night

While I was having fun with the girls in CA, all of the boys at our house were gearing up for Nerf Night at church.  I believe that this has been the single most talked about event amongst the elementary kids the whole time I've been involved in any way!  At least that was the case at our house.

As you can see, we are serious when it comes to Nerf Night.  This is our friend David, who was definitely prepared for the evening of attack! Maybe gives another meaning to being "dressed in the full armor"  Ha!

This was Elliott's team behind Matt.  He's the one with the sunglasses on, just in case he needed to go into spy mode I suppose.  Love all those boys on his team!

And here they are reloading I guess.  I probably should have asked Brian about these before I started blogging about them.  

Ethan must have been getting some advice from Brian.  He looks a little intimidating with all of his warpaint, don't you think?  And see how Brian was in battle gear also?  I think the guys were really hoping to get in an adults round, but so many kids showed up that there was no time for that.

Love this picture of Ethan and Ty!  Don't mess with those boys!

Thank you Trudi for taking the fantastic pictures and sharing them!

basketball

We're in the thick of basketball season here.  Ethan was an awesome defender yesterday and blocked 2 shots in a row! He loves basketball.  He loves all sports, I guess, but he seems to really like this and baseball the best.  Until I allow him to play football, probably :)

Elliott is really enjoying it too.  He said he didn't want to play last year and then complained that he wasn't playing every single time we took Ethan to practice.  So he was excited for the season to begin, and has been doing great!  

He was getting the blue star from his coach here a few weeks ago.  I can't remember what all the colors mean.  I'm thinking maybe blue is effort?  Can't remember.  I do know that he got a foul in this game and his coach was making a big deal out of that cause it meant he was really getting into the game - he had been a bit hesitant before.

girls' weekend

I was lucky enough to get to go away this weekend.  It was soooooooo nice to get away.  I needed it.  I feel so much more relaxed and refreshed now.  

Here's a little glimpse...

just for you Nyla :)

good-bye sunny CA

hello snowy STL

valentine's day

Look what Brian surprised me with the night I got home from California:

YUM!!

I love chocolate covered strawberries.

A friend asked if I had eaten them all yet.

Told her I hadn't, but, sadly, I probably will.

What a great guy.

He watched the kids all weekend so that I could get away,

and even thought to celebrate V-day a day early since

he knew he would have to work late the next day.

We don't really celebrate Valentine's Day much.  I didn't even think about getting the kids anything for Valentine's Day until I got to school for their parties that afternoon and heard the other moms talking about what they had done that morning.  Oops.  I didn't even remember to get anything for their teachers.  Ethan was so disappointed that he didn't have anything special for his teacher.  I felt so bad.  He decided he would make her a special Valentine card and gave it to her the next day, so all was good again. 

So, anyway, despite my sorry display of Valentine enthusiasm, we managed to get to the store and get pizza crust to make heart shaped pizzas as our special Valentine thing.  I have to say I enjoyed that very much.  It was simple, fast, and didn't leave any chocolate laying around for me to have to talk myself out of every day....hour...minute?

I do love those boys so very much!!

science fair

This was the first year Elliott did a science fair project.  He has asked a few other times and we've put it off, knowing it's a lot of work.  We felt like he could handle it this year, so he signed up and decided to explore which type of cup was the best at keeping ice from melting.

He did a great job figuring out the experiment with some encouragement from Brian, and he was a bit surprised at the findings (but not me, a big fan of the Tervis).  He thought that the ice would last the longest in the aluminum water bottle because the opening was much smaller than the other cups, but the Tervis Tumbler came out the winner.

It was a really great learning experience for him, especially since he had to do it all on his own.  He realized how much work it really is.  He made it home with a 3rd Place ribbon, and I haven't heard him say that he wants to do it again next year yet.  I'm sure he will.

February Randomness

Ethan got his own library card the other day.  He wasn't exactly this excited about it.  This face is more like "is this smile big enough for your picture for the blog?".  But he was and still is pretty excited to have been given the responsibility of the library card.  He even had to sign the back of it.

Three years ago we bought a new washer and dryer.  We knew they wouldn't last as long as the set we had before, but we thought it would be longer than 3 years.  We were wrong.  Hello new washer!  On the up side, it is soooooo much quieter than the other one and it sings a fun little song when it's finished washing.  Made me think that it would be fun if you could program them to have different ring tones like your phone.

I thought I was going to document a day in our life through pictures.  Saw someone else do it on their blog and thought it would be fun.  I forgot to keep taking pictures after 8:30 that morning.  Oh well.  Another day.  But this was part of that - Ethan finishing homework that morning.

Hello spring flowers in the snow.  Why can't you stay in the ground and sprout when you are supposed to?  Is it because of the 60 degree temps we've had for so many days?  Are you confused?  Your tulip friends in the backyard are confused also.  I fear that you will become so confused that you will end up just staying in the nice warm ground.  So disappointed.