Zoo and Museum

Top of the afternoon to you!  Things were splendid (for me) this past week, and I think the kids got to have a really great time.  The weather was warmer for most of the week, so we got to spend more time outside.  The kids love being at the park and out doing other things, and I love the kids not making a mess everywhere in the house!  Win-win.  On Saturday we made a park attempt even though it snowed over night on Friday, and everything was still wet, and the kids got quite cold., especially Winry who won't let her hands be covered for anything. So after a rather short trip, we headed back home.  However, we did get some good cave time while there.

When Brooke and Monica go to the grocery store Brooke always wants to get a little cart to push around.  When she has a cart, she'll sometimes pick what items she wants in her cart to push through the store.  While looking through the clearance section Brooke found a "really cool" board game, and put it in her cart.  While they were looking around a worker came up and said some of the items had been there long enough they might be discounted farther, and she dropped the price of the game to $2.62, so Brooke got it!  What a lucky little girl.  She really loves it, and I like it now that it's aired out.  It came with a little plush that was supposed to be "sweet" scented... and now that it's less scented it's possible to sit by the board and play!

On Wednesday, Monica took the kids to the zoo.  The animals seemed to to think the weather was perfect (it was high of about 70) and they were out in abundance.  Even the indoor animals.  Everyone got a good look at the Fishing Cat, which is one we typically don't get to see.  They're usually sleeping in the back caves.  Winry got VERY excited to see a cat, which was a running theme this week.  She super loves animals, and especially loves kitties the most!

Also while at the zoo they of course HAD to stop and see the flamingos, and Brooke brought her flamingo to say hi to her family!

That afternoon at the park, Winry had a blast on the swings!  I would push her on the swings, and then I'd have to go over and check on Brooke and help her on slides every once in a while.  We sent Monica home early to work on dinner and stayed to play some more.  Shortly after Monica left, she called to let us know there was a brush fire pretty close to the park, so we headed home.  They were able to put it out pretty quickly, so that's good.

As we headed home to avoid the fire, a squirrel went running away from the stroller.  Turns out Monica brought some crackers and she and the kids had each had one, leaving one left in the package.  This did not go unnoticed to the squirrel, who swept in, stole our last cracker, climbed a tree, and watched us while he nibbled it up!!  Good thing there wasn't a "do not feed the wildlife" sign there.

Recently, the kids discovered a new song that they love, which naturally means there was a lot of great dancing.  Somehow through all of this, Brooke felt the need to take off her shirt so she could really get in the groove.  Sometimes Winry even tries to sing along!

On Thursday night, Monica got quite sick with the stomach flu and was up most of the night, so come morning I just worked from home.  Winry had been up basically all night, and I had slept for 3 and a half hours...  Hooray!  So I figured there was a good chance Winry was sick too.  It's seeming like she wasn't actually sick though and it was just teething. The kids were both great all morning letting me work, and during Winry's nap Brooke got to watch a movie.  I basically got to just work all day with the kids playing around me.  It was nice that they were so well behaved.  That afternoon I took the kids to Costco to walk around and get samples because can you really name a better activity to do on Friday afternoon before Costco gets busy?  I didn't think so.  Monica came down for a few hours in the afternoon, but for the most part was up in bed all day.  After the kids were in bed I enjoyed sitting on the front porch watching the rain and snow for a while.  It was a good relaxer.

Since the kids were so good for me Friday, I told Brooke I'd take her to the museum on Saturday.  Monica was feeling a lot better Saturday morning, but not good enough to head out for the day, so we packed up a lunch and headed out to let mom keep resting.  We had a wonderful time at the museum, and spent almost the whole day looking through the animal sections.  Those are Brooke's favorite.  We went by the bears and got to compare our hands to see if they were as large as bear paws.

Or some people checked to see if their bums were bigger than bear paws.  It was pretty close, but the bear's still got her beat.

While making our way through the animals, we found some birds.  Brooke wanted me to tell her about them so I read the information provided, and it mentioned dancing, so of course Brooke had to dance for the birds.  She might not know what courtship means yet, but close enough!

We found a quiet corner to eat lunch and I was able to trap Winry in with an ottoman.

Lunch was followed by more animals (there were 2 floors of them) and these cool twisting, top like chairs.  Brooke liked playing with them, but did not want to get spun around while sitting in it.

When we got home, we relaxed and had a lot of fun together.  We played with the waffle blocks for a while and Winry put on some new "bracelets."  She was quite excited about them.

Last night I went to check on Brooke after she was asleep.  She loves to have lots of blankets on her every night.  Last night it appears they got a little too heavy for her legs and when she rolled over, they started pulling her out of her bed!!  What a silly goose!

As for other important topics that we skipped, my bracket is doing average this year, so it doesn't look like I'm going to win any bracket challenges.  Oh well, there could be worse things.  I think that's all of the happenings out here this past week.  Have a wonderful week ahead!!