misc moments

Nate opens a birthday present with a little help from big sister ... (a month ago!  working on blog catch-up...)

Two little monkeys.

Smiles.

Cousins at the zoo peeking at a bunny.

Seals!

More seals!

Walter & Nate take snacking very seriously.

 

cousins at the zoo

outside

It has been such a nice long spring!  Hooray for beers and corn being brought home by bike!

And a field trip to the zoo!

Metro ride to the zoo!

Hello zoogoers.

Watch out world, here come the Stars!

A pair of orangutangs walked on the "O-Line" right above the walking path that the Stars were on!

Last weekend we went to Brookside with some buddies.  Nate and Rosie are EXACTLY the same age.  You can catch up on some of their previous adventures here and here.  Rosie loves big girls and is trying to give an oblivious Abigail something here. Nate is puzzled as to why Rosie would ever attempt to try to capture the attention of Big Sister who is in charge of everything!

Intrepid explorers checking out the marshy patch.

Rosie's dad, Jon, achieves celebrity status with the 1.5 year old set by being the Keeper of the Watermelon Chunks.

More watermelon please, say Rosie & Nate.  Hi Auntie Clare!!

Three sticky monkeys.

 

par-tay

When you are freshly four and suddenly find yourself the center of attention during your birthday party and everyone is singing to you and waiting for you to blow out the candles sometimes you just have to focus on your coloring.

You know, really really concentrate...

Happy Birthday Abby!  What a fun zoo celebration we had on Sunday!

After looking at this photo several times I just noticed that Nate is strapped to my back!  Hi Nate!  Thanks for coming to Abby's birthday party!

When a whole bunch of 4 year old pals come to your party, they bring their parents and some siblings along too..... estimates come in at about 40 people total at the zoo to celebrate Abby's big day.  Wooo hooooooo!  Let's all bounce around on the pizza playground after we eat our birthday cake!

Abby was sure about one thing on her bday party day: she would wear her purple princess dress over her regular clothes.

This was slightly out of character for Abby who is usually not into all-things-princess.  But it did lend a festive air to the occasion.  And one family of Japanese tourists did ask if they could take her picture (um..no).  Then they asked if they could feed the animals at the kids farm (um, no again!).

Abby & Sofia scoot around on some mushroom slices while Emma conquers Mt Olive.

Hey...was there a princess in that olive?

Nate found a new favorite activity during party cleanup time... pushing a plastic chair around the patio....makes a really loud scrapy sound that Nate just loved!

 

zoolights

Oh ZooLights!  What a fun outing.  We got there when it was light out, and Abigail ran about 5 miles doing loops around different light displays, up this path and that, etc.

 

Then it got dark and things got really interesting....

 

 Up close and personal with an elephant.

Following the snowflake light trail...

Lots and lots of lights.

Animals, flowers, trees, oh my.

Nate did love this purple tree.

These lights changed color....

At the end, we got to visit the farm animals in their barn. Major excitement as the barn is usually closed to visitors during the day when the animals are in their outside zones.  Nate LOVED the goats.

Bye bye zoo, see you next time!

fairy dog

It was a nice day for a visit to the zoo.  Abigail was decked head to toe in pink, pink, pink.  (Nate was there too, but apparently not doing anything photo-worthy while riding in the Ergo.)

Concerned Abby.

The tunnel area where kids can pretend to be prairie dogs. Or "fairy dogs" as Abigail calls them.

Tunnels are fun.

So are these weird bubble things.

It sure is great being a fairy dog.

Off to explore some more.