Kicking Off the Zoo Season

Last weekend I took the kids to the zoo to meet up with some friends. It wasn't nearly as warm as I thought it was, which meant we were all under-dressed and didn't stay long.

It may have been just because it was new again this year but the kids seemed a lot more into the animals than they were last fall. We saw the bears, cougars, eagles and foxes but then we stumbled upon their new love (especially Casey's)....a kitty cat! From that point on the kids could care less about any other animals, they were chasing this cat around. The poor thing was kind of getting mauled between my friend's daughter and our kids. But it was a good sport.

A few pictures before we got sidetracked...



This is where they fell in love...

They were so excited once it started to walk along with them...


Then they cornered the cat and the mauling began again...





This video shows a little bit of their excitement.


It saw a way out...

What I didn't get a picture of was the huge fit Casey threw when we left. I carried him out as he was screaming, "Kitty, cat, kitty cat!!!"

I Thought It Was Spring?

On the first day of spring we got dumped on with a snow storm. Sooner or later it has to warm up and melt but until then we are enjoying the time we have left outside in the snow.

All 4 of the kids had a great time outside on Sunday. Daniel has made the perfect sledding course which the boys were loving!


Please excuse the Blair Witch'ish video taping in this one.


Maggie was quite content to sit on the sidelines and watch the boys. Besides, she had to protect her PINK ball! This little girl is OBSESSED with anything and everything pink!

These cozy coupe cars were a great Kijiji purchase. The kids love them!


Who needs a dog to clean up the leftovers on the floor when you have 3 little people? Actually, unfortunately they don't always do this but this night they were pretending they were puppies and eating all of the bits of food that "fell" during supper.



Maggie is afraid of the vacuum so whenever I use it she hides in the play room snuggled up with daddy but when he's not home she gets up on the couch and covers herself up with pillows and her blankie. While I was vacuuming her foot came uncovered and she screamed until I came over and covered her toes back up.

Leprechauns and Sponge Bob

We had some fun with the kids on St. Patrick's Day. They actually cooperated and wore their hats, sunglasses and bow ties long enough to get a few pictures. Later that morning we went out to Costco which they love! The highlights for them were the Mickey Mouse piano book that they each got and of course the ice cream after we were done shopping.




On Saturday Leah and I took the kids to one of the malls where Sponge Bob Square Pants was making an appearance. When we got there (20 min. early) the line up to see him was half way down the mall. We stood there for a minute and then realized the kids would never last that long waiting in a line. So we went and found a table in the food court close to where he was going to be. It was perfect! The kids really didn't know who he was so they weren't at all disappointed that we didn't get up close and personal with him. Actually, they may have very well been scared of him if we would have gotten too close. When we were leaving the line up to see Sponge Bob was the entire length of the mall. I was SO glad the kids weren't old enough to make us stand in line. Ha ha!


Do you want to know what Daniel's first comment was when he saw this picture? He said, "Mitchell looks like Angus from ACDC with that hat on".

He went searching for a picture of him and thought he looked even more like him. I'm really not sure what to think about this, but we did have a good laugh.

Then he went on to find this picture saying that Casey was the big guy on the left with Mitchell. I hope our kids don't turn out to be metal heads like their daddy!

One last set of pictures from the day - the kids get excited when we go to the gas station. They think it's cool that the guys put gas in our van and clean the windows. I snapped a few pictures while we were waiting.

Holy Moly!

I'm sure all of you moms out there know what I mean when I say that something is going on if you don't hear a lot of noise coming from where your kids are playing plus you hear some giggling mixed in with the quietness. This day the kids were taking all of the toys in the playroom, plus the couch cushions, and piling them into their little playhouse. Nothing major, just a little extra clean up and they had fun.


Here is a video too. Mitchell is the one saying "Holy moly!"


Smoothies are a huge hit with kids. It may be more about them each having their own straw more than the actual smoothie itself, but oh well, it's a very healthy snack.



The remote control is a big deal in our house. We still keep it out of reach of the kids because otherwise it's a fight. Tonight Mitchell found it while I was putting Casey and Maggie to bed. When I came back out to the living room I found guilty, busted Mitchell...

...who then turned into proud, devilish grin Mitchell.





I love his smile!

Choo Choo Train

The kids were so hyper last night right before bed. After brushing their teeth they were doing what they called the "choo choo train". Mitchell sat down in the cupboard first and asked Casey to sit on his lap. Then Casey asked Maggie to sit on his lap. They were giggling and yelling "Choo choo"! They thought it was hilarious, until of course Maggie wasn't happy with her place in the train. As always, all good things must come to an end. If you look closely in this first picture you can Mitchell squished in there behind Casey.



Mitchell looks like he's thinking, "Oh my god you guys are heavy!"

The kids are majorly attched to their blankies. Quite a while ago Mitchell designated 1 of his 4 corners to be more special than the others and he would always take that corner of his blankie and rub it under his nose. Maggie and Casey would do the same with a corner but it didn't have to be a specific one. Well, Mitchell has pulled and played with that special corner so much that all that is left of it now is a long string with a little bit of yarn on the end that he's holding up in the picture. He will search through his blankie until he finds the string with the bit on the end which he still calls "corner".

As you can see he has also made a "super big hole" in the middle of his blankie. He is so descriptive, everything is either super huge, super big, too small, medium, too full, too much etc.

The funny thing is that my mom made him another blanket, same color and same type of yarn and when we gave it to him in place of his old blankie he looked at it, checked out each of the corners and said "No, my blue blankie". So what does Grandma do? Make him another blankie trying to get it a little closer to his liking. We'll have to see if we can fool him with this new one.

A few more pictures during some down time on the couch with daddy right before their nap. Their 2 favorite shows right now are In the Night Garden and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. They have just recently gotten to a point where they will actually sit through a whole 30 min program and I have to honestly say I don't mind at all!



Can you tell Casey was into it?