Spring Break Zoo Play Date



We met two of my friends and their kids at the zoo on Friday.  And as a spring break bonus, we had three grandparents on hand, so the adults outnumbered the children.  We started the day as we do almost every zoo visit, at the sea lions followed by a pose at the statue. 

Sweet big brother with his protective hand on Maya as they watch the meerkats -

Roaring at the lion water fountain on the way to meeting up with our friends -

Our first stop after snack time at the giraffes was the carosel, where everyone was smiling.

Collin had to be on the cheetah and Grayson wanted to be on the zeebra, so we split up to keep the kids happy.  Poor Maya will be stuck on whatever animal is next to Collin's pick until she develops an opinion of her own -

Maya was shaking she was so excited as soon as the carosel started -

My poser -

On to the petting zoo, another spot it was so nice to have my mom.  Last time I had nursed Maya while Collin would get the petting area brush full of dirt and then pet the goats with it, while I tried to correct him from a bench.  Today we split up, and Collin met us in the playground for a photo -   

Our group - Lynsey and her two boys, Kelly and Katelyn, and me with my kids -

Collin stuck with Katelyn, trying to guide her to different spots. 

Our happy girl enjoyed the zoo and noticed about 50% of the animals -

Playing peek-a-boo after lunch -

Katelyn and her grandma -

Our last stop as we headed towards the exit - and my favorite part of the zoo - was a bear exhibit where the bears were wrestling, playing in their pool, and chasing one another.  Maya was captivated -

Kelly and Katelyn at the bears -

Collin and Grayson finally started paying attention to one another as we were wrapping up our zoo visit -

Hugs for Katelyn -

An absolutely beautiful weather day at the zoo was the perfect morning outing with friends.

Happy faces and high heels

While Maya took a nap and Collin was still in his church gear, we took some pictures of our happy four-year-old boy - 

Sharing some love with Fergie - who he loves a google, while Bruno he only loves a dot.  (Bruno has my favored status, though, mostly because he doesn't shed.)

Cas tried to put gel in his hair and fix it in a cool spikey, messy way.  Collin would prefer it slicked down a la Dumb and Dumber, and will smooth it straight down after Cas fixes it.  It's a fun battle on the rare days we break out the gel -

 Then I try to repair it so that all sides are okay, yet no one particularly pleased with the hair outcome -

Even with a ridiculous sense of hair style, we still think our son is incredibly handsome -

I saw this photo series on Pinterest and we tried to recreate it.  Cas thought it would be better outside in natural light, so we may try again when it's warmer -

This is the first time Maya has been in high heels, but Collin has been in my heels too many times to count!  We think largely as a dinnertime stall tactic, Collin often needs to go to the bathroom in the middle of our meal.  He normally goes to our master bathroom, and leaves his mark, rearranging all of my bubble baths and soaps.  He then regularly returns to the table in one of my bracelets or heels, announcing in a high pitch voice that he is Mommy.  If we tell him to come and sit immediately, he reminds us that he is an adult and we don't order adults - which was only cute the first time.

Bike rides and bubble goatees

My children have the BEST grandparents.  Every Wednesday, on her one full day off, Grandma Libia comes over at 8am and spends the entire day.  She fights traffic in the morning and afternoon, and she never enters our door empty-handed.  Normally my kids are spoiled with pancakes, yogurt, and such a huge lunch that we have left-overs for days.  Collin is on a weekly countdown for Wednesdays!

And we generally see Grammy and Brownie over the weekend.  This Saturday they came after nap time and drove home late in the rain, baby-sitting for us so Cas and I could have a date night after I nursed Maya and put her to bed.  

It was so nice to eat a warm meal free of instructions.  Maya quite often eats faster than I can get food on her tray, and Collin is the polar opposite; we spend most of our meals instructing on behavior and encouraging him to eat and not just tell stories at the table.  So my food is almost always cold by the time I actually eat it, and I feel deserving of chocolate and a glass of wine after dinner is over.  Dinner out with Cas and the chance to catch up after his busy first work week was a much-appreciated treat!

Brownie hadn't yet seen Collin on the scooter, so he got to see his grandson's skills first-hand, as he and Maya were on my bike next to my scooter-riding boys - 

Maya loves the bike rides, kicking her feet in delight -

The boys on their scooters -

Happy girl -

Bath time with Grammy means lots of bubbles, squeals and splashing.  And on Saturday, it meant bubble goatees -

The first one happened accidentally, when Maya bent forward to try and eat the bubbles and came up with a bit of a bubble beard -

Collin requested that I take pictures of the bubbly faces -

We are so thankful for our parents and their great relationship with our kids, and they are equally delighted by their grandkids, showing off their pictures and telling stories about them to anyone who will listen!

My high involved a garbage truck

Our Friday wasn't pretty enough to demand a trip to the park, but when we finally got some glimpses of sunlight, I bundled the kids up and we headed outside for some vitamin D on the front lawn.  

We took a picnic basket with toys and spent a few hours playing in the yard.  Maya likes to knock down our block towers, though she doesn't yet show the same level of thrill that Collin used to express when he would send them crashing down.  Once in reach, they often go straight to her mouth - 

Happy boy on a carefree Friday -

Interested in this big black flashing thing I kept pointing in her face (and if you look carefully, you can see my reflection in her eyes!)-

Sticks:  a pretty constant fixture in Collin's hands anytime we're in our yard -

Playing together / giving Maya a weed which I then have to remove before she eats it -

My jokester, intentionally closing his eyes as soon as I snapped -

Poser, blocking his sister out of the picture -

Using his hair to keep her balance -

Hug / choke-hold from Collin -

One finger hold while standing -

Collin loves to play super-heroes, his teachers tell us sometimes too much.  He determines which kids are the bad guys, and he and his best friend at school trapped two younger kids (the bad guys in their game) in a little club house on their play ground.  Clearly social skills are a work in progress, though we appreciate his vivid imagination.

Maya following in her big brother's stick wielding footsteps - 

The garbage truck came by and Collin went running to say hi.  As they passed they gave him a honk and I remarked how cool.  Collin replied that he thought they were going to honk.  And that was my high of the day.  I told Cas that I am so thankful I'm around for tiny, happy moments like this.

Over the last two weeks at work, I've turned down an opportunity to take on a big project that would require travel and working full time and then seen peers get promoted.  It was a blessing to be reminded that this time where my son gets excited that a garbage truck honks for him is so short-lived.  I know I'll never regret getting to spend four days a week at home with my kids, even though it means a much slower career trajectory.  And at church today, I was again reminded that to God, success is faithfully following His purpose for me, not achieving some worldly status.  So I'm grateful for my sweet family that finds delight in the ordinary and hope these ordinary moments continue to be the highlights of my days.

Our favorite pizza delivery

Cas started his first week at a new job this week.  So far so good, but it was a very busy week.  Though he was in town - a big reason behind why he took the job, as it should be less travel - he only made it to dinner twice in the five day work week.

So I invited my grandma over for dinner with us on Thursday . . . and then realized we didn't have enough beef for the meal . . . so asked her to bring pizza.  I was telling people at work that not only was my 87-year-old grandma driving herself over for dinner, she was picking up the food.

Before dinner we had to play outside for a few minutes.  Collin wanted to make sure B had a stick sword too -

My kids went to town on the delicious pizza.  Maya was happy as can be with her meal and that she got to sit next to one of her great-grandmas -

 

The crew:  Collin who out-ate my grandma and me in pizza, my wonderful Grandma Betty, and happy Maya at the table (with the dogs vulturing around Maya waiting for scraps) -

So thankful for the company, especially the company bearing food!  A great evening was had by all!

Showing off new skills

Cas brought home a new scooter for Collin, and he and picked it up very quickly.  He loves to zoom up and down the street on it.  The next day the boys ran an errand and Cas came back with a scooter for himself, after going to three stores to find a scooter where he wouldn't exceed the weight limit.   

Maya cheered for Collin's first scooter ride from the front porch lawn.  Since then, we've done a few family rides, where Maya and I are on my bike and the boys are on their scooters.  I expected to be figure-eight bike riding down the street, but surprisingly we're all about the same pace.  

Oh the hand-me-down cuteness of the dress, the leggings and the boots.  It makes me gleeful!

Collin took a long nap on Sunday and so I got some one-on-one time with my daughter.  Though we dress her like a girly girl, we haven't bought her too many girly toys since right now all she cares about is if she can chew on them.  Surrounded by cars and trucks and showing off her crawling skills -

Chomping on Mater -

Collin's new skills of the winter including getting brave enough to walk the balance beam by himself at gymnastics (though at an adorably cautious pace), flying down the street on the scooter, and picking up all kinds of info at school and from reading.  

Maya is cruising all over furniture, dancing/bouncing when standing to music, crawling everywhere, I think she's trying to repeat "up" when she wants to be carried, and she's also starting to be remotely interested in books beyond just as another teething toy.  

Our yard has more (weed) flowers than yours

Sweet Collin loves to gift others with flowers, especially his mommy.  This sometimes means he pulls nice, living flowers out of planters at restaurants, but mostly it means he picks the tiny flowers in our front yard.  Yesterday he was telling our neighbor - who has a beautifully landscaped yard - that we had more flowers than he did, but I don't think Jeff was very jealous considering the vast majority of our flowers are growing off of weeds!

Daily pickings - 

Maya in her tutu and Collin who has already learned to roll his eyes and thinks it's hilarious (he thinks it's like sticking out your tongue; as of yet he doesn't do it disrespectfully).  Posing at the park for a Friday picnic -

Maya reading a book to herself . . . or more likely, opening her mouth to nibble on the book.

We happened to check on Collin after we had put him down and realized that he didn't go immediately to sleep.  Instead, he's been reading at the end of his bed where he gets some light from the bathroom and then falling asleep among books.  I have a love/hate reaction to this.

Maya in her first pair of "jorts" on the first day of March -

Three of Maya's blankets still leave a lot of Cas exposed as he snuggled up to watch tv.  They are the softest blankets in our house and the purple chevron one was knitted by Aunt Coady -

Smiles for spaghetti (and pretty much any other food) - 

While Collin has been struggling with sharing since Maya started to crawl, he still has plenty of sweet brother moments.  Here was one of him complimenting Maya when he saw her outfit for church on Sunday - 

We're enjoying the flowers, picnics at parks, watching Collin play peek-a-boo with Maya, and watching Maya grow by leaps and bounds.  We're biting our lips not to laugh at Collin as he explains why he cannot share Spiderman with Maya because then there will be too many villains and the bad guys will win the battle (or whatever increasingly creative excuse he comes up with for not sharing).  And we're praying Collin has a heart that is kind and generous - and that we do too!