Getting a little too up-close-and-personal with the goats at the zoo

On a perfect Saturday morning after a dreary week, we went to the zoo as a family.  We took a different route once inside, and ended up at the playground before it was too crowded.  

 Collin did not want to be caught smiling on camera!

Maya and I headed to the petting zoo while Collin was still climbing the rope ladders.  At first, she was tentative and wanted me right next to her to brush the goats.

But she quickly became more confident around the goats, squealing and trying to brush as many goats as possible.

"Goat, hug" she'd say.  She puckered up for a kiss, but I talked her out of that one.

Pouting after Mommy took away the brush . . . after she put both ends of it in her mouth and brushed a girl's hair.  We built a LOT of immunities at the petting area!

 Collin joined us -

Checking out the llamas -

Happy Maya, silly Collin -

Posing by the rhinos -

Maya wanted to go upside down like she saw Collin hanging on the fence -

Drumming with Daddy -

Gazing at the elephants with Mommy -

You lookin' at me?

Our last stop, the orangutan, had my kids pressed up to the glass -

Collin was tired that morning, I think we pushed him in the stroller more than Maya, and laid down for a hug in Maya's lap -

After refusing to smile for the camera all morning, Collin asked to take a picture on the sea lion - I'm sure only because it involved climbing!

Thankful to my grandma for our family pass to the zoo - it's a membership we get her money's worth out of every year!

Sugar and Spice

Maya can be sweet and cuddly.  She loves to give hugs and kisses, noting that we are "happy" after she doles out love.  She likes to rock and sing songs every night before bed.  But she's also our climber, our drama queen, our giver of furrowed brows, our biter and pincher.  We're working on encouraging her confidence and teaching her to articulate rather than lash out, which we know will come as she develops language.  She's a (mostly) delightful mixture of sugar and spice.

Our bedhead likes to pose for the camera - 

Dressed up for church.  Drop-offs at church are now tear-free, as they are at school.  She's friendly, happy, and enjoys playing with her friends.    

Thinking of what mischief she can get into next.  Her favorites include taking out every dvd and video game from the cabinet, messing with Mommy's fingernail polish, and drinking honey or syrup straight from the bottle if they're left within reach!

With her "sorry, hug?" responses, it's hard to stay mad for long!

She nurtures her baby dolls and plays with them much more than Collin.  She rocks them, gives them bottles, and loves to put as many as possible in the stroller for rides.  She still loves Collin's Eric which leads to some tension.  

And anything with handles becomes her purse.  Here she is saying bye-bye - which is what I look like some mornings with my gym bag, laptop bag, and purse as I head to work!

A random single shot of Collin and my grandma.  She came over for dinner one night and Collin pulled his chair up to form a bench with B's chair, and then cuddled all over her while they ate dinner.  Both kids and I love when B comes for dinner!

Collin-ardo turns five!

My sweet boy, who it seems like was our newborn months ago, somehow turned five last month.  On his last night as a four-year-old, we were cuddling on his bed discussing highs and lows of the day.  He asked me, "isn't your high that I'm going to be five tomorrow?"  And with tears running down my face I told him no, that it was going too fast.  I try to remember that when most nights at dinner, I have him leaning against me and Maya climbing in my lap, and I want just a few inches of personal space - that I should enjoy this "too loved" stage because I'll blink and they'll be too independent!

This year from four to five has been so fun to watch Collin grow.  He's much more confident, a bit less shy, and remains a sweet boy unless he's pretending to be a villain.  He started to learn to swim and read, he discovered a love of coloring, he climbs areas of the playground that used to scare him, he loves going to school each day and always asks to stay a bit longer when I come to pick him up.  He loves his action figures, jumping on the trampoline, and reading.  

For his fifth birthday, we had some sweet family friends over, had make-your-own pizza and green cupcakes, and luckily got the prettiest day in January to burn energy outside on bounce houses.  I learned that make your own pizzas sounded cute, but was much more effort than it was worth, so I spent almost all of the party inside.  

I did grab my camera for the birthday song - 

And for the silly string battle -

Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you're exempt from silly string to the face.

Do you see the bounce houses?  I went on them once.  They came to get them earlier than we expected on Saturday afternoon, and so this is the main documentation of the backyard fun.  Also, I don't think I'll do a 10:30am birthday party at our house again, or if I do, I'll take the day off beforehand.  We were up super late getting ready, and then I failed to pick up dog poop in our backyard, which was less than ideal when we had 25 people running through the grass!

Sweet Lorenzo didn't know how to defend himself, so he was the perfect target!

Grammy was caught up in the silly string battle . . . and Maya transferred dog poop she stepped in to Grammy's pants when she picked her up, so she learned not to wear nice clothes to our house!

Right before Maya's nap and Collin's rest time, we slid with Nico and Lorenzo.  Maya thought it was a scream!

Silly boys - Collin climbing up the rail, Lorenzo walking down the slide -

Happy, ninja-turtle-loving, birthday boy!

He was the self-proclaimed king of the slide!  Our brave five year old - definitely wouldn't have done this a year or two ago!

Lorenzo and Nico -

He and I raced on the obstacle course.  I missed a stake in the ground and face planted on the way to the obstacle course start . . . and then laughed at myself so hard that he smoked me on the course, having a 2 minute head start!

This is as "pinterest-y" as we got - I thought we'd get a lot more decorated, but Cas came home from the store at 10:35, so we got two balloons wrapped and then handed the rest of the green balloons to friends to decorate for us!

A few days after his birthday, we conducted our annual birthday interview:
1.  What makes you happy?  watching movies, playing with fighting men, coloring
2.  What is your favorite animal?  wolves
3.  What is your favorite toy?  Action figure - specifically, a transformer villain
4.  What is your favorite thing to eat?  peanut butter & jelly
5.  What is your favorite thing to drink?  Gatorade [which he only gets when he has a stomach bug, and coincidentally, complains often of stomach aches with the follow-up "may I have some Gatorade?"]
6.  What is your favorite thing to do?  jump on the trampoline
7.  What is your favorite movie?  Hercules
8.  What is your favorite game?  Candyland
9.  What are you really good at doing?  Building with legos, coloring in coloring books
10.  What is your favorite part of being a big brother?  getting hugs from Maya every morning
11.  What is your favorite color?  turquoise and green
12.  What is your favorite song?  the Joseph song from the Joseph movie
13.  Who is your best friend?  Cooper G. [at school]
14.  What do you and your mommy do together?  Play games, go grocery shopping, cuddle, color
15.  What do you and your daddy do together?  Cuddle, watch tv, sword fight with foam swords, tumble and wrestle
16.  What is your favorite sport?  Football - New York Giants
17.  Where is your favorite place to go?  movie theater, aquarium, WonderWild
18.  What is your favorite book?  The Big Orange Splot
19.  What is your favorite restaurant?  Ruggles Green and Chick fil A [unchanged from last year]
20.  What did you do on your birthday? Had friends over, jumped on the bounce houses and trampoline, ate pizza, watched The Incredibles
21.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  A taster of only desserts 
22.  What do you know about God and Jesus?  They can do whatever they want.  They created everything.  Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins.

What a joy it has been to parent this boy for the last five years!

Oh wonderful Collin, we could not love you more.  You are just what we always wanted!!

Christmas Eve to New Year's Day

My grandma's birthday falls on Christmas Eve, so we all headed over there for lunch to celebrate - 

And eat cookie cake!

Maya posing with the birthday girl -

My beautiful 89-year-old with two of her great grandchildren -

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration with Cas' family, and my kids stayed awake the latest I think either of them has ever been up - or certainly Maya's latest bedtime - 10:30pm!  So Christmas morning, Maya was up bright and early, but Collin finally got out of bed at 9am, after Cas and I were pacing.  He was surprised to see Santa's footprints and the gift he requested - the beast from Beauty and the Beast.

But wait, there were more footprints leading to the backyard.  Collin "acted like Batman and solved the mystery."

The footprints stopped on the driveway, but the note pointed behind the pool -

Collin apparently asked Santa for both the beast and April O'Neal, a ninja turtle character.  So Collin's response to our question of what could the footprints be leading to was "maybe it's April O'Neal!"

It wasn't April, instead it was a trampoline!  

Jumping - and falling - away!

I got in on the action in my robe, flipping around.  A few days later I was on the trampoline doing all kinds of jumps and flips, remnants of my gymnastics days (though significantly less impressive than my tricks when I was eleven).   And then I jumped over Collin, jerked mid-air to make it seem scarier to Collin . . . and cricked my neck.  I had to get straight off the trampoline and straight for the heating pad.  Pathetic!

Who was more excited about the trampoline, the kids or the mommy?

Posing on the Christmas present -

Maya loves to jump, and has learned the word "jump outside" to let us know it's trampoline time!

A few days after Christmas, Uncle Tony, Aunt Elida, Nico and Lorenzo came over.  Maya loves her cousins, especially Lorenzo who is at the perfect hugging level!

Lorenzo doesn't have the same love of hugging that Maya does!

We had a wild and crazy New Year's Eve - we started the morning at library story hour and ended the night with s'mores.

Cas passed on the s'mores, but Collin and I went to town!

On New Year's day, we had four of our couple friends and their kids over for lunch.  It was cold and rainy from Christmas to New Year's, and so it was nice to let the kids burn energy together and the grown-ups have encouraging conversations.  Six years ago there were just five couples - and on New Year's Day there were 10 adults and 13 kids, all five and under!