The Zoo

Wow-did I ever miss everyone when I was away! I was so excited to come home:) I returned home Sunday and decided on Monday, when I thought it would be a cool day, to head to the zoo with the kids. We timed how long it took and we arrived in 21 minutes. The kids had a great day even though it turned out to be very hot. Every time I ask what their favorite animal was, I receive a different answer. "the deer, the giraffes, the turtle, the monkey that made the funny noise, the snakes..." I was very lucky to have Danny along to help the kids with seeing the animals so that Mommy could take some pictures. Danny also took pictures of the animals:) He did a great job--unfortunately the camera we are using right now does not have a zoom--I found the charger:) Any way, we were very excited when we came to the emus. Danny reminded us all of our favorite story--"Edward the Emu". As you can see, Edward was very proud to see him;) There was a petting place in the zoo primarily full of goats. Don't let these pictures fool you--the kids enjoyed trying to pet and feed the goats but when the goats were close they became nervous. JiaLi even commented at home "I don't like the goats." We ended the day in the deer forest which each of the kids loved. They all had an opportunity to feed the deer. Edward reacted to dropping his food and pulling his hand away each time the deer tried to feed from him. Hence, I missed catching him feeding a deer. JiaLi was very brave and really enjoyed it--Edward and Dan did too. Jenise and Joseph are away at Grandma's and Pepee's this week attending basketball camp. Danny's age range was last week and he was able to spend the whole week with them. When JiaLi woke this a.m., she approached me saying "I can't find Jenise and Joseph" (not quite so annunciated;)) We had to bring medicine to my Mom's and when we got there JiaLi ran to Jenise saying "I miss you!" We miss Joseph lots too--today my Dad mowed the lawn and Joseph was there with the small clippers trimming the grass around the rocks,steps...He's such a great worker:)

Making A Whirlpool

I thought I would make one last post before I go away. I have a Convention I am going to(for stamping) and will be out of town for a few days. Please say a special prayer for my husband! I am looking forward to it but usually when I get there I am ready to be home with the kids. Here are the kids just hanging out in the pool. Their favorite thing to do is to make a whirlpool. They can actually get a pretty good force going in the water:) As far as a camera, you are not going to believe this one. First there might be hope for our broken camera(which I loved). We finally heard back from the company and they are willing to let us send the camera to them to see if it is repairable. In the meantime, we picked up a camera that is a few grades lower than our broken one. I was definitely spoiled with my other one. The camera is great for outdoors but when indoors, the colors just are not there. That's o.k., with all the programs out there, it's workable. However, our battery just died and I can't find the charger!!GRRRRRRRR!!!! I have even searched for a charger for the battery--it's a lithium one--and cannot find a match. Even from the company. When I am at the Stamping Convention, I am always taking pictures of the samples and ideas. Now I need to make a last minute attempt at solving the camera problem. Talk to you all soon!!

More with Danny:)

Danny is in the second picture of the post I did previously. Click and you will be able to see him better:) I didn't forget him:) He mostly went on rides that were too fast for the camera and he is just too big now to participate on the Kiddie rides:( Just for the heck of it, here are some more pictures....

Adventureland

We had an evening at Adventureland one of our nights away. I was not sure how JiaLi would feel about the rides but for the Kiddie Rides when we told her that Mommy and Daddy were too big, she was a little trepidatious(is that a word?)but went right on. She had a nervous look on her face during the rides but as soon as she was off, she was asking to go back on. In the first picture, she is actually happy with her mouth open yelling "look at me." There was one piece of equipment that had some climbing ladders and ropes that led up to a big slide. Edward is seen helping JiaLi to jump from the mat(even though she can). Jenise pretty much screamed(a happy scream) on each ride whe went on. Joseph was a little disappointed because he was not tall enough to go on the big roller coaster but once he experienced the smaller roller coaster, he was quickly over it. Edward is trying to teach JiaLi to throw the balls the right way to get them to go into the holes but as you can see she had her mind made up to do it her way.

Just Out in the Yard

We were out swimming in the pool this afternoon and I once again tried to get a picture of them all without success but I did get some cute pictures of the kids in varying groups. The picture of the 4 of them with their heads together is one where they said "let's be Madagascar". I don't even think JiaLi knows what they were talking about but she went right along with it. The kids watched Madagascar on the long ride to NY.