Zoo Day

Tuesday was dollar day at the zoo. Though it was cold in the morning, the weather was a perfect 70 degrees by mid-morning. We met our playgroup out there. Our group had 4 double strollers and we took up most of the patio where we ate lunch.

We started at the petting zoo where Katherine was able to pet a bunny rabbit. Janna and Robert with the giraffes.
It is quite a challenge to get a photo of all three of us. I was actually holding both girls. Caroline was asleep at this point.
The giraffes were eating. The baby kept trying to take the food from its mom.
Louis was cute in his red cowboy hat.
Katherine was being quite shy.
Jenny the elephant.
Since it was $1 admission we decided to splurge on the monorail. It is only $2 but we have never done it before. I am not excited about the fact that in February Katherine will no longer be free everywhere we go.


It was a very fun day before the holiday weekend. I could not have asked for better weather.

Halloween Playgroup

Today we had a Halloween playgroup at our house with 6 toddlers and 2 infants. I had run across all kinds of cute ideas on various blogs to I was inspired.
We ate a "banana-pede" made of banana, peanut butter, pretzel sticks and raisins.
We had eye balls made from hard boiled eggs and olives. Katherine was not a fan of these but they were all eaten so somebody liked them.
These were mummy hot dogs. They are kind of like pigs in a blanket but made with bread sticks. They were cute.
We had a craft time with two crafts. They used Halloween shaped cookie cutters dipped in paints to "stamp" on paper.

The other craft was making "splat monsters" where you use an eye dropper to drip paint and then fold the paper in half. We then glued googly eyes on.
We were supposed to paint pumpkins as well but it was a bit chaotic and we ran out of time and attention span. So, after nap Katherine and I painted her pumpkin. I had a palate of 5 colors all neatly poured onto a plate. Katherine had more fun mixing the colors than I could have imagined so we ended up with a pumpkin with a swirl of colors that blended to be a nasty greenish brown. My pumpkin had one side with a face and the other side was painted by Katherine in this same icky color. Katherine has decided that all painting projects need to be finger paint so we explored that a little as well.

Wrestle Mania

This week at playgroup the 3 older kids ended up in Katherine's room. They played quietly together for quite some time before they ended up on Katherine's bed for a little wrestling and pillow fighting. Lacey had a fun time watching Kyle, Robert and Katherine. Luckily no one was hurt in this fun.
When I asked Katherine about it later, she said that they were "3 Little Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed".

I love how in this picture you see Tara and Janna's hands reaching in to protect their kids.

Playgroup Reunion

When Katherine was born I started a playgroup for babies that were born around the same time. Over the last two and a half years different people have been involved and come in and out of the group but there was always a core group of us that has continued on. Kathy, Janna and I were the main core of the group from the beginning and then Kathy moved out of town last November. She was back in town this week so we got the kids together along with Jen and Evie (who have been consistently involved but Evie is a year younger so not since the beginning).

It was a pretty chaotic lunch and playgroup. We had Robert and Sammy who were born Dec. 05, Katherine Feb 06, Evie Dec. 06, Sara May 07 and Laurie Jane July 07. All kids were mobile and all wanting to eat.

We had the brilliant idea of trying to get all 6 kids together for a picture on the couch. At first both boys adamantly refused so we just had a cute picture of the girls.

The Girls

Laurie Jane, Evie, Sarah and Katherine

Finally we were able to get the boys in the picture though they were not that happy about it.

Kathy's son Sammy was pretty much Katherine's first friend. Those first few months the four of us were together several times a week. Katherine and I sure miss Kathy and Sammy (and now Sarah too!). Here are some pictures of Katherine and Sammy then and now.

Playgroup at the Zoo

Our playgroup met for a fun time at the zoo. It was a little crazy with 5 toddlers and 2 babies but it was a lot of fun.
The entire morning was a game of musical chairs. We had one "odd man out" of the stroller. This was Tess' first big outing since Gabriel was born and she did not think to switch what stroller was in the car so she did not have a double stroller. It truly was musical chairs. Every time we would load up the kids would just run for a spot and someone would be left out. Sometimes that person was fine with it and sometimes they were not. It was interesting.

Robert wants to be carried when "odd man out".

Katherine squeezes in with Laurie Jane when "odd man out".
Katherine thought the toad statue wanted some raisins.

After lunch we let the kids play in the water. Of course this was the highlight of the day at the zoo. Rather than messing with a swimsuit, I just let Katherine play in her panties and cover. Several times I caught her trying to take them off!

Ben and Madi

Louis was the fish of the group, literally going all the way in.
Ava is a new walker so she was a little hesitant.

Robert enjoyed the water.
Baby Gabe slept most of the morning. He is such a cutie.

I just noticed I did not post any pictures of animals. I did take a few but it was so much work keeping the kids corralled together that they were not really any good. The kids were animals enough though!

Playgroup at the Arboretum

Our playgroup had our annual spring outing to the Arboretum. We have a membership so we go to the Arboretum often and have been taking Katherine since she was 5 weeks old. We have some great pictures both in the tulips and the pumpkins.

I have discovered though that we are at a stage where I need to give up getting good pictures. I will still try but she is so active that it is pretty hard. No longer content to sit calmly beside the flowers Katherine wants to run through them and pick them. Most of my time is spent chasing her and making sure she does not pick flowers.

Katherine and Robert

Our best shot in the flowers

Katherine and Ben - both with funny looks

Evie

Katherine's favorite part of the Arboretum is the play houses. When we get there she just takes off. It is funny that she is so independent when we get to the Arboretum because at home she wants to be in my lap.

It is almost impossible to get a good picture of us together these days because she does not want to be held. So, Katherine always looks upset when she is trying to get down.

Catching up

There are a lot of photos from the past few weeks that I have not posted so tonight's post is all about catching up. No potty (training) talk, I promise!

We were all outside and working in the garages. Sam saw a huge grasshopper. Being the science nerds that we are we turned it into a lesson and got Katherine interested in the "hopper".
We got her to touch it hoping that it would jump really high but it was pretty lazy.
She even decided that she wanted to give it a kiss. She is so funny, she is scared of some insects and not others. I think part of it is if it is in the house or outside. I have made sure that I never freak out about bugs because I don't want to have a wimpy little girl.

Madi and Ben came over to celebrate Madi's birthday with cupcakes from Sprinkles (very yummy I might add). The kids decided to go play the piano. They both love music and had quite the fun time playing and singing.


Our playgroup went to the park for a picnic and outdoor fun. Katherine loves to just run. She and Robert were all over the field.

To get them back to where we were eating, Janna convinced Katherine to chase her.

Then when Katherine would catch Janna they would both fall down on the ground. I love my group of mommy friends and the fact that we are all helping to raise one another's kids. These women all love Katherine and I love all of their kids. It is a true community.

Mommy, I'm tall!

When it was time to leave Katherine insisted on carrying my backpack along with her lunch box and cup. You can see that it was a bit too big for her and it took forever to get to the car. She is Miss Independent.