I Love my Zoo!!!

I just want to apologize for the delay in adding new posts to the blog. We have been having too much fun and I just haven't had the energy to add new pictures. I promise not to let a two week delay happen again.
This was the first trip to the Toledo Zoo this year and Megan was super excited to see her favorite animals and because she was going to the zoo with Rosemary Olsaver. The first stop was to see the polar bears but Megan spotted the fountain first. She was so interested with these "polar bears" that she wouldn't even think about looking at the camera.

Megan had a prime spot in Grandma Berthold's arms and liked watching the polar bear scratch his back by rubbing up against the rocks.

This is the tail end (pun intended) for what made Megan laugh out loud. The polar bear was standing up on the rocks and he was trying to jump on a piece of Styrofoam, he missed but ended up diving right in front of Megan. She wasn't able to see where he was, so when he jumped, she only saw a big polar bear coming at her with no warning. She loved it!

Up next was the carousal. Megan was too small last year but this year when Rosemary wanted to ride, Megan did too. Rosemary wanted to ride "Louie" aka the elephant and Megan wanted to ride "Monkey" aka the monkey. They just happened to be in the same row, so they were in luck. Megan liked going up and down, but was in stimulation over load, when it first started moving. She wanted to look at everything going by, but quickly realized that couldn't happen. When the ride ended she gave the sign for "more" but we had a lot of the zoo to see. Some how I'm guessing that we will be riding the carousal a lot this year.

Not even 2 years old and she already knows that we have to take pictures on all of the animals. It's tradition!

"I see Louie!" After crossing over to the main part of the zoo, the first stop was to see Louie, Rosemary favorite animal. She loves him, to the point that every elephant is named Louie. Rosemary and Megan started at him for a long time and wouldn't have watched him all day if we had let them.

The classic Toledo Zoo picture! This poor guy doesn't look like he is going to last much longer, look at the crack on his truck :( right next to the chain around his ankle :(

Since we got back from visiting family in Canada, Megan has been in love with monkeys. I think it comes from me calling her a monkey when she would climb into Caila's top bunk, but whatever the reason, she was ALL about the monkeys, orangutans and gorillas. Here she is waving at the "monkey" and saying "Hi, monkey" (and no, she never tapped on the glass!)

Just watching the orangutan family.

Rosemary and Megan together weigh the same as a female orangutan, just in case you were wondering.

I can never get good pictures of the real gorillas. But Megan was fascinated by them. Granted they had a family dispute while we were watching them. Let me tell you, Big Daddy Silver back gorilla, got things in order real fast! Then after he was done "talking" to his children, he sat right in front of us and Megan was in aw.

Best way to travel around the zoo!

Megan couldn't quite understand that if she stood there she would be a butterfly. She wanted to turn around and look at the butterfly wings, so this is the best picture I had. Still cute though.

Last picture of the day, do you think they had a good time? They were so well behaved all day and had such a great time looking at all of the different animals. I am so glad we live so close to the Toledo Zoo so we can visit as often as we want. Plus a few days after we were there, the zoo's brand new huge and 100% interactive "Children's Neighborhood" opened. It looked awesome from the outside I can't wait to take Megan there. I LOVE MY ZOO!!!

Playing in Puddles

The other day the forecast called for a full day of rain, no lighting or high winds, just rain. So like a good mom, I got Megan dressed and put her in her rain coat to go outside and play in the puddles. When we first got outside she wasn't quite sure what to do. I asked her if we should go look for some water to play in and of course she said "Uh-huh"

Testing the water with her foot.

Standing in the water and thinking it was hilarious that mom would let her play in the water with her feet.

Plying with the rocks that were at the bottom of the puddle.

We took a walk down the street to find all of the puddles of course she found the really big ones to play in. It didn't take her long to really get into this truly simple fun.

Just an F.Y.I. the outside shell of a Columbia winter coat is NOT water proof!!! I thought it would stop a little bit of the water...not so much. After 30 minutes of playing outside I was soaked! Had fun watching Megan, but next time I will have a rain coat.

Golf anyone?

A couple weeks ago, Mark got home from work early, Megan and I had done just about everything possible outside that day so we decided to join Mark at the Country Club to play on the putting green and watch Mark play a couple holes before we ate dinner.

I think it took Megan about 2 seconds to figure out the putting green. She watched Mark aim the ball at the hole and take his putt. Then she grabbed the club and tried to do the same thing.

She really liked getting the ball out of the cup and even knew she had to put the flag back when she was done.

Just playing around.

So do you think she is ready for her own set yet?

It was a fun evening and Megan really liked riding in the golf cart. Watching Mark play 5 very slow holes was her max. I'm sure we will try to do this again sometime this summer.

Busy, busy, busy in Canada!

With about 18 hours before we needed to leave, Megan and I decided to head up to Canada to visit my nieces, nephew and Tracie. They had a weekend full of events and Tracie had a to-do list just waiting for us to shorten. We made it to their house Thursday afternoon and as soon as we walked in the door we entered the chaos. Within an hour the kids ate dinner, 2 kids were off to dress rehearsal for their dance recital another was off to soccer practice and another was off to gymnastics. Tracie casually mentioned to watch our step in the garage because she hadn't had a chance to clean it. So with an empty house and with energy to burn, thanks to the long drive, Grandma Papa and I started to clean the garage (or at least make a path to walk)
The next day Conary, Caila and Kelsey were at school and Crystal wanted to take full advantage of having Megan all to herself. Here she is showing Megan how to play and dancing Twister game.

Megan wasn't really the best student, so this game didn't last too long.

On Fridays, Tracie helps pass out pizzas at the school. Crystal has afternoon kindergarten so she volunteers and is in charge of salad dressing. After her job was done, Megan and Crystal enjoyed some VERY greasy pizza. But Megan knew to blot the grease off, she used her shirt, but there was less grease so that's all that matters right!?!

Oh and for the record, I was scared when the bell rang and hundreds of kids came in a mob trying to get their pizza first. They get pizza once a week but they acted as if they had never had pizza before, scary!

Saturday started with Crystal's soccer game. The "game" starts with 30 minutes of practice followed by a 30 minute game. As you can see from the picture, Crystal was practicing laying on the ground. But during the game, you could tell she was used to playing with her older brother and sisters, she wasn't the least bit intimidated with lots of little legs all trying to kick the ball. She did great!

Megan however was more interested in the play ground. I don't even know how many times she went down the slide. She had fun and Kelsey and Caila had fun helping her up and ground the playground.

Apparently she already knew how to climb things because multiple times a day she would climb Caila's ladder to get into her bed. She would have spent every minute with Caila with she could, but Caila needed to do homework and the other kids wanted to play with Megan. It was fun to see Caila and Megan together, Caila is like the mother hen and Megan would do almost anything Caila did. Too cute. Thank you Caila for letting Megan play with you.

My beautiful Kelsey Bells, or Felsey as I like to call her. She was on her way to her dance recital to do a jazz number to "Mary Had a Little Lamb" I had to help with the make-up assembly line and had to do her eyes and lips...very odd putting heavy stage make-up on a naturally beautiful 8 year old!

Here's Crystal in a typical Crystal pose, sweet with just a hint of mischievousness. She was getting ready to do a ballet and a tap number. So cute! But again, there was something odd about helping with her make-up. Let's just say it took 2 days to get it all off!

They were so excited to go to the recital and we were very excited to watch them on stage.

I love this picture!

For some odd reason I don't have any pictures of Conary or Caila. I don't know why because they were always playing with Megan. Poor Conary had to put up with Megan's not so nice "NO!" every time he asked her a question. I wish I had pictures of him trying to convince Megan to wear this yellow dress. He tried to put it on, they put it on a doggie stuffed animal and asked her numerous times to "please put it on" Finally I used the mom standby...bribery! Maybe she was just boycotting Conary because she knew he wasn't a Red Wings fan! (see Conary another reason to like the Red Wings, Megan won't scream NO at you!)

Look at all of those flowers for a job well done! Felsey's number was so cute and she did such a great job. Megan watched the whole 3 hour recital perfectly and when Kelsey was on she would point to the stage and say "Kelsey?" over and over again. She loves her Kelsey Bells.

More flowers for another great dancer! Between Crystal's 2 dances and Kelsey's dance they were spaced out far enough that when Megan did get antsy, all I had to do was say "Crystal is coming up soon" and she would settle back down.

Megan LOVED watching all of the different dances. Between the bright costumes, upbeat music and quick dances Megan couldn't get enough. When the lights went down (about every 3-4 dances) she would give the "more" sign and wiggle her butt back and forth and say "Dance" Then when the lights came back on she would act so surprised make a shocking sighing noise that got louder and louder each time, to the point that the people around started to laugh every time she did it. It was so cute! I knew she would enjoy it and sit for a little bit, but I NEVER would have guessed she would have been entertained for a 3 hour dance recital, that made me very happy (in more ways then one)

"Friendship Bread" anyone??? Tracie needed to get her Friendship Bread going so she had Megan help measure and "stir" the mix up. Megan liked being able to squish everything around.

Because the Friendship Bread takes days to make, we needed homemade bread for dinner. Megan and her Aunt Tracie decided to make some rolls from Aunt Ellen's recipe (so unbelievably yummy I can't even begin to describe how good they are!) Megan did a great job pouring the ingredients in the bowl and in storage bags for future loaves.

Very carefully coating the rolls with butter.

Anytime you ask her to smile, this is what you'll get...cheese ball! She had a blast making the rolls. But LOVED eating them. We made a double batch of rolls and there was 1 left after dinner...so good!

The trip was great! All of the kids were very helpful with Megan, we got lots of things on the to-do list accomplished and we had tons of fun while doing it all! I can't even begin to describe how much I love these kids and how amazing they are. I wished we lived closer to them, but until that can happen I will soak up every minute I spend with them. I love you all and hope you you have more fun and laughter each and every day!