Relaxing in NH

MiniM.E. and I are in NH this week taking a little break from everything.  While I love being in the new house, every free second I feel like I need to be tackling one of the little projects I have left to complete the move or make the house feel more like home.  It's so nice to take a break and really take a break from EVERYTHING.  MiniM.E. loves my parents house and we've just been playing and relaxing.  They opened their pool and we went in a couple times, but it wasn't very long lived as it hasn't been super hot and the water is still a little on the icy side.  The big hits are the hot tub, the kiddie pool (filled with hot tub water) on the deck and of course, the trampoline.

Today we went to the Friendly Farm because it was such a big hit last year.  We arrived amidst the chaos of a couple school groups and MiniM.E. was a little intimidated by the bigger kids and didn't seem excited to do anything.  Though my child often will act like I've decided to take her to a lecture on microbiology when in fact we are actually at the coolest playground or the beach or any other amazing toddler destination.

Fortunately, the school groups left, MiniM.E. came out of her shell and we spent a lovely few hours with the animals.  So lovely MiniM.E. didn't want to leave- at least not without taking some of the animals with her.  We fed the baby goats-- food and bottles, had a "goat parade" in which MiniM.E. made the goats chase her around thinking they were getting food from her feed bag, held the baby chicks and saw one that had just hatched, visited with the other grown animals, fed the two baby sheep and got our fingers suckled and even bottle fed the baby cow her WHOLE bottle.

Thanks Friendly Farm- definitely lived up to last year!  Looking forward to going again in 2015 with both the girls!!

Adirondack Animal Land

We've been hearing lots of great things about a zoo not to far from Saratoga, Adirondack Animal Land.  Yesterday we decided to check it out.  It was a great zoo- especially for an 80 degree day since it was all in the shade.  It was really hands on and we got to feed ALL the animals.  The monkeys grabbed cereal out of our hands and all the other animals would eat pellets or crackers out of our hands.  They had monkeys and zebras and wild cats and kangaroos.

MiniM.E. was timid with most of the animals but she couldn't wait to feed the giraffe!

checking out the goats

wait, you want them to eat off my hand? with those teeth??

best part of the day!

 The zoo was a nice paved loop that wandered past all the animal enclosures plus a few picnic spots and a playground (always a hit).

hi cow!

There was a deer enclosure where you could feed and pet 18 deer (I think babies are on the way!).  MiniM.E. braved it and touched a few, but still didn't want to feed them.

 I was pretty excited by this kangaroo mom and her joey that kept popping in and out of her pouch.

Aside from feeding the giraffes, the highlight of the zoo trip was definitely the safari ride that is included in the admission.  You get to ride in a tractor pulled wagon and camels, ostriches, longhorn cattle, pot-bellied pigs and more come right up to the wagon for snacks doled out by the announcer.  This camel was literally IN the wagon:

MiniM.E. had a great time, though I think Bob and I and our friend Ray probably enjoyed ourselves even more than she did.  Definitely another place worth a repeat visit!

Hello June!

We are so excited about June because the spraygrounds are open!   I have to say, MiniM.E. was NOT a sprayground fan last year.  In fact, the only time she seemed to like them was when she was about nine months old and we took her to one in Geneva.  Last year she thought the water was too cold, the spray was too hard, it was too hot, she was too scared, she was too tired, or most often "look! there's a swing!" and while everyone else was cooling off in the sweltering heat I was stuck pushing my kid in a swing in the glaring sun.

This year was a whole different story...

While all the other kids timidly watched from the side, MiniM.E. jumped right in!

Last week we also made blue cupcakes for a friend's 2nd birthday party:

Played in the pool:

Learned to cut watermelon:

And set up an outside breakfast party for a few of MiniM.E.'s favorite playmates.

Hoffman's Playland

As always, in the past couple weeks we've been to playgrounds on top of playgrounds and have spent hours playing in the TWO (yes TWO!!) playrooms in the new house, but to celebrate the start of summer we've made an effort to do lots of fun activities.

One place we've been meaning to go since last summer (and that we wanted to squeeze in before the weather turned from nice to sweltering) is Hoffman's Playland in Latham, NY.   Last weekend we finally went and it was worth the wait!  MiniM.E. probably would have been a little too young to enjoy it last summer-- and definitely wouldn't have been as brave as she is this year.

Hoffman's is almost like a carnival, but much safer and cleaner and geared towards kids under 10.  I would say MiniM.E. is the perfect age at two and a half, though I saw some older kids that also seemed to be having a pretty good time.  More than half of the rides are geared towards the under 5 age group with a couple "big kid" rides like the Scrambler and the Tilt-A-Whirl.

Bob took the role of co-rider since even the tamest of kiddie rides have the "no pregnant women" symbol on the sign.  (Just as well, being pregnant and riding on things that spin around and around does NOT sound like a good time!)

the helicopter

anxiously awaiting the train

here it comes!!

the three of us on the train

the catapillar

hot air balloons

mini boats- all by herself!

twice!

a very speedy carousel 

The last ride MiniM.E. went on was... THE SCRAMBLER!  Seriously?  I was a wreck.  She had been eying it all day and kept saying she wanted to go on.  Finally, I made her watch what it did thinking that she would see it and decide it was too scary.  But no.  After watching it fling big kids around she excitedly chirped, "that looks like fun! Let's go on!"  So daddy took her on the Scrambler.  I expected to be the frantic mom begging the teenage boy running the thing to PLEASE STOP! MY KID IS CRYING!!! But she LOVED it and requested, "Let's go on that EVERY time we come."  Apparently Hoffman's will never be a mommy-daughter date!

We finished up a three hour day at Hoffman's with some ice cream and called it a day.  MiniM.E. had a blast and was so tired she took a two hour nap!!

If you live in the Albany area I definitely recommend a trip to Hoffman's- we'll be going back for sure!