A Day With the Animals

This morning after breakfast at the hotel, Auntie Jen had to swing into work to take care of some things. The girls couldn't wait to go since Auntie Jen is the manager at Petco. She promised lots of animal holding, but since we also wanted to go to the zoo today, we settled for just holding the guinea pigs.

Next it was off to the zoo

It turned out to be a beautiful day and the girls loved seeing all the animals. We had zoo lunch and finished the walk around the zoo while LittleL.G. dozed. Then it was back to the hotel for a swim, then a nice dinner out with Auntie Jen and Dan at Smokey Bones. And then ANOTHER swim and another late bedtime.

The Trip Down to Virginia

Last year we drove down to Virginia with Gram. We left late and mostly drove at night so the girls would sleep. And it went well, but boy, were we exhausted by the time we got there. Not to mention how rough it was on the trip back when we left later than planned and didn't get to our mid-drive hotel until 2am!

This year we debated flying, but the logistics didn't seem to make it much less stressful than the long drive, so after careful deliberation, we chose to drive down again. This time though, we planned our drive for the daytime hours- almost 7 of them, hoping the girls would do alright in the car and that maybe we would be a bit less tired.

And it worked wonderfully! I don't think the girls could have been any better in the car. Of course, with me being 34 weeks pregnant and needing lots of rest stops and the girls needing lots of breaks, it took much longer than the 7 hours, but we made it to our mid-drive hotel, took a swim and ordered a pizza and were still in bed by 10!

Today's drive was short and we made it to Auntie Jen's house around lunch time.

The girls were so excited to see Auntie Jen. They were also very excited to see Auntie Jen's kitty, Little Kitty, because he is so affectionate and lovey.

The swing in the back yard was a huge hit.

After spending some time at Auntie Jen's and getting lunch, we checked into the hotel- the second best part of Virginia.

The girls were most excited about the pool, but the glass elevator was a close second.

After a swim, we hit the beach and the playground. Poor LittleL.G. was so tired she passed out on the drive there and missed a lot of playtime. MiniM.E. had a great time on the beach with Auntie Jen while LittleL.G. napped.

And they both had a great time on the playground when LittleL.G. woke up.

Late dinner, late swim and another late bedtime, but a really fun first day in Virginia.

So Long, March!

Since the blizzard, we have kind of been in a funk over here. Ready to get outside and play. School has been hard to get through, we've exhausted the indoor play areas, we brought in the reinforcements (thanks for visiting, Gram!), the girls are bored of everything and each other and we just need some nice warm weather so the snow melts and we can play outside.

To keep busy, we took on a ton of spring activities, like weekday ice skating and swimming lessons.

We've crawled the mall more times than I care to admit.

And of course, we've been to the "fun" places like the Tree Paad again and again.

Just as we need warm, of course, it decides to snow. Again.

I think, thank goodness, that we are finally done with the winter sicknesses and sniffles and we have a lot of exciting spring events to look forward to. Tomorrow we are leaving for Virginia (and hopefully some nice weather) to visit my sister tomorrow. It better be spring when we get back!

A Blizzard in March??

Monday we got a blizzard. It snowed all day and by the next morning we had a good foot of snow. The girls were thrilled. How exciting to have a real snow blizzard!

After having a nice snow-free backyard to play in for a few weeks, I wasn't jumping up and down, but it was nice to be able to get out the snow gear and sleds one more time.

As much as the girls wanted to sled on Tuesday, there was just too much snow for it to work. we kept getting stuck in the drifts. And it was cold and windy.

Dunkin' Donuts to the rescue!

We did manage to get out in the nicer weather towards the end of the week when the snow had compacted some. There were plenty of icicles for eating which both girls loved.

And on Friday we even made it out sledding in the warm weather. BUT taking two kids over to the golf course and lugging one two year old up the hill while 8 months pregnant was just enough that I didn't even bother to get out the camera. Poor LittleL.G. was intimidated by the big kids and MiniM.E. loved it, but she got tired of climbing the hill pretty quickly. Again, food to the rescue- over to Stewart's for $1 St. Patty's Day ice cream!

MiniM.E. and I got one more exciting winter activity in which was (possibly?) more fun since there was snow- a winter owl prowl on snowshoes! We heard a spiel about owls and hiked in the woods on snowshoes for about an hour listening for them. Of course, there were none to be heard... but it was an adventure!

And now I can officially say I am ready for spring and done with snow. Bring on the nice weather!

Warm Weather, A Choir Perfomance & Art

 A nice warm walk in the rain:

Art projects for school:

LittleL.G.'s gem creation. "Look what I made! An octopus!!"

MiniM.E.'s latest choir performance:

And a walk with a puppet and climbing a tree:d

Babysitting and A Sleepover

The end of our week was full of MiniM.E.'s friend A. and her baby brother, Baby G.

Wednesday the dad's had a work dinner and A.'s mom had a work dinner so we babysat. I have to admit I was a bit worried about watching four kids at once during the witching hour, but it went really well.

princess already

having some babies

witching hour cuddle

finally one baby asleep

A. didn't have school yesterday, and since I've been promising MiniM.E. a sleepover for ages, we decided to keep A.'s mom or dad from having to drive her over in the morning, she would just sleep over.

A. was nervous at first, but fell asleep in no time. MiniM.E. had a bit of trouble adjusting to someone different sleeping in her room, but finally conked out too.

Even though everyone was tired, we had a ton of fun playing all the next day. MiniM.E. had such a good time she cried that A. had to go home at the end of the day.

A School Field Trip

Homeschooling lends us a ton of flexibility and lots of time to do neat things. With a kindergartener and a preschooler, most of our field trips tend to be "play trips" to places like indoor playgrounds or play dates or meeting out for lunch.

But yesterday we went on a real field trip that actually tied into our school science unit MiniM.E. chose for this session: Rocks.

Near to our house is a fossilized area that used to be underwater. Lester Park is a 490 million year old fossilized sea bed where we were able to see lots of stromatolites formed by blue green algae. It was a little colder than we planned on, but MiniM.E. really enjoyed looking at all the neat formations, making fossil rubbings and checking out some of the nearby rocks and trying to classify them.