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!

Almost Summer!

As May finished up (seriously?! Where did the month go???) we are finally starting to enjoy the beginning of summer!  The weather warmed up and we enjoyed the week with lots of time outside...

on the swingset

downtown

watching the baby ducks

riding the carousel

swinging at Ben & Jerry's 

and playing with the water table

On Memorial Day we took our first trip of the season to Moreau Lake.  The weather was supposed to be warm and sunny, but when we showed up at the beach the sky was cloudy and it was 65.  Nonetheless, MiniM.E. insisted on putting on her bathing suit right away.

and tested out the water

she needed a sweatshirt for a while

 One of the highlights of the day was finding this tadpole(?):

Though the "hot tub" came in a close second:

The rest of the week we enjoyed some of our favorite activities: playgrounds, pool and the mall:

All the moving and playing really wore MiniM.E. out!!  AND I never have the opportunity to take pictures of my sleeping "baby" anymore.  Too cute!