Thursday, January 28, 2010

Scootaloo!





I love having a new neighborhood to explore!  One thing I love about it here is that there are little neighborhood parks tucked in every few blocks.  We have a terrific playground 2 lots down from us, but it doesn't have swings!  SOO, when the girls want to swing we can hop on scooters and head about 1/3 mile away to another playground that does.  (Ours has cooler play equipment, though!)  When we head the other direction, there is a little loop that doesn't have its mcmansions built yet even though the roads are in, so we can scoot around (okay, they scoot, I walk.  I told Joel I need a scooter!) it and 4 times is 1 mile!  And its gorgeous, right at the foot of the hills.  We're nestled halfway between the river and the foothills, maybe 1/2 mile or so away from each, so there is plenty of scenery.  Whenever there is a "sunbreak" (or at least a break from the rain), out we go!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Library Day!!



Friday was library day!!  Due to one thing or another, we had not been to story time since we moved into our new house 3 months ago.  Finally, last week I heard, "Mom, are we ever going to the library again??" and that was that.  We went for story time and made Hickory Dickory Dock clocks (which was very esciting to Elora since she had just been learning that one for school and had made a clock and a mouse at home.  She'd been performing it for us with her props quite a bit.)  I sat in the back and had the pleasure of holding Robbie, another story time mom's 7 week old that I was just meeting for the first time.  Amarra came back to me for the songs (she always does) and gave me and then Robbie, and then me and then Robbie, the strangest looks.  I introduced them and then showed her who his mommy was at which point she sighed in disappointment.  "Oh," she sighed dejectedly, "I thought you'd borned a baby."

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Sleeping Queens

This game gets played EVERY DAY.  Elora got it for Christmas (Thanks, Auntie Heather!) and I would not be lying to tell you that it has been played every single day since then.  You try to wake the queens, and for this you need a king.  You can steal a queen with a knight, defend her with a dragon.  You can put an opponent's queen back to sleep with a sleeping potion, or save her wand.  The cool part, though, is that the rest of the cards are numbers.  You can lay a number down on the discard pile to try to get a "power card", OR an addition equation...as in 3 + 4 + 7...and get THREE new cards instead.  Elora, who has been doing addition in school, can now figure out everything under 10.  "I"M A NEW ADDER GIRL!" was the shout the day she no longer needed a buddy to play.  Amarra can do the simplest sums, but will bring her hand to Mama or Daddy to check if "any of dese go togedder" for anything more complicated.  I'll usually join in on a hand or 2 during the day and Joel will usually play a few rounds in the evening.  He has fun, too.  We're winning him over!

Friday, January 22, 2010

In the Land of Girls...


Meet Camelia Cecelia Zezzelia.  She joined us for school one day this week during Elora's absence.  Camelia is an opera singer.  She speaks in a very genteel voice and uses words such as "delightedly", "marvelous" and "dahling".  Aaah, the imagination of the 5 year old girl.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Family Portrait


Here we are in infared! We had fun learning about body temperature in the Zoo's Serengeti exhibit, and got this lovely portrait to boot!!  Who wants one for Christmas??  No?

Zoo Trip!


Yesterday we decided to grab what umbrellas we had and brave the January rain (brr!) for a much needed trip to the zoo.  Elora was thrilled to get an adult sized umbrella (her Hello Kitty one died) and gave us a few choruses of Singin' in the Rain, umbrella twirling and all.  We practically had the whole zoo to ourselves! I think we saw about 10 or 12 other people, tops.  We had a picnic by the sea lions in Stellar Cove when the rain momentarily decided to pour (dinner and a show!) and then headed to see the bears!  We found out that Seleia is the same height as a Sun Bear.  Then we headed where it was warm...Africa!  The Predators of the Serengeti exhibit is usually a bit toasty for my tastes, but yesterday it felt niiice.
All of the animals were out to say hello!  Our favorite is the cheetahs...there is a safari vehicle the kids (and young at heart) can climb into that is half in and half out of the cheetah habitat.  So, you're in the passenger area, and the cheetahs are from time to time...on the hood.  A windshield away.  Pretty cool.  (They have heaters under the hood to attract the kitties.) A few hippos, zebras and giraffes later we headed to the rainforest (also usually to hot for me, but not this time!) and Amarra went nose to nose through the glass with a crocodile!  After seeing the bats at feeding time and visiting the lorikeets we headed to our nice warm home.  But even in the cold we had so much fun!  We love the zoo!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Happy Birthday Mimi!!!!!


Today is my mother's birthday!  Although the girls did call to sing to her (to quote Mimi: "What they lacked in tune they made up for with enthusiasm!") I wanted to send her the best birthday wishes and tell her how much we love her!  I'm blessed with a wonderful mother!