All About the Birds

Our most recent trip to the zoo was all about penguins, eagles, lorikeets, owls and ducks!!  (Okay, and a cougar, some primates and a few elephants.)  Elora's favorite animal is, for some unknown reason, always the ducks.  Samudra, our friendly neighborhood baby elephant, was out on a walk, touring the yard and giving us a lot of fun from the elephant overlook.  One of the cougars was...sitting?...in a tree, much to the amusement of everyone watching.  Amarra and Elora got the penguins to follow them all over the place ad they ran back and forth past the viewing glass in the penguin exhibit.  We met a screech owl (they're so small!) named Rosita who was out on a walk, and watched the penguins get fed and got to ask their keeper lots of questions.  The eagles showed their stuff for us and Amarra positively freaked out seeing the saw-whet owls (they're new) for the first time...they're like the owl version of Thumbelina.  We climbed all over the sculpture garden and fed the lorikeets (Amarra was very brave when one landed on her head, and Elora is the only person I have ever seen be able to charm them into climbing right on to her hand and hanging out with her when she didn't even have any nectar left to give it).  Next time I think we'll go to Point Defiance Zoo and show Daddy the sharks!  Can't wait!

Parental Rights

While our liberties as individuals in this nation grow fewer by the year, the fundamental right to raise our children and direct their upbringing and education as we see fit must be protected.  It is the exception who are negligent of their children, not the rule.  Laws should not be written with the lowest common denominator in mind.  From time to time our government needs to remember that we have lent them the power to run this country, and should not need permission from them to do the things we know to be right and just.  For such times has the proposed 28th Amendment to the Constitution been created.  Please visit parentalrights.org for more information and to sign the petition.  Stand up for the best interest of the children.

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!

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."

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!