Trip to the Tyler Zoo

On Wednesday of this week, some friends and I took our kids to the Tyler Zoo. Between the 4 moms, we had 8 children between the ages of 10 and 3.

About 15 minutes after we got their, ever graceful Lacie fell and skinned both of her knees. My friend with the 2 year old brought her umbrella stroller, but Hunter didn't want to sit in it, so Lacie claimed it made her knees feel better to be pushed. She spent about 75% of her time at the zoo in the stroller. Miraculously, she was able to walk anytime she couldn't see and wanted to walk closer!

The highlight of the zoo trip was the bird part. If you've never been to the Tyler Zoo, they have this big atrium with all kinds of little birds. You have to pay $1 for a tongue depressor coated in syrup and bird seed, then you feed it to the birds. Each of the girls "caught" a bird on their seed stick. All was well until one of the birds "stepped" on Leslie's finger, which prompted her to drop the seed stick and the bird.


Lacie and Leslie are definitely like their mother in that they don't like to spend too much time at each exhibit. They looked at the animal, and were immediately ready to move to the next thing. While the rest of our group spent their time watching, Lacie would always ask, "Can we go to the next thing now?". At the zoo, they gave us maps that had pictures of the animals along the trail. Apparently on the map, there was a picture of an anteater, because no matter where we went in the zoo, Leslie would ask when we were going to see the anteater. Finally, we saw it. We ended the zoo trip with the petting zoo part, where the girls got to pet goats.
We had a GREAT time at the zoo. The weather was beautiful - not hot at all - and the girls had fun with their friends.

Easter Pics

This past week has been a nice week, with Easter and Spring Break all rolled into one. During the week before Easter, we had FIVE (that's right - 5) Easter Egg hunts to attend, one of which was at our church. Here are some pictures:

Here is one of all of us together:

In addition to the Easter Egg hunt, our church also had some craft stations and a cake walk. The girls each won a cake! Lacie won first - on her first turn - then Leslie wanted to stay and go again, and she won next! Here are the girls with the cakes they chose:

That night, the girls and I dyed Easter Eggs. They really had fun choosing which colors to dye their eggs.

On Easter morning, they were very excited to find the baskets the Easter bunny left them. They each got a jump rope, some playing cards, a notebook and a glittery pen, some sidewalk chalk, and some markers. Then they went outside to find the eggs the Easter bunny hid.

After a long morning of playing with our Easter treats, we went to church. The girls dressed in their new dresses we had been saving since they received them from their aunt for their birthday.

A Few Random Funnies

Sometimes the girls just say the cutest things that I never want to forget... what better way to immortalize them than to write them on my blog?

Tonight we were on the way home from gymnastics and I asked the girls, "Guess what comes on tonight?!?" One of our favorite shows to watch together is Dancing with the Stars. They like to dance along with the TV, and they always get excited when they hear it's coming on. Well, when I asked that, Leslie answered, "Dancing with the Stars!" When I told her she was right, she said, "That's cause I can read your mind! Know what you are thinking now?!? That I am a very sweet bobby." (Bobby is a nickname they gave themselves when they were first learning to talk... they couldn't say baby - they called themselves bobbies... and it stuck.) This led Lacie to announce, "and now you are thinking that you love me very, very much." How right they were.....

So tonight, while were were watching our show, the girls danced along with every routine. Then we had to take turns being judges. No matter who danced, Lacie always whispers for me to say how great the routine was, while Leslie always proclaims, "It was stinky garbage! Disgusting!" This always elicits great laughter and we have to pretend to hold up paddles and announce a numerical score. Lacie's favorite dancer on the show is, of course, Lacey Schwimmer. It looks like she and her partner may get eliminated this week, so she'll have to find a new favorite. Leslie's favorite was Holly from Girls Next Door... of course her favorite would have to be a former Playboy bunny!

Tonight, one of the male dancers began his paso doble with his shirt off. When he shimmied up to his partner, Leslie announced, "Ooooh, Mama! He's got some lovin' in him!" Ummmm...not sure where that came from or just what that means, but it was cute nonetheless!

The World's Messiest Birthday Party!

Today, Lacie and Leslie went to their friend Jordan's 6th birthday party. When the invitation said, "Don't come dressy, cause we're gonna get messy!" I knew fun was in store. This party is only for those who can handle total chaos and mess, but was so worth it. I overheard one of the kids run up to Courtney, Jordan's mom, and tell her, "This is the BEST birthday party ever!"

First, the kids decorated garbage bags that they wore as smocks:

Second, they played a game called "Alphabet Soup." They had cans of real alphabet soup and water in a wading pool, and the kids had paper plates. They had to dig through the soup to find as many words as they could.


Third, they played spaghetti toss. Jeff and Courtney had a huge ice chest full of noodles and an economy size can of spaghetti sauce. The kids had partners and had to toss the spaghetti to their partner and collect it in their containers. Needless to say, this just turned into a spaghetti food fight.

Next, they played "Cheeto Face." Each child put on shower caps and goggles for this one. They had whipped cream on their face and tossed cheese balls onto each other to see if they would fit on their face.

Last, they played with flour bombs. Each child had 15 flour bombs (kleenex with flour balled up in it) and had a free-for-all throwing it at one another.

Here is a shot of the whole birthday party crew.

While this was something I am definitely not brave enough to have at my house. The girls had a ball! It was funny because a few of the kids didn't want to play the messy games, but not mine. They LOVED it. One last shot of the messy girls before they piled in the car and went straight into the bath!
On a side note, I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but the girls got about 5 inches cut off their hair today. We fought every morning over tangles and hair-brushing, so I finally convinced them (and their daddy who loves their long hair) that it was time to get it cut off. They look so cute!

Also, Rupert (our only surviving fish) died yesterday. We had another toilet-flushing funeral, and we are officially pet-less.