GO ALEX!!

Last night the weather was awesome so we took the boys to the church parking lot by our house to let them ride their bikes. Look how far Alex has come!!



And because I am such a proud mama- I am posting 2 videos of Alex whizzing by! :) The second video also has Josh riding around. Zach was there too, just didn't make it into the videos.

Zootime Fun with the Actuallys

Yesterday we went to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How about you, you, you. We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. Sorry...every time I start thinking about going to the zoo- that silly song starts going through my head. Must be a teaching hazard. When I taught we sang that song as we walked to and from the zoo. ANYWAY- yesterday we went to the zoo with our friends Bethany, Annalie and Debbie. It was a perfect afternoon for it. The weather was awesome, we both got rock star parking spots, and it wasn't crowded at all!!

We did all the normal and fun things you would typically do at the zoo-like climb on the lion statues.

We walked through the desert.

We saw the seals.

By the seals, there was a pay phone. I didn't know that they had those around still. The boys didn't know what it was. I explained what a payphone was and then they wanted to put money in it and call someone. What is it about putting quarters into something that is so much fun? We didn't do that. Alex pretended to call someone. I asked who he was calling and he said "Grandma and Granddad to let them know we are at the zoo!"

Of course, when my boys saw the train just sitting there they ran towards it.

They climbed on the train.

They climbed on the monkeys. Statues- not the real things.

This time of year it is peacock dating season. So the peacocks were everywhere dancing away and doing their thing.

It was pretty cool to see their feathers up and then shake their tails. Zach and Josh started to imitate the peacocks. It made me laugh.

It was pretty funny! The best part was when the kids were dancing along with the peacock and he started to squawk like they do and all four kids screamed and ran. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that.

We did a lot of walking, as one would do at the zoo.

Annalie wanted to check out the map to plan where we were going.

Alex seemed interested. Josh and Zach did not. They ran off.

At one point we went to feed the fish.

Bethany was smart enough to remember to bring a bunch of quarters to feed the fish. Brilliant I tell you!! I normally scrounge through my purse praying i have at least 3 quarters. Then cursing myself that I didn't have any quarters and then telling myself that the next time we come I MUST remember quarters! Bethany remembered. THANK GOD! The kids would line up and take turns to get fish food.

Bethany and I got to feed the fish too!

We stopped to pet the goats.

And by this time, we were all wearing down....and getting hungry. So we left the zoo and headed downtown to eat at Wheatfields. YUM!

We walked around downtown a little bit after dinner. Mostly because we had to park far away. We were pretty tired from the zoo. Any walking at this point was a have to. :)

It is always fun to get together with Bethany, Debbie and Annalie. We were glad that we were able to fit us into their busy schedule to go the zoo this time!

Dottery and Dinner

Saturday was a really busy day for us. It was jammed packed with lots of exciting events! Like Alex riding his bike (already blogged about here), a repeat house showing (which nothing happened-sigh), and sushi (already blogged about here). The rest of Saturday included dottery and dinner.

Yes you read that right- dottery. Its painting pottery- but we just dot it a lot instead of painting pictures on it. I have blogged about it before here. Wow lots of linking to other blogs in this post! :) Anyway, Bethany, Kassie and I had the opportunity to go paint..I mean dot pottery- dottery.

We had a blast. We got our caffeine, our item to paint, our choice of colors, and were ready to begin. We chatted the time away. Talking about everything girls talk about- life- you know things like home schooling, kids, marriage, alcohol, food, etc. It was perfect...well almost perfect. There was this birthday party that was going on the same time. I have NOTHING against birthday parties. I have been known to attend and throw many birthday events. This one however-YIKES! I felt sorry for the pottery workers. The two parental figures didn't keep an eye on the party. Kids were smashing cake in their faces. Kids were running around a POTTERY SHOP! Big no-no if you don't want things broken. Kids were screaming. It was chaotic to say the least. But that didn't stop our fun. We just tuned them out and talked to each other in outside voices.

Bethany and I dotted cups.

Kassie chose to dot a vase.

What I love about getting together with these girls (besides that they are both awesome friends and I love to hang out with them) is that they don't mind when I shove a camera in their face and click away. In fact, they do the same thing.

Sometimes I get a little self conscience when I start taking pictures of random or not so random things. So its nice to have other friends around who are doing the same thing.

TA DA! Our pre-fired finished products. I can't wait to see them when they are done!

I just threw this picture in cause I like that you can see how happy Bethany is dotting away. Plus I think my cup turned out cool. :)

That evening Joe and Kassie and Bethany, Annalie, and Debbie all came over for dinner. Bethany was kind enough to take over the dinner plans and even cooked it for us in my kitchen. If you know me at all you know how much I LOVED and APPRECIATED that. So thank you again Bethany!! It was delicious! As were the margaritas!!

The kids love getting together. They always seem to have a good time. They played in the sandbox....

They blew bubbles....

They swung their zhu zhu pets on swings...

And they even had a picnic.

By the end of the night, their feet looked like this:

The adults tried to get lots of awesome pictures of them....Joe and Bethany did a far better job than I did. In fact, click HERE to see some more really cute pictures and read more about our get together by Kassie. She has 2 of my favorite pictures on her post. One of all the kids hugging each other. And the other one is of Joe beating the boys at Mario Cart. And click HERE to see what Bethany wrote about it.

Its like the kids have paparazzi around all the time. :) They don't seem to care at all. They ham it up most of them time.

There was even a little wii playing.

What more could you ask for? It was a really great time! We are looking forward to doing it again- hopefully soon!