Preschool Field Trips

I like making the rules in preschool, or at least designing it around the kids needs! Marissa was going to miss two weeks so Lindsay and I decided that we would take our kids on field trips so we wouldn't get ahead on the alphabet without Lacey. We went to the children's museum the first week, which Lindsay and Tali had not been to, and the following week we went to the zoo, which Miles hadn't been to except for zoo lights last Christmas (and the only animal he saw was an elephant) It had also been a long time since Charlie had been to the zoo so he had a lot more interest this time.

At the Children's museum we got separated pretty much instantly since different things caught our kids' eyes. It was the first time I brought both children without any way to contain either of them. I was nervous but it turned out okay. 

I just took some cell phone photos here since we are regulars at the museum....

Dr. Miles

Baertlein Brother Builders



Charlie loves to draw on his face and usually I let him draw on Miles face too. Both boys love it!




Another successful day at the museum although it was sad we didn't get to play with Lindsay, Tali and Alisi much. 

The next week we went to the zoo. I brought the real camera. 

Tali and Charlie have this adorable blossoming friendship, it's so fun to watch!

And there was a log slide.

 Miles stayed happy in the stroller for a long time...so grateful!
Oh, I'm pretty sure this is what Miles said in these pictures. 1. "fishy!" 2. "Go?" 3. "Gone"

 Turtles!

And the River Otter showed off a bit for Charlie.

And that bird was just posing like that...for a long time!

And there was some hand-holding!

Watching for the train.

The big kids determined it was lunch time so we stopped on the steps and ate lunch.

 Little Alisi did so well too!

Does this freak anyone else out? It was like a mini alligator, but I have shivers down my spine when I'm near anything like this.

Then Charlie saw these pole swings and he could have stayed here all day.

 Since it looked like we were going to be there for awhile, I let Miles out of the stroller to play along.

But for some reason, he must have been tired because he just crawled up and rested for awhile

We then made our way to Africa for the elephants, lions, hippos, and giraffes.
This is Miles reaction to the Elephants, they were really close too!

We got to see the whole lion family including the two babies. The kids determined it was snack time again so they ate on the lion statues.

Lindsay had to get her girls home so we slowly made our way to the exit but stopped by the sea otters on the way out to make Anna proud. In the viewing area this is the best shot we got of the otter.

Then the otter swam outside and I tried to take a photo but my ISO was still so high, but I promised Anna I would put it on the blog.  

And there you have it. A perfect trip to the Zoo and some pretty happy kids. 

Long Weekend

We spent our long weekend doing pretty much normal weekend things, but then when it got to Sunday Night, I realized Max didn't have to work the following day and we got so excited! 

So Saturday, CHarlie and Max went to Home Depot to do some projects and when they were trying to come home, the worker gave them 3 more projects they could work on at home and Charlie's very own Home Depot bucket. Pretty Successful! I then went to an Eye appointment...turns out my prescription hasn't changed for nearly 30 years yet they still like to check annually. In the afternoon and evening we finished some house organization projects. Exciting right?

Anyway, Sunday was spent at church and  then setting up Charlie's new birdhouse. 

And Miles found this special place in a bush and would not leave until his diaper was completely full!

And I had curled my hair so I thought...hey, I'll take a picture of that..this is what turned out from that...haha!

 And some walnut smashing!

After our random outside play, we went to a friend's house for an amazing dinner. We brought the boys homes and put them to bed.
 Monday morning, we had a cream of wheat breakfast with berries then loaded up our bikes to go for a family bike ride before it gets too wet and cold.

We went to a smooth trail because Charlie has not been that excited about his new bike since he tries to ride it on the gravel around our house and then falls over. He's ridden his bike successfully before but this time he was super timid, even when we got to the trail so it took a lot of patience to get him comfortable enough to ride for awhile.

This is Max's face trying to be super patient with Charlie, while he stopped every couple of inches.

Max told me to ride ahead while he worked with Charlie so I pulled Miles in the trailer and we rode for awhile. When we got back Miles had fallen asleep and Charlie and Max were still in the same spot.

After a little more practice, we finally rode all together a little ways down the trail, we still stopped a ton but we made some progress.

 When we got back to the beginning of the trail I took the boys to the park so Max could go on a little ride. Miles woke up and Charlie made a new best friend so life was good at the park.

Max came back after awhile and joined in the fun!

We went home ate lunch and got Miles to sleep more! Then our friends, the Heaps, came over after dinner and we had a doughy party around the fire and that ended an excellent day with Max home!