Mid week comes so quickly lately, but we made this one count! Echo decided to make last night a late one and then once I got her settled and snuggled in my left arm went completely achy. So I stayed up LONGER to get that sorted… so not exactly an early morning.

Sleepy baby

So in the morning after watching our dinosaur movie AGAIN, having breakfast and all that, the kids settled down to read together (I know 4 kids, one book and TOGETHER! definitely picture worthy!).

Back to the dinosaur book (Zander light blue)

Our afternoon turned sunny and relatively warm after Ken and the kids woke up to frost on the ground, perfect weather for the big treat of the day – THE ZOO! Almost empty except for a few parents with their kids and a busload of teenagers we had the run of the place. Echo’s first zoo trip!

Mommy and Echo (with a screaming Emanuel in the back)

We didn’t see everything but we did get to see the guinea pigs (the ones that are left, there were originally more than 60 but someone poisoned the poor things).

Guinea Pig

Of course we had to stop at the favourite enclosure – the lemur. Actually the boys had a rather good idea which way to go to get there! The weather is still nice enough that they were in and out on both sides.

Playing lemurs

To top it off the tortoise was outside having a meal – the most Ken says he has EVER seen a tortoise move, they may be slow walkers but this one ate FAST!

Hungry tortoise

We wandered a bit but headed right over to see Lucy the elephant. We lucked out, she was out on her walk and taking a break to munch on the grass. This time the kids were much more excited and showed really no fear. When Ken went to take pictures from a different angle all 4 wanted to follow to see her eyes.

Lucy the Elephant

We tried to peek in at the tigers but they were not in their enclosure. We figure there were repairs being done. BUT the wolves were out and in fine form. Trinity LOVES the wolves – she calls them Harley – her word for dogs. We want to go back on the weekend for the 11:30 wolves presentation, just not THIS weekend.

Checking out the wolves (Zander left)

Our last stop was the Arctic foxes who we saw when they first had their babies. It is a large family and apparently a lot of work for the parents so they have  put up some coloured plastic in front of the glass that is immediately in front of their den. But they were running all over the place and the kids thought they were AMAZING. I figure in a couple weeks we will be back there, chilly weather or not, to visit those foxes some more!

Arctic Fox info

Arctic Fox

After our zoo experience we had some shopping to do. Our favourite produce chain has opened a brand new store here in the west end. Very fancy but still the great prices, and since today was their grand opening we got a free reusable bag as well! The kids were VERY impressed.

H&W

And at Walmart I managed to get something off my Baby Echo List – her Christmas dress! 18.00, size 0-3… the second piece is a little pair of pants so I still may need to pick up some tiny baby tights (far from my favourite but the baby legs are too big for her baby legs!). It is very sparkly and definitely what I had in mind. Great price too!

Echo's Christmas dress

After all that excitement the kids were settled down to do their pictures from their zoo trip. Zander did up the zebra (we saw them last time), Emanuel the elephant and Gavin the lemurs… ring tailed of course (his favourite).

Zander's zebra

Gavin's lemurs

Emanuel's Elephant

AND  THEN to amp them all back up – Ted, Fydo and Sean came over. Fydo was in town for work (he lives in the city we are considering moving to in the spring) so Ken picked him up and brought him over for the evening.

Fydo meeting Echo

That of course means we ended up with netbooks and xbox and other electronic games out. I do believe Trinity is now an addict! She got to play pacman with the joystick!!!

Little Gamer

An evening of gaming, and good company is certainly a great way to end our Wednesday.

Gaming

Of course that means less time for our to do list tonight but it is worth it! Tomorrow we have to get started on our official plan for the year to show our facilitator… among other things. Talk about a fun way to start our fall.

Happy girl at the zoo

Sunshine is once again gracing our home today. We went out to H&W after a pretty leisurely morning for everyone but Ken who had work to do at his computer. Not a huge amount of sales to take advantage of this week, but we did get a bag of kiwi, bananas, apples… etc.

Out in the sun (Gavin left)

We got right to work on our elephant and zebra posters. I am very happy with how quickly it all came together, though I really need to figure out how to make pockets on my own instead of needing Ken to do that final step. The boys are all excited about the idea of doing Arctic Foxes TOGETHER… to practice TEAMWORK as Zander says. I am hoping to find maybe a print out of their footprint, information about their habitat etc etc.

Gavin at work on portions of the Zebra poster

Completed Zebra poster

Completed Elephant poster

Trinity seems to really have come to grips with the idea of hair being in elastics. I am really starting to enjoy putting her hair up in the morning, not that it stays perfectly but we are learning.

Ponytail again

Last night I managed to get done the page from our trip to the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Minnesota. I would like to add some vintage style notions eventually but don’t have any on hand.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

As an added bonus Karyn is here for a few nights while volunteering at a Librarian’s conference here in the city. So company in the evening while I am crafting is an added bonus. Last night she worked on a crochet project. It is great to have a friend over for a while even if she has to be out in the wee hours of the morning.

So our original plan to do a picnic or snack idea was waylaid by bad traffic on the way back from H&W.  The plan now is to keep our days open until a good day to go out and enjoy the sunshine for a few hours appears. After all Karyn only works until 2 pm on Friday! The luxury of the combination of homeschooling and a husband who works from home.

I am really glad to be completing things with the boys, and continuing with my scrapbooking… Hopefully the trends continue!

Cuteness extreme from the back

Bonus image! Nekid Alpaca!

Alpaca!

Finally the weather has co-operated… definitely NOT the warmest day to date BUT nice enough to head out to the zoo and visit with a few choice animals… after we stood in line for an extremely long period of time. For some reason there is NOT a line for pass holders, but one line was a group and the other someone BUYING a pass (not a quick process)…

First of course was the hated glucose test combined with iron. The kids and Ken spent the hour I sat in the clinic out in the van with an unsecured internet connection Ken was able to do some work and the rest of the family took full advantage of breakfast and a movie. (apples and cereal) Lucky ducks as I had to sit in the waiting room for the hour without leaving – I brought my sewing (which I really wish I could share but not until AFTER it is given) and was able to keep rather busy. Here’s hoping my careful eating the day and night before has kept me from LAST time’s mistake and a longer (2 hour) retake.

Our zoo trip was actually quite exciting, we visited the elephant of course!

Elephant

Then the zebras, who were very obliging by NOT being in the far part of the pasture.

Zebra

We figured out why the ring tailed lemurs are so out of sight – they are just preparing the external exhibit where they seem to spend a lot of their time in nice weather so hopefully the next trip to the zoo will have a clear viewing of what has become one of the family’s favourite animals.

The big excitement was a whole new animal – the arctic fox. Not only was the fox running around BUT there were babies! So my intention is to choose that animal as our next focus animal. After all BABIES! Even Ken got a little excited about them.

Arctic fox and a baby

Our afternoon was spent working on the last of our zebra and elephant activities for our posters which will be put together tomorrow. I found a few more mini books to print out and complete as well. I am hopeful that tomorrow we will be able to finish up the posters completely and hang them in the hallway.

We managed to get Trinity to accept having a ponytail in her hair for the whole day! That is definitely a victory, though she was NOT willing to sit still long enough for me to part it or braid it. At least for the most part her hair was out of her face, a definite start!

Pony!!

We threw everyone outside while dinner was in the making to run off some of the excessive energy. It is amazing how once the sun is back out and shining they just amp up and go go go. Thankfully with the sun finally appearing we can bring back out the outside craft box and other fun gym themed activities. Now if I could just get a decent night’s sleep and a relaxing day – in a row – that would make me a much more content pregnant woman.

In the sunshine at last (Zander)

I am definitely finding that lately the hormones are raging a bit more than normal, little things seem HUGE… life seems out of control at times when I am more than sure it is not. I have found that anxiety is much easier for me to fall into over other emotions at times which does bother me. Don’t get me wrong, I am spending a lot of time happy and excited and content but there have been a few moments in the past few days that have felt a little bit too much. Thankfully Ken is generally willing to listen to me babble, give hugs when needed and remind me that HE is in better control of many of these things than I am! Having faith in each other can be a challenge but is absolutely worth while.

Second trip to the zoo (Gavin left)