Elmwood Park Zoo

This morning we went to the Elmwood Park Zoo with our MOPS group. We had 10 moms come with 20+ kids and despite the hot and humid weather and the busy state of the zoo thanks to many local school fieldtrips, we all had a good time.

Nate was a bit tired during the trip and wanted to just sit in the stroller since it was a bit too crowded for his taste, but he claims "I had fun, Mom!" when I asked if he had a good time. Ben had fun and Abby had a good time trying out the big stroller without her infant carrier for the first time, too. She just looked around and took the whole event in, smiling and happy the majority of the time.

Here's our big girl sitting up in her stroller.



The vultures....this was actually pretty creepy. We were looking at the exhibit and then happened to glance up to find THIS, towering right over our heads!!!

Pony...

My favorite, the big woolly sheep.

Ben's favorite, the bison.

Benjamin checking out the prairie dogs. They are in one of his movies so he has been waiting to see them in person (although he has seen them before, he just didn't remember).

Some of the kids copping a squat in the grass for lunch since the picnic area was truly a ZOO with all the school fieldtrips eating lunch. This was a much nicer option. And it was shady. Win-win. :)

The Martin kids after lunch, revived from all of their goodies :)

Benjamin!

I loved the birds, even though I usually don't care much for birds. How ironic. I just always think the fancy birds at the zoo are so pretty :). The macaws, peacock and flamingos.

Ben as a green tree frog :)

Awww, Miss Abby got all tired out from the heat and all of the action. What a sigh of relief for Mommy so we could stay a bit longer than intended. :)

Color Me Mine

While Pop and Nana visited this week for Ben's school show, we decided to take the kids to Color Me Mine the next day to paint some pottery. Ben had been here once before - when he was about Nate's age - so it was fun to visit it again and have two little artistes this time.

So, in going with their stereotypes, Ben chose a Mater pickup truck bank (our truck lover) and Nate chose a soccer ball bank (our jock :)). At least their pottery will match each of their rooms perfectly, right?

What fun they had....and they were both so serious about making their creations perfect. Ben put about 37 coats of red and orange paint on his Mater pottery to make it look like Mater from the Cars movie. Nate painted each area of his soccer ball to perfection :). We will be going back in about a week to pick up our pieces, after they are fired and sealed. The boys can't wait to see them and put them in their rooms!

IVNS Spring Musical Performance

On Tuesday night, Benjamin had his first school performance ever - The Indian Valley Nursery School Spring Musical. How proud we were of our little guy! He and his classmates have been practicing their 7 songs and 1 poem for months in music class at school and finally got to share their talent with all of their families at their concert. It was adorable - I was tearing up just listening to them and watching them!

Ben went over the top in terms of wanting to look dapper for his big night out. He insisted on wearing the new tie I bought for him (yes, it has trucks on it) and his dress clothes. Actually, he had been trying to wear the tie with his polos and tee-shirts for two weeks prior to the concert so I promised him that he could wear it for his big night out. Of course his dress shoes were another story entirely - he insisted that they were uncomfortable and hurt his feet so we let him wear his sandals. Oh well, win some battles and lose some others!

Pop and Nana came out for the night to join us for Ben's special evening. We left Nate and Abigail with our babysitter and took the big boy to his show and then out for ice cream afterwards. What a special night!

Here he is all decked out in his finest clothing, just before we left. We'll be getting a DVD of the performance so we didn't bother taking many pictures at the actual show and those we did take came out dark. So, you'll just have to visit us and watch his DVD :)

Bedtime

OK, so here's the story in a nutshell. I bring home a crying baby after running some errands this evening. Hurry up and get her changed for bed. Start warming her bottle since she is *so* exhausted. Give her the bottle, burp her and place her in bed with her blankie and lovey. All within about 15 minutes of her usual bedtime. But, she had a shorter than usual afternoon nap so going down a few minutes early must be what she needs, right? I kiss her goodnight and then walk quietly out the door.

And then....it starts. The fussing and crying, completely foreign to our usually easygoing baby at bedtime. She must be overtired, right? Of course. So, I let the crying continue for 20 minutes, cringing as it gradually gets louder and more pronounced. It is not stopping this time, which, as I said, is quite unusal for our girl. Oh no, maybe she is hurt or sick?! So I rush down the hall, throw open the door to find....

Alright, so I was duped again by the lightweight wearing pink! But what a nice demeanor to see her in instead of the blood-curdling-screaming mess she was only a few minutes earlier. I guess she just wanted to see me (her favorite person, I'll state- I have no shame :)) one last time tonight before entering La La Land. Yes, that's definitely the case since all it took was a rub of her back for her to lay back down on her tummy, stick her thumb in her mouth, put a corner of her lovey into her hand, and start to nod off.

Ah, the joys of motherhood are never-ending! Sleep well, Little Miss :)

Stealin'

Ha ha, I got your puppets from you, Brother!

So happy with her new "find" ...

...that she has to test it out (in her mouth, naturally!) :)

Playing

Just hanging out playing while Mommy gets dressed this morning....

...and it took only 5 minutes before the boys discovered that we were "missing" and came out of the playroom to find us. Obviously, the baby play mat is much more exciting than any other toy we own :)

Swings!

Today was the first nice day in about a week and since Andrew had physical therapy on his shoulder after work, I decided to take the kids for a late-afternoon trip to one of our favorite parks and have a late dinner afterwards. Nate and Abby spent almost the entire time on the swings so yes, we monololized both baby swings for over an hour (nobody was waiting for them). Abby had a fun time in general and Nate loved being pushed "super fast," as he calls it.

Rub-a-dub-dub...three in the tub!

Yes, three in the tub tonight for bathtime...sort of. Well, the real story is that the boys stole the princess' bath timeslot and she didn't like that notion one bit. So, we improvised and decided to take the boys' bath by storm by showing up completely nude with her pink towel, shampoo and lotion, and was ready to jump right in! So, with Daddy's help (aka his hands holding on to her for dear life), Miss Abby joined the two mad scientists in the tub for the first time tonight. Not too bad, if you ask me, given the chaotic state of the tub during bathtime at our house. Luckily it wasn't bath art night or she would have probably been doodled all over :)

Nate decided he'd help wash the shampoo out of her hair (Ben looks like he is getting some ideas of his own by just watching!).


Cheese! Abby has clean hair and has managed to survive Tsunami Nate.

Moving closer to her biggest brother, Benjamin, who she knows will protect her from the storm. He tells her that she is his favorite girl at least 3 times a day :). If you look closely, she has a small Mona Lisa smile. Maybe bathing with these two guys isn't so bad at all! Well, we'll wait a few more months until she is a bit more stable sitting up in water before she takes the plunge (ha ha!). She's a little too young for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride every other night at this age but it was fun to get a trial run, wasn't it? :)

Abby's First Tea Party

As I prepared for our end of the year tea party that we are doing tomorrow morning for our last MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting of the year, Abby also discovered her own personal tea pot, teacups and plate of treats. Thanks, Aunt Cinty, for the fun stuff, which she is now big enough to use :). She's so curious about everything around her now and just loves to sit up and play with toys lately. So, today was the first time I really sat her in the playroom to actually, well, play! And she loved it. The boys kept trying to drive their Geotrax trains through her setup but she didn't let that put a damper on her afternoon tea. Here's our girl, getting so big!