birthday blast

sunday was our funday. it started out with a surprise for samantha—a huge birthday banner and a [semi] clean house (which she requested!). we went to church and samantha was very excited, to say the least, that her sunday school class sang happy birthday to her—complete with the cha cha chas! after church, we went to lunch and then it was time to come home and open presents! samantha was elated with her new barbies, littlest pet shop stuff, jewelry making kit, and american girl books.

then it was off to the zoo with my favorite gorilla, monkey, kangaroo! we had fun riding the camel, train, and tram...

seeing some of the animals...

and samantha was excited to go on her very first paddle boat ride! she even paddled all by herself to let daddy have a rest! ryan, on the other hand, was eager at first, but then decided he didn't want to "go swimming," hence his crabby attitude. thankfully he stayed in the paddle boat and didn't really go swimming!

then we ate our picnic dinner that we brought along. hoping to surprise samantha, i also brought birthday cupcakes. however, paired with the 90 degree heat, our dessert bit the dust.

we made the best of it though!

our day was not complete until we visited the lions and got proof that samantha's mouth was indeed smaller than a lion's (if you've ever had a conversation with her, you would question that fact!) ryan had a lovely meltdown, samantha ran through the misters in the trees, and then we ate some free ice cream!

we went home tired, worn, and warm, but also having had a successful day. it was so much fun giving samantha "the best birthday EVER!!"

wordless wednesday

we wanna follow the deer!

saturday was daddy daughter date day, so ben took samantha to the zoo for their monthly kid's fun fest and conservation club. each month they have different activities and games, like making fingerprint animals and balancing like a flamingo. samantha also had fun catching felt frogs with her velcroed noise-maker tongue! (why they were frogs and not flies i don't know.)

but the highlight of last saturday was that our local pbs station was there and helped the kids make a movie! they divided the kids into groups by their age, then went and made a movie about an animal. samantha got to pick the animal for her group and she chose the deer. yes, out of all the zoo animals she had to pick from, the deer ranked #1 on her list! but that was okay, because they wanted to keep the kids close by.

they all got a turn at using the video camera, which was a tiny flip camcorder, and the pbs lady helped them with what to say. after they were done she edited the clips and made a dvd for each of them to take home. the lady wasn't able to edit out her voice, so you can hear her in the background. but the kids are cute! samantha is the one saying "we love the zoo" at the beginning. (and in case you're wondering what happened to her nose, she nose-dived (nose-dove?) off of a bounce house slide and got a rug burn sort of thing.)

so if you have 33 seconds to spare, watch the movie. you just might learn something about the fallow deer! and i guarantee you'll love the little boy at the end!

for more info about events and attractions at the kansas city zoo, click here!

not me! monday

where did last week go?! it's already time for not me! monday again! this blog carnival was created by mckmama. you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.




this past weekend we finally got to spend some time together as a family, part of that being at trip to the zoo for the annual member picnic. and while we were watching the hippos, an older lady did NOT ask us "are hippos mean or are they really friendly? like would they be nice to you if you walked up to them?" i did NOT want to tell her to try it and see... (fyi: more humans are killed by hippos than crocs in africa. and no, i really do not want little old ladies to get killed by hippos.)


and speaking of the zoo, while we were eating our dinner at one of the concessions, a zoo custodian did NOT come by our table and sweep--then pause--and then sweep again for what seemed like forever. ben and i did NOT give each other a look of concern because we both did NOT think he was spying on us. and i was NOT trying to see if there was a camera or microphone up his sleeve, especially since he was wearing a long sleeved shirt on a very hot day. that's a little suspicious, no? after he finally walked away ben and i did NOT come to the conclusion that he was in fact just sweeping and that we have definitely been watching WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY too many private invesigator shows (read: simon and simon).


after my week of eating out entirely too much, i am NOT back on my eat-healthy-at-home kick. so it definitely was NOT me, who in a moment day of weakness ate two chocolate chip cookies at lunch and a brownie at dinner. but if that could have possibly been me? well, i would NOT have enjoyed it!


ben had the day off today so we went shopping together. and while we were walking around the store he was NOT slightly making fun of two people who may have been a bit larger than us. and when we got back to the car and i told him how mean he was being he did NOT look at me and say, "give me a break--at least i haven't said anything about you yet." he is NOT in big trouble for that remark!


and now i need to wrap this up. because as i sit here typing this, my house does NOT look worse than it did last monday when i posted these pictures!


happy monday!

tuesday tip

when you're going on a fun, photo-op filled, family outing that occurs maybe once or twice a year, and you take your camera, your three lenses, and your extra battery, by all means CHECK TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE A MEMORY CARD!

simple, yet apparently too complex for me!

yeah.... yesterday we went to the zoo. the two times we've been there were both in november when it was freezing. and being that it was november, not all of the animals were out because it was too cold. so yesterday when we went we were so excited to see the elephants and giraffes and rhinos for the first time. and wouldn't you know, when i went to take my first picture the lcd said "no memory card!" needless to say ben was giving me crap about that ALL day!

luckily for me we decided to buy a family pass this year. so we'll be back--soon! and so will my camera. with lenses. and batteries. and memory cards! so until then i'll leave you with my favorite exhibit from last time!

any african wild game for sale?

today at lunch samantha was asking if we could have an elephant. i thought our conversation was over after about 20 minutes of explaining the many reasons why an elephant couldn't stay at our house.

but then she said, "mom, can we talk about zebras now?"



i guess it's time for another trip to the zoo!

three busy weeks.... part 2

the week after heather was here, the kids and i went back to minnesota with her and stayed at my parent's house for a week. we left tuesday morning, july 1st. it was a nice LONG trip, but thankfully we can drive it in a day. the day after we got there was COLD! i never know how to pack for MN in the summer because what is nice to them is now cold to me! but other than that the weather was beautiful while i was there.

yea.... almost to gramma's!

tired from a long trip

a day or two into our stay ryan got sick. i thought he might be teething, but i think it was just a cold because he hasn't gotten any new teeth lately. he wasn't feeling well, so we didn't go do a whole lot during the week besides shopping, of course.

ryan hanging out under the couch

the strawberries in my parents' garden were ripe so we got in on the action. samantha enjoyed picking them and then eating them! YUM! they were good!

picking the strawberries..... mmmmmmmmmm they were good!

two days later we got over twice this many -- strawberries galore!

on saturday morning becky and her family came. we had a tea party lunch for samantha's birthday, so the girl's got to eat inside with all of gramma's nice dishes, and the boys had to go outside on the porch with papa. then that night we had a pre family reunion at the dam, then came home and samantha & ryan opened birthday presents and we enjoyed cake and ice cream. one of the most fitting presents samantha got was a hat from auntie becky that said "little miss chatterbox" on it. if you know samantha, you know that it suits her well!

sunday we went to church, then came home to get ready for the family reunion. it was a little crazy because a lot of stuff was miscommunicated and not planned the greatest. but it was a gorgeous day and it was nice to see family, even some that i haven't seen in 20 years!

monday we went to see my friend's new baby, then it was a packing day! we all had to get everything ready for the trip back to kc and heather had to pack for her trip to alaska.

tuesday morning we left for minneapolis/st. paul. it was nice that we could take our time and didn't have to get up super early. we didn't have to drop heather off at the airport until evening, so when we got to the cities we stopped at subway for lunch, then went to the como zoo. it's a great little zoo. it's not too overwhelming to kids and you can see everything in a couple hours. it's cheap too....! :-) it was fun. samantha enjoyed seeing all the animals, especially the baby orangutan.

lilly pads at the como zoo. they were incredibly huge.

mama orangutan and baby

i love how the giraffe's are all lined up..... like the kids waiting to get measured at gramma's!

after the zoo we dropped heather off at the airport and continued south. we stopped just inside of iowa for dinner and gas. when we were about 10 miles from the exit dad said he didn't think we'd make it because the gas light had come on. i asked him if it had just come on and he said "no, it came on over 30 miles ago!!" i don't know why he hadn't stopped before, but at least we made it there! we got home to kansas city at 12:30am. the kids were so excited to see daddy, as was i. ryan didn't go back to sleep until 2 - 2:30. then we crashed!

back to normal

i have finally created a blog.... after many promptings from my friends and family, i've decided to give it a try! hopefully it will keep you updated on our life, especially samantha and ryan!

it has been a busy 3 1/2 weeks and things are now back to normal. my sister, heather, came for a vist on friday, june 20th. she was here for about a week and a half, then on july 1st the kids and i went back to minnesota with her. i stayed at my parents' house for a week. it was so nice to see family. i got to see my sister, becky, and her family, and my dad's side of the family had a big family reunion while i was there. then, on july 8th, we headed back home. heather, my mom & dad, and the kids and i drove to st. paul, MN. we went to the como zoo for a few hours, dropped heather off at the airport (she was flying to alaska), then continued on our journey to kansas city. we got home at about 12:30 am. it was a LONG day! my parent's stayed at our house for a week, and went home yesterday, july 15th. ben didn't have to work so it was nice to spend the day with him and the kids. so life is getting back to normal now. it's weird not having people around now, but it's nice to get back into a routine.

a lot has happened in the past few weeks; samantha turned 5 on july 27th, ryan had his first birthday yesterday, and we were busy with family. i'll write about all that individually and post pictures later. i didn't want to cram it all into one post! see you soon!