Going to the Zoo

Yesterday we had a fun outing to the zoo. Bev, Zarek, Katie, Elena, and I packed a lunch and loaded up yesterday morning to enjoy the warm weather and hopefully see a few of the animals.  This is the crew in the prarie dog tunnel.

 Bev was a trooper and took the younger kids down the raft slide. I think they enjoyed this more than seeing the actual giraffes.

 Elena and I with "girfy".

 Elena enjoyed playing with the penguin display that showed different types of penguins. This was the closest thing she got to a penguin, as the real ones were hiding out. You may notice that Elena is modeling a borrowed monkey backpack. The best thing about this is the monkey tail is a "leash". This was perfect for a toddler in a zoo. I think we'll have to get one.

It was a great trip and the kids seemed to have a good time. At the very least they were worn out and ready for a nap on the ride home.

Ten Year Sentence

This weekend marks the tenth year that Karen and I have owned this home. I remember a discussion I had with Mrs. Edwards (one of my favorite teachers) when we first purchased our house. She told me, "You never own a home, it owns you." I remember mumbling something to myself like 'Yeah, whatever.' She was frickin' right! She is also the only teacher I ever had who explained the peril of credit cards and the benefit of compounding interest for investments.

We decided to celebrate the event by placing a mountain of rock in the garden. Here is a view of Mount Pain.Karen and Sprout joined in on the project. As you can see, Sprout was really into it. And yes, it is perfectly acceptable to landscape in your pajamas.One thing I have learned over the years is that taking before and after pictures seems to ease the aches and pain a bit. So here you go.
Over the past decade we have made many modifications to our property, but the list continues to grow longer. Oh, Mrs. Edwards, how I wish you had been wrong!

Happy Easter!

Today we celebrated Easter in the usual way: food and Easter eggs. As you can see, Elena wore a cute dress and was even happy to wear her hat. Getting that girl to wear a hat is normally comparable to convincing the Occupy Boise protestors to pack up and leave.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the big hunt. It's basically a 3-part process. Step 1. Find the egg. Alex and Katie were very helpful during this process.Step 2. Acquire said egg.
Step 3. Chuck the egg as far as you possibly can.

We had a great time this year and ate way too much food. We spent the rest of the weekend working on landscaping projects and relaxing.

Easter Projects

Today Elena and I colored Easter eggs. The picture quality isn't very good as I was trying to keep her from tipping the cups of dye while taking pictures.
Only a third of the boiled eggs were actually colored, the rest were casualties to Elena breaking the shells when she was picking them up. We made our own dye that was a little more concentrated and did a nice job coloring our brown eggs.
These are the rest of the Easter projects we've worked on earlier in the week. We made Easter egg paintings and Alex and Katie helped Elena make the Easter egg basket.

Spring Projects

We have been busy working on projects around the house, so I haven't had much time to keep up on the blog. Last weekend we worked on the nursery, but we still have much to do before The Boy arrives. As you can see from the picture below, we don't have much time left.This weekend I worked on the fence project, also known as CCC Containment. Our hope is that we will be able to control access for children, chickens, and canines. Here is a view of our front yard.And this is the garden. We just enjoyed our first crop of kale tonight and we're looking forward to eating the lettuce that we planted last winter. We also planted strawberries last week.Elena is doing well and is picking up new skills. Among those: opening doors. God help us. Another of her new habits is to dig laundry out of the hamper and conduct a fashion show for us. She usually waits until someone is visiting, then puts one of Karen's bras around her neck and underwear over her head. Here she is showing off some less-personal clothing.
We are looking forward to Easter next weekend, and our first "real" Easter egg hunt. It should be fun.