Christmas Fun

"That scarf looks really good with that jacket, but wus'up with that TAG?!" -Maya

Mark and I have been in NH now for about a week and we are really enjoying spending Christmas with the family.I had some decorating the tree pictures I was saving and I left them at the house-so all of you just have to miss out this year. Christmas this year really was fantastic for several reasons I think. For starters, the girls are really at a great age where there is still the magic but there is also an awareness about the real meaning behind Christmas as well as such an appreciation for each other and family in general.
What I have just loved about Christmas this year is seeing the girls spend some time with their grandparents as well as each other. This year they made presents for each other and they were genuinely grateful for the homemade things they received. When Lucy brought up Aida's piano bench that she had built with Mark and then diligently stained for days with her grandmother, Aida gave her a big hug and spun Lucy around. This after receiving all of those store-bought presents and seeing the look of pride and happiness on Lucy's face really was such a wonderful gift for me and Mark. Lucy has spent the last few days carrying the dog that Aida made for her all around the house. The dog's back opens up for storage and so does the head. Aida painted it all herself. I could go on and on about the consideration of Aida this year but that may be more for my private journal-if and when I keep one :). Just for an example I included a picture of the note she left for Santa. Anyway just thought I would throw on some pix for all of my peeps! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well.

Gingerbread Part 1.5

The little thief in action.

I love the concentration-it is a serious business and she knows it!

Lucy held onto those candy canes waiting for them each to set. When she sets her mind to something...I was in a good mood and there was no whining involved so hold away!

Ed would eat the candy off faster than I could put it on. Note Mark's "Feliz" lights draped in the background. We have a good laugh over them most every night. Our decorating skills are special.

Yummy! My kiwi kids just love gingerbread!

I know the anticipation has probably killed my reader by now, but you will have to wait a bit longer for the finished houses. I just have to say that I LOVE to make gingerbread houses. I love the smell of the gingerbread, the challenge of construction, the piles of candy and seeing the varying results. This year was particularly exciting for me because it was the first year that I had meringue powder for my royal icing. It made it A LOT easier and the consistency was perfect-as noted on the detailing on the houses. I admit, once again I mixed them up during assembly so all the windows were on one house and I was too lazy to properly construct Ed's mini-house, but all in all it went well.
I had skimped on Ed's house so I could have some spares to eat and decorate with but Ed had other plans. Turns out he is a gingerbread fiend. I had put the gingerbread in the oven to shelter it from some of the humidity, I am not sure if that works, but I was willing to give it a go...Ed found this out and took the liberty of helping himself whenever he pleased. Come to fine he probably ate a baker's dozen worth of reindeer and then he proceeded to rip them off of the houses. I think it is finally out of his system...Or perhaps this is payback for all those times I would bite off just the heads of the sugar cookies and run away?
P.S.
If anyone is curious I use the gingerbread house recipe from nickjr.com. It works every time. I actually roll it out super thin and I get a couple of houses from one batch of gingerbread.

Baking wtih Ed

Labelmaker Fun

I came across this picture today and it makes me laugh every time I see it. Lucy was particularly mad at Maya one day and this is how she chose to express it. Of course, I did not ever bring it to Maya's attention, that would only make her feel bad. I chose to take a picture and document it instead. Nothing is quite like a misspelled insult done on a labelmaker right on your back so you can't even see it.

Ed-You-Kate

This is what Maya's fancy education has gotten her. She used to know how to spell Aida just fine-until she learned her sight words that is. Now she sounds out and spells according to her sight words. Here is a card that she made for Aida, now spelled "A the" by Maya. It looks like Santa has shaved his beard, and the sack of toys has been replaced by the uh-hem "husky" reindeer. Note that Rudolph is still in the lead as the reins curve around. At the bottom is the back of the card featuring the Maya original "Pizza Slice Reindeer" (sorry for it being upside-down). I am just waiting to hear how the lyrics work for that one.

Waiting

I love this because there is excitement in her eyes and you can tell that she sees what she is going to do to her house.

Advent Calendar

Okay Jillo, you made me do it. I had big plans for my advent calendar and at the last minute I kind of wimped out. In any case, I decided to limit my candy to things that could also be used on the gingerbread houses. Just to go off on a tangent here, do not buy the peppermint peeps. I have to admit I am not a huge peep fan in the first place, although I do find their seventies style very appealing. Snowmen peeps are your standard peep flavour but the peppermint stars (not shown) I bought completly hoarfacious and I am a huge fan of peppermint. It was sort of worth the purchase to see Mark pop one in his mouth and go running out of the room to find somewhere to dispose of the yuckeep. BLECH!
Back to the advent calendar, I was too cheap too lazy to make my own bags and too cheap to buy two packs of ready-made so we had to wait until yesterday to start our adventing (pack of 18). I had the girls stamp their names on an equal number of bags because 1) i thought they would have fun doing so-they didn't and evntually Aida resorted to stamping miscellaneous numbers all over hers. 2) It would remind me whose turn it was to open the bag- Ed doesn't get a turn. In each bag I put a treat for each child, a puzzle piece to glue onto our nativity puzzle advent thingy and a challenge. The girls helped write the challenges and they did have fun doing that. It has things like help a neighbor, read a story about Jesus, help mom or dad without being asked stuff like that. The big question is how well will we follow through with it-our track record is not well. Will we stuff the challenges and just eat the candy? Probably, but I hope not.

My Life As a Pie

Okay, Chris followed my Elves and I saw Ali's Pie and I had to bite. So.... does anyone agree with this synopsis of my personality? I am sure all the other pies are lovely so no offense will be taken if you disagree.

You Are Cream Pie

You're the perfect combo of simplicity and divinity. You are a secret hedonist. No one knows how indulgent you can be. You don't indulge often, but when you do, you go for the best. You have expensive taste - even if you aren't rich. Those who like you life for understated pleasures. You're not flashy or trendy, but you have a depth that most people lack. Interacting with you makes most people feel incredibly satisfied. You are gentle, super sweet, and in harmony with those around you.

What Kind of Pie Are You?

Another Variation

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Couldn't Help Myself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving

I have to admit that I did not take very many or very good Thanksgiving pictures. It is always hard for me to capture events because I really like being a part of them and the pressure is too great. Lucky for all of you I did get a shot of our fancy centerpiece. Ruth didn't have any idea how long she has had the turkey head but we all got a kick out of it. Maya thought it needed some eyes and nostrils so we pierced some raisins and the effect was simply stunning.
We had a fabulous time in New Hampshire. It was full on but it was really great to spend some time with family and enjoy yet another holiday that we missed while we were overseas. We had tried to recreate it but it just wasn't the same without the cold weather and the Martinellis. It is so much fun to bring out a combination of traditions and to start new ones.
I showed the girls grandma's gold colored silverware and they thought it was beautiful and got a real kick out of getting to have two forks. Fancy silverware and in excess were both things that were lacking in NZ when we were on our own recreating the moment. I think some people had to eat with spoons and the truly unfortunate had to just use their fingers. Maya in all her wisdom told us that it was no longer "silverware" it was now "goldenware". So very true young Maya! Because I am never one to leave things at that, I had to tell her that Grandma Ruth had special gold powers and that she had done it all herself. "OH! How did she do it? Did she putted the straw inside and then spin it?" "Yes-of course Maya! But now she is all out of straw so she can no longer do it." Grins from Maya.
I could go on and on about the things I am thankful for but I am all tuckered out and it would just get me all misty-eyed. To make it quick, I am thankful for my family, friends and the truthfulness of the Gospel in my life. I am in constant awe of my many blessings and I am so appreciative to everyone for the examples they have been to me and my family. I can honestly say that I think that I have become a better person for having surrounded myself with the quality of people that I have. I have a long way to go, but I at least I am off to a good start. Hugs and kisses to all!

Malai A Coco & Mr. Snead

I hope the title of this post is not offensive to anyone. Aida came into our office dressed like this after we had put them to bed. "May I come in and talk to you?" she asks us in a funny accent that I think is meant to be an impersonation of a man. Seeing all of her effort that she had put into her get-up how could we refuse? "My name is Malai a Coco and I would like to talk to you about your daughter Aida. She has too much homework from school." The conversation went on for awhile until we finally flubbed her up enough to admit that it could be possible that Malai a Coco and Aida were one and the same. It was not long before Malai took off and Mr. Snead entered with interview notebook in hand. I still don't know what to think but it did give me a good laugh at a time of the day that is usually quite stressful. The spontaneity of children is incomparable to just about anything-I honestly did not forsee a visit from Malai a Coco. I wonder what tomorrow holds...

Nit Bunny

Note the scissors and the trimmed fur.

The other day Maya came in to ask me if I could please fix her bunny's face. Turns out she did some trimming and went a little too deep. I found the scissors and the pile of hair, Maya already looked slightly stressed at the situation so I calmly asked her why she decided to cut her bunny's fur. She told me she had to cut it because the nurse (at school) spoke to the children about how nits like to build their homes in the hair close to your head. Maya was afraid of her bunny getting nits on her face because then she would no longer be able to "cuddle her".
It was a little sad to see how Maya had to make the decision of whether to cut her bunny's lovely fur or risk her bunny getting lice. This was not a joy cut- we have had our fair share of those, I think it really pained Maya to have to cut the fur ("it is so soft to snuggle").
Unfortunately the cut next to the nose was a little too deep and out of my realm of fixing. I did what I thought a good mum would do. I sent her to school, hopped in the car bought a new bunny (luckily on sale), tied the bunny's ears up in an elastic and when Maya came home I told her I glued the fur back on but it most definitely will not be able to withstand a new haircut and I had to explain why nits can't be bothered with her bunny's fur.

JamesPatterson

Okay so maybe you read him, maybe you don't. Whilst reading one of the smutty paparazzi magazines during Aida's piano lesson I came across an article about him and his son. Apparently his son hated hated hated to read. So, he and his wife started a website readkiddoread.com which just has lists and pictures of books sorted by age groups and reading abilities. It also has some great blurbs and further recommendations. It is a great way to break it down the tabs make it real easy. I am rally impressed with a lot of the books on his list. I was going to start a list of my own but honestly, his site does such a good job that I will just direct you there.

But I Thought

Last month I had to take all of my kids to the doctor to get physicals in order for them to be deemed fit and disease free enough to interact with the other children of the school. They had to get a few boosters and I went ahead and gave the okay for the flu shot since they are only allowed 8.1 sick days during the school year and those are already set aside for taking off earlier for holidays so any actual illness they may incur will have to go with them to school. I would feel really bad that day that I had to send them to school with a 102 degree fever but vacation is more important and if I just cross my fingers the flu shot will work. They were mostly brave one freaked out with the injections but there were all kinds of promises being made about having ages and ages before they would have to have them again.
I was lying through non-disclosure of information. True, one would not have injections for awhile, the others would have some the following month, but what I did not tell the child freaking out is that they were all required to have full blood work done. Soooooo.....
Not wanting them to freak out I calmly told them last night that they couldn't eat anything in the morning until I woke up because I had to take them somewhere. I did not say it was anywhere fun, I just mentioned the word "fieldtrip". I knew if I told them there would be tears and worry all night. This morning they woke up and diligently got dressed and in the car full of questions of where they were going (at this point I was feeling a little guilty and not unlike the father of hansel and gretal).I still refused to tell them because I did not want to drag them in crying and have to wait for who knows how long with them all frantic.
We pull up to Lab Corp and they still have no idea but it was filled to the brim of people that were pasty and had expressions likened unto those facing a death sentence. I guess that is what you get when you fill a room with fasting people. As it grew nearer to time, I came clean and told them what we were there for. "But you promised..." "No, I only said no more injections for 'awhile'. Blood work is different they are taking stuff out." Needless to say the 1.5 hour wait with kids that have been fasting for like 14 hours by this point was not appreciated and really not all that fun. As a special treat we got to finish it up with some urine tests-yeah me! As I marched the girls out with their arms bent at angles suggesting extreme pain and drawn faces, I did hear someone say, "What I brave Mom!" Why yes, thank you. Don't forget patient.
In the end, the girls said to me "but I though we were going to do something fun." I have a feeling that their expectations for future "fieldtrips" are very low now. Perfect.

Yes I Did

For the very first time in my whole life I voted. I know I know. It was strange though because when I went in there President Palmer wasn't even listed and I had to write him in. I thought for sure they would give him his own spot since he is so popular but I have to admit I am unclear as to whether he is a Democrat or a Republican.
Here's the thing- I was a little unimpressed by the calibor of voting machine used. I mean c'mon folks what the heck was that? I haven't ever voted before so I don't know maybe this is a huge leap in technology but uh hem it looked like something a bunch of highschoolers put together (no offence to any of you highschoolers). I can almost hear them brainstorming ideas until it culminated to the genious idea of cellotaping a large sheet of butcher paper over an oversized panel comprised of a material and technology similar to that of the plastic lid on your favourite fast food beverage. I am not saying it needed to be anything complicated but in its simplicity it was almost more complicated than it needed to be. Was anyone else taken aback by their polling booths or is this just the gripe of a newbie? Shocked and quite frankly a little appalled is what I was. They could have at least had the big robot buttons then I could feel the clunk of finality with each vote I cast for people I didn't know. Jeez!

Halloween at School

To be honest the pictures I took of the girls before they went trick or treating were less than blog worthy, and since this blog is of the lowest caliber, what it means is that those pix are one click away from the recycle bin. I started off my day with a parade in which I got to watch SuperBubs and Lucy Montana strut their stuff. I then scrambled home to assemble my monster cupcakes-not in size but in theme. Mark came home and told me they were the coolest pirate cupcakes he has ever seen. Ouch! Maybe a seasick pirate? Anyway here they are.

Nothing is better than sinking your teeth into the teeth of a homemade delight by Sara. :)

Aida's award winning Robot costume. One of her hypnotizing swirlies fell off. They really spun on fans, the mp3 really played robot tunes, the leds did light up and when you pushed the start button other buttons did light up. She had a helmet and gloves but alas we left them at the ward party.

Bubbers when people would ask Maya if she was Supergirl she would say, "No, I am Super WOMAN." I was really surprised when last minute she decided not to be a monster princess-so unlike Maya. Then she insisted on the tiara and I knew my bubs was still my bubs all right.

You guessed it-Hannah Montana. The important thing here is that she really liked her costume.

I was rushed because I decided since I would be standing around admiring the parade with all of my fellow responsible, all-together parents, I would play the part and try to take a shower, fix my hair, put on a decent outfit -I even thought about gracing my lips with some lip gloss (key word is thought). I felt pretty together as I parked the van and threw Ed in the backpack and then stood waiting for the parade-camera in hand for like an hour. My back was breaking I was starting to sweat, but I kept my cool because I want to blend in with the other moms that take good care of their kids. I thought I had pulled it off and was happy to hobble to the car and remove the extra appendage that is Ed in a backpack, only to find that he had the BIGGEST greenest boogers coming out of both nostrils. Way to blow it for me Ed. So much for looking like a good upstanding, responsible parent.

Ed's Halloween

Mark and Ed were in charge of handing out the candy while I hit the pavement with the girls. This past week Ed only talks about "punkeens" and refuses to eat anything but "choc". Some days he would starve because he would not eat what was placed in front of him and I refused to give in to his "choc" demands. Ed will be the first to admit that he is a candyholic. Ed was not content to see candy being given away unless he had some too. Mark was busy because we had like 8 million trick or treaters come through so he would just throw Ed a piece every now and then. When I came home and Aida took off her costume this is what Ed did. Apparently he did it all night; running around in circles head bobbing. He was still alive this morning so I think he is okay but he sure was in a funky mood last night. Don't worry more Halloween to follow.

Bubbers First Tooth

Maya's dead tooth finally abscessed and had to be removed. As it so often happens with children, she had to wait until just after we left free dental care to do it. Two years of dead tooth and then boom right between free dental care and dental insurance she has to go and have it yanked out. She was extremely brave and didn't cry or flinch...you guessed it- brave skills were put in and operating at 100%.

Maya's explanation of what happened to her tooth goes like this.

"My tooth had a little flea in it and the flea was munch munching on my tooth so I had to go and have it taken out by the dentist before it got too full."

She seemed alright with that and the whole thing threw me off guard so I just left it at that.

Meet Ed

Here is Ed with his trusty laundry basket and blanket ready to take on the world.

Ed loves his Dad. He also loves to point at anything and everything.

This is Ed. Ed is growing fast. Ed is trouble.
Ed has decided the laundry basket is his. If we try to use it he dumps everything out of it so he can have it for his only personal use. He has a lot of uses. It slides nicely on our carpet and transistions flawlessly from extreme plush to padless berber to peeling linoleum. Aside from the fun he has sliding it around the house he also loves to fill it up with things from around the house. He usually starts off with his blanket, then pulls off plastic ornaments from the Halloween lights and tosses a few of those in, he proceeds into the office for whatever not-haves he can collect in there and to top it off he likes to put a bunch of cars and blocks in there for show.

Recently he has realized that another basket perk is that he can flip it over and voila he can now reach everything that was intentially placed "out of Ed's reach". Okay, we will have to move all of those things further back or tuck them away; a hassle but manageable. What I am irked about is how I went to take a shower and it was lacking hot water only to step out into a nice refreshing 60 degree house.

I asked Mark if he wouldn't mind checking it out in case the pilot light went out or whatever happens to make the water NOT HOT. Turns out someone thought it would be great to turn the switch to "vacation" mode on the water heater as well flip off the switch controlling our central heat. Yeah, thanks for that Ed.

What I do love about Ed right now is how he has enthusiasm for finding "pun-keeens!" and everything is "sceeeery". I love his smile and I even love how anytime I bend down to pick something up Ed comes tearing around a corner leaps up with arms spread and both feet off the ground to body slam me. I usually win, but I love how he keeps trying anyway.

Subject: Message from the Queen of England to USA

A message from the Queen:
To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II


In light of your failure in recent years to manage your economy, or to nominate competent candidates for President and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.




** Important, please read thoroughly! **

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1.You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Then look up aluminium, and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

2. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour', 'favour', 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise'. Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary'). The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of -ize.

3. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as 'like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. The Former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

7. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut

8. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

9. You will cease the playing the hybrid game you call football. There is only one proper kind of football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full Kevlar body Armour like a bunch of nancies). Be warned, however, that if you try Rugby, the South Africans and Kiwis will thrash you, as they regularly thrash us

10. Furthermore, you will stop calling the event at the end of your baseball season the World Series, since so few civilized countries play the game. Since less than half of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

11. In time, MI 5 will tell you who killed JFK.

12. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 PM with proper cups and saucers, not mugs, with high quality biscuits and cakes; plus strawberries in season, with cream.



God Save the Queen!

Old Days

I am tired of looking at the same picture but not quite organized enough to put on some recents so you are getting this oldie but goody that I came upon just now. I can't believe how quickly they grow up and how much they change. At the time you think they are so adorable, unique and memorable that you could never forget that moment in time, but you know what? You do, at least I do anyway. Not in entirety; but small details and simple memories, feelings that are evoked when you are lucky enough to have caught something on video or camera of time or a moment spent with the little ones. It is then that your memory is jogged and nostalgia hits as you are able to recall how they were, how things were. It is strange because as I go along in life I still look at my kids sometimes and I want to freeze time and keep them just as they are. It never happens but as time goes on I continue to enjoy them. I just hope that one day when I am old and gray, I will be able to look at any tangible preservation of memories I will have and smile with the memories. When it comes down to it, it is preservation of ideas, photos, writings, in any way or form that will survive throughout the years. Sometimes, I get down on thinking about how I need to display things better or I don't take a picture because it isn't that great. You know what? Nice pictures are great but when it comes down to it it is the subject matter that is the most important to me not the display. This is all rich coming from someone who has been organizing photos for 9 years but it keeps things in perspective for me and helps me to keep my expectations at a level that they are at least attainable.
This all being said, isn't Aida cute? So different, yet much the same. Look at little Lucy!

Sunday Treats

Most every Sunday since Mark and I have been married, we have made chocolate chip cookies or some kind of baked good to devour. Okay, so we do it most days of the week as well but Sundays are regular you know like clockwork. Today, Aida decided to takeover and she is quite the little cook. She made fried cookies made out of flour, milk and a little water. Lowfat and delicious. Then she spent the afternoon making these chocolate squares. First she decided the cupcake holders weren't the right size so she decided to craft her own boxes from paper. Then she thought about how the melted chocolate would stick to the paper so she laminated it with cello-tape a very good idea. For the finishing touches she cooled them in the fridge lightly or not so lightly dusted them with sugar and then cut out jack-o-lanterns as a topper. I thought they were quite ingeniously done. Watch out Martha because Aida is hot on your heels.

Fall Bike Ride

The weather is still quite nice here and we finally have a biking arrangement that works for the family so we went for a family ride. For those of you that have heard me go on and on about my trike and the bike path, here is a picture of my trike. I love it because it is so easy to take Maya and Ed in and out of and I can talk to them while I am pedaling away-not as easy to do on a trailer. The bike path is totally safe from cars and the trike is pretty hard to crash-for most people anyway (ah hem you know who you are). When the kids are grown back on goes my huge basket for carrying groceries or a dog. Hey c'mon now there are leaves on the ground which constitutes this as a fall picture.

First Fall Lot

Okay so my big plan for October was really that I wanted to try to have a picture depicting Fall or having a glint of Halloween in it each day or every other day. So far I have not shown consistency or stuck with my topic. So, here are the first official fall pictures. There have only been a couple of leaves that have turned here but I thought it was fallish to have Ed in his overalls eating an apple. TOTALLY unplanned but it did make me get my camera out which I liked. I also shot some cute ones of Maya. She looked adorable save for the huge chicken bone she was sucking the marrow out of. Somehow her striped pants just couldn't compensate for such rude eating habits. As usual, I had a hard time narrowing down because I love my Ed.

Election Day

The girls' school had an election day at their school today. When they got home I asked them, "Who did you vote for and why?"

Maya: Ibana because the name is pretty and O'cain sounds funny like "candy cane" and his hair is too white.

Lucy: McCain because he eats ribs and runs on full-speed (she meant he drives a full petrol car).

Aida: Obama because he will be the first black man voted to be President by America. His wife has the same name as my aunt. He is young and he drives a car that runs on only 1/2 petrol so it is better for the environment.

For those of you dying to know the results, McCain won. Lucy was thrilled and Aida insists that it is just because they want him to win and be the oldest president.

Maya's Fav

I was surprised to hear this was a Jim Henson company project. I have to admit I love real puppets more but Maya just loves loves loves this show. I never thought she would like anything that was not princess related but surprise, apparently Maya is a bit of a science buff. I also actually do like a couple of the songs-they are catchy. I had no idea that a rolie polie is not a bug. Shame on me but yeah for Sid! I just have to know who else has kids that love this show?

The Zoo

Ed's favourite animals at the zoo were the birds.

The girls videoed the entire zoo experience. Here they are filming each other instead of anything zoo related. Luckily we have two copies of this plus this still that I took of nothing.

Lucy at the start of the zoo experience before it all turned to custard. There were no more pictures taken by me once we got past the first two exhibits.

Today in celebration of Rosh Hashana I took the girls to the Cape May Zoo. We had heard good things about it but mostly that it was free so we decided to go check it out. I felt oh so guilty about giving the courtesy "I'll pass" wave to the senior citizen they had posted at the gate holding the pail labeled "Donations". It worked and I felt really bad about it but all I had was the two quarters that I had to hold onto for the kids to feed the goats. In the end that counted as a donation but still it just didn't seem like it was enough to help their cause ("your donations provide the food for the animals). My guilt continued as I noticed that Maya's most favourite animal at the zoo-the camel had kind of...small humps. I read on their Camel info board that that means they are having to use the fat supply from the humps. "Ah mum, I thought they would have really tall humps and we could ride on one!" Well, I guess I now know why out of all the animals those are the ones she wanted to see. Maybe I will have to drive back and donate a little more. I am a little sore because I was the acting camel of the journey carrying Ed, cameras, kids stuff, the backpack(that I could no longer carry eddie in because my back was going to snap off) but all in all it was an enlightening day AND I only lost Eddie once. When I was having to read the entire camel info to Maya I told Aida to watch Eddie, soon she returned (without eddie) to say that some people said they would watch him until his mom came to get him. Yeah, Ed was like 70 meters away staring at the parrots. We sold our strollers in NZ and I just can't justify buying a new one when he is nearly 2 but I guess I should have because turns out the free zoo doesn't rent them out and it is a little hard to take 4 kids to the zoo alone. What I did learn other than I can't go again until he is like 4, is explained in the following pictures.

After the zoo we were starving so I made a deal that we could stop and eat at BK in lieu of trying to find the Cape May diamonds of which I have no idea where to look. It seemed fair enough. My girls got their cups and were mad that they didn't have any soda in them. I told them how they can fill up their own. The BK we were at had the buttons not the levers shown here, the girls were pressing the pictures as hard as they could and looking all around the machine for the ice. Who knew it was so complicated? Very cute actually.

At the zoo, you could put a quarter in to get some feed for the goats or ducks or whatever animal was around. I put a quarter in my eager girls' hands only to have them run over put it in the slot and stare at it smiling then that smile turned to a frown. They looked up at me and said "Mum, nothing is happening, we put the money in!" I showed them how you then have to turn the knob. "When will it stop coming out? Can we move our hands now?" I would have taken a picture but Ed was about to be swallowed by a flamingo so you know...