Lunch with peacocks...

It's not everyday you get to eat lunch with peacocks! They are little scavengers I tell you! Children (and adults) have no qualms with avoiding the 'do not feed the animals' signs.

We spent most of Memorial Day at the Detroit Zoo with Matt, Amy, Kathleen, Dale, and their niece Erika. It was an absolutely beautiful day an we all had a great time. I have a lot of pictures to share so happy scrolling...One picture that you won't see is a picture of a pregnant woman. I had no idea that was the hip thing to do when you were pregnant, I never read that it any of my pregnancy books! Seriously, I have never seen so many pregnant women all in the same day and same place like that. Amazing! Ok, back to the pictures.

In the car, on the way to the zoo. As usual Brynn is sucking her thumb.

In the parking garage holding her animal book. We pointed out what animals she might see at the zoo.

Brynn & Dale in their strollers ready for action.

Camels & deer just chillin. This was the common theme for the day. Most animals were just laying around basking in the sun or in the shade.

Brynn enjoying the waterfall.

Tiger

Lazy lion (or Simba as Brynn called him) Sing it with me, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps today, ahhweee!"

Rhinocerous

Warthogs (or Pumbba as I like to call them) The zoo has big billboards around the city promoting their warthogs and that you have to come see them...but there were only two. Nice to see they spend their almost non-existent funds on ads like this! Ha!

Zebras

Grizzly Bear

Giraffe. They were in an inside exhibit as the zoo remodels their outside habitat.

Bison

Prairie Dogs...there's a little baby one on the right if you look closely.

Anteaters & Capybara

Polar Bear...the zoo staff thinks she might be pregnant with twins.

Another Polar Bear - Detroit has the worlds largest polar bear exhibit.

(Dead?) Kangaroos...they were sleeping, I think.

Couch potatoes

Brynn laughing as she was being sprayed with a mist of water.

Wow, a family photo! All three of us made into the same picture.

Tuckered out! Didn't even make it out the of the parking garage.

We look forward to going back next year! I will have to work on my sunscreen coverage skills though. I have a ridiculously looking farmer's tan (sunburn). I am as white as a ghost and you think I would know how to prevent a burn by now.

Is this our yard?! Part III (of III)

So, here is the almost final look. For now we are done, but I may add a few things here and there. It looks WORLDS better than before and I am happy with the outcome. Our house appears much more inviting now. Where you see the hay is our problem-growing-grass-area. I am happy to say that we already see grass sprouting again and have high hopes for it to stay this year.









This is my vegetable garden bed off the back of the house. I have done well with it in the past. This year I have planted green onion, sugar snap peas, broccoli, green leaf lettuce, carrots, summer squash, and cucumber. I will plant tomato and green pepper as well.

Is this our yard?! Part II (of III)

Here are some pictures of the bareness of the landscaping after we started from scratch a few years ago and then a few pictures of the middle stages when we started working on it recently. First two pics are the back yard and the rest are the front yard.

Is this our yard?! Part I (of III)

Our yard has really taken on a transformation over the last couple of weeks. We have been working hard on making our yard look like a real yard. When we moved in the grass was in poor condition, weeds had taken over everywhere, trees were over grown, and other things were also not to our liking. The following summer we had pretty everything dug up and started over from scratch. The following fall we also had some trees removed and the others pruned back....yet almost 4 years later we still didn't have much to show for it and our yard looked pretty bare and pathetic. Here's pictures of the before the start of our transformation.

This is our yard when we bought the house 4 years ago...I will post soon with the 'during' stages pictures and then, of course, the after pictures.

Mommy's Makeup

Well, it finally happened - Brynn got into my makeup for the first time and tried to put on my eyeliner. Not too bad for her first try.

Toenails

I painted Brynn's toenails last night for the first time. She thought it was pretty cool and helped me to blow them dry. Well, I thought she liked it until I went to wash my hands and she comes running in saying she needed to wash her hands. I told her she didn't need to right now and scooted her away. A few minutes later I noticed pink stuff on her fingers. I realized then that she had tried to wipe the nail polish off her toes and wanted to wash it off of her fingers. Needless to say, I had to paint them again and make sure she didn't touch them until they were dry.

Birthday Fun

Last weekend we helped Hailey celebrate her 3rd birthday! It is so much fun to watch our little ones play together.

Hailey opening her presents.

The kids had a planting activity where they decorated their pots with stickers, scooped some dirt, and then planted their flowers.

Brynn was a little overzealous and dropped her pot...and had a little meltdown.

Brynn playing house.