last pictures of zoo

Whew we took allot of pictures this day
Iris is feeding the fish.












A tuckered out Xavier . I am glad that he is sleeping in Daddies backpack, I wasnt sure that he would.











A more alert moment for X-babier :)













Me and my girls, Iris reluctant to sit for more then a second, that's 2 1/2 for you :)

zoo part 3

We love to visit the misters at the zoo :)
The droplets of water sit on your hair til you rub them in and they look like snow or ice in your hair
well.........










For some it looks more like a head of gray hair, hee hee.












The girls enjoy playing at the small water activity.
The water jumps up out of the holes in the ground. lots of fun games can be played, kick the water, slap the water, look into the hole til the water surprises you, lol, thats a favorite








Iris loves playing in this and squeals with delight














I am working on tricking Iris into looking at the camera, I did pretty good, say her name and press the button at the same time so when she looks it will be clicking already. now to capture the smiling face

zoo,part 2

Xavier's turn to try on the junior zoo keeper hat.
I don't think we have ever put a hat on him before. must be a weird thing for a baby.










What is this thing they put on my head??















I would really rather you gave it to me so I can chew on it for a while. speaking of chewing, 8 months now, 0 teeth! I can hardly believe it,
I have never had a baby go this long without getting a tooth. I was bemoaning this fate to my mother, and she said my older brother didn't get a tooth til he was over 1 year .

outing to the zoo part 1

What a great way to end the day ;)
JUst as we were leaving the zoo Daddie found
these two peacock feathers. The girls were thrilled.










I really like this picture of Dh and me
came out really nice, and there is a sweet little
something that makes it extra special :)
It is also extra special because serena took the picture, she is getting to be quite good at taking
pictures.







stopping for a lunchbreak, they have really cute
kids meals that come in the hat Serena has on her head.

insect o rama

the springfield nature center had an "insect o rama" event this evening. lots of games. I this one the children are pretending to be ants getting ready for winter. they are passing bits of food (tennis balls) using tongs emptying one basket and filling another.







This one looks like fun, I didnt get a whole lot of info about it (trying to keep my eyes on Iris )
but I do know that she is being a dung beetle rolling
dung along.........eeww.











In this game Serena went through the life cycle of a butterfly first chomping some leaves, the going into a chrysilis, emerging as a butterfly,laying eggs and then flying away :)













Here are my girls being babybluebirds


















working hard on a craft project. They really enjoyed coloring and chatting with the nice lady assisting with this craft. She asked Serena about school and when she found out that we were homeschoolers she offered me a little advice on teaching kids to read, make labels for everything in the house, I have heard that before but hadnt thought about doing it lately, think i will. oh she was a kindergarten teacher years ago.






Here is Irises finished project. Serenas will be up soon, she got tired of coloring and asked to finish it at home.











Studying insects :) Iris loves butterflies















Serena likes dragonflies best these days. this was a neat exhibit, they had the tray of insects projected on a screen above so the kids could see.













Serena looked for insects in the wood that they must have brought in from outside.














My little wanderer, sigh.
I was surprised that she took off a couple times.
right into the crowd and she out of site. I have always been opposed to those child leashes, but if this keeps up I would certainly reconsider.
she is cute as a button though isn't she :)



There was alot more neat stuff that I didnt get photographed. If your local checking out these free activities at the nature center is well worth the effort, even with a wandering 2 1/2 year old.

adventurous dinner

Expanding our pallets, we tried a curry for dinner tonight. I am not sure how authentic the recipe is,especially since I got it from "miserly moms" , lol, but it did have curry as an ingredient and thats somthing that we as a family had never tried. I remember that my brother had a girlfriend in high school and the two of them made dinner for our family and used curry, I loved it, others in the family not so much. I was unsure how it would be recived, but I am happy to report everyone liked it. It was meatballs in a curry sauce, and then a tray ( the same monkey tray) of condiments; raisins,coconut,pinapple,picles,hard boiled eggs and peanuts. The girls loved being able to pick their
own .


After dinner Litle X was worn out and lounged with Dad

this weekend we had a barbaque :) Gabe and the girls pretended that we were bbqing snake steaks. the weather was really gorgeous, in the 70s and not very humid, not really typical august weather in mo so we were very glad to take advantage. I think I am going to buy an additional grill. I watch too much food network and especially Bobby Flays grilling shows and I want to try grilling all sorts of things! Grilled eggplant for instance, mmmmmmm.

cicada

http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/pests/g07259.htm
Here is something that every MO kid knows about, a cicada shell. We learned all about them at the link above.

big day for Xavier

The bumbo seat used up its usefullness, he started climbing out of it too, boys, lol.
I had Ricky go up to the attic and bring down out attach to the table high chair ( thanks Ricky, I will be getting a picture of you on here soon, bowahahaha) X resisted getting into the chair at first but after he was in and given a few cherios
he loved it. He likes sitting with us during dinner
and I dont know but I think he realizes that he is at the head of the table and enjoys that too;)

Rickys freshman orientation

The girls and I accompanied Ricky to his freshman orientation bash at Parkview high school on the 14th.
The girls got to get their faces painted, always a big hit :)
Serena chose a kittycat and Iris a butterfly
then we ate junk food :)
Ricky is absent because he is avoiding pictures at the moment, hmmm, maybe not so much the pictures as moms with cameras, lol. I will get him very soon though, bowahahaha

Kyle visits

We got a rare visit from big brother Kyle last week. He is starting his sophomore year at MSU
the end of this month. College kids are busy busy busy I guess. At least Xavier isnt crying every time Kyle looks at him like he was last month :)

Park day

We decided to head out to the park today.
The weather here has changed from oppressively hot to pleasantly warm. Serena is practicing her tree climbing. We have an apple tree in our back yard that her little friend eric scrambles right up but she cant quite do it yet. she has much more luck on this tree.







Iris loves to climb too but she sticks to the playground equipment












Serena ran into a friend from karate class, what a happy surprise :) they had a great time playing "word girl" Serena was wordgirl, the superhero girl with a great vocabulary:) and Henry was Dr. two brains, the evil villain who somehow has a mouse brain in addition to his regular one, lol.








Just hanging around, so I can take their picture













Me and my little boy :)
I didnt realize the sun was right behind me like that, but I like the way it came out just the same.

a big day for xavier

His first haircut, at only seven moths old! It was looking straggaly. I hope that it is better, I had a hard time with the back especially because I cut it while he was asleep on my lap and his head was tilted to one side or the other. Dh says that it looks pretty good and thats all we really need :)


And then Xavier crawled . It's not like he hasnt been sccoting around but this was a real crawl which Dadie had to catch opn video : )

A BOX FROM GRAMMA

The girls got a box from their gramma today:)
some new clothes, they are posing in :)
and a cool magazine about flowers and birds,always big hits around here. thanks gramma :)

avocado seeds and butternut squash soup

We made butternut squash soup today, mmmmmmm its good :) having your kids help make food really gets the to eat just about anything, at least try it. the girls ate a bit of this and then said it was a bit spicy. I have to agree, i think i will cut down on the coriander next time.



We also planted an avocado seed. I guess it takes a long time for them to grow so we will have a plant to look after all winter. I am thinking that we will get some more and have a little garden
of sprouting plants all at different stages. life sciences :)