First Grade Zoo Field Trip

Yesterday I got to chaperone Cole's field trip to the Indy Zoo. And by chaperone I mean hang out with Cole - there were so many chaperones that I got to have Cole all to myself! This was awesome - he really needed and thrived with some one-on-one time. I told him he was the boss and that we'd do whatever he wanted. And then we did. (It was sometimes hard to keep my opinions to myself, but I did!)

The Indianapolis Zoo isn't the biggest or best ever, but it's the perfect size for a 3 hour trip with a first grader. We pretty much hit all of the exhibits and didn't feel like we missed anything.

We even saw dolphins while in the underwater dome, although I didn't get a picture. They were jumping and playing around, which was fun to watch!

Poor Cole. He doesn't want to show his teeth when he smiles because of all the orthodontia going on in there.

Cole really liked the desert exhibit. I really liked this tuckered out meerkat. Life must be hard.

I was impressed with the big tiger sleeping close enough that we could get a good look at him. Cole was impressed with the age of the computer in the picture on this display. "Look how old that computer is! It's like running Windows 98!!"

The bears were pretty active and fun to watch. The lions were just laying around, but they were all in full view, which is uncommon. I slayed Cole with my "Those lions are just "lion" around" pun. First graders are fun.

We tried to get a picture with the stinky rhinos, but it didn't work.

It was a gorgeous day, warm but breezy. But by 12:30 Cole was hot and tuckered out. I forget how much the sun affects him because he's just so pale. We rested and ate some snacks and tried to make more animal puns.

We also spent a bit of time in the orangutan building. This was - whose name is Kate, apparently - really liked lying there and looking at the kids. There was another one on the other side doing the same thing, who then put on a show by peeing everywhere. The kids LOVED that! She also smiled at us several times, which was pretty awesome. It made me wonder who was really in the zoo, because those primates sure seemed interested in watching us!

The parents didn't ride the bus, which was fine with me! (I got to carpool and chat with a couple of friends.) I took Cole home once the buses got back to school, and ended our day with his last request: a large fry and drinks at McDonald's. That boy sure does love french fries!

And I sure love him! I'm so glad I got to have this opportunity with him!

Tess's 6th Birthday

Tess turned 6 on Tuesday. What the what?! I swear she was just born the other day. Or was a grouchy toddler last week. (Well, she was grouchy. Just not two. Some phases are hard to grow out of.)

The morning started early, much like the morning of her birth... I think Tess was just really excited for her birthday. She was up before Spencer! So I whipped up her special birthday pancakes and put the "6" candle on for her. She was super excited until I began to sing. She did not appreciate it.

She decided to pretend to go back to sleep.

Then the flame was just "too hot". Good grief.

Finally she deigned to blow out her candle and eat breakfast!

Instead of the usual streamers in the kitchen I made tissue paper flowers. (She was having a flower birthday party.) She loved it. It's amazing what you can do with $8 of tissue paper and some fishing line!

I let her open the gift from Grandpa ElRay and Grandma Susie that morning. (Notice the wet hair. She could open the gift first, but then had to finish getting ready.)

Hooray! It's the Shopkins pool party set she had been wanting! Woo-hoo!

After we dried her hair we of course had to open and play with it.

Tess also got a bike for her birthday. Even though it has training wheels, Tess refuses to ride it. (We'll work more on that this week.) She does, however, ADORE the bike helmet she picked out.

Ooh boy, has there ever been a more Tessie bike helmet? I think not.

That night's schedule was packed with piano lessons and baseball practice. But in between the two we snuck in a stop at Dairy Queen, Tess's choice for dinner. For whatever reason she got super grouchy at the end, and it was like we were the meanest parents in the world, making her actually eat her ice cream cone. (We didn't force her to; we just said if she wasn't going to eat it then, then we'd have to throw it away because it was melting everywhere.) She proceeded to get it all over her brand new shirt.

She opened more presents and was kind of a punk about them. "Painting?! But I don't like it!!" (Yes she does. She loves painting.)

"No. No more Mercy Watson." (She loves Mercy Watson. Mercy Watson is the best pig ever.)

Fortunately, she sweetened up later at home.

On Friday I had to make Tess's cake. I figured it wouldn't be too hard since I had made flower rosettes before. Tess requested strawberry cake with purple frosting. How hard could that be?

Turns out, purple is a hard frosting color for me to make. I have no idea why. I only know that after trying for quite a while I had frosting the color of concrete. It was awful! So I had to make an unexpected (and rather unpleasant) trip to Walmart for more red food coloring. (Walmart on a Friday? No thanks. Crowded, busy, lots of weirdos. Weirdos in work out clothes, who haven't showered yet that day and haven't done their hair. I fit right in.)

I was finally able to get this kind of purplish/rosish/winey color. The pictures don't quite show the color correctly. But it was pretty and Tess was satisfied!

Saturday was Tess's birthday. It was also family pictures in the morning, 2 baseball practices, and Spencer going to another party. It. Was. BUSY.

But Tess's party was only 90 minutes long and the girls were all pretty cute.

Tess was in her element, making bead and paper flower necklaces with her friends!

We played games like "Pin the Bee on the Flower", "Don't Eat Pete", and "Hot and Cold".

The girls really liked "Don't Eat Pete". No one had ever played it before!

The cake and ice cream was enjoyed by all!

Tess got lots of Shopkins and girly things, like unicorn head pillows. Oh my goodness, she loves that unicorn head pillow!

You can see the girls all wanted in on the action!

She also got this little bird that whistles 58 different songs. Good grief. And of course, she loves it.

Tess, you bring such sunshine and silliness to our family. Girls are so very different from boys in some ways, and I'm so happy they are! And I'm so very happy that you're a part of our family!

Cole's Shirt

Truer words have never been written on a t-shirt. Cole doesn't find the shirt as amazing as all who know him well do.

Tess Bedroom Redo

It took me a while, but I finally got around to redoing Tess's bedroom! Tess's bed, which we inherited from my Dad, was having issues. The main support bars that held up the mattress had broken, probably because certain children jumped on the bed. All the time. Seriously, how many times can I tell them to not jump on the bed before I go crazy? Anyways, the bed was broken and needed to be welded back together. But we had neither the time nor the equipment for that. Plus, I didn't love the day bed - it was hard to make, and the springs that held up the mattress were always tearing sheets.

In short, it was time for the bed to move on to greener pastures. (Greener pastures being the youth garage sale fundraiser next month.)

Gigi and I went on our annual pilgrimage to IKEA last month and I picked up a new bed and nightstand for Tess, which meant I needed to get down to business with that room. It took a full day to clean and paint, and then about 2 weeks to get it all pulled together. Mainly because decorating and such can easily be procrastinated.

The morning I painted we took one last picture of Tess on her bed. See how saggy it was? Tess is waving good bye to her "little girl" room.

Oh mercy. It was so pink. (Remember, it was even pinker when we first moved into this house. This was toned down pink!)

The longest part of painting a room is getting all the stuff out and cleaning. And boy, did Tess's room need some cleaning!

All of her stuff was out here for a few days. She slept in Josh's bed for a night or two, which she and Cole loved. Josh slept down on the couch in the basement, which he loved.

And here's the finished room! I just love that purple. I actually thought it would be more grey than purple - and it is in certain light - but I really like it. It's like a really deep lavender.

We also got rid of the rocking chair. I thought I'd be more sentimental about it, but turns out, nope. I was tired of it being rocked so hard it broke walls. You can only patch a wall so many times without becoming grouchy.

I made most of the flowers for this mobile during conference. I just love how it turned out!

The other night Tess declared that the mobile scared her and I had to take it down. But she's going through a phase where she claims EVERYTHING scares her. And I spent HOURS on this mobile, for goodness sake. So I secretly put it back up the other day and she hasn't said anything about it.

I painted these old IKEA frames the same color as her wall and printed these signs.

The middle picture is a printable I found online. (Actually, I changed the font of the T in the middle - I didn't like the original. Hooray for Photoshop!) The flowers on each side were made with my Cricut and I love them. They're so pretty in person!

Tess loves her new room. The first time she walked in after I had completely finished she exclaimed in her perfectly Tessie way "Oh my, it's so beautiful! It's just fantastic!" Which made me feel great, because when I redid the boys' room I don't think they even noticed!