Callie's Party

We had Callie's birthday party the weekend after her birthday.  We kept it pretty low key but she had a great time.
Opening her presents

and trying on her new coat from Grandpa Matt and Grandma Nancy

and her Cinderella cake, we went the easy route for cakes this year:)  She still loved it.

Still hard to believe my girl is 3!

At the Orchard

Ty's class went on a field trip to the orchard last week and Carl usually tries to go with on field trips so we decided it would be a good time to go meet them there after his tour was done.  The kids loved to ride on the little tractors, although I think Gabe may be getting a little big for them!

They also liked to pet the goats and watch them run around their pen.

Milking the cow was also a highlight.  They all decided it would take a really long time to get a gallon of milk doing it that way.

The corn pool is always a favorite.

 Maybe not for Ezra, he was not such a big fan of the corn pool:)

The Jumping Pillow is always popular too.

While waiting for the hayride we checked out the big pumpkins.

We had fun on the hayride too even though it was a little chilly out there!

And before we left Gabe made sure we took their picture with their pumpkins on the hay bales.

We had a great time at the orchard, a weekday afternoon is definately the time to go, it was quiet and we didn't have a crowd of people anywhere.  Hopefully next year Ezra will be able to do a few more of the activities:)

It's a Zoo Around Here

Well it's always a zoo around here but this past weekend we were able to make a short visit over to the actual zoo.  The kids had last Monday off because of a teacher inservice so we decided to head over to Omaha Sunday to visit my aunt and uncle as well as Carl's aunt and also make a trip to the zoo.  We were able to meet my aunt and uncle for lunch on Sunday and then we went to our hotel and rested awhile and met Carl's aunt for dinner that night.  After dinner the kids got to swim(which they were very excited about all day!) We probably won't be able to do this much longer!

 Monday we met up with my aunt and uncle (and my dad who came over with us as well) at the zoo.  The kids LOVED it.  They loved climbing on the lions.

and all the sights of the desert dome.

 and the creatures of the night as well but about that time this smiley guy needed to eat so I took him out for a bottle while everyone else checked that out.

(pay no attention to the purple, girly blanket.  It was cold and windy in the morning and we forgot to grab Ezra's blanket when we left so Callie's had to do:)

One of the kids favorite parts was the aquarium.  The LOVED everything.

Even Ezra was mesmerized by the tunnel aquarium.

The new Jelly Fish exhibit was really cool.

and of course no trip to an aquarium is complete without seeing Nemo(he's in there though hard to see in the picture:)

After the aquarium we had lunch and had to tell Sue and shortly after Dave goodbye as Sue had to go to work and Dave to pick up Cory from school.  We went and visited the big cats and Callie loved the lion.  We then made our way up to feed the Budgies. 

The Budgies weren't super hungry this day we decided and didn"t have a ton of luck getting them to eat off of our birdseed covered sticks.  After the Budgies Grandpa bought the kids a ride on the carousel.  Ty picked this Rhino.

Callie picked the zebra

and at first Gabe picked the Tiger until he discovered that he didn't go up and down and then quickly changed his mind and picked this Rooster next to Ty(Which Callie thought was hilarious, ask her what Gabe rode on the carousel and she will tell you hysterically that Gabe rode a chicken)

After a visit to the bears we went to see the Apes.  We got right up to the glass and they were definately easy to see during our visit.  The highlight was when one one gorilla pounded the glass near where we were standing.

These guys were too cute not to take a picture of.

and this snake was definately not cute but Gabe wanted his picture with it anyway:)

We also had to go see the Zebra's and Bongo's(and the Cheetah and Warthogs too)

On our way back up to the Jungle I had Callie stop and pose by the butterflies.

Our last stop for the day was the Jungle.  The monkeys are always fun to watch.

and these monkeys were pretty fun to watch as well.

This guy was interesting too.  We probably could have stood there for much longer and Mr Sloth would still not have moved a whole lot.

and before we left the zoo I tried rather unsuccessfully to get a picture of all 4 kiddos on the tortoise.

Oh well maybe next time we go we will get a better picture of all 4.  When I'm not afraid Gabe will drop the baby and the others learn to actually look at the camera(a girl can dream)