Zoo Take 2!

Since the first time we went to the zoo this season it was horribly cold and windy, we jumped at the chance to return on a beautiful Friday afternoon!  It was fun to have Jill and the girls join us and, as usual, the 4 kids had fun racing all over the zoo together.  I also enjoy watching the four of them because I find Aubrey and Leo and Lauren and Sophia to be so much alike, but they all get along great!

Sophia, Leo and Lauren

we can't resist a good polar bear shot

We love watching Nikita swim and he usually swims the same circuit.  Leo likes to get down really close to the glass but then flinches every time the bear comes near.  I tried to show just how big and close he was in these two pics.

walking down the path

Jill and the girls on the train

love this sweet picture

Lauren and Sophia being mommy and baby bird

sheep!

Aubrey and Leo get up close and personal

might as well ride the train again!

Sophia took a picture of us!  Cute!

all aboard the Sky Safari

one last picture!

So Big!

A close up of our little cutie!

Sophia had her class pictures on Valentine's Day and we recently got them back.  Too cute and so big! It's hard to believe she'll be starting Kindergarten in a few months, but she loves preschool and is absolutely in love with her teacher.  I'm thankful for having such a great one!

Party Time!

 We've had two rockin' parties to attend lately!  The first was Mary's (Meredith's mom) retirement party and the second was Anne's birthday!  We like to keep a full social calendar!

Mary and herself in her cheerleading days!

The kids did a great job of keeping themselves occupied!

Leo's "Joker" face from too much punch

Mary with her 3 kids (2 sons and daughter (Meredith))

Anne had her birthday "party" at Macaroni Grill this week.  The kids love going to birthday events for the grown ups too and Leo calls each one of them their "party".  

make a wish!

Anne's besties, Denise and Kevin

Egg Hunt Time!

5 minutes after arriving Leo was already down a package of Peeps 

The egg hunt gang

My little bunnies

Ready, GO!

Cooper's on the move for more eggs!

Gotta check everywhere!

Hey, Mom, look a full basket!

Molly prancing from egg to egg

Ta-da!

Leo and Aunt Cathy looking good

Molly and Dianne get in a quick snuggle

the men being men

time to check out the loot

we celebrated Anne's birthday a few days early

our lovely host and hostess!

Sisters!
Betcha can't tell, huh?! ;)

When we returned home, it was so nice that we continued to play outside for a bit longer

Greek Easter isn't until May 5, so we still celebrated some with Charlie's family this weekend but we're waiting on The Bunny for a few more weeks!  The kids are doing well with the whole "two Easter" thing and this year Sophia is really trying to learn about the differences, etc. and is happy to tell people that no the Easter Bunny didn't come and we celebrate Easter at a different time.  It's kind of cute.  And part of me is happy they got something on the other Easter b/c I remember longingly looking out my window as a kid at the neighbors who always did an egg hunt on Easter morning.  It's hard to be different, but we're trying to rock it! :)

Disney on Ice

Sophia modeling her Rapunzel hair

Leo picked out a twirly Rapunzel light

Mickey opens the show!

I thought this was a cool shot of Leo.  He was entranced by the show but also enjoying spinning his light in the darkness.

During the Aerial scenes Leo was hoping to see Ursula. It was his favorite part of the show!

During Rapunzel, Flynn and his horse came out.  I was very impressed with the skaters who played the part of the horse!  I can't imagine how hard that was!

Also during Rapunzel they let the luminaries fly

Finally Flynn and Rapunzel dance together

Merida and her brothers came out next.  We were disappointed that no bears were part of the show...they sort of skipped over that part.

Beauty and the Beast was also a fan favorite.  They were really fascinated that the Beast was really a prince and he was under a spell.  We had to talk about it the whole way home!

I tried to get a shot of the four-some.  Our friends Ashlynn and Kate were there too!

The girls show off their flowing locks!

The kids were thrilled to be able to see another production of Disney on Ice.  Luckily Leo is still into princesses too because that's mostly what this year's show consisted of.  There were the prince counterparts, but other than that there was a lack of male presence, which is somewhat surprising, especially since boys like this kind of stuff too!  Our friends, Ashlynn and Kate, were able to get tickets for the same night but weren't originally sitting by us, but when the seats next to us remained open, we called them to move down after intermission.  Ashlynn is having a Rapunzel themed birthday party later this week, so the girls have already planned to wear matching braids! :)