Milking Betsie...

I'm trying to play catch up on posts but we are currently on vacation. Those posts will come later.

The summer reading program has been fun, but sometimes I wonder if I want to see these things more than Ryan does. We went to see the milking of a cow and he would rather have just played with his friends. Some times you think something's going to be a great idea and the kids just really aren't that interested.

A Day at the Zoo

The boys and I decided to go to the zoo today. We've been waiting for a Tuesday because it is half price day! We had a blast, but I think we chose the hottest day of the year so far. That didn't stop us though. We trekked all over that zoo. I think Aiden's favorite place was the beautiful butterfly house. Ryan tried so hard to sit still for the butterflies to land on him, but they never did. They kept landing on Aiden. The zoo keeper said that if one landed on you, you could make a wish. I think Ryan was wishing for a toy from the gift shop. Ryan's favorite exhibit was the reptiles! We just got through reading a book about snakes so it was exciting to see the ones in his book. The sea lion show was a blast, but it was hard holding Aiden and trying to take pictures (see the one where he is picking my nose.) We took a picnic lunch and the peacocks and guineas were roaming right up to the tables. After staying 5 hours, and using lots of sun block, we almost finished the whole zoo, but we had to skip a little. Oh well, we will just have to go back when Daddy's not at work! Lots of fun, but I'm thanking God for our air conditioner right now!

Summer Church Reading Program

Ok we may have bitten off more than we can chew with these reading programs. We signed up for the Trussville Public Library reading program, and now our church is having a reading program too. Both have fun activities so it was so tempting to sign up for both, but the competitive nature in me might get the best of us. I think Ryan is going to take after me too. He has always loved books, but we are reading books non-stop now. Yesterday was the kick-off at church and you can see some of the fun carnival pictures. They each got a library bag and got to paint it, along with a clown show, bubbles, popcorn, decorating a picture frame, facepainting, and more.

Star Park-Feeding the Ducks.

We found a darling new park in Birmingham on Saturday. Out in the middle of the pond there was a little island the shape of a star. We enjoyed feeding the ducks and going for a walk around the track. It was great fun. We went to try to find a letterbox (a hobby of ours) but we never could find it. Ryan kept saying "I sure wish we had brought our fishing poles!" There were a ton of turtles and little fish in the pond coming up as we were feeding them.

Summer Reading Program at the Library

We went to the library yesterday to pick up some books we had on hold and it just happened to be the day to sign up for the Summer Reading Program. We were so excited because they had some fun activites (always good for preschoolers). Ryan thought he was so cool when he got his face painted like spiderman. They also had popcorn, lemonade, free book giveaways, inflatables, etc. It is such a great program because they have all kinds of fun things scheduled for the summer like puppet shows, petting zoos, magicians, etc. And the best part: its free! Yeah, we have something to do this summer!

We had one of those great weekends that started out with a little boo-boo, but turned out so fun and relaxing! Aiden is pulling up on everything now. And Saturday morning the tray table in the living room came tumbling over onto him. It formed a pretty big goose egg. You can see his boo-boo above didn't really upset him all that much. After a little crying he was happy and laughing at big brother again. After getting everyone settled down from our little tragedy Saturday morning, we went out for breakfast to IHOP. Scott loves him some pancakes or as Ryan calls them "panacakes." Ryan felt pretty special with his create-a-face panacake. I must say the blueberry syrup is pretty good. Anyone hungry? Then we went downtown to a historical place called the Peanut Depot. Its been around since 1907. It was great to go in and see them roasting the peanuts in big barrel like machines. As we were leaving a middle aged man drove up in a convertible (must be a mid-life thing) and chuckeled..."I use to come here with my dad about 40 years ago." Its fun to think that the boys will look back on days like today with fondness! That's why we love to say...makin' memories!

Paying for the best salted, roasted peanuts.

Shelling a peanut.

Just down the cobblestone street was a red train car that has been converted into a restaurant/club. We were there on a Saturday morning so it was not open, but it made for a good look-see. Then to finish off the morning we went to the Pepper Place Farmers' Market. We will definitely be going back.

Setting up our pool

We recently put our pool up, but the water was sooooo cold we couldn't stay in it very long. We snapped a few photos because it was Aiden's first time in a pool. He was shivering, but actually liked it. I'm hoping it will be a good pass time for us this summer. Just trying to figure out how to keep Ryan active...no, I mean entertained. He is plenty active!
We set it up 2 years ago for the first time and at the beginning of that summer Ryan couldn't reach the bottom. He stayed in a floaty most of the time. By the end of the summer he was bouncing around on his tip toes. We didn't put the pool up last summer because I was pregnant and no way was I going to be climbing into that thing then. But this year he jumped right in and is a full head and shoulders out of the water. Its amazing how fast he is growing!