The Zoo Crew

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Last week we took the family to the zoo and met with some of my college friends who live about the same distance from the zoo - just in the opposite direction. While it was fun seeing the animals, it was a much needed visit with some great friends. And it makes me wonder why in the world we didn't do it sooner.

Meet Hope and Brady. :)

We held off telling the kids about the trip until we knew the weather was going to cooperate with us. They woke up ever.so.excited, shoved breakfast in their mouths, and buckled up. And about 10 minutes on the road started asking if we were almost at the zoo.

Makes me as the parent ask, "How much longer? No really. I want to know. Because if I have to answer this question one more time..."

Our crew was thrilled to see Samuel and Charys...and they were thrilled to see our four as well. It was so sweet watching them all hold hands, call out to each other to wait up, and just enjoy being together too.


There were so many animals to see, pretend to be, keep the children away from and climbing into their habitats... there were the lions, tigers, pandas, elephants, and such.

It was more fun trying to keep the kids away from the zebras.

Who were mating.

Sooooo not ready to go there yet with the kids (yeah...no pictures of that one).

Despite the fact that there were animals - large animals to see - an elephant for example, this is what Kaleb was more interested in. Construction. Go figure.

Or just freedom from the stroller.

We had lunch together and played a little more...


and remembered to take pictures together this time!

A Quick Interruption...

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Contrary to how it may appear, I have not fallen off the face of the earth.

But it has been a crazy week. Little sleep. Lots of fun (and not fun).

Many posts are swimming around in my head...they just haven't made it to the computer yet. I will be back. Soon. Soon. Soon. :)

Catching Flies

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We seem to be having some attitude problems in our house. On both sides of the fence, mind you. I know it just isn't the kids...but it's easier to pretend it is, isn't it?

After someone needed an attitude adjustment the other day I was trying to make a point. Screaming for someone to give you something is generally not the best way to get what you want. Perhaps speaking kindly??

Since the kids love the Berenstein Bears I tried reminding the child in question about a saying Mama Bear mentions to the cubs.

So I started it out to her: "You catch more flies with ______, than vinegar."

To which Zachary quickly piped up: "A FLYSWATTER!!

Well, yes, a flyswatter probably would work even better....not quite the point I was going for, but we all did get a good laugh together. :)

Head on over to Mary's for some more Tiny Talk Tuesday.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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I've been making our bread for almost a year and half now (yes, from scratch). Our family loves it, but lately it's been in a funk of sorts. I ran out of dough enhancer (fyi: Kitchen Resource Dough Enhancer is the BEST!!) and had to switch to a different type and it has definitely made a difference. The bread has been more crumbly. Texture is weird. I thought that I had lost my "touch" if you will and was starting to get a little frustrated with it all.

So today I did an experiment of sorts. Trying to figure out if I could make it work well without the enhancer. More kneading? Less kneading? I think I've figured out something in the interim, but some of the loaves were just to funny not to take pictures of and post. It still isn't right, but I my dad just got me a bag of different enhancer to try, so we'll see if that works any better. But...

This is what way too much kneading can do to a loaf of bread.

The UGLY.

Still too much kneading.

The BAD.

Much better!
The GOOD.

The Chinese Word for "No"

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We purchased some lovely language CD's from Chick-Fil-A recently (did you know you don't have to buy the kid's meals to buy their toys? How cool is that?). They currently have four language cd's for kids to listen to: Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese. We picked up all four and popped in the Chinese cd for the kids to listen to.

Pretty typical language cd. The English word is dictated. The translation is given. And then there is plenty of time for the kids to repeat what they heard.

We drove. The kids repeated what they heard. And we about had milkshake coming out our noses when we heard the Chinese word for "no" and then the three little parrots in the backseats repeating it.

"Bu Shi"

As in book without the "k" and shi - umm...as in ship, without the "p".

Nice.

Maybe if you squeeze it REAL hard...

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Today we wrapped up standardized testing for Laurianna to officially complete her school year. Since we used the Iowa, I was able to also be the test administer, and it was rather fun to really watch her thought process during the testing time.

My favorite testing moment came when she was asked which food item came from a plant, and she then had to choose between a picture of bread, milk, and something else. She chose milk and I heard her mutter, "Well, milkweed is a plant."

Then she got a panicked look on her face, erased it and said, "But wheat is a plant. And bread is made from wheat." And then she just laughed and laughed about milkweed.

Our summer-time might focus around a few science concepts I'm thinking.

Head on over to Mary's at Not Before 7 for some more Tiny Talk Tuesday.