How to Do the Zoo, Save Money and Burn Less than 100 Calories

1) Get free tickets for the adults and go during Kids are Free month.

2) Use a 2 for 1 coupon to buy the Zoo Bus Tour tickets.

3) Sit on the top of the bus!

4) Occasionally rotate torso and flex index finger to take token shots of animals on tour.

5) Ride tram to top of the park.

6) Sit on bench at the polar bear display, eat snack and rest 20 minutes to regain energy until lazy bears finally come out and put on a show.

7) Scoff at the really lazy bear who refused to get in the water and put on a show with the rest of the bears.

8) Eventually begin to look like animals on exhibit which brings the added bonus of free rent, no park admission, free food and getting to lounge in a pool for the remainder of your days.

The Party

The Cake (a collaborative effort)

The Birthday Boys

A Boy Eating A Car

A Pretty Boy


A parent too tired to write in the aftermath......................

Jakey

Sadly, it is true, Jake has turned 4 years old. I think in the last two months he has grown about 6 inches, he's so big all of a sudden. There is nothing babyish left in his features, no round cheeks, no little pot belly and no leg rolls. Total big boy and growing every second. *sniff* *sniff* So buckle up, here's a quick tour of the life of Jake!

Coming home with jaundice...
Hanging out with his buddies (from left to right there is Riley, Micah, Emma, Peyton and Jake).
Jake and Micah in some synchronized drooling...Fast forward a bit and here are Jake, Dan and Micah opening presents this morning.Thanksgiving in Ohio, looks a little different from Southern California. Jake was not at all impressed with snow. Jake used to watch Crocodile Hunter with Erik after work every day. His favorite spot was sitting in the laundry basket so that hopefully Erik would push him around like a car. The orange thing is Maxie, a lion that was a present from Micah. Maxie now resides in our laundry closet and his head is hanging on by two threads. I couldn't bear to throw him away because Jakey loved the thing so much. He still opens the laundry closet occasionally and says "There is my Maxie!" On our last stop to visit family as we passed through Texas on our way to California from Ohio last summer, wow, that was way too many prepositions, Jake jumped off of a recliner at my grandmother's house and broke his leg. He chose this construction orange cast cover and a tricycle instead of a crutch.
And here we are yesterday, doing chores and being too big. We had to wash Emily's car before she came back from Texas because we nibbled like rabbits on crackers in the backseat and that's a little messy. Tons of fun and silliness though! We also used all of her gas so to make up for it we let the kids spray her car with the water hose and called that "washing it." I think it evens out in the end. Jake likes to do man things like go to work with Daddy and fix flat tires or install new brakes. He told me he needed a belt like Daddy the other day and his chest swelled with pride as I slid the little belt through the loops on his 5T pants to keep them on his skinny little bottom. At Cubbies last week all the children were supposed to finish the sentence "My special job is..." to their teacher. I heard several finish the sentence with "...to be a princess," "...to play toys" and "...to have fun." Jake said "My special job is to mow the lawn." Yeah, I'm doing a bit of bragging, just deal with it.
Finally, this morning Erik, the devoted father, arose at 5 am to make a donut run for Jake's special breakfast. He is such a sweet boy and I can't imagine life without him. I love watching him play trains and call each train by name. He tells the naughty trains that they must shunt dirty freight cars until they learn to be useful engines then hums the theme song for Thomas the Train. It's a little British, sometimes he is cross with them for being cheeky. Sometimes Jake is a bit cheeky... He is not a perfect child but he is so special to us and we love him immensely, and God loves him even more!

I love the way he tilts his head to the side when he asks a question, every one of which starts with "Hey Buddy?" I love the way he falls down on purpose sometimes just for sheer entertainment. I love his goofy grin with the silly capped tooth in front. He fell and killed the tooth early this year and had a super fun root canal. I love that he is carrying on the family tradition of a love of technical stuff and all things geeky. I love to hear him recite his memory verses every week. I pray that he will continue to hide the Word of the Lord in his heart and grow in knowledge and wisdom of the Lord. I pray he would come to know Jesus as his savior this year!

Some Acts of Kindness Should be Outlawed

My winter wardrobe is in a pitiful state right now and I thought "I'll go to TJ Max and find great deals and it will be great and wonderful!" Ah, blind optimism, refreshing isn't it? Well, we arrived too early so we walked next door to Trader Joe's. Let me preface by saying I've never been one of those Trader Joe people. I don't buy organic, I don't eat kashi and I'm not buying special grocery bags to take to the store with me to save the environment. But we needed to waste some time and Daniel was repeatedly reminding me that our home gummy worm supply was at critical state and I thought maybe Trader Joe's had some organic, sugar free, no fat, high fiber gummy worms that would help him stop reminding me every 0.25 seconds. They didn't, but we did find cookies!

We walked to the counter the check out and lady immediately started handing my children balloons. It was a kind gesture to be sure but definitely ill advised. How many balloons did we make it home with? We walked out onto the sidewalk and before Danny could remind me that we didn't get gummy worms, Jake's balloon floated up to the ceiling of the walkway. He was upset to say the least and wanted to call the fire department to come rescue the balloon. One down.

We walked over to TJ Max and found nothing so we loaded up and headed to Walmart...to get gummy worms. About halfway through the shopping list Danny's balloon somehow untied itself from the shopping cart and was up in the warehouse ceiling. Two down. Again Jake suggested I reconsider the fire department idea.

Finally we pulled into the driveway with much weeping and gnashing of teeth and as I pulled Libby out of her carseat I heard Jake begin to shriek. Three down. I silently rejoiced to be done with the whole matter but the children mourned as we watched it float away. Jake thought maybe we should call someone because an airplane might hit the balloon and crash. Ah, deep cleansing breath. Chalk this up to reason #101 that we are not Trader Joe's people. Granola and goat cheese just aren't worth the cost.

Mr. Pumpkin

There were no set plans for a pumpkin this year but as I was walking into Walmart with the chilins' today there was a huge box of pretty pumpkins for $4 each. Total impulse buy. So here we are, victims of mass marketing and corporate holidays, butchering a gourd.

This is us about 2 minutes before the slaughter began, Jake is mourning and protesting the gruesome display that was about to ensue. The rest of us ignored this and carried on. I asked Jake what he thought would be in the pumpkin and he said "a baby pumpkin." I think he's getting a little confused by all the pregnant ladies in our playgroup...anyway, when I pried the top off of the thing and he peered inside he was quite upset to find no baby pumpkin. All agreed that the contents were extremely yukky.
Can you guess which child has runway aspirations?
Jake kept checking to see if maybe a baby pumpkin would appear...still waiting.
We miss you Daddy! See you on Monday!

Cubbies and Monkeys

We are so on top of the costume thing this year. Last year we started shopping the week of...