Happy Birthday Andrew!

Our Andrew Joseph turned 4 this weekend!  None of us can believe our baby is getting so big but, then again, that boy was ALWAYS big!

Here's Andrew opening one of his tamer gifts, a kalidiscope from mom and dad.  Those things are just cool AND they don't require batteries!  Woo hoo!

Big brother Alex got Andrew a Buzz Lightyear dart blaster, which, of course, makes the most annoying and persistent noise.  I only WISH this one didn't require batteries...

And of course the best gift of the day was the much wished-for Red Lightsaber.  (As you may remember the Darth Vader costume is from Christmas.)  Please note the bare feet.  When you're with The Dark Side, you don't need shoes.  Everyone knows that.

Another gift was the Spiderman mask, which quickly became a Darth Maul mask.  Does EVERYTHING have to be Star Wars???!

Then it was onto the cake, which, of course had a Darth Vader candle holder...

Trying to decide what to wish for...

Happy Birthday Andrew!!!

Cincinnati Zoo

So I could say that we did something fun over spring break, Andrew, Alex and I headed to the Cincinnati Zoo for a day trip.  The weather was gorgeous and Cincinnati is just enough far south that all the spring flowers were in bloom--so pretty! 

As those of you who have read our blog before know, getting adorable shots of my family is a universal impossibility.  Like gravity and Murphy's Law, the Idiotic Family Photo Law is fixed and immuable.  It simply isn't going to happen.  And yet I try.  Like a moron.  But whatever, SOMEDAY there will be an awesome shot that will make it all worthwhile.  Here is the best of all my tries:

This one was the best but to get it, I had to make Andrew cry.  That is his fake smile after I said "Smile.  NOW!"  (Great parenting, no?)



We loved watching the polar bears swim!  There were three of them and they were very alert and interactive.  Shortly after I took this picture, the bear stopped and took an enormous poo right in front of us.  All the kids in the assembled crowd went "EWWWWW!  Gross!!!"  Except Andrew who calmly said "You know, everyone goes poo.  You go poo.  I go poo.  Even my mommy goes poo.  It's very normal."  Hysterical.





This is a case full of, wait for it--GIANT COCKROACHES.  Major heeby jeebie factor.  Big time.  The whole insect exhibit was great, though. 

This is a giant sea eagle that was super-interested in people.  He would hop right up to the glass and look at us.  The boys had a great time "talking" to him.

Of course there was a huge reptile house, including this enormous python.  Ew.

No visit to a zoo is complete without lions.  They were mostly napping--as I would have been if this had been a real spring break--but did wake up momentarily for this picture.  Andrew was very disapointed that they wouldn't roar for him and told them so.

Our last stop was the gorilla exhibit, which I had been looking forward to since I heard that Cincy Zoo had them.

I could seriously watch these dudes all day long.  This one kept playing peek-a-boo with us and I think he also may have been using sign language.  (Like, seriously, he was making these movements with his hands that looked like sign.  I'm betting he was saying "Whata yous lookin' at??!")

I didn't see this sign when we were there but as I was looking through our pictures I noticed it.  When they say "clumps of dirt" I'm guessing they mean poo.  Nice.

Alex is Seven!

Our Alex turned 7 on March 23rd! Can you believe it??? I certainly can't. He got a brand new bike for his birthday along with a few other goodies. Happy Birthday Alex!

Here is Alex's face when he looked out the front door and saw his new bike!

 

Alex on his new ride:

Andrew got Alex a new basketball. He even picked it out himself, which I thought was awesome.

Here's the birthday boy making his wish before he blew the candles out--check out the missing front tooth! :)

There happened to be storms that afternoon and Alex told us that God painted him a rainbow in the sky as his gift. I mean, come on??!! How cute is that??