Zoo Girls

The girls and I went to the Montgomery zoo with some precious friends on Monday. The city schools had a day off so that means our pre-schools were out as well. It was a beautiful day and we had so much fun with Susie, Isabel and Chaney.


This was an exhibit that was part of some weird Halloween scenes the zoo had set up for their annual "ZooBoo." I'm not sure what flowers or fake worm-snake-looking things have to do with Halloween, but the girls had fun playing in the exhibit. It reminded me of the sort of strange scene one would see in Alice in Wonderland or Wicked. (Am I supposed to italacize or put those titles in quotes? Teacher friends, that question is for you.)

If you think that looks weird you should have seen the scene they had set up with Cinderella, Snow White, and a transvestite knight! Or transvesknight, as Susie coined it (pretty clever, huh?) One of the little ones pulled the wigs off of the scary princesses. I tried to fix it, and we quickly moved on.


Here they all are at the maned wolf exhibit or maybe one of those fox things. All I remember is it was really musky and stinky and the large, fox looking thing was asleep. As you can (sort of) see, the girls were more interested in the turtles swimming in the moat.

Isabel pointing out the giraffe to everyone.

If you look real close, it looks like the giraffe is licking Isabel's head in this one.

The train ride is always one of the highlights. We ran into some more Auburn friends and got to share our train ride with them. Again, more weird and some freaky, scary scenes were set up along the train route. Luckily, the kiddos are probably still a little young to even know to be scared. Even more strange, the zoo had put trash bags over the heads of some of the mummies, monsters, etc. I'm more traumatized by those images than what we would have seen otherwise.

This was the best photo I could get on the train. Aren't they cute?!

The train ride was at the end of our trip, so nobody was especially cooperative with my photo attempts. We had a great time, but missed you and your boys, Nonet!!

New Trick

Look what the sitter taught Lauren to do today. John is so proud. I just hope she doesn't do that at pre-school the next time they serve oranges for snack. (Please ignore the mess in my kitchen, I promise I cleaned it before I blogged!)

The Noise

It was a quiet Sunday afternoon and I was so enjoying my computer time with no guilt. You know what I mean. It's Sunday so I am not supposed to be doing anything but worshiping God and enjoying a day of rest.

Unfortunately, I HAD to wash my sheets today. I never do laundry on a Sunday. Never, ever. In fact, I try to do as little as possible in the way of housework on this day. Because that is what God calls us to do. Enjoy Him and take a break!

Okay, so I'm doing laundry because a certain little three year old is scared of storms. And, a certain daddy loves for his eldest (and less squirmy) daughter to cuddle and sleep with us in our bed every once in a while. Okay, so I kind of like it too. It takes me back her infancy.

Anyway......she was so exhausted and had stayed up so late the night before that she tinkled in her sleep!! In my bed! I was horrified. Mainly, because it meant I had to wash our sheets today, on my day of rest! Note to self: go buy that extra set of sheets tomorrow.

So, back to my main point. Lauren and John had left to take a field trip to Lowe's or something. Catherine, a.k.a The Squirmy One, was napping. And, I was supposed to be enjoying my guilt free computer time. But, something kept thumping in the dryer. I ignored it for a while. But, it was really loud. Even the new songs I downloaded earlier couldn't drown it out.

I kept thinking, what in the world could that be? It sounds like a shoe. But, why on earth would there be a SHOE in my dryer. I'm not washing shoes. I'm washing sheets and a few things that were already in the washing machine. So, what is that noise?!!

I debated for a long time on whether or not it was worth it to get out of my big, comfy chair. My curiousity got the best of me and I dragged my lazy self into the laundry room. It took me several minutes of searching, but I was determined. I mean, I did get out of my big, comfy chair to find the source of the quite disturbing noise.

No shoe. Of course it wasn't a shoe. I wasn't washing shoes. But, I had thought, in the back of my mind, maybe The Squirmy One had thrown one in there when I wasn't looking. Entirely possible scenario in any household with toddlers, right?

This was the source of the continual, loud, disruptive pounding in my dryer.

Can you believe it? That is one serious pocket knife, people. Big, sharp, and in some cases extremely loud. Oh, and now it is very clean. Bonus for John.