Crazy for Reptiles

Though Cherry is usually the reptile fan in our family, Apple also jumped the reptile bandwagon while we were at the zoo. She really got into all the lizards, snakes, and turtles. She calls the huge snake she got as a souvenir "daddy snake". Paul and I like to call him Jake the Snake like from Rango since his tail jingles, he's got the evil viper eyes, and well Jake the Snake is just plain fun. I truly expected Cherry to get a snake since snakes are her favorite but she was really intent on bringing home a dinosaur. She picked out this very bright blue T-Rex which reminds me of blue raspberry icees. The T-Rex has yet to gain a name that actually sticks other than T-Rex, but we're working on it ;) 

The zoo trip was just the girls and I. Paul had a few doctors appointments and some tests to do and it just turned out that they were on a day that I didn't have any classes. So we thought it would be fun to take the girls up north with us and I would spend the day at the zoo with them. They loved it so much that even after getting home late at night after a 5 hour drive home, Apple still asked the next morning if we could go back up to the zoo again, lol! They really loved seeing all those animals. We'll definitely be doing this again next year ;)

Elephants and Rhinos

The elephants were so cool that the girls wanted to visit their exhibit twice. And I'm glad we did. The first time was for the elephant show which was really just the zookeepers talking about how they care for the elephants and the elephant demonstrating a few things. Both the girls liked the elephant, but weren't overly amazed about this show like they were at the bird show earlier. However, the second time we came back, the baby elephant Zoey was out. The girls loved watching her and her momma ;)

This is the last week before school starts back up for us, so we're definitely trying to make the most of it! Plus we still have our back-to-school shopping to do, eek! Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the pages and have a great Monday!

Big Cats

Apple's favorite thing at the zoo was seeing the big cats. There was this beautiful leopard pacing right next to the glass of its exhibit. It both scared and delighted all the kiddos that were watching. Both the girls were more excited than frightened. Most of the big kitties were lounging in the shade or napping. Last week when we went thrifting we picked up the cutest white tiger for $1. It looked brand new but even so she still went through a cycle in the wash. Apple's named her Sasha. She's a great addition to all her other tigers!

Cherry has had a big thing for maps lately and she played our little navigator at the zoo. This page happens to be one of my favorites that I've made, even though it doesn't use my favorite pictures. I think I just like the sampling of all the papers and the fun little animal stack ;) Last month we picked up a yearly pass to the wildlife museum here. It's just a small museum, but every Saturday it has a fun kids club activity where the kiddos get to learn about a specific animal. The girls love it and it adds a little something educational to their week while out of school. Plus I think in a way it feels like an extension of the zoo. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the page and have a fab Friday!

Exhibits

Cherry and Apple loved looking for the animals in their exhibits. "It's like I-Spy!" Cherry said a few times. Of course her favorite was looking at the snakes. Apple was amazed with all the animals and got quite the fun surprise in the rainforest open exhibit as a bright blue bird flew right by her and up to a branch. It flew so close that it whooshed her hair up! The cutesy animal papers are from Sassfras that I picked up on clearance quite a while ago. I had no idea what I'd use it for at the time and I'm so glad I have it now! The alpha viper is from a darling paper I got years ago. The animals were all very boy and boy colored, but I just loved the embossed animals and alpha theme.

The girls really liked giraffes as well and it was a real treat to get to see one up close. The zoo wasn't doing a feeding activity today so we just watched as the giraffe walked around her exhibit. Cherry mistakenly read the height sign as 6 feet instead of 16. She shouted out "Woah, that giraffe is 6 feet tall!" lol, too funny! Thanks for visiting and enjoy the layout!

Braces and a Zoo Page

Guess what Cherry got last week? Yup, braces! She's got a 'shark tooth' coming out - a tooth that's erupted into her roof palette. Long story short she had to have 2 baby teeth pulled (one still had a long full root) and had her braces put in to set her foundation for when the tooth has fully grown out. Then they will attach the shark tooth and the braces with pull it forward to the gums where it needs to be. The orthodondist said 6 months to 1 year and then 4-6 months wearing a retainer after that. Not all her permanent teeth have showed themselves so hopefully this will be the only 'shark tooth'. Cherry was super excited to get them and loves them even with all the extra weird brushing and floss stuff. I'm so glad she's happy about it because her attitude makes it about a million times easier for us to help her take care of them. Her favorite part is choosing the color of her ties, of course ;) She had purple and pink, but because one of the brackets came off (it was on a capped tooth) we had to go back early so she picked out new ones and is currently sporting watermelon and red.

Most of my time lately has been spent cleaning, reorganizing, and listing things to make for birthdays and Christmas (yup it's about time for me to be prepping for that already) plus a little back-to-school sewing. But I've managed some blog hopping time and came across a cute and probably old idea for talking about the kiddos online by using nicknames. As you've probably already noticed, I've come up with aliases for the girls here on the old bloggo - Cherry and Apple. I figure since they're such little fruitcakes, I'd nickname them after fruits. Obviously C is Cherry and A is Apple so nothing drastic ;) Anyhoo, it's been forever since I've actually printed any pictures and I figured I'd start with the photos I love right now - our summer staycation activities - to kick start my scrapping mojo. So here's the first page to the zoo part of what will be our summer 2011 album. Hope you all have a happy Monday and thanks for stopping by!