My Amazing Mother's Day

Matt asked me what I wanted for Mother's day and I told him, I want a membership to the zoo and to do a family day there.  Well, he delivered and gave me exactly what I wanted!  It was fantastic!  We started off the day with our Sunday donuts, packed our lunch, loaded the kids and headed out the door.

We were first highly entertained by an elephant playing with a tractor tire.  This elephant, you could tell loved the attention.  He would put the tire on, then take it off.  We saw him do it at least 3 times.  What a show off!

Colton did a full pull up to put his face into the mask.  I wish I could have caught the bottom of his feet in the photo.

We ate our lunch looking out at the giraffes, then bought some lettuce to go feed them.  The boys and I loved this!

Maben was brave and fed the giraffe all by himself.  Colton and Matt fed one, then I fed the last piece of lettuce to the giraffe.  Such a really cool experience!

The boys climbed on the giraffe statue (trying to ride him) while Matt went and bought tickets for the carousel.

Colton didn't want to ride any of the animals and sat with Daddy instead.

Maben wanted to sit on the gorilla, or the monkey, or the chimpanzee, but had to settle for the panda bear as those were all taken before he got to them.  Even though he didn't get what he wanted, he acted so much older than his 4 years and didn't get upset at all!  The cutest thing is he called it the ferrisel.  He combined ferris wheel with carousel.

The spectacled bear is one of my favorites and is always a ham for the camera.  Here he is giving his best Elvis impression, while hanging out in a pool of water.

Here was one of Matt's favorites.  Some day he will go back to Africa to see one of these.

It was a wonderful couple of hours at the zoo.  We actually wore the kids down to the point that Maben fell asleep in the wagon.  Once that happened we packed up and headed for the exit.  After we got home, we all relaxed and then I was treated to dinner.

I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day!  Thank you Matt for getting me exactly what I wanted.  I look forward to taking the kids to the zoo often.  Also, thank you for the photo of me and the boys.  It's nice to be on the other side of the camera occasionally.

I hope all the other mothers out there felt as loved and special as I did for mother's day.  Much love to you all!

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Photo 366 #19

I am loving all the spring wildlife that is out and about.  Lots of animals to look for on walks and at the park.  Baby birds and ducks are a regular occurrence to see now.  It's a wonderful time of year.

May 1 - Maben was so happy and proud of himself.  After school we stuck around to play on the big kids playground.  For the first time Maben climbed the rock wall all by himself.  This was his triumphant face after a trip down the slide and running over to tell me all about it. 

May 2 - I planted some rose bushes and they are finally out of shock and blooming again.  So pretty!  They are Marie Pavie roses.

May 3 - Spotted this dove in a tree at the park.  Didn't seem to mind getting his picture taken.

May 4 - On an after dinner walk, the family spotted this rabbit hanging out behind a park bench on the jogging trail.  Poor rabbit was pretty frozen with fear until the kids ran towards him.

May 5 - Ventured into Houston to capture the supermoon rising behind the Houston Waterwall.  This is my first attempt at an HDR capture.

May 6 - The wild sunflowers are blooming all over our area right now.  They are gorgeous and super tall this year.  Most are higher than 6 feet.  I am going to try and get a photo with my kids standing in them hopefully in the next few days.

May 7 - I have been battling serious allergy issues and was not feeling good this day.  I realized I hadn't taken a photo at 11:30 at night, so here is a photo of the wall in front of my drafting table.

I Love Grandma

I have been playing around with my watercolor sketchbook a lot lately due to a new brush that I discovered.  The Koi watercolor brush, the handle is a tube for water!  It has made playing with watercolors much more portable.  So portable in fact, that I did this while sitting with my two year old at a car dealership.  I realized I haven't given my grandmother any new artwork in a long time.  With Mother's Day right around the corner, what a perfect time for it.

I will be buying a few more, this will save the kids from making huge messes by knocking over the water while painting.  I haven't experienced any leaks with the new brush.  Check it out if you want.  Has anyone else used these brushes before?  Do you love them as much as I do?

Photo 366 #18

I am finally starting to feel better.  Not all the way there, but much better.  Good enough that I ventured out for some photos.  I wanted to capture some sunsets this week and I am so happy that I was able to.

April 24 - I bought the boys a pinwheel.  It's amazing how the simplest of things can bring so much joy to a child.  Maben was so taken by it, that he had to bring it to school to show it off.

April 25 - I decided I wanted to capture a sunset and was so incredibly happy that I did.  I have never seen a sunset throw up a beam of light like it had that evening.  Just amazing!

April 26 -  These two yellow-crowned night herons were changing guard on the nest.

April 27 - Another beautiful sunset.  I decided to lay down behind some ornamental grass to capture this photo.

April 28 - I ventured back to the park that contains the herons and let the kids play while I had some fun with my camera.  Such a beautiful bird.

April 29 - A candid of Colton while he was playing in the backyard.  

April 30 - The kids and I were introduced to "Texas Sledding," this morning.  Cardboard, a hill and lots of fun.  Who needs snow?

It's Home!

The spring fling was great and made even better when I won my own bookcase back.  Maben was ecstatic it came back home, especially since we weren't able to bring back Plinko.

Ahhh....love!

Here it is in it's new home, all loaded up with the kid's books.  We have room for many more books too!

Can you believe it only too Maben three minutes to find the ONE new book on the shelf.  I hadn't even told him there was a new book!