A Couple of April Birthdays

 Amelia: 5 years old

Going a step backward, I wanted to include this picture that my dad took of Mom and I finishing up Amelia's cake.

 Miss Millie's birthday fell on Easter this year.  The year she was born it was Easter as well.  She is our Easter girl.

 A comforter for her bed.

A special, new doll with hair.

 Brown curls, like Millie herself.

We had the special treat of having Grammy and Papa with us to celebrate this year. 

 Amelia had asked for a pink pig cake.  A very happy birthday for her, for sure.

Next is Ben: 9 years old.

 Ben's birthday dinner, Pork Stew with Tomatillos on brown rice.

An army canteen.

 Ben's first Airsoft gun. 

Ben got several books, including a giant dot to dot book and a magnificent horse encyclopedia. 

 Ben still loves horses, so we dreamed up a new horse cake this year.  We thought it came out alright.  There was help and input from Mom and Dad and siblings that made it what it was in the end.

Another year older.  I can hardly believe he is 9.  He has a big year with a lot of new experiences ahead.  I look forward to watching him making his strides and transition to that bigger, more capable boy.

New Books

 A couple of birthday kids got some new books in the mail from their aunt.  Ben is pretty excited about his dog books.  The excitement is much increased by being able to read them himself.

 And Amelia is very pleased with her new "girl" books.  She can't read these herself yet.  I don't mind.  ;)  I think we will enjoy them very much together.

Pittsburgh Zoo

 Yes, yet another zoo post.  :)  We took a family trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo last Monday.  Some nice ladies passing us were nice enough to take our picture by the Welcome sign.

Peter and the kids inside the Aquarium part.

 I couldn't tell you what this fish is called.  He was in an outdoor pool.  He kept coming up to the surface and opening his mouth.

Here's Calvin getting a good look inside the fish's mouth when it came up.

 Most of the pictures at the zoo were taken by William.  I let him enjoy trying to get good shots of the animals, while his brothers took some time to sketch some of them.  The ones I've included in this post were ones that I took.  Hopefully we'll have time for William to do a post of his own on the animals he photographed.

A teeny, tiny sea horse.

 This is the tropical environment that the zoo has created inside the Aquarium.  It's pretty fun to visit and walk through the tropical plants and see the tropical critters and fish.

There is one hands-on section in the Aquarium.  The children can touch the different rays swimming in this pool as well and crawl through a tunnel underneath the pool to see the undersides of the rays.  Even Elijah got to touch them.

 This is one of the rays they touched.

Another smaller ray.

 This is Peter's smile after we read the sign, "Beware of 600 pound females."

Here is the 600 pound female herself.  Bears of any kind are always Peter's favorite.  He loved this polar bear.

 Smiles before the hanging bridge.

This is one wobbly bridge.  We had to rescue Cecily part way through.

 There is a small playground that was much enjoyed.  It got to be 88 degrees on this day.  We were pretty warm by this time.

One of the last things we saw were the sea lions.  They're always my favorite.  This is a little one that came to say hello to the children.

Always a great field trip.  And a great family day.  I'll have to see if I can upload some of the drawings that the kids did from the zoo.

Afternoon at the Park

This picture was actually taken on a Sunday after church.  Sam made the girls some wreaths from dandelions.

You can thank me for showing you this picture and not the up-close shot of the snake that Ben and Will are holding.  They get very, very excited about anything they catch. 

Now to the park...

Beautiful flowering tree.

One eager little boy heading towards that dock as quickly as he can.

This is the Westover pond that is at Westover Park, near where we used to live.  It's a great place for children to fish and play and so we went back to visit.  It was an afternoon of much exercise for me, as I kept up with Elijah, keeping him from plunging into the lake.

Eventually, I urged the littlest ones to move away from the lake and try out some nearby swings.

Then we picked flowers for awhile.

Last, we went to another part of the park where the main play equipment was.  No fish were caught that day.  But it was a nice outing for us all.

Back to Blogging

It took me quite a while to catch up on all those birthday posts.  I thought I'd post some of the random pictures from in between the birthdays, then my parents came to visit before I got it done.  So here they are, and in the mean time we've celebrated 3 more birthdays!  (two of my kids and a small, belated celebration for my dad's birthday.)  Those pictures are coming soon....

An updated picture of the little cutie.  His hair is longer and curling around his ears now.

Watching his brother put peanut butter in celery, he spies some stray peanut butter.

Mmmmm.

Love those eyes!

13 weeks pregnant!  (I'm 16 weeks now.)

American Bullfrogs that the boys found in our front pond.  They named them Shakespeare and Magellan and then released them back into the pond.

Smile.

Mom asked me to take a picture of Millie one day when she had on an apron that matched her purple dress.

It's never too early to read your Bible.

This boy just likes to read.

Helping me with some soup.  What a good little man.