Playgrounds and Animal Parks.

We enjoyed a super fun-filled visit with my sister Sandy and niece Rachel this week.  I invited them to guest post, but alas, they declined.  They should be warned that this means I'll use (and caption) any pictures I want, any way I want!  :)

 

Taft Elementary School playground, Wednesday May 1st.

Ellie finally conquered the curly slide.  She started out sitting,
in a feet first position, but by the time she landed...

Tommy enjoys a ride down with his cousin Rachel.

 

 Rolling Ridge Animal Park, Millersburg OH
Thursday, May 2nd.

Zedonks. A cross between zebra and donkey. Kind of homely.

Eland.  Or in the words of our wagon driver, "bucket thief". 
He warned us that these guys will be very determined to
take the whole bucket, not just a handful of feed.

Alpacas.

Sandy won the struggle with this eland by keeping the feed bucket
inside the wagon, so he couldn't get the leverage to steal it from her.

I'm not sure what this animal was.  Did it have the scratchy tongue or the slimy one?

Pot-bellied pigs.

If I'm not mistaken, Tommy gave this feed a taste test.

This little guy has a head full of allergy goo and is really not
feeling well, but he has a fun time in spite of his challenge.

Scottish Highland Cattle

Buffalo.  Notice the nursing calf.

White Buffalo.  It didn't come close enough to feed or pet.

Water Buffalo and Ostrich racing to the wagon for lunch.

How far away from this bird can I stay while feeding him?
The ostrich won the race and Sandy learned that they can be rude when hungry.

Watusi cow and her 3-week old and extremely thin calf.

Feeding the mama

Nilgai Antelope

Elk

Japanese Sika deer

I kept trying to focus on the alpacas, but couldn't get
my lens to cooperate. Good thing. :)

For some reason this picture reminds me of "The Lion King", which is odd,
because there are no lions here.  Or warthogs either.

 

Water Buffalo.  Do you think she uses a curling iron on those horns?



Thank you ma'am.  That's right kindly of you. :)

Wildebeest, or Gnu.  This guy didn't come close to the wagon.

I think this llama looks like it is wearing Easter Bunny ears.

Llama, Llama, Red Pajama

Texas Longhorn

Up close you can see just how this guy got his name. 
I seriously thought he might hook a horn on that pole and drag
the wagon to the ground.  Bet he could have if he wanted to!

Zebra.  So much prettier than the zedonk!

Rachel petting it, Sandy feeding it.

Uh-oh!  What's over Aunt Sandy's shoulder?  Is it that pesky ostrich again?

Nyah, it's just a mama Brahma.

And her husband Mr. Brahma

Mama Brahma holds her tongue aside so that Rachel can just pour in the feed.

I hope she is just licking her lips, not sticking out her tongue at us. :)

Hmm... with that look, I''m just not sure!

Which is more exciting, petting a zebra or riding a rhinoceros? 
With the wagon tour over, we take a break for lunch before the petting zoo.

 

Duckies!!!

Rachel's finding out just how much goats like to eat.

And eat.

And eat.

And eat.

And eat!  Tommy just watched the rest of us feed the goats. 
He held onto his carrot, neither tasting it himself, nor sharing it.
He still had it in his hot little hand, quite a bit worse for wear,
when we got home a few hours later.

This monkey is eating a fruit loop that Sandy tossed in to him. 
The park had little vending machines like bubble gum machines that doled
out about 5 pieces of cereal per quarter.  Next time I'm bringing my own!

The monkeys are in the petting zoo area, but cannot be handled directly.
  Instead, you can shoot fruit loops down a tube into their cage.  As soon as he
saw us approach, this little guy waited at the end of the tube for his snack.

This friendly parrot kept shouting out "hello" from the tree above us.

Back to the ducklings!

Sandy and Rachel really fell in love with these little guys.
They named them Daphne and Gus.

Or was that Gus and Daphne?

I'm pretty sure this one is Gus.

I promise that Tommy is not squeezing a duck.
He is holding his puppy tail and his carrot.

 I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Ice Cream!

We stopped on the way home to have some ice cream to celebrate Rachel's birthday which is on May 4th.

I'm planning to forget all about my birthday, which is a few more days away.

A little snuggling on the couch after a long day never hurt anyone.

Sandy promises to bring my children into the 21st century.
She is showing them how to use her iPhone.

Brookside Park Tot Lot, Friday May 3rd.

 

I'm trying to coax Ellie into the tube.  She's not buying.

Tommy goes for it!

Well okay, if it didn't eat him alive, I guess I'll try it too.

Aunt Sandy passes through Dolly Bear, who was making the trip a little too slippery for Ellie at first.

Canadian Geese.  They hissed at us to warn us away.
We were going to feed the ducks, but I forgot the bread.

What a great visit!  Thanks for coming, Rachel and Sandy!
We can't wait to see you again. :)

A Visit with Family

Trip to Cincinnati to visit family on April 17-19.

 

I met up with my friend Dana after she got off work on Wednesday.  We met at Florence Mall (y'all) so that we could have a nice place for the kids to play while we chatted.  Ellie was pretty determined to escape the play area repeatedly, so we probably didn't talk as much as we had planned, but we did have fun.  The mall has a full sized carousel inside in addition to the play area, so we enjoyed both.

 

 

Tommy and Ellie riding the Delta Queen.

 

flying an airplane...

 

Tommy climbed the water tower alone...

 

 

 

 While Ellie soaked her feet in a birdbath...

 

Then we all rode the merry-go-round together...

 

 

 

We got in late at Aunt Sandy's house, then on Thursday we played with Sandy and her family and my Mom at a nearby McDonald's with a play place...  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It took Ellie a while to work up to having fun on the slide, but she finally caught on...

 

 

 

And then a bit of playtime with Grandma back at the ranch...

 

 

It was a fun visit!

 

 

Spring Break

I can't believe I forgot to post about Easter!  I uploaded pictures last Sunday, but then headed to bed without writing anything, and now here we are a week later...

Andrea invited us to an Easter Egg Hunt on Friday.  We had a beautiful sunny

afternoon to explore her yard.  It didn't take Ellie and Tommy long to figure out that

there were treats inside the plastic eggs, so they were very gung ho.

 

 

Ellie tripped on a tree branch and spilled her bucket of eggs. 

Ever the gentleman, Tommy stopped to help her pick up the eggs.  Apparently

chivalry has its limits though, because he put them all into his own bucket. 

Once the big kids disappeared to their own activities,

the little ones settled into some sidewalk art.

Saturday was even sunnier and warmer, so we headed across the street

to the school playground.  The kids enjoyed climbing up the stairs, 

but were not as fond of going down the slides.

After a few tries it got better, and Ellie was headed up the steps to the tall

twisty slide when she tripped and smacked her face.  Game over on that one. 

We'll have to try again another day.

 



Scout was enjoying the sunshine too...

 

 On Sunday morning Tommy and Ellie found the Easter treats that the Bunny had left.

Ellie is reading a book from Tommy's basket,

while he is busy digging through hers for candy.

 

 Both kiddos had a clear preference for chocolate over peeps.

 

Then we dressed up in our Easter finery and headed to church.

 

After church, Grandpa and Grandma Selvage came to visit.

 I'm not sure if Grandma is teaching Ellie to text on her

"Talk 'n Text" or if Ellie is teaching Grandma. 

But I am quite sure that it is Ellie reading the new ABC book.

 

There were a few dances with last year's bunny...  

 

And then they stopped in the TV cabinet for a breather.

 

It was another great day, says Ellie.  Yay!

A House Full of Letters

Tom brought home a set of alphabet letters that a friend at work gave him.  Tommy and Ellie were so excited by this new treasure and they have been playing with it for hours every day.  It has been a great supplement to Elmo's ABC dvd that seems to run in an endless loop here.

 

One morning last week I picked Ellie up out of bed, and she calmly recited her entire alphabet, no prompting required!

 

Tommy has also been learning his letters and is close on his sister's tail. I think he knows most of the letters; he can bring the right one from the board if you ask him for it, but his diction isn't quite as clear.  They are so cute when they get to Z in the alphabet song.  They always cheer wildly for themselves or whoever else is performing it.

 

They are also pretty darned cute when they give each other

a kiss before bedtime every night.

The most exciting new letters in our home are the ones that fell in place behind Tom's name this afternoon -- Ed.D.  He passed the oral defense of his dissertation today.  He will still need to do a final cleanup of the text and have it printed and bound, then of course he will do the walk in May to receive his diploma, but he has officially earned the title of Dr. Thomas Selvage.  Congratulations, my love. :)

Ellie's First Haircut

Ellie's hair has been poking her in the eyes a bit lately, so we took her to get her first haircut.  Here she was standing up and ready to go even though she was still strapped into the stroller.

 

Ready...

 

Set...

 

Go!

She sat perfectly still the whole time. 

Wiggled less than I do during my haircuts.

 

She even got a little "styling" done.

 

 

 

Not a peep out of Ellie during the whole show, but she was happy to get a lollipop after.