"I'm a monkey, Mommy!"

Says Kara as she is climbing the Rhododendron bush in the back yard. To a three year old it's a pretty good climbing tree.

Doin' the Puyallup 2010

Going to opening day of The Fair has become a bit of family Tradition. Admission is free with a suggested food bank donation from 10am-12pm. Andrew was only a few days old last year and Jeff and Kara went without us, so I was excited for "Fair Day" this year. The weather was threatening rain, but turned out to be just right. With all the animals and "stuff" the fairgrounds isn't really a place you want to be wearing sandals and who wants to be wearing tennis shoes on a hot sunny day.

First thing we saw was the miniature horses. This turned out to be one of Kara's favorites and we were here for a while. She asked a couple times to ride them, so we're on the lookout for a place that gives pony rides.

The 4-H girl that owned this horse was in the stall with her horse and apparently he really liked people. Kara got to pet his nose and he even licked her hand!
"boc boc, boc boc, that's how they say g'day, boc boc, boc boc, that is what they say..." and that is what Kara said to the chickens too! so cute!
Andrew was scared of getting too close to the animals, but he really liked these baby chicks. I think because they were small. His expression in the picture is very serious, but he was fascinated by them. Jeff getting out the hand sanitizer. Just after I snapped this picture Andrew looked up at his Daddy and Jeff was looking down at him. It was cute and I tried to take another picture really fast...
... This is what I got. Hugs for Daddy!
Taking a sandwich break, see I was there...
The petting farm, Kara LOVED it, Andrew needed some encouragement at first.
He liked petting this bunny, again, much smaller then him.
Snacking on and Elephant Ear. We packed our lunch, but indulged in some Fair food for desert.

This year Kara was tall enough (you have to be 36") and brave enough to try the rides. She wanted "a purple one", seems to be her favorite color lately. We didn't notice until after she was buckled in that about half the cars had a working horn on the side to "beep" and hers was missing the part you squeeze. She soon forgot when she started moving though. Her face lit up with an ear to ear smile when the car actually started moving!

got my ticket! it started to sprinkle a bit and we put the kids jackets on, but it soon stopped :)
After how much she enjoyed the car ride we decided to let her try the helicopter ride. This one went around AND went UP in the air. Again she wanted "a purple one".
After a couple of circles in the air she looked a bit nervous, like she realized she wasn't sure how high she was going to go, but she was soon smiling again and wanted to go for another ride when it was over. Looks like going to the fair next year is going to be a lot more expensive.
Lastly we visited the "hobby house" collections. These were some of the favorites. Hello Kitty.
Tinkerbell
Andrew loved this Star Wars Galactic Heroes toy display and became a bit of an attraction himself as people watched him walk back over for another look several times.
The Wizard of Oz display
Such a cutie pie!

Jeff and I were trading off with the camera in here and neither of us got a picture of the Barbie display which was also one of Kara's favorites. Oh well. We ended with burgers at Red Robin where the kids got balloons and then visited with some friends that recently bought a house in Puyallup. For being two and a half and three, Kara and B played together VERY well!

FONZ members

What is FONZ? Friends of the National Zoo! You know, the one in Washington DC, we bought a membership! No we aren't planning a vacation, although that would be fun. The National Zoo is reciprocal to both the Point Defiance Zoo and the Woodland Park Zoo, and for only $60 we get admission for the whole family to both zoos for a year! A couple weeks ago we spent a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Point Defiance Zoo. I really like how the animal exhibits were layed out, it was usually pretty easy to get a good view of the animals. Some of Kara's favorites were the elephants, tigers and monkeys.

tiger cub, so cute!

This monkey was a ham, he really put on a show swinging around on those vines!

Polar bears a ginormous! Look at that foot!

Andrew liked the Meerkats in this toddler sized viewing area where he could get out and walk around.

both kids had fun in this sprinkler area, Kara got soaked and spent the last of our visit wearing a blanket

there was also an aquarium building, somehow we missed the touching tanks, we'll have to find those next time.

Point Defiance is a smaller Zoo then the Woodland Park Zoo, so we saw pretty much everything in one visit, but it was a lot of fun and Kara keeps asking to go back. All the parking is free and the parks surrounding the zoo have some amazing views of the water. I think we are going to like being FONZ members.

Andrew turns one!

September 7th Andrew turned one year old! We decided to keep it low key and just had a couple friends over for cake. Thanks again to Nikki who not only made the cakes but came up with the design as well. When we talked about her making the cake she asked what kind of design I wanted, I replied "something boy, maybe in the shape of a one" but pretty much left it up to her to be creative and have fun with it. I'm glad I did, they turned out great! Notice the tiny "1's" on the sides. Very cute! Digging in!

A few fun/silly things about Andrew... he likes to play with potatoes, not Mr. Potato Head, REAL potatoes from my pantry. He also like to eat Kara's sidewalk chalk and cotton balls. He walks full time, no more crawling. He also likes to dance and bounce on the trampoline with us. One of his favorite foods is chicken, especially the Mickey shaped chicken nuggets from Costco. He LOVES to play with my car keys. He's always grabs for them when we are getting into the car and he's got such a strong grip sometimes he gets them away from me, and he gets very upset when I take them back. Size wise he's catching up to big sister. At 23 lbs. and 30 inches she's only got 5 lbs and 6 inches on him. Happy Birthday, Andrew! We love you Pookie!

Happy Birthday, Kara!

A little behind here, almost a month ago (August 7th) Kara turned THREE! Thanks to Nikki for making the cute Angelina Ballerina cake!

After a whole month of sunny weather it decided to rain on Kara's birthday, just enough to get everything wet and keep us inside. Oh well, it was fun to have friends over even if we didn't get to all the games we planned. Kara's favorite thing, besides the cake, was presents. She loves to open presents!


And the traditional post-part crash. Happy Birthday my cutie pie!