A Trip to the Zoo

One fine afternoon in September, our friends were kind enough to invite us to be their guests at the zoo. Here we have Amanda and Jared (plus Eli) near the entrance:


Curtis eager to get on with the sight-seeing:

The zoo is a rather big place, and since we'd been to the zoo before (albeit about 2 years ago), we decided our time would be best spent at the new exhibit: polar bears. Here we have some of the kids giving their best bear impressions at the sculpture on the way to the exhibit:

And here we have the real polar bears, playing in their pool:




The polar bears were conveniently located near the brown bears, so we checked them out, too:

Sometime during the trip, Mom realized that we had a funny coincidence on our hands: both families had the same model of stroller, just with different fabric . . . and the clothing colors of the boys belonging to the strollers were coordinated with their respective strollers!

We got to see two sections of the zoo, North America and Asia, which meant that we saw lions and tigers in addition to the bears (oh my!). However, Mom's camera batteries died before we got out of North America. So, we will close our montage with a parting shot of the kids skipping down the yellow brick road . . . or rather the gray asphalt path. It was a great zoo trip, and thanks again to our friends for taking us!

Once Upon a Wednesday

Once upon a Wednesday morning, there were four little Muffins and their mother who all went outside to play. Mom put the littlest Muffin in her bouncer on the porch, where the next biggest Muffin watched over her.



Eventually, though, big brother Muffin became restless and used his new standing and walking skills to see what the other Muffins were up to.

Biggest brother Muffin saw that Mom had a camera. "Take a picture of my kitty!" he said. And so she did (although secretly she was really taking a picture of the cute little boy holding the kitty).


The biggest Muffin had a friend over who lives down the street. Even though she resents boy bikes (as opposed to her prized girl bike), she was happy to trade bikes with her friend, since his had a bell on it. She wasn't really into the photo shoot, though; too busy playing with her friend before it was time for both of them to go to school.


On the way home from school, the Muffin brothers fell asleep, thoroughly tuckered out from a full morning of play.


And the littlest Muffin was wide awake, having slept most of the morning.

The Lorax, our back yard version

I am the Lorax; I speak for the tree, for the tree had no tongue.

inspired by The Lorax by Dr. Seuss and by those who ordered our tree removed. we miss it already.

A Visitor in Muffinland

There's nothing like going to church on Sunday and having your friends inform you that your nephew is staying with them for the weekend. Yet, such was the case one weekend this month. There really was a good reason for the accommodation arrangements being as they were, but for the purposes of this blog, the important part is that we still got to visit with our nephew/cousin while he was in the neighborhood. Some pictures from the visit:

More Muffin Love

Our new stroller crew

Then:

First, there was Jared as baby 2 in the double stroller (Amanda was off running and playing when this shot was taken back in 2008).

Then, Curtis was baby 2 in the double stroller (Jared was there but got cropped from the picture, taken in 2009).

Now:

Behold Curtis as baby 1 in the stroller, with Lydia as the new baby 2. And, he loves his new stroller-mate.


And, here we have Jared, now graduated from the stroller and walking alongside the stroller on our little outings.