Summer evenings

It's amazing what a drop in humidity can do! The weather has been positively delightful for the past couple of evenings, so we've been taking our time going inside the house after daycare.  Last night, we tried to match the animal crackers in our cups to the ones in the woods near our house...

We didn't have any luck finding tigers or hippos, but we did see some neat bugs on the fence!

Tonight we colored pictures on the driveway and tried to make them look as cool as the pictures painted on the kids' cheeks at Carnival Day at daycare today:

Breakfast in July

Hooray for blueberry pancakes!!! Or, "lewbebby pancakes" as Clare calls them...

Farm Party

Sean went to a birthday party last weekend at a nearby rescue farm.  Since the birthday boy's little sister is in Clare's class, their mother asked if Clare could come too to keep the sister company.  Both Sooy Babies were delighted to go see some animals and eat birthday cake! As the party guests arrived, the kids played at the playground - there was a wooden train and a pirate boat.

Once all the party guests arrived, we were brought inside to the (air conditioned!!) education center to watch a presentation on a corn snake, a chinchilla, a bearded dragon, and a water turtle!

Clare was getting antsy during the presentation, so I turned the camera on her to see if she wanted to take some self-portraits and she did - so could she practice her frowny faces.

Sean was keen on petting all the animals and even got to pet the bearded dragon twice, which he said was "so cool!"

After seeing the animal presentations, it was time for bagels, juice, and cake!  The kids also got to color their own superhero masks and they were happy to pose in their masks after cake.  Well, most of them were happy to pose:

Clare! Smile, Clare! Clare look up!

After cake and pictures, it was time to see - and feed - the animals!  Clare hung out with this piggy for a bit - she kept saying, "Sorry! I have no food! No piggy food!"

Sean and his buddies were trying to work up the courage to get near the gigantic swan - the swan didn't seem like it wanted to be bothered, so Sean's mommy stepped in and diverted their attention over to the goats and sheep, who were eagerly waiting to be fed. 

After seeing more animals - chickens, peacocks, deer, horses, and a cow - we went back inside to the education center.  Clare had fun "shopping" in the little general store with the pint-sized shopping carts:

Meanwhile, Sean disappeared into this indoor treehouse area.  I had just started to wonder what he was up to when...

... he ran over to me showing me all the oversized acorns this good little squirrel had gathered for him!  Wow!

After we helped clean up the education center, it was time to get our goody bags and get going - the goody bags were full of superhero stuff - candy, tattoos, and stickers!  The kids were so busy examining their loot, they didn't have time to be sad about leaving the party.  Besides, the next stop was the beach!

More cuteness

Mommy took the kids to the pediatrician tonight - Sean was sent home today with another fever!  While waiting for the doctor, both kids were sitting on the exam table and working hard to crinkle up the paper liner as loud as they could.  Suddenly Sean said, "Sit on my lap, my little sister!"  Clare was happy to oblige and silliness ensued:

"Take our picture, Mommy!"

"Clare, say cheese!"

 

Time for a quick selfie before the doctor came in...

... to determine that Sean has a double ear infection!  We've got some medicine for him and hopefully he'll be feeling 100% again soon.

Got Clover?

We do - the bunnies eat everything in our yard and garden except the clover, since it apparently upsets bunnies' tummies.  Anyway, we cleared out some clover from the yard and brought some flowers in for the kids to use in a craft - painting with clover flowers!

Sean and Clare liked this neat and different way to paint.  Clare made two pictures and I think I had to cut Sean off at four since it was nearly lunchtime.  :-)

Camden Children's Garden

This weekend we took the kids to the Camden Children's Garden.  It was a super hot and humid afternoon, but the kids were troopers and were rewarded by running through the splash fountains at the end of our visit!

Daddy goes through the life cycle of seed with Sean ...

... while Clare whipped up some fun in the kitchen - "I makin' dinner! I helpin' Mommy"

Uh, Birdy? We already have a play kitchen at home, remember?

Next up was the butterfly house.  If we thought the butterfly house at the Academy of Sciences was warm, then we had no idea.  This butterfly house had to have been at least 400 degrees with 200 percent humidity, but Sean was really into it - he loved looking at all the butterflies and the caterpillars inside the shed.

We took a ride on the merry-go-round - Sean tried to match his jaguar's roar:

We stopped by a statue of Walt Whitman - Sean said, "I LOVE this statue - it's so beautiful!"

 

We spied a frog prince at the frog grotto:

We took a little break in the giant's garden:

The kids had fun running and hiding in a little network of tunnels:

Daddy and Sean in the dinosaur garden:

We put the kids in a dinosaur egg so they could hatch - Clare was not a fan :-(

Yay! Clare! We're hatching!

Happy again, sitting on a bug:

Finally, we reached the exit and let the kids splash around in the sprinklers to cool off:

Clare didn't really like going in the sprinklers, she'd rather supervise from the sidelines...

I brought an umbrella into the Gardens with us since the forecast called for pop-up thunderstorms.  We didn't need it in the park since the storms held off until just after we all got buckled into the car ...

... after enjoying some ice cream, of course!