Zoo Mania!

James was in a summer camp at the zoo all week, so Macky and I met Tonia and Kellen one day after I dropped James off and spent the morning walking around. It was a high of 102 degrees that day, so I was prepared to be miserable, but we had a great time! Here are the little zoo buddies-Kellen has his "Cheese!" face down.

 We got to see the new exhibit, which is awesome! The extreme heat kept the crowds away and we almost had the area to ourselves. We got to see all the elephants and even saw one of them swimming.

 The boys playing in the Denver Zoo rickshaw in the new Asian Tropics area.

This was Mac's first trip to the zoo where he actually knew what was going on and enjoyed seeing the animals. The highlight of the trip was definitely the train ride though. Our little train lover kept saying, "Choo choo! Choo choo!" the entire ride.

 I think his favorite animal was the giraffes, he cracked up laughing when he saw them.

 Lunch break in the shade!

The lions were nowhere to be found in their exhibit that day, so I had to settle for a photo in front of a lion cut-out with Mac in his lion shirt.

If there is something that can rival James' love of anything Lego, it is his fascination with learning about animals. I signed him up for a week of Summer Safari Zoo Camp, which I thought would be a special treat for him this summer. Holland also signed up her little animal lover, Riley, and the kids had an absolute blast together at camp all week. James had been looking forward to it since I signed him up in the spring and it did not disappoint. It was an amazing program and I am SO glad that James had the opportunity to go! The day that we spent at the zoo was the day that James learned about birds and got to feed the lorikeets. As we were walking by the exhibit, we saw James and his group walking out. He saw me and gave me a wave.

The theme of James and Riley's age group for camp was "Way to Grow." They learned about a different type of baby animal each day and had a live animal demo, stations in their classrooms, an art project, stories, and a tour of one area of the zoo that all corresponded to the animal of the day. Here they are showing off their binoculars that they made when they did a scavenger hunt in Predator Ridge.

 James and Riley after camp one day when we took them into the zoo for an ice cream treat.

On the last day of camp, the kids did a performance of their theme song, "We All Grow Up," that they had been practicing all week. Here is James sitting next to his new buddy Warren that he met at camp. James made sure that his mom and I traded information so that they could have a playdate soon and sign them up for the same camp session next summer.

While they were waiting to perform their song, the counselors were quizzing them with animal questions they had learned the answers to that week. James proudly raised his hand to answer every question. He learned a lot!

The kids all got a token to ride the carousel after their show, so we of course had to go for a ride before we left the zoo. James has always chosen to sit on the bench on the carousel or one of the animals that doesn't go up and down. On Friday he was feeling pretty bold and tried out the hyena that goes up and down. He was a little hesitant at first and kept yelling at me to hold on, which was not easy when I was also trying to wrangle Mac. His face cracks me up.

He warmed up to it by the end of the ride though.

Summer Safari is definitely something we will be signing up for again. It was so well organized, the kids had so much fun and learned so much, it was a great way for James to spend a week!

My Silly Boys

Mac has started showing minimal interest in the toilet and has wanted to sit on it a few different times lately. James is getting him very jazzed about wearing big boy unders, so he ran and got a handful of them for Mac the other day after he sat on the potty. Mac was insanely excited about the Elmo and Thomas pairs (the benefit of having a kid that is character obsessed) and immediately wanted to put them on. One pair was not good enough and he was soon wearing 4 pairs of underwear.

Who knew underwear could be so much fun?!

Cue massive tantrum of epic proportions when we took the underwear off 10 minutes later to put him back in a diaper. As stubborn as Mac is and as easy as James was to potty train, I am counting on Mac being in diapers for a loooong time. At best he will surprise me :-)
Moving on to our literal Lego Maniac, James. One of James' favorite thing to do is cruise the Lego aisle at Target and show us all the sets he is interested in (which is all of them). The other day we had to make a Target run and he had the genius idea to empty his piggy bank to see if he had enough money to buy a new set since we always tell him if he wants new Legos he can either save his money or wait until his birthday. Well he had a little over $9 in loose change that he had collected so while I did my shopping, he and Tim looked around for a set he could afford. He chose this Lego monster truck and has been playing with it non-stop ever since.

Casa Bonita

James had his first trip to Casa Bonita last fall and has been asking to go back to "Mexibonita" ever since. Tim had some friends in town from residency last weekend and everyone had little boys. We were trying to think of something to do with all the kids on Saturday when it was over 100 degrees out and I thought air conditioned Casa Bonita sounded like the perfect place to kill a few hours. We didn't tell James where we were going until we driving there and he was over the moon excited. Here is a terrible photo of Jaxon, James, Joona and Mac in front of the restaurant. Apparently everyone from the residency has boys and gives them a J name.

We got to sit in the "fancy room" which James was thrilled about, even though it doesn't show in this picture. James loves everything about Casa Bonita-even the food. He cleaned his plate, the only person in our huge group to do so.

 James loves everything about "Mexibonita," the divers, the performances, the cave (although he didn't go in this visit), the food and most of all the games. He was on a mission to win enough tickets for a prize this trip. Luckily Tim helped him out and he was able to pick out a prize before he left.

Another terrible photo, but I had to get a picture in front of the divers. James was trying to watch the show and Mac was screaming, which he did pretty much the entire time he was there.

Yay for a good old Colorado tradition. The happiness of seeing how excited little kids are there almost negates the awful food and overall germiness of the place. And the sopapillas are pretty awesome.

Campfire Dinner

Last week the Haleys took their new pop-up camper out to Union Reservoir in Longmont to camp so we joined them for a campfire dinner on Friday night. Since it was at a campground and in an enclosed fire ring, we were able to have a small campfire despite the fire restrictions due to all of the wildfires. 

 James got his first s'more of the season, which he was pretty happy about.

Macky only was able to have a marshmallow instead of a s'more, but he was happy enough with that.

 After dinner the dads and big boys tried out some fishing in the reservoir.

 The babies hung out with the moms and played in the camper.

It was the perfect first camping experience of the season-we drove the 6 minutes home and slept in air conditioning :-)

iPhone photo update

All dressed up with my parents at Chris Bartle's wedding

Mac and Em enjoying vegan cookie bars at the first concert in the park of the season. They make a good vegan pair-no dairy for Mac, no eggs for Em.

Enjoying dinner with Chloe on the night of her first slumber party with us

Mac loves to wear his bike helmet. Only backward and not when he is on a bike.

James and Chloe camped out in the living room-they read books by flashlight and slept there all night.

James and Sam showing "baseball ready" in the outfield.

A picnic/mini PHS reunion with Fererro, Holland, Seeman, Givan, McNeil offspring.

Getting ready for a rugby game with Lucia.

Up to bat with Coach Seth.

Standing on his head has become one of James' favorite activities. Mac just copies whatever he does.

More Big Kid Biking

When my dad was visiting 2 weekends ago, I sent he and James to a Build and Grow workshop at Lowes and they came back with a bike. Things like that just happen with Grampas sometimes. James is still a couple of inches too short for it, but this will be a great bike for him to grow into and he will be able to ride it for a few years! James was a little intimidated by it at first, but once he decided to give it a try, he did great!

James needs help getting on the seat and needs a little push to get going, but once he is on it, he is good to just pedal away. After trying out his new wheels on our street the day he got it, we took it to the park the next day and James really got the hang of riding it in an empty parking lot. He even mastered the art of stopping and making skid marks.

I'm not sure who was happier about the new bike, James or my dad :-) James still has some work to do before he will be joining us on any lengthy bike rides, but I still think it is pretty cool that he learned how to ride a 2 wheel bike at 4 1/2! Thanks for the bike Grampa, it is going to get a lot of use!