Catching up- the Denver zoo

We visited the Denver Zoo a few weeks ago ( just before we got hit with a big snow storm!) and since I took the pictures on my phone, I forgot about them until now! Here's a glimpse at our day:

We didn't plan on going to the zoo "this day" ( as Mackenzie says) but our other plans to visit the Cars characters at the Children's Museum fell through when the line for the event stretched for at least a half mile outside of the museum. We improvised and ended up spending a beautiful fall day at the zoo! Mack had been waiting to go and was so happy to be there. The Denver zoo is HUGE and we had planned on just doing half of it since we had plans later in the day . We didn't know that Mackenzie would go at top speeds through the whole zoo, not wanting to miss a thing! I, in my first trimester exhaustion/nausea, lagged behind a few exhibits.Even still, what a fun day!
Mack and Mike were both impressed looking at the jaguars up close:
The Denver Zoo has tons of peacocks that have free rein of the entire place. Mack really wanted to feed them her pine cone but you can only get so close to these pretty birds before they take off in the other direction:
" The top of the world!" Mack exercising her climbing legs at the kids play area:
With all the mature trees dressed in their fall colors, I was so sad to have left my big camera at home. Next year I'll be sure to remember it.

Caught ya!

Ellie isn't very good at hiding when she's gotten into the trash. The first clue would be the mess she leaves behind , the second would be this:
Come on, Ellie! The first rule of " trash removal" is to EAT the evidence. Leaving it hanging out of your mouth seems a bit cocky. At least she looks acceptably guilty in the mugshot.

When education backfires

Ok so, a little background. For the last year, Mack has been really wanting to read. So we've been sounding out words and playing I-spy with words when were out or reading together. She's gotten really good and can read a crazy amount of words. So it wasn't long before she started wanting to write the words herself in thank you cards and those types of things. She'd tell me what she wanted to say and I'd spell it out as she wrote. Now she likes to sound out the words and write them herself. Usually, this consists of " I love you" or writing the persons name or random words.

Fast forward to yesterday. Mack decides she wants to make a card for papa . She knows how to write papa and I assumed she was going to write " I love you, Papa" or " I (heart) U , Papa" and sign her name. So I hand her a pen and a few minutes later, she returns to me, card in hand and laughing hysterically. This is what I read:
Yes, indeed, that does say " I love you, Poop-o " . She was just so proud and tickled by her own cleverness that I ALMOST didn't give her the talk about how calling someone, esp your grandfather " poop-o" might hurt their feelings. Even still, I couldn't contain my amusement, especially when she laughed until she couldn't catch her breath.

Something I'm even more proud of :
Mack has mastered sequencing:
For this one,we sounded out the words together the first time and then she did this page all alone:
We are really loving the Mead brand preschool books. We'll be on the hunt for more since this one is almost done!

Simply exhausted......

Being Thankful

We're focusing on the people and things we're thankful here as we prepare for Thanksgiving. Here's our first project to remind of all of those things. Every day we think of new people and things to add! In case your wondering, fly spray was the very first thing added to our " Thankful Wreath" . Welcome to Colorado, pretty girl!

All Halloween-ed out

Boy was I ever glad to put up our November Thanksgiving ( and Grammy's visit) countdown! After the completion of last night's trick or treating, we were officially all Halloween-ed out.

Mike had to work but thankfully my mom was excited to go candy hunting with us! Mack was very excited to hit the streets and was quickly mapping out which houses we should hit. :


She started out holding Gram's hand, but as her bucket began to fill, Gram's became the bucket transporter from house to house. We certainly missed our Michigan Halloween traditions but it was so nice to spend a Halloween with my mom, too.:



Checkin' out the loot:

Excellent chompers!

Mack's dental appointment with her new Colorado dentist was drawing nearer so , in preparation for it, we started reading our dentist books and remembering what happens at the dentist. Mack really liked her old dentist, Dr. Cullen. She wanted to know if she could call her new dentist Dr. Cullen, too. Admittedly, we were both anxious to meet the new doctor but as soon as we walked into the Dr. Seuss themed office , we both felt better. Try as I did to not show my nerves, I let out a little sigh of relief.

Dr. Rachel was fantastic as was her hygienist, Libby. Mack looked so big and yet so small all at the same time as she got her very first x-rays. Every person that walked by commented on how well Mack followed directions and Dr. Rachel said that Mack's teeth are cleaner than even her kids! Mack got two thumbs up for having sparkling clean teeth even before they were cleaned by Libby. Mack was welcomed to the " no cavity club" and entered into a drawing to win a gift card to Toys R Us!

We both loved the visit and are excited to go back in early April !