On Saturday morning, I took the kids to the Honolulu Zoo with Heather and her two boys while Brian worked on the yard. We got there early to avoid traffic, parking problems, and rising temperatures (hey, it might have hit a blustering 82 degrees!), and more importantly, this is the kids' best time of day. First we hit the animal exhibits, and here you can see Zander getting an eyeful of a tortoise that is bigger than he is.
Mmm, now he's ready to refocus on the sucker (which was his very first one ever by the way, thanks to Heather who is way more fun than I am :)).
At this point we moved on to the African Savannah, the home to several zebras, giraffes, and various other animals.
Next we hit the monkeys, and you can see that this little guy came right up to the window to stare at Zander. I wish you could see Zander's expression, but Charley's elbow got in the way. Sorry.
After walking around for a couple hours, we decided to have a picnic lunch. Charley asked me if we were going to have a "grass picnic" because she and I often go on walks by our house, and along the way we will stop at one particular scenic point and have a pretend picnic with grass and flowers. When I told her that we were having a picnic with real food, she was SO excited . . . you would have thought it was Christmas again. I'm glad it takes so little to excite my daughter! To finish out the day, we went to the "Keiki Zoo," which is the children's portion of the zoo ("keiki" literally means "baby" in Hawaiian).
While the kids always enjoy the entire zoo, I think this is their favorite part. This is where they get to run around, going through tunnels like gophers, and looking at a fish tank from inside the tank. This area also has a lot of interactive activities for the kids, including the chance to pet small goats. Charley has been able to pet goats on many occasions before, but this was Zander's first shot at it, and man, did he LOVE it! Actually, he didn't so much pet the goats, but instead decided to give them all kisses. I think he kissed the various goats at least thirty times. Thankfully they had disinfectant and a hand washing station right outside.:) Actually, I think I feel more sorry for the goats . . . they probably didn't know what the heck to think.
By the time we got home from the zoo, Brian had purchased a new weed eater, assembled it, and started working on getting rid of a ton of icky ground cover in our front yard flower beds. When he got sick of working in the yard, we headed down to Matt and Heather's house for a marshmallow roast. They started a nice fire in their fire pit, and our kids had their first batch of smores ever. Needless to say, they loved 'em.
On Sunday, I decided to take advantage of Brian being home and his desire to watch football, and headed up to the grocery BY MYSELF for once. It was such a treat to go without kids. While I was gone, Brian kept the kids busy at their new easel that they got from Grammy Bev and Papa Dick for Christmas.
All that artwork must have really worn Zander out.
After I got home, the kids were getting along quite nicely.
On a side note, I love the relationship that is developing between Charley and Zander. Of course, they have their squabbles and disagreements like any siblings would, but all in all, they get along beautifully. Charley naturally falls into the role of the bossy older sister, which is totally fine with Zander because he is laid back and just plays along. She loves to use her imagination to take Zander on pretend picnics and grocery store runs, and they are always checking to make sure that the other one isn't too far away. I hope it always stays this way.
So, we spent the remainder of Sunday cleaning, and after we were done with that we took a nice walk around the neighborhood. Today consisted of more cleaning, another walk, and a trip to the bookstore. I love books, and so do the kids, so this always makes for a fun errand . . . but their favorite part is the hot dog that they get before we leave from the stand outside. Thank goodness for the hotdog guy who keeps my kids on their best behavior (otherwise no hot dog for them!).
Tomorrow is our last Baby Hui group (sad), but to brighten the day is the arrival of Grammy Bev and Papa Dick. The kids can't wait!
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