Petting Zoo

Our library hosted a petting zoo on Thursday, and since it was Spring Break week, Brooke was able to come along with us! We had such a fun time having her home all week-makes me ready for summer!

We arrived at the library a little early, and had planned to go in and return some books and browse for new ones. As we were walking up, the petting zoo people invited us over, so the kids were able to pet and play with the animals before the crowd showed up!
This bunny was a HUGE hit-he was easily the size of Bo!
Bethany was so gentle with the animals, and really liked the little ones (she called them babies, but they were actually full-grown).
Brooke liked the bigger animals, the sheep and llama in particular. They also had a hedgehog she liked, but it was pretty cold outside so it was hard to see it burrowed under the wood chips in the cage.
Even Bo got to pet the animals. Bethany (a.k.a. Big Mamma) took him over and helped him reach a sheep.
He was happy to stand there with his hand hanging in the cage, waiting for animals to come close enough to touch!
We were pretty cold by that point, so we went inside to get new books. We were waiting for friends, so we found a spot for the girls to read while Bo played with a puzzle.
Once our friends arrived, we headed back outside to see the animals again. At some point, Bethany grabbed the camera out of my purse and snapped this picture of me and Bo. I'm glad she did that, I'm usually the one taking pictures which means I'm hardly ever in them!
Doesn't Bo look like such a big boy running around playing? He joined the girls in a game of tag with their friends, and then we spent some time on a little playground nearby. They had a fun time, and were worn out when we left!

Cherry Blossoms

We went into D.C. a few weeks ago to see the Cherry Blossoms. My camera battery died pretty early in the afternoon, so Rob used his phone to take most of our pictures (and the quality is pretty comparable to our camera-crazy!). I finally got tired of waiting for him to send the pictures from his phone, so here are a few pictures from the camera!

The blooms were so pretty-we had some strong thunderstorms the day before and I was worried they would have knocked most of the blooms off the trees, but I was wrong! We rode the Metro into the city, and the girls thought it was so fun to ride a train. It took about 30 minutes to get there, and they were ready to explore!

We started making our way to the tidal basin, stopping to check out the Washington Monument along the way. We were also able to see the Capitol in the distance, and Brooke was in awe of being so close to the monuments. She has been begging to go into D.C., so this was really exciting for her!

We made it to where most of the blooms were, and sat down to eat some snacks.

While we were standing at the edge of the water, Bethany kept asking what would happen if she fell in. She wanted to know who would jump in to save her, and at one point she looked like she might try it just to find out. It is never boring with Bethany around!

A couple asked me to take their picture, and then offered to take a picture of Rob and me. Turns out they are Aggies-small world!

Me and my little loves-we were freezing! We had been outside for a couple of hours, and decided it was time to head home. We made a stop at the WWII Memorial on our way back to the Metro station.

The girls took a break from walking, and then we looked around a little bit. Brooke was asking a lot of questions about different parts of the memorial-it is neat to see her interest in history. With a soldier for a daddy, she was particular interested in the war details.

It was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Rob took the girls to the Cherry Blossom Parade the next weekend, and they had a great time (even if they were FREEZING!). Of course, those pictures are also on his phone, so who knows if they will ever make it to the blog!

Geocaching

Rob and the girls have recently started geocaching, and they love it! They named themselves the 'Bennett Pack' and registered online at the geocaching website, and then set off on their first adventure. Rob and I were really surprised when Bethany said she wanted to go, she is not really a fan of walking a lot or being outside in the cold, but she did great. Since this was their first time, they decided to stay in the neighborhood.

We live in the middle of a forest, so there was still a good bit of hiking and walking involved. The girls loaded their 'adventure packs' with snacks and drinks before leaving the house.
They followed the co-ordinates, and found the first cache! Do you see it hidden under the leaves by the tree?
Inside were various small trinkets. If you bring a trinket with you, you can swap for something inside the cache. There is also a log book, which they signed, letting people know they had found the cache.
I thought this was a great shot of Bethany hiking, until Rob told me it was actually a picture of her stuck in thorns. Poor baby also managed to fall down 5 times.
They decided it was time for a break, so they headed back to the truck to eat their snacks, and then came home so Bethany could recover. After 2 hours of hiking through the woods, the girls were worn out! Later that evening they were begging to go out one more time, so Rob took them to another cache in the neighborhood.
It took a while, but they eventually found it hidden beneath the logs.
Geocaching is quickly becoming a favorite hobby in our house!

Rainy Weekend

This weekend was cold and rainy, so we spent most of it indoors. Brooke and Bethany have been looking forward to the monthly Home Depot kids workshop for a few weeks now, and woke up Saturday asking what time they were leaving. Rob took them while I stayed home with Bo (who was napping-one of these days it will be easier to go places as a family!), and he took some pics with his phone.

This month's project was a race car.
All finished and ready to race!

Saturday afternoon I ran to the store to pick up a few things, and Bethany came with me. She loves going on errands, and always brings her purse in case she finds something to buy. We were in Ulta, so she picked out some new purple fingernail polish. She considered black fingernail polish, but then decided that was not a very happy color and she didn't want grumpy fingernails. She cracks me up.

Sunday morning we went to the more contemporary early service at church (which starts at 8:45-can't believe we were up and ready in time!), trying to work around Bo's morning nap. Sundays are so hard on him, there isn't a good time for a morning nap, and then his afternoon nap is messed up and he is grumpy all evening. And I really hate leaving him in the nursery when he is fussy and tired-I know it's not easy for the workers to take care of him and entertain the other kids. Anyway, the earlier service followed by Sunday School seemed to work a little better for Bo, but then Brooke was sad that she didn't get to go to Children's Church. Can't keep everyone happy at the same time, right?

It rained non-stop on Sunday, so we had a lazy afternoon watching movies and napping. The girls made cakes in the easy bake oven and played the Wii, and then it was time for baths and bed. I am thankful to wake up to sunshine this morning!

It's Coming...

It was 35* this morning, but surprises in our front flowerbed hint that spring is on the way.

Read Across America

Today is the birthday of Dr. Seuss, and there have been several Read Across America activities this past week. On Saturday morning our local Target store had story time, so the girls and I went while Bo stayed at home napping with Rob.

Brooke was excited to see one of her classmates there, and they had fun listening to different silly stories.

They were each given a goody bag, filled with juice, crackers, fruit snacks, colors and notepad, sidewalk chalk, etc. They were most impressed with the fact that they now have their own reusable shopping bags-ha! They sat in a basket and ate their snack while we walked around the store for a bit (I honestly think we could spend half the day wandering the aisles in there!).

Today was character dress-up day at Brooke's school, and she asked to be the Cat in the Hat.

The costume was super easy to make. We just cut a circle of white felt, tied a bow out of some leftover red Christmas ribbon, and hot glued them both onto a black sweatshirt. She already had black leggings and boots, and then we added a striped hat that we picked up at the party store (and each little lady got a free balloon-they love that place!).

Eyeliner was perfect for drawing on whiskers, and she was all set!

Bo wasn't too sure about her outfit this morning! She wanted a picture with him, but he was a little nervous...this was the best we got.

Not one to miss out on anything, Bethany decided she needed to dress up. She wanted to be Sally from the Cat in the Hat, and since she watches the show on PBS in the mornings she knew exactly what to wear: a fancy pink dress with a white shirt underneath and a pink headband. We dug last year's Easter dress out of a bucket in the closet and layered a white turtleneck underneath. She found her glittery pink headband and frilly socks, and was all set!

She insisted on wearing her Sally outfit to church tonight (with pink cowboy boots)...her new teachers are already picking up on Bethany's 'fancy' fashion sense!

77* and Sunshine

This past weekend we had some beautiful weather-plenty of sunshine and 77* on Friday afternoon! That is the warmest it has been here since October 28th (it was on the news that evening). After two weeks of having the flu in our house, we desperately needed the fresh air and time outside!

Friday morning we started raking all of the leaves and china berries in the front yard. Rob had already raked once before the kids and I arrived, but our yard was covered again. We spent almost 5 hours raking and bagging leaves...I'm scared to see how long it will take this fall when the trees are really dropping leaves!

Bo loves being outside, and was happy to walk up and down the sidewalk while we worked.

He also really liked trying to run into the street from our driveway. I am thankful that we live on a very quiet cul-de-sac!

Brooke found treasures. The little ladies are excited to have a 'pinecone tree' in our yard.

Jumping in leaves is hard when the piles are tiny. She will have better luck this fall!

We have had a lot of windy days lately, and there were tons of sticks and limbs in our yard. We told the girls they could earn a penny for every stick they picked up. Brooke was a very hard worker, and earned $5.37.

Bethany gave up after ten minutes, asked if she had enough sticks to earn $1, and decided to ride her bike instead.

Brooke was out of school sick last Tuesday through Friday, off on Monday for President's Day, and then off again on Tuesday for yet another snow day (I think we're up to 7 snow days so far). Yesterday they celebrated the 100th day of school, and today she commented that this is only the second time she has gone to school on a Thursday since we moved here (and she's right!). I love routine, so the last few weeks have felt like chaos. I am happy that everyone is feeling better and things are getting back to normal!