An Overabundance of Parakeets. Great.

In addition to the new penguin exhibit and the flamingos, the zoo has added a parakeet open fly exhibit this year. For those of you who know my history with parakeets, I was trying my best to avoid this attraction, but failed. So, you walk into this large greenhouse/barn building that used to house butterflies, and are surrounded by hundreds of parakeets. For a $1 you can buy a popsicle stick with bird seed on it. I'm cheap and didn't really want to encourage parakeet interaction, so I did not purchase said stick, but once we were inside, another mom gave me her's as they were leaving. And so began the hunt for hungry birds to land on the stick. Ben was obsessed! Nick somehow came about a feeder stick too, so they both had one. They were chasing birds all over. I showed them how to properly approach a bird and entice it onto the stick. Ben could hold a bird on the stick, but I don't think Nick was capable of holding up a stick with a bird on it. After 20 minutes, I finally forced them out of the bird house. Amazingly, we did not get pooped on, no birds escaped into the wild, and no one got bit. These must be nicer parakeets than any I've encountered before. 

Penguins and Flamingos

Last Friday we headed over to the zoo to check out the new penguin exhibit and the new flamingos. We met up with Cameryn and Avery, had some lunch and then checked out the animals. We found a perfect spot to each lunch right next to the new penguin house, between it and the aquarium under construction. The kids could each lunch and look at the penguins without us having to chase after them. The new exhibit is pretty cool, but you have to be careful of biting penguins when you walk through. They warned us, they do bite. We did not find out first hand, thank god.

Looking at the penguins from below the water. One buzzed by the kids, but I didn't get a picture. 

And we saw the new, playful, baby otters. Those baby otters make Nick look lazy and safety conscience.

And the zoo has new East African cows. But if you ask Ben, they are buffalo.

Tried for a group shot. Fail.

And the flamingos! All standing around on one foot.

Nick and Avery finishing their lunch 2 hours later with the flamingos

Fire Pole Proficient

Ben has become proficient at descending a fire pole now. And Nick tried to scale it. I'm in trouble when Nick can actually scale up the pole.

Our Newest Neighbors

Ben discovered our newest neighbors last week. I'm not even sure how he found this nest, I think he was looking for a ball in the bush and came across it. The nest in the bush next to the driveway, right at 5 year old eye-ball height. Obviously, not the smartest robins in the world... Hopefully we'll have some baby bird pictures to share soon!

A Preschool Graduation Performance

Warning: This is a long, 4 minute video of 45 pre schoolers 'singing' the Phonics Dance. You may have had to be the parent that paid for this education in order to enjoy it, and even then, it would have been ok if they stoppped at the letter M. Again, you can't see Ben, but he's in there somewhere. 

Preschool Graduation

Last Thursday Ben's school had an end of school year 'graduation' celebration for the kids. It was very cute. They had a hot dog dinner for the families and had a slideshow of pictures from the year. Then the kids did the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the Phonics Dance. All the kids got a little certificate and present. Ben was so excited for his graduation he could barely sit still that day but was of course stoneface during the entire ceremony. I'm sure the teachers had a wonderful day with all those excited kids!  

We did not have good seats for seeing Ben during the performance, but you can barely see the top of his head in the center of this picture. He is one of the taller kids in his class. 

And there's the stoneface while he waits for his name to be called for his certificate and present. 

That looks - cracks me up!

Just Nick

Look At Him Go!

Ben is really starting to get good at riding his bike now. He can start up on his own, brake (finally), get off without dumping his bike and ride quite fast. He loves riding in the circle and then up and around on the side walk and back onto the street.