Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Bumblebee

When Matt tickles the kids he waves his finger in the air and says, "Bumblebee, tickle me," then tickles them. Yesterday Shannon was doing it to Leah and I heard Leah start saying it, then tickling herself. It's just about the cutest thing she has ever done. I cought it on video today (you can kind of understand her "bumblebee"), as well as her singing a song for me. She sings whenever I ask her to. It's pretty stinking cute!

Monday, May 3, 2010

Tulip Festival!

As some of you saw on Jeny's blog, she went with me and my girls to Thanskgiving Point on Saturday to see the Tulip Festival. We had plans for a whole group to go, but the weather was not the greatest, so we were the only ones to brave it. There are tons of pictures, because it was too pretty! Here is the view from the entrance:Here is a great-horned owl nesting her two babies. She made a nest in the man-made waterfall area.
I have been to the gardens here before, but I had never seen the Children's Discovery Garden before. The girls loved it! There was this sandbox, a xylophone, blocks to play with, man-made caves with bronze animals (that scared Shannon to death), and even a stream to race little wooden boats.
This is at the top of the children's garden area. I thought it was one of the prettiest spots in the whole garden. You can kind of see the fake alligator on the little island across the pond.
Here is the waterfall where that owl was nesting. There was also a Canadian Goose sitting on her 4 eggs. Shannon had her ears covered the whole time we were around this because the water was so loud.
Just a few of the 250,000 tulips we saw. Notice that Shannon is holding a dandelion. She was allowed to pick those, so she thought that was fun.
Here are some of my favorites. I really like flowers with lots of petals like this.
Anytime we came upon a hill Shannon had to run down it. She had so much fun.
All of the gardens are themed. This one is one of my favorites. It's the Italian Garden. Jeny thought it looked like a bunch of bathtubs stacked up. You can barely see the statue at the top.

These are probably my favorite. They look like they're painted!
This was the scent garden. There are raised beds with lots of herbs and smelly flowers. Chocolate mint is, of course, my favorite.
This is the creek garden. Very pretty!
More tulips.
Different colored beds. Jeny loved the orange and red one that's in the back. I love the bright white and pink one and the purple one. Oh, who am I kidding? I love them all!
Shannon is just funny. She gets so excited about everything. I love her enthusiasm!
Here is what the girls looked like on the ride home:

Lastly, here are some videos. This is the xylophone that the girls would probably have played with all day had we let them. It was really neat.

Jeny taught Shannon how to roll down the hill. She eventually rolled down this entire hill and then beyond. If you look at the very first picture you can see the entire hill. It's the same one.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Alice in Wonderland

This is the first book I ever received. I can't tell you how many times I read it and how much I loved it. I spent a great deal of my childhood in Wonderland and I cherish those memories. When my family took a vacation to Disneyland when I was 7 everyone wanted to ride the Matterhorn, but I was too scared. My mom took me to the Alice in Wonderland ride instead, and I still remember it.
Last night Matt and I went to see the Tim Burton movie, "Alice in Wonderland," and I have to tell you, I absolutely loved it. I was very skeptical going into it because I have never before enjoyed a Tim Burton film, but his weirdness and Lewis Carroll's weirdness fit together perfectly! The characters were just as I remember them and the story (a kind of sequel to the well-known story) was very entertaining. Rarely do I rave about a movie, but this one has to be one of my new favorites. It took me right back to my childhood and wrapped me up in good memories.