Capron Zoo

Today was Grandpa's last day with us, so we spent the day at the little Capron Zoo here in town. It was a gorgeous day, absolutely perfect weather - clear, sunny, high 60's. Here's Zach checking out the lions.

This is our famous White Lion, Ramses. He's actually in this week's People Magazine, if you can believe it.

We spent 4 HOURS walking around checking out animals.


Of course, we had to make 2 trips to the feeding pen to feed the goats and llamas.



Taking a ride while we stopped for some lunch.



This bird flew OUT of the exhibit and right over the top of the kids heads. It freaked them out, but they loved it.

Notice the small bird at the bottom of the glass - it's outside the exhibit and Izzy is trying to catch it.

Pumpkin Patch

After flying all day yesterday out to visit us from Oregon, we took Grandpa to Ward's Berry Farm to go pumpkin picking.

Here's Z&E riding in the wagon out to the patch.

"I think I can lift it!"

Picking out pumpkins with Grandpa.


"Look how many we got!"

Helping daddy push them back to the car.

Since it's a working farm, of course we had to go feed the animals.



Trying to catch a chicken.

The farm has a huge hay pile for climbing and jumping. Since they know kids WILL jump, the ground is padded with loose hay for them to land in. Here goes our leaping lizard!

...flying through the air.

Jumping with some help.

"Catch!"

"We made it to the top!"

Riding the horse swings.

As a reminder - here's the link to the post from LAST year at this pumpkin patch - check out how much they've changed in what they do on the hay bales - from sitting and throwing hay, to throwing themselves off the hay. What a difference a year makes!

http://introne.blogspot.com/2007/10/hayride-at-pumpkin-patch.html

The price of being nice...

Earlier this week, I thought I'd be nice and clean out the truck for Steve - wiping down all the surfaces, but most importantly - vaccuming out the whole thing, which has been used to make numerous trips to dump branches and limbs we've cut down throughout the yard. Here's my reward... a huge bruise on the inside of my calf. As I was trying to climb out of the back with the shop-vac, my shorts got caught and I fell, landing on the trailer hitch. The instant it happened, I had a good 1/4" deep perfectly shaped round indention where I hit the ball hitch. This is almost a week after it happened, and I can say it looks much prettier in person. =)

Zach

Here's our little mechanic in training. He and Emily both love to get the wrenches out of Steve's tool box and pretend to "work" on the tri-cycle.


Future swimming/diving star!

Check-out that streamlined form!


Here's the little swimmer in action.

WaterFire

Last night, Grandma and Grandpa Introne, along with Aunt Christina, came down and we all went to WaterFire in Providence. It's an outdoor event where small bonfires are lit down the middle of 3 rivers that come together in the center of the city. There's music, performance art, etc. that goes along with it. It was a gorgeous night - clear and cool. We started the evening with a nice dinner out in the city - a rarity for us with the kids, but they actually did really well. The kids were fascinated by the WaterFire event, and we enjoyed just being out in the city on a Saturday night.

The kids watching the various acts. Gondolas and small boats can be rented to ride in the rivers around the fire, and the kids liked watching those go by.

Celtic dancers performed...

...along with a Chinese dragon.

Busy watching everything.

Mommy and the "triplets". We got asked a few times if they were triplets.

Zach is fascinated by the Chinese dragon at this point.

As always, posing for the camera.

Silly boy.

Emily stood for a long time staring at the fires on the water through the fence.

Zach and Emily 2-year Stats

Zach and Emily had their 2-year check-ups done today. Here's their current stats:

Zach - 34" tall (35%) and 24.5 lbs (10%)
Emily - 34.5" tall (70%) and 25.5 lbs (30%)

Both of them grew 2" exactly from their 18-month stats, and both put on almost 2 lbs exactly in the last 6 months. They're growing great - but are both on the skinny side. That's understandable for Zach, who's the pickiest eater of our three kids, but Emily... well, since the girl eats anything and everything - I don't know why she doesn't weigh more. =) It's interesting to see that's she's actually pretty tall for her age. I guess she must get her height from Steve, you know it doesn't come from Melissa!

Izzy Starts School

Our baby girl is growing up. Today was Izzy's first day of 3-year-old preschool at Little Blessings. Here she is in front of the door to head in and start the day.