Zoo!

Last weekend the weather was so incredibly beautiful, we took advantage of it! I am sure most of you did too! Friday we took the kids to Brookfield Zoo. The kids loved it so much, as did we, so we bought season passes so we can go many times this year! There was so much to do, we honestly only saw about 1/3 of the park as we didn't even have time for the kids' zoo area or the kids' play area, the dolphin show wasn't running that day, and some of the indoor places closed an hour earlier than the park closed, so we missed a lot of animals!! We can't wait to go back!

Norman is adjusting just fine. He has put on a lot of weight (and eaten bowl after bowl of food) since Saturday as well as done almost nothing but sleep. He seems very happy and Kilah has been so much happier having her friend back. They have been together since puppies, so she was pretty down while he was gone. I'm guessing she was wondering if we'd "off" her next. ;)

This week we are just settling in to a new routine. Derrick started working this week and I have been trying to set up some sort of normalcy around here again. We are mostly unpacked, other than the baby's room. Deep cleaning has been taking a lot of time as the house was pretty filthy upon move-in and we have yet to finish painting the kitchen and dining room. I have been doing some homeschooling/preschool here and there with the girls since Val has already missed a month of school. They crave atleast some structure and since moving we have had zero of it!! Today we took an idea from my friend Allie's sight (see left in list for link) - No Time for Flash Cards. We talked about trees and the earth (for earth week!) and made trees out of paper, paint, glitter, and an old egg carton. We read some stories and T was the letter of the day. It was a great morning!

That is about all to report for now. Thus far Derrick is seemingly happy with his new job (not that he's been there long, but he likes the guys and so far he's glad to be going). The only downside is that he isn't really home anymore than he was before. He traded longer hours at work for an hour commute, so he's still home pretty late but atleast he's not deploying. We only live about 15 miles from base but the commute is due to heavy traffic/stop lights. yuck!

We are also planning a trip to Disney World this fall so if you have any tips let us know! They are currently offering the military some impressive deals but they end in Dec. so we want to take advantage while we can!

I will leave you with a few pics from the zoo- (mostly from the playground there).

This is the only outfit they own that matches, so don't tease. It sure made keeping track of them (especially at the extremely crowded playground) so much easier!!!