We just can’t stop going to the Zoo and Aquarium. We went to the aquarium a week or so ago and had a blast.
We bought Lil a camera for Christmas because she loves to take pictures. She had a great time taking pictures at the aquarium.
The best part was the octopus. Every other time we’ve been there he’s just a glorified rock on the bottom of the exhibit if you can see him at all. This time he was showing off.
Lily really wanted to help me grate cheese the other day. She tried really hard, but the setup was terrible and she was bound for failure.
We made ice cream out of some of the snow. It was meh.
Doctor Lily loves to take care of all of us.
I braided Lil’s hair the other day. I was so happy with how it turned out. She made me take it right out. She is not into putting her hair up AT ALL.
We have been taking advantage of the snow and cold weather lately. I hate playing outside when it’s hot, so this snow has been great. And I’m getting some really good pictures out of the deal. These pictures are from the last couple of times we have played in the snow.
I really love taking pictures of the crab apple trees.
My little photographer.
Lil looks at the trees and says ‘The trees have winter coats on’. I love her mind.
This week we finally had perfect snow for a snowman. By the way before moving to Montana I never would have known that not all snow works for snowmen, but it’s totally true.
Lil loves to make snow angels.
For the last part of Lily’s birthday we did do something very slightly Christmasy. Well maybe more wintery with a slight Christmas bend to it. Anyway we went to the Boise Botanical Garden Winter Garden aGlow event. I had seen a few commercials for this event last year, but didn’t even know where the Botanical Garden was so we didn’t go. I also saw the little brochure they sent us and it had a few nice pictures on it. Between these two things we decided it would be fun and we were so right. I could never have imagined what we would find and we were so happy with it all. My pictures will not do this wonderland any kind of justice, but I had to share them.
Almost every available surface had lights on them.
They had a awesome toy train display setup. We went once and then again before we left. Lil loved it.
We were freezing our butts off. They had fires in cans setup all over the place, it was a very welcome addition. They also had Santa that you could take pictures with, but Lil totally has no interest in taking a picture with a strange man. Even better than Santa, they had a real live reindeer. That was pretty cool.
After hanging out with Dancer for a bit we decided it was time to leave. I grabbed a few more shots before we headed to the trains and then our car.
At one point we ran into a Garden employee and she informed us it take something like 6 of them working 40 hour weeks from September to November, plus a few volunteers to get all of the lights set up. I say it was worth it.
We loved this so much. I’m going to try to make this a yearly tradition. So much fun! I’d say that Lily’s 4th birthday was a smash hit.
The other morning Lily came rushing into the bedroom first thing and grabbed my hand. She dragged me into the bathroom telling me that she had “something interesting and strange” to show me.
In the bathroom we saw this:
She turned to me and said “Look Mom, Last night someone rude like a monster or something put my zoo in the bathroom and made a big mess.”
After a few minutes of laughing my head off I explained that during the night I put her zoo on the counter because it was messed up and the elephant kept trumpeting over and over and scaring the daylight of out me. I mean I can only put up with a possessed zoo for some many days before I have to finally grab a screw driver at 1 in the morning and strip those darn batteries out.
I just love how Lil’s mind works. Not only was it a possible monster that moved her zoo, but a very rude one at that. I just love this kid.
