Our Little Photographer

When Chris let Ainsley have free reign over his camera while we were at the zoo a few weeks ago she snapped pictures like crazy. Turns out she's a pretty good photographer.

San Antonio Zoo

Last Monday we took a spur-of-the-moment trip to the San Antonio Zoo. Since Chris and Ainsley were both home we thought it would be fun to take a day trip. We'd never been to the San Antonio Zoo before, but since it happens to be rated one of the top ten zoos in the U.S. by "Parents" magazine we decided to give it a shot.

We didn't arrive until noonish, so before going in we picnicked in the car. There was some nearby grass, and I did have a blanket, but the kids decided they'd rather eat in the van.

Landon loved the snake house and decided he wants a snake in his room. There were two boas in the boa tank, which he promptly decided were Chris and himself. The boa was his favorite snake species and as Chris carried him around the snake house, Landon gave him a boa hug. 

Ainsley seems to be entering that age where zoo trips aren't quite as fun as they used to be. She was pretty grumpy about being there until Chris gave her free reign on his camera. That perked her right up! Kaylee posed with some fish, Landon was our map reader, and they all helped feed Pelicans. Overall it was a fun trip to the zoo! It took us close to four hours to see everything, so the kiddos were pretty tired towards the end.

There was a miniature train outside of the zoo, and with Landon's love for trains, we just couldn't resist taking a ride. Plus that's pretty much all Landon had been talking about during the past four hours. Seeing his excitement made listening to him say, "I want to ride the train now" over and over again totally worth it. The girls enjoyed the ride too!

After our train ride we headed over to the San Antonio Riverwalk and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. It was a fun day!

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a long weekend for both Ainsley and Chris. Ainsley had a four day break from school, so Chris took Friday and Monday off as well. Friday and Saturday were filled with a couple of birthday parties, chores, and a trip to the animal shelter.

Our Easter festivities began with egg dyeing Saturday evening. Our dye kit stated that we could make "traditional" egg colors by adding lemon juice instead of vinegar. We decided to give it a try with a few of the colors. Chris observed that, "apparently traditional color means no color", which pretty much explains the result of that little experiment. Fortunately we didn't use lemon juice in all of the colors.

After the eggs were dyed and the kids were ready for bed, we had a lesson on the Resurrection. We then set out baskets, left carrots, broccoli and water for the oh so healthy bunny, and tucked the kids in bed for the night

I think Ainsley set the record for earliest riser ever when she bounced into our room at 2:30am. I almost didn't believe it when I looked at the clock. We told her she HAD to go back to bed, and after tossing and turning for a bit I finally went back to sleep. Around 5am Kaylee came sauntering into our room. We sent her back to bed but were graced with her presence every ten minutes until about 6am when she finally went back to sleep. At 7am Ainsley and Landon woke us up, and I sent Ainsley in to wake Kaylee. I really wasn't trying to give Kaylee a taste of her own medicine (well maybe a little), we just needed to be up to get ready for church. Before we started the process of trying to be on time for church but inevitably being late for one reason or another, the kids found eggs hidden by the Easter Bunny and enjoyed their loot.

After church I attempted to snap a few photos of the kids in their Easter outfits. They turned out about how you would expect from kids who were being told they had to wait to change out of their Easter outfits. Once the photo session was over and they had changed and loaded up on candy, we headed over to our friend's house (The Beesons) for dinner and yet another egg hunt. Happy Easter!

Egg Hunt

Today our neighborhood had its annual "Easter Egg Hunt in the Park." Chris had to work until 3:30 this morning so I thought it would be good to get the kids out for a bit so he could get some uninterrupted sleep. They hunted by age group which was nice but a little tricky since I was there without Chris. Landon's group went first and man can that kid hunt for eggs. He took off running and filled his basket as fast as he could. Kaylee's group went next. She ended up with more eggs than Landon and Ainsley. Ainsley's group was last. She was the youngest in her age group and has always been a little timid at events like this. She's funny. She acts like she's going to take off and grab everything in sight but once all is said and done she has a hard time running other kids down to get treats. I don't think that's such a bad thing but she wasn't too happy about her siblings having fuller baskets.  

After the hunt was over Landon and Kaylee agreed to combine their candy with Ainsley's and her friend Stephanie's (she found even less than Ainsley). I hid the eggs around our house and sent them on another egg hunt with instructions on how many eggs they were allowed to find. They all had the same amount in the end and everyone was happy.