Father's Day and Other Fun

My kids have truly been blessed in the daddy department. David is a fun dad. He loves to play with them. He loves to make up fantastic bedtime stories. He sets a "fun timer" when he's busy so that the kids know that he'll still make time for them. 

For Father's Day, I made him German pancakes and had planned to serve it up special, but Baylie ended up with a sliver and then a bloody nose and by then we were lucky to even make it to church on time. After church I made him one of his favorite foods - satay wraps - and then we opened presents.

Jalen gave his daddy something he knew he would love.

A fighting top toy, which Jalen later asked his daddy to give back to him.

Baylie also bought her dad something she knew he'd love - a peg game.

And she has played with it non stop ever since.

I gave David mechanical pencils because he had requested some on the weekly shopping list. (I tend to wrap everything around holiday time.)

But the biggest gift was something that I knew he'd love.

A six-disk collection of "100 Best 20th Century Classics." I knew he'd love it because he gave me a list of gift ideas about a year ago and this was on it. He's really loving listening to it.

To finish the day, I made David a carrot cake from scratch - his favorite. It was a fun day.

Today we went to the zoo. We love the zoo! We hadn't been in a while. It was hot, really HOT, but we had fun.

The aquarium

This little squirrel invaded our lunch, coming right under our table. Jalen and Baylie each fed him a grape. He then took it and buried it. It was really cute. I couldn't help but wonder how he'd ever find it again.

It was so hot that they weren't doing pony rides. Instead they did an experience where they let the kids curry, pet and feed the ponies. The kids loved it.

Train ride

We were really excited to see the otters. The otter exhibit just opened last week. We were disappointed when we first went by the exhibit because they were all sleeping, but when we went back by later, they were very active and swimming. The kids loved them.

The bears were also back after a long absence. We loved seeing them again. They were swimming and putting on a show.

The lion was roaring a lot. It's always a little hair raising.

When we walked in from the parking lot, we saw silk worms everywhere. There were lots of nests full of worms.

We came home and rested and enjoyed the cool air conditioning. We were all relaxed and hanging around when all of a sudden we realized that it was time for tennis lessons. We hurried and changed our clothes, but when we got to the court, the practice hadn't started yet and the gate was locked. Thank goodness our daddy knows how to jump the fence.

This was our last tennis lesson for about a month and a half and I wanted to be sure and get a picture wit the kids' coach  - Coach Stan. He's an amazing man who volunteers his time and is so great with kids. I especially appreciate the role model he is for my kids.