Joey started his first year of basketball a couple of months ago and guess what team he's on...

THE SIXERS!!!
(Seriously, you have to listen to that song. It's so great!)

For those of you who don't know, Andy is a huge Philadelphia 76ers fan. Thanks almost single-handedly to Andy's brother and sister-in-law who live in Philadelphia, we have an awesome assortment of Sixer's gear. (Thanks, Timmy and Sarah!) It's fun to dress up for the games. The other parents must think we are crazy.

Joey is having a great time playing basketball. He seems to like it much more than soccer or baseball.

The next sport up is baseball, and practices have already started. The good news...he's on the Phillies!!! Two Philadelphia teams back to back? It's a Philadelphia miracle!

Joey (to Hannah): You love music so much. When you grow up do you want to be a Rock Star?
Hannah: I would be afraid of so many people.
Joey: If you were a Rock Star, I would come to see all of your songs.
Hannah: I don't think you would like my songs.
Joey: No, when you grow up you'll have good songs. Like Michael Jackson.


Ellie and Hannah do this little "comedy routine" all the time:
Hannah: Ellie, do you like Mommy?
Ellie: No.
H: Do you like Daddy?
E: No.
H: Do you like Joey?
E: No.
H: Do you like Hannah?
E: No.
H: Do you like Ellie?
E: No

and on and on until...

H: Ellie, are you just saying no?
E: Yeah. 
Then they both crack up!


While Joey was watching me brush my hair...
Mom, I love your prettiness!

A couple of weeks ago I realized that I kind of forgot that we have Zoo/Wild Animal Park passes. Geez, talk about first world problems, I can't even keep track of all the fun we could be having! We finally had a free day this week, so the girls and I headed over to the Wild Animal Park first thing in the morning. It was a perfectly beautiful, overcast day.

As usual, the gorillas were one of the most interesting animals to watch. Little Frank was all over the place swinging on ropes,

and bugging this other gorilla. The older one kept pounding his chest to show Frank who was boss.

Hannah was old enough to go into the new Lemur enclosure while I stayed out with Ellie. Unfortunately they were just napping.

It's been years since we last went on the tram. Hannah didn't even remember it!

Don't be fooled by this sweet face, this two-year old was not thrilled about having to sit down/be somewhat confined for an extended period of time.

We hung out with this friendly Lorikeet for a while.

How is it that I've never really noticed the bat place before? They were pretty cool/creepy to watch! They weren't nearly as cute as these two bats.

As usual, both girls loved the petting zoo!

And Hannah loved her photo ops.

We had lunch at this little playground and then headed over to the bird show. Joey never seemed super into the bird show when he was little, so it's never been a big priority for us to go. I'm so glad we went this time though. Hannah absolutely loved it and was practically squealing with joy during the whole thing. We will NOT be missing the bird show on our future visits...if I can remember that we have a Zoo pass in the first place!

Another fun thing we did when my sister was home visiting was that we went to the beach and fed the seagulls. We brought a whole loaf of bread, and at first we were disappointed because there was only seagull. Soon after a couple more showed up, and then out of nowhere seagulls were everywhere.

It actually got a little freaky because there were so many seagulls and they flew SO close to us. We went through that loaf of bread in a matter of minutes.

It was a perfect day so after our bread was gone and the seagulls lost interest in us, we stayed a little longer to enjoy the beautiful February weather...

and an impromptu photo shoot with Hannah and her scarf!

 

Other than Legoland, our time with Rachel and Ben was mostly spent just hanging out.

  

On Saturday Rachel and I "hired" Andy to watch all four kids while we walked down the street to a new Thai place that just opened. It was a fun little getaway for the moms, and Andy wasn't phased in the slightest by the addition of a one more kid.