We went to the San Diego Zoo with some friends the other day. Since the Wild Animal Park is closer, we usually just go there so this was a special treat.

The whole group: 4 moms, 8 kids, and 1 on the way (not me!)

Can you tell we were getting a little hot and tired by this time?

Joey is showing off his polar bear shirt while posing with the polar bear statue.

Mollie, Lizzie, and Joey all turn 3 right around the same time.

As I was trying on a fancy dress, Joey runs up to me and says, "You look like Cinderella!"

Andy and I were leaving for a date night, and we overheard Joey say to my mom
"Okay, I'm in charge."

...naked pictures that is, and since Hannah has recently been neglected on this blog, here she is in all her glory.

What do you do when you have one kid who wants to take two long naps every day, and one kid who wants to be go, go, going with some outing or even an errand? I tried having Hannah sleep on the go, but that didn't work out very well. It looks like we're just going to have to stay home more.

I got the idea from a friend of mine (who used to be a preschool teacher) to have planned crafts and activities with Joey. We try to do one in the morning on the days we stay home. So far, Joey and I are both loving these little activities.

Our first day was playing with shaving cream. As you can see, Joey really got into this one. We had a lot of fun drawing and writing on the shaving cream-covered baking sheet...and then on Joey. It actually worked out perfectly because I just had Joey play outside in the water and he got all clean.

So far we've also painted with water colors, made sticker collages, and painted in a "paint with water book."

Here are some of the other items on our list...

• fingerpainting
  
• straw painting
  
• painting/stamping with foam letters
  
• playing with edible play dough (and eating it of course)
  
• making macaroni necklaces
  
• spaghetti painting
  
• ink blot painting
  

The internet, as always, is full of ideas. I'm excited to try even more on this list.

Me: Joey, can you please pick that up?

Joey (very sweetly): Yes, because you said please.

***

Joey: God loves me SOOOOO much, and He REALLLLY wants me to do this. ("This" being something he's not supposed to do.)

***

Me: Joey, would you please bring in the newspaper for me?

Joey: Who brought the newspaper? Did the Easter Bunny bring it?

Andy made Joey some lightsabers using PVC pipe, other plumbing accessories, and spray paint. I'm not sure who was more excited about these new toys, but I will tell you that Andy wasn't able to wait the full 24 hours drying time before he showed them to Joey.