Happy Hollow:)

Before you start, this is a really long post. It's my longest one ever. Just FYI!


Today we went with our friends, the Orlandos, to Happy Hollow, a park/zoo over in San Jose. It's geared toward young kids (I would say maybe 7 and under) and is small, and really fun. We've been wanting to take the girls for forever, and it finally worked out. It was so fun to go with the Orlandos, too! They are GREAT!

The first thing we saw was a jaguar. He kept pacing in front of the glass window, and he did not look happy. Apple put her hand up on the glass as he walked by and he tried to bite at it. It was awfully hard not to react, but we just told her he was saying hello. (Later we figured out he was waiting to be fed, which is why he was so unhappy.) Rayley was completely unsure of him.




From there we moved on to the meerkats. No one was very afraid of those. They are so adorable.



The Lemurs were next, which everyone loved. One of them was moving around a lot, and he kept jumping onto the side of his cage, and onto a big rock in the middle. I thought they were hilarious because they would sit down, just like humans do, on their bottoms with their legs out in front of them. Then, they stick their arms out to the sides and look up, like they are worshiping the sun!




Part of the zoo has a donkey, miniature horse, sheep, these weird cow-like things, and goats. You can pet these animals, and you can even go in the area with the goats and feed them. There are gumball-like machines, where you put in a quarter and get some goat food. We didn't have any quarters, but Uncle Dominick came to the rescue and collected pieces of goat food off the ground (that other kids had dropped). He collected like $7 worth! Anyway, Rayley actually did better with feeding the goats than Apps did. She got so nervous!



After the Zoo part of Happy Hollow, we took a lunch break at some picnic tables. Then we went to the Park part. There were a few rides, a bunch of little play structures, and a puppet show theater. We ended up going on just one ride (well, the kids did) but they loved it so much they rode it twice. Here they all are on the Mini Putt Putt Cars!

Apps


Baby Nicoley-oley


Ray


Natalie Jean

Scooters!

We got the girls scooters and they love them. I had seen a little boy riding one at the park and I thought he looked so young to be riding a scooter. I asked him mom and he was 19 months old. I thought there was no way the girls would be able to do it, but the little boy shared and they both tried it and loved it. They are really cute on their scooters (until they start running into the cars in the driveway)!

From "Mischeivious Sleep-Fighter" to this:

Happy Valentines Day!

Rock Out!

Carey has started a new after dinner tradition! After dinner, when I have my "quiet" alone time (doing dishes in the kitchen) Carey goes into the living room and says "let's rock out" and the girls run in there and do just that! Lately it's been to Bon Jovi! The last few nights, as soon as Carey says it, Rayley takes off all her clothes and "rocks out" naked, which makes me think it will be a LOOOOOOOONG time before we allow her to go to a concert!

Who Needs Toys?

This is a question I ask myself almost daily as I more often than not find the girls so entertained and occupied with regular, household items. Such as this storage basket:

Go Giants!

We took the girls to a superbowl party today. We decided to root for the Giants, because the girls could actually say "go Giants". "Go Patriots" proved to be much harder. So, in order to be unified as a family, we went rooting for the underdogs. As is my tradition, I dressed in the colors of the team I wanted to win (although, this year, it could have been either team), and this year I had two little ones to dress that way as well. Gosh, they looked so cute in their red, white, and blue, it made me so excited for the fourth of July!

As the pictures clearly show, the girls were WAY more interested in the snacks and in playing than they were in the game (doy)! They humored me, though, and said "Go Giants" a few times, and sat on my lap for a few seconds of the game here and there!






Enjoying cupcakes with their friend, Juliette!