Hovander Revisited

Today we tried Hovander Park once again. Last time there were only turkeys to see. This time there was much much more! We had to stop and smell the flowers first.

Last time we were there, I blamed the lack of animals for Clementine's interest (obsession) with the park benches. But this time there were goats, sheep, horses, pigs, geese, roosters...and still she was up and down on those benches.

I've come to the conclusion that if there are things to climb, that's where she'll gravitate towards.

Best Look in the World

T-shirt? Check
Shorts? Check.
Rainboots? Check.

Work it girl.

Thief

This little turkey is always running off with my sunglasses!
Today at the park: goodbye sunglasses! On Father's Day:

Even at Home Depot looking at toilet seats! I don't know how she sneaks these out of my purse but it sure looks good on her.

Hog Heaven

Clementine got a tricycle last weekend! We call it her Hog. She LOVES it! Especially when the neighbors are out; she calls to them, waves and dings the bell when they get close. Her hog has a bell that she quickly figured out and a little box in the back for treasures (or if daddy is pushing, for getting the mail). Her legs are too short for her feet to reach the pedals, but that's ok, she likes getting pushed for now. Look at that grin!

Father's Day at the Park

We spent Father's day at our new favorite park in Lynden. We practically had the place to ourselves! It was fabulous.

Clem played peek-a-boo with Cam-

And crawled through the tunnel 1,892 times-

And did some serious swinging-

Going Wild at the Zoo

On Friday Clementine and I took a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo! (www.zoo.org)
We had SUCH a blast! We met up with Aunty Sissy and cousin Nolan.

I don't care if Sissy calls me "Type A," I call it creative. I brought Zoo Animal Crackers for snack. Here is Clementine feeding me a Seal.

And here she is in the interactive habitat part of the zoo being my favorite: a TURTLE!!! I've never seen such a sweet turtle!

Our favoritest part of the zoo had to be the penguins. We met up with Sissy and Nolan JUST as feeding time began! The zookeepers released a bunch of buckets of live trout into the tank and the penguins went INSANE!!!! It was amazing to see these penguins fly through the water and swallow these trout whole!

Just as we were getting ready to leave the penguin exhibit, the channel 4 news interviewed Sissy and me about the break in the weather. I gave it a big smiley face and Sissy gave it a big frown-y face.

The zoo has all these great benches and interactive parts scattered throughout the grounds. There were beautiful bronze statues of critters all over the place. The first one we came to was a hippo. Clementine bent over, clapped her hands (like "come here" to a dog or cat) and talked to the hippo! It was almost too adorable!

This gorilla was cracking me up! He was sleeping right up next to the exhibit window with his arms folded and tongue out. Every once in a while he'd open his eyes and look at us, then go right back to sleep.

This might be the same gorilla, I'm not sure:

Clementine was totally over gorillas by the time we got to the bronze statues! We tried to get her to tickle the baby but she was over it.

Just as we got to the giraffes, it was their feeding time, too! They were right up next to the gate and towered over us! We were so close to this guy!

We saw zebras way off in the distance:

And we saw a bunch of pink flamingoes:

We saw a ton of animals and really could have spent the entire weekend there! But both babies fell asleep and we had a long way to drive. It was such a fun day for all four of us!

I Really DO try!

*Sigh* Will we ever get a non-blurry picture of this little girl again? I try and I try but she is just so BUSY all the time! All my pictures of her are fuzzy or she's running out of frame.
Here we were one morning reading "Everybody Poops" at the kitchen table. I tried getting some pictures of her while she was sitting and reading.
And what does she do next? Climb ONTO the kitchen table; tongue out, of course. On the floor now, I tried to get some pictures of her playing.
This time, she wants to climb onto the couch using the ottoman for leverage.

If only I could capture this beautiful face holding still for a change....a girl can dream!

How DOES This Garden Grow??

When we moved to this house, I was certain nothing would grow here because a.) our soil is 98% clay and b.) I have never successfully grown anything.
Somehow, we've beat the odds and this gardening thing has really taken root (get it?).

Here are my crazy growing broccolli plants! One has flowers and I don't really know what that's about, but they are all growing like mad! Speaking of growing like mad, here are my two tomato plants that are slowly trying to take over my yard! We'll be drowning in tomatoes here soon! That's okay because I have big plans for these babies!

Here is my darling squash. Don't look into the center or you'll get hypnotized! My squash has grown about 5.5 inches in the last week! And it has a blossom. I'll capture that another time!

My favorite! My beautiful purplish blue hydrangeas. This is the happiest plant in my yard. I love hydrangeas!

Oh, you...the only thing NOT thriving in my yard are my two lilacs! I love lilacs and I don't know why they hate me so much! They refuse to grow even though I am giving them long deep soaks and singing to them lovingly! I don't know what I'm doing wrong!!!!

Moving on...

My sister gave me a half dozen of her rose bushes! She has about a million. These suckers were planted in May and look what they are giving me!

These blossoms are huge! The other thing I can't normally grow: my nails! But look at them here!! Are the two things related??

I was trying to give some perspective in this picture but now I can only stare at my gorgeous fingernails!

Look how many blossoms we already have!

With more about to come! Here's another one of my rose bushes with nine buds about to open!

Check out this beast!! It's growing buds like crazy!!

And this:

I don't even know what it is but it's growing, too!

So is my lavender:

For Mother's day i dropped a bunch of hints about wanting a hanging basket for our front porch. Not only did Cam get the hints, he MADE this hanging basket at work! I love it!