The Bham Zoo

A few weeks ago, I got a text from my sister while I was out of town for the week for work. She was asking if I'd be interested in taking the children to the zoo on Saturday morning. I thought it'd be a great way to kick off our weekend and give Nick a little free time since he'd been flying solo parenting all week.

So, two Saturday mornings ago, right around 9:00am {the ONLY way to go, as far as I'm concerned}, we headed out to the zoo with my two favorite children. They were pretty excited that Aunt B was with us!

We saw many, many animals. We started the morning with the seals and with the Kangaroo. Callen thinks she is as big as Carter is and likes to do EVERYTHING he does. Can you tell?

This was easily our favorite animal of the day...though they did really like the wild dogs {?} too.

The giraffes are always a hit, and Aunt B is helping Callen get a better look.

Everyone stopping for a picture with Aunt B!

We had a great time, and we really enjoyed spending time with Aunt B seeing all the animals. Despite the cooler temps that morning, we even managed to take a train ride before heading home to have lunch and take naps to recover from such a busy morning!

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter from the Willis clan! We hope that you and your family had a lovely day celebrating the special meaning that this day holds!

We started the morning {bright and early} excited to see that the Easter Bunny had stopped by our house! He clearly wanted us to be getting ready for summer, as he brought new monogrammed bathing suits, a hat for Callen and flip flops for Carter. He also left a few other odds and ends, as well as the requisite candy for them.

Carter exploring what was left for him

Callen seeing what is in her basket

Clearly our child hasn't had much candy...should we tell her you take it out of the package first?

Then we headed to early church and Sunday school. The service and fellowship were great, and Carter really liked getting to put his flower on the cross and give his Lenten offering.

After church, we headed to the club for a yummy Easter buffet lunch. The food was enjoyable, the company always delightful, and {for this woman who gave up sweets for Lent} the desserts were more than satisfying!

If you happened to miss it in the picture above, Carter busted his lip last night. He and Callen were playing and he fell forward and busted his lip. He was pitiful last night, but the chocolate and candy seems to have helped him recover quite nicely!

HAPPY EASTER!

Picnic

Since the weather has been so nice, we've been spending lots of our weekend time outside. It is extremely difficult to get my golf-playing son and my slide-loving daughter to come inside to eat lunch.

One day, Carter asked, "Mom, can't we just eat outside and have a picnic?!?" If you know our dog, Wrigley, you know that isn't really a possibility. However, I figured they could eat on the screened-in porch as long as we kept Wrigley in the backyard.

They loved it!

VCC Easter Egg Hunt

This morning we headed over to the club to put to good use the practice hunting eggs that Carter and Callen had during the week at school. It was a great morning for an Easter Egg Hunt--and there were LOTS of children there!

Callen's age group was first and she wasn't too into it; though, she did manage to gather about five eggs. Carter helped her out by picking up another 2 or so.

Then, it was Carter's turn. He was off and running when they said go. He snagged 16 eggs...this picture is towards the end when he returned to the starting point to pick up the eggs everyone else ran past at the start.

Callen figured it out by the time we got to Carter's age group, so she helped herself to a few eggs while they were hunting!

Tasting the loot. Dad opened an egg to see what was inside--jelly beans!--and immediately we had folks grabbing to have some. Check out those chipmunk cheeks!

After the hunts were finished, there were plenty of other activities to entertain. Callen hung out with Dad.

Carter jumped in the bounce house.

We scored some balloon animals. Callen got a butterfly and Carter got a mouse.

Mommy and her babies at the end of all of the festivities.

The two precious egg-hunters...hot, tired and ready for naps!

Classroom Easter Festivities

The children have had a week full of Easter activities! The festivities started off with Carter's class party. Party days in Carter's class mean that they get to wear PJs. He loves it!

Happy that I made it to the party before the egg hunt

Hunting eggs--there were 400 for their class!

Finding some more

All done with his best buddy, Will

Enjoying the refreshments

Callen's class had their party on Friday. Every time I get there for a party, she has already dived into her party plate!

Happy Girl

Her class hunted eggs, too. I wasn't really sure how they were going to do, but they did really well. Callen wasn't into finding the obvious ones. She was climbing under and on top of the play structure to get her eggs. Every time she found one, she'd run back and hand it to me!

Guarding her loot

We are very thankful for their school and their fun teachers who plan activities that they love!

Phone Camera dump

If you are my friend on FB, then you've probably seen these {minus any commentary}, but I know there are folks who read here and aren't on FB {STEVE}.

I really like Pub.lix. I don't always like Pub.lix prices, but the people are so nice, the store is clean, the produce, meat, and bakery is good. You get the idea. I missed Pub.lix when we were in Indianapolis. Mar.sh is nice but not the same. The Fresh Mar.ket six blocks from our house there was fabulous, but limited in its offers. So, we're happy to be back in Pub.lix territory. None, however, are happier than my two who get cookies when they go with me {usually somewhere between 8:30am and 9:00am on Saturday mornings...don't judge}.

We are also loving warmer days and sunny weather. We even had to break out the sunscreen last weekend. I have to say, I love the scent of sunscreened babies!!! My new favorite thing is spray sunscreen. {they love it too!} Not sure why I waited so long to adopt this advancement in child-sunscreen-application.

And, finally, last Friday night, Nick and I went to a Racing for Kids benefit for the Children's Hosp.ital of Birmingham associated with the race in town. Some friends of ours were in town because they own a racing team who was racing, so we got to spend some time with them...and with McDreamy!

Ok, so maybe we didn't really spend time with him, but he was nice enough to take a picture with us. He was really very kind to be at the event and help raise money for Child.ren's. Seemed pretty down to earth for a guy with hair like that...

Riding, Riding, Riding

Last weekend, Carter wanted to spend some time riding his bicycle that Santa gave him for Christmas {I suppose my children are just now taking the time to discover their Christmas presents}. Since it was SO BEAUTIFUL outside we didn't have a hard time convincing this little diva to come out and play.

Carter had tried to ride before, but wasn't really getting it then. He would try and get frustrated. This time, however, he was loving every minute of it! He had a "track" that he ran...up our sidewalk, turn around at the top of the driveway, and then back the sidewalk towards the house. He was proficient enough to even make the turns by himself.

He was so proud that when we finally came inside (which was close to 6:00pm!) he said, "I can't wait to show my daddy how I can ride my bike!"

The Wedding

Callen got a dress-up trunk from Santa for Christmas.

fast-forward four months...

Last weekend, Nick was out of town, and I was downstairs while the children were upstairs playing in the playroom. Carter came to the top of the stairs and said, "Mom, we're ready to go to the wedding."

I'll say.

Not sure you can really see in the picture above, but those are heels he has on for "the wedding." Apparently Rex needed to go too...

I just love the creativity at this age...how they take things they have experienced and re-invent them in new ways. Always entertaining.