Rainy May

It has been a very wet May this year so in honor of the rain, I thought I would post a few pics of Madeline playing in the rain with my Hershey Kiss umbrella. Oh how she loves the rain and umbrellas!

Monkey at the Zoo

Saturday we took our little monkey to the zoo! We had the best time! The weather was perfect and surprisingly it wasnt very crowded. We went later in the day after all the early birds were leaving which was a good idea but unfortunately some of the animals were taking afternoon naps. Thats ok because we got to see so many beautiful animals. The Norfolk Zoo opened a totally new Asian section this year and it was awesome, we saw asian bears, tigers, tapirs, tons of birds, baboons, orangutans, lions, elephants, giraffe, a sloth...the list could go on and on. I think Madeline liked the Giraffes the most although the peacocks, which were practically everywhere we turned including the parking lot, were upstaging everyone. They were showing off their plummage and calling very loudly to one another. We were shocked how loud they were! Maddie kept flapping her arms and imitating their calls, by the end of the day she had gotten pretty good. Besides her awesome bird calling skills, Maddie also impressed me with her bravery when she walked through the very dark reptile and nocturnal building. Maddie has developed a bit of a fear of snakes, which I totally blame on a few well placed gag rubber snakes that her cousins have, and she isnt crazy about the lights being out. So I almost suggested we skip that section altogether but then we decided to give it a go. At first she was apprehensive but once her eyes adjusted and she got a good upclose look at a really cool armadillo taking a drink of water, she was excited. So much so she ran from glass window to glass window looking for the next little creature hidden inside. It was so dark I was afraid of losing her! All in all it was a fantastic day, I couldnt have asked for a better Saturday!

Here we are entering the new Asian section,  Maddie was on safari looking for some tigers to sneak up on.

Here Maddie is getting a first look at the giraffes, she is making sure Dog Dog gets a good look too.

This little fox was trying to take a little siesta, he was so cute. Maddie kept saying that she wanted him. I wanted to take him home with us too! I totally could have put him in my purse he was so tiny.

Daniel and Maddie squinting in the sun in front of some hyraxs, also taking a siesta.
 

Here is one of those lovely peacocks strutting his stuff. I think he knew everyone was watching him, he kept calling out and shaking his feathers.

 Crazy wild pigs that looked like something from a sci-fi movie.

 One of those snakes from the reptile room, I was a bit frightened of this one.

After taking a look at all the animals, we stopped in this little grotto to rest and get I wanted to take a nice picture of Maddie in front of this lion fountain. Unfortunately at this point she had no interest in photos what so ever and she just wanted to be left alone to gather leaves from the ground and put them on a bench in a nice little line. So after a few attempts of getting a good shot, I let her do her own thing. You can see one of the leaves in her hand in the above photo and her gathering them on the bench in the below image.

I had to take a photo of her final little leaf assemblage: 

Easter!

I love Easter, there is something about spring, rabbits and eggs, nature and life that just really appeals to me. Unfortunately this time of the year I have to work extra hours including saturdays so the holiday always creeps up on me and before I know it, I am never properly prepared for it, at least not as much as I want to be. This year we had hoped to take Maddie to an Easter Egg hunt, the idea of her all dressed up running around a field with a basket searching for eggs just seemed so cute. Since Daniel and I are not religious and I had to work on Saturday, we were forced to narrow our hunt for the elusive Easter Egg Hunt to a non-religious Sunday egg gala and that proved to be a bit difficult, pretty much impossible. Perhaps next year... So this year we kept it low key. Had a nice pancake breakfast, got dressed up, presented Maddie with a basket that we "hid" in the backyard full of eggs filled with chocolate and candy, cute garden tools because she loves to play in the dirt, a pink dinosaur stuffed animal(since they come from eggs), stickers, a bird headband, a glass flower hanging thing, and of course a chocolate bunny. After playing a bit outside, we decided to take a drive to Smithfield and stop at a church that I had read about that is the oldest gothic structure in the nation. We were just hoping to walk around the grounds for a little while to enjoy the wonderful sunny day. The church was lovely and so were the grounds, I was hoping to get some good photos of Maddie but unfortunately the combination of too much sugar and no nap didnt make for good pictures. So after a few attempts, we left and had dinner with my parents. All in all a great day. Maddie fell asleep in her dress which didnt surprise me because she loved that dress and refused to let us take it off. I rarely dress her up because I think children should be comfortable, perhaps we will have to dress up a bit now and then.
Next year I am not going to let Easter sneak up on me. We are going to decorate eggs, make cookies, decorate the house, have brunch and go to the best darn easter egg hunt around. I better start planning for this now.

Maddie digging through her Easter basket. She loved the gardening tools and found the egg with the candy bracelet in it right away. Just like last year, she loved the plastic grass that filled the basket just as much as she liked the toys and candy, maybe even a little bit more.

Maddie looking out the front door, wondering why Daniel is outside and why she isnt.

Maddie and Daniel looking at images on his camera. She loves cameras, soon she will be shooting her own photos. I see albums full of Cooper pictures in our future.

On the porch looking very happy.

Here is a photo of Maddie at the church in front of these really cool wooden doors. The church had this little building with sort of a bell tower on it. Everything was closed and locked up except for a little space that was open with a cool round window and heavy wooden doors. We tried to get Maddie to sit on this wooden bench that looked really old but she definitely didnt want anywhere near the bench. She was cranky and I think a little bit scared but we were able to get her to go up to the doors and knock on them to see if anyone was home. She loves to ring doorbells so we figured it would work and it did. She knocked but there was nobody home.


And here she is with two of her three cousins. I just loved her in that mask. It was cute but it borderlined a little on the creepy.

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

We had a very mild winter this year, very few days dipped below freezing and I think about three snowflakes fell over the past three months. Of course it was always the coldest on the weekends or at least it seemed and the weekend that Daniel chose to put up the Christmas lights was exceptionally brutal. I had intended to step outside just long enough to snap a photo of Daniel and run back in but Maddie had different plans. Her love of outside forced us to brave the cold and "help" Daniel out for a bit. Maddie really just wanted to hammer things.

I just love christmas lights!

Maddie trimming the tree, four ornaments at a time.

A Christmas Smile!

Christmas tree up, lights on the house and a fire on the hearth...who doesnt love winter? Oh and Maddie with a hammer again:)

Something Old, Something New

Last Fall our neighbors moved out of the house next door and as a "parting gift" we were offered a few pieces of old furniture. I of course cannot say no to anything being offered free to me, so I gladly took it. I know that this behavior is getting me closer to my premier on that show "Hoarders" but I dont care, I love free stuff! Anyway one piece was a buffet/sideboard and the other is some sort of armoire. We have no idea what to do with them but Daniel refinished one and not only does it look fantastic but Maddie can write all over it.


Here is Daniel sanding it, Maddie's job was to stand below and catch the dusk with her hair.

Who doesnt love furniture you can write all over?

Back Track

Well my last post was Halloween so I have some serious back tracking to do. This blog has seriously been neglected since my return to the workforce but I am going to try to post on a somewhat regular basis, we will see. So for starters I want to post a few photos from last fall.
Maddies all time favorite activity is being outside so here she is helping Daniel rake leaves, although I dont think she was helping much:



Here is a photo of Maddie inspecting an acorn at Northwest River park, we had a good time walking the trails and filling our pockets with rocks and found objects.

Here is an image from Thanksgiving morning, Maddie is assisting Daniel with finding all the good Black Friday deals:

Happy Halloween!

I cant believe Halloween has come and gone. Here are a few pics from our lovely little trick or treat night! We searched high and low for the right costume this year. We just couldnt decide what Maddie should be. I really had my heart set on her being some sort of a small woodland critter such as a cute little skunk or perhaps a lady bug but when we finally decided, I guess we waited too long to get the costume and it was sold out. Lesson learned for future years, although I would like to try to make her costume next year, I better start it now and maybe it will be done by Oct 2012. Anyway, even though Maddie didnt get to be a skunk, she looked darn cute as this little witch! We had planned to trick or treat in my sisters neighborhood but we really didnt do much of tricking or treating. At first, Maddie didnt want to get into costume and she definitely didnt want anything to do with that hat but once she saw that her cousins were dressed up, she was all about it. It was a very damp and chilly night and it was threatening to rain. Luckily the rain held out just long enough, even so, Maddie didnt really last long. She was very apprehensive of all of the strangers running around and she really didnt want to go up to any of the houses, nor did she want to walk she insisted on being held the whole time. Thats ok though. we walked around for a little while and then headed back to the house and handed out candy. It was a good night overall and lucky for us we didnt have a bag of candy at the end of the night to eat, looking forward to next year!

Maddie and her candy corn witch cousin, Hailey.

Maddie with a lollipop on the porch, I think that hat was bugging her.

I love this photo! Ninja Rylee in action! Maddie loves her cousins!

Kitten ears and the halloween shirt from Grandma, too cute!

Goodbye Irene, hello Roanoke

Maddie and Cooper ready for their road trip.

As usual, hurricane Irene was more of a bust than a bang. The media always hypes it up, gets everyone scared and then doesnt deliver. Thats ok though. Growing up on the coast of Virginia, I have seen my fair share of hurricanes. As a child I always thought they were so exciting. Hurricanes to me meant that my sister and I got dismissed from school early, I used to love etting the hurricane tracking chart in the newspaper at the end of Aug. and using it to plot the course of the storm, going to the store with my dad and stocking up on supplies, and losing electricity. It was all so exciting. Now its a bit different for me. The childhood excitement is still there but its now overshadowed by the worry and fear that big storms bring. Anyway, Daniel and I still have memories of hurricane Isabelle in our minds and losing electricity for days, so when the city had mandatory evacuations of waterfront areas in Portsmouth, we decided to leave. We could have stayed at my sisters house or holed up in some hotel sightly more inland, but instead Daniel and I decided to make it a little retreat weekend for the family to a city in Western Virginia called Roanoke. Daniel travels to Roanoke for work on occasion because his company has offices up there and Maddie and I were supposed to go with him a few weeks ago but we were unable to go. So we decided to spend the weekend there to escape the storm. We packed up the kid and dog, and went on a little road trip. Overall it was a good time, although taking the dog sort of limited us on what we could do, I didnt feel comfortable leaving him in the hotel room and we couldnt take him in a restaurant or museum so we did alot of walking around outside. Luckily downtown Roanoke had some outside festivals that we enjoyed and the hotel had a very nice little "park" to walk dogs and Maddie and Cooper really enjoyed it. Anyway, here are a few pics from that weekend.

Maddie in the little park at the hotel, I so wish her face wasnt blurry in this shot. It seems the older she gets the harder it has been to get her to sit still for a photo, she is always on the move.

Cooper and Maddie, looking down at the park area from our balcony in the hotel room. They both loved that park and even when they were in the hotel room, their hearts were in the park. Cooper loved seeing all the other dogs and Maddie loved the Koi pond, which she tried to jump into everytime we went down there. There is something about water that just calls out to this girl and she is fearless, stresses me out!

Maddie in the hotel room, grinning after eating breakfast.

Maddie on the tennis court of the hotel, right after it rained. She loved jumping in the puddles.

I really didnt get many photos of Roanoke, I wish I had. It was a cute town, maybe Daniels work can transfer him to that office and we can move there, that would be nice-just dreaming.

And of course the aftermath of Irene. Luckily our large tree, which we thought for sure was going to fall victim to the storm, was still standing. Unfortunately we lost the dogwood in the front yard. So here is Daniel cleaning up the mess. It sucks because that tree gave the porch a bit of privacy. Now we can see all the neighbors and they can see us! Time to plant another.