November at the Zoo

We have been to the zoo this month with family from far and wide. First my aunt and uncle Marita and Henry Shaw came to visit via the train from Wisconsin. Evelyn and I took them to the zoo in the afternoon last week. I have never seen the animals so awake and active, we had a wonderful time.


The newest attractions at the zoo are the lions, cheetahs and African dogs, Oh My! The lions are truly amazing to watch, the cheetahs are beautiful and the African dogs are just lucky. :)

Then this weekend we invited the newest members of Andy's family to move to the Portland area to meet us up at the zoo. His cousin Brady, his wife Courtney and their little ones Kelvin (nearly 3) and baby Clair joined us in the afternoon and again, the lions were putting on an awesome show. Brady got some great shots of the day, I especially love the one of the male lion in mid-yawn. That's an awfully fierce yawn!

Zoo Evelynisms: When we quizzed Evelyn on what Kelvin and Clair's names were when we got home Evelyn remembered Kelvin and then thought about the baby's name and said, "Her name was...baby Gramma!"
Earlier in the week Evelyn told her great aunt Marita that the boy lion "was the mane lion" we thought that was a very clever, accidental play on words.

What Happens at Preschool

BEFORE SCHOOL:
"Mom, I fink Kyle is gonna be my handsome Prince today. Not Batman, and I don't want to be Supergirl today. I just fink Kyle will be my handsome Prince."
Maybe he could be your Batman Prince.
SILENCE.....
"No Mommy! Batman is not a handsome Prince! Batman gets the bad guys"
AFTER SCHOOL:
Was Kyle your handsome Prince today?
"No he didn't want to. He just said no."

When I Grow Up

Conversations to delay sleep ~

"Mom, when I get big I'm gonna be a nurse. ~Oh, you'll be a wonderful nurse.
Mom, when I grow up I'm gonna be a pilot!
~That would be fun to be a pilot.
Mom, when I grow up I'm gonna be a CD-Player!" ..... stiffled giggles........

Late night discoveries

Halloween Night had a beautiful night sky with dramatic, fast moving clouds speeding across the sky under a bright, full moon.
Evelyn looked up and gasped, "Mom look! Da moon is floating!"
And we watched it for a long time while the moon floated in the same place the whole time.

Trick OR Treat!

I have been having trouble uploading pictures to the blog lately, they all show up in /http:html/ script only so I think these are in reverse order but you get the "picture" (no pun intended).
Evelyn was a nurse for Halloween as inspired by Nurse Jacquie from next door. Originally, back in July Evelyn announced she wanted to be a man in a suite for Halloween, "a man like Steve Johnson". We strongly encouraged her to be a ballerina.This was before we moved next door and she got to know Jacquie. Then last month she announced that she wanted to be a Fairy Princess Nurse (totally her idea).
Unfortunately, when we put a fairy princess costume together with a nurses mask and gloves Evelyn looked more like the Swine Flu Fairy and on top of that, with the mask on, she just flat out looked contagious! My friend Julie came to Evelyn's rescue and sewed her this set of scrubs from a pajama pattern and Evelyn announced she was a Uniform Nurse and Albert became her patient. She looked the part, we had fun with friends and Albert is the healthiest stuffed dog on the block!

Say Cheese!

Say Cheese!
This picture is "old" as in from this summer, but I just discovered it and the goat made me laugh so I thought I'd share. Can you see his toothy grin? The goat has a better pose for the camera than Evelyn!