Flowers, Friends, and a Day Off

I love flowers!  These tulips and daffodils are new in this location.  We had a family bulb plant-a-thon last fall, with every member of our family participating.  Our reward for that chilly fall afternoon's work has been a month of non-stop blooms from the earliest daffodils to the latest tulips.

The easel had been put away for a while, just kind of by accident and through forgetfulness.  The good part about me having forgotten about it is that the kids feel as if they have a brand-new toy.  There has been so much painting and drawing since the easel made its grand reappearance!!

Gregory has a friend in his kindergarten class who is just the ideal playmate for him.  They spent the afternoon together last week, and it was non-stop fun of exactly Gregory's favorite kinds.  These two little guys were in perpetual motion from the time I got them off the bus.  There was trampolining (every one of you reading this blog would literally faint if you tried to bounce as much in one afternoon as these boys bounced), bike-riding, swinging and sliding, running and rolling.  They even came inside and painted for about 15 minutes.  But then it was right back out for more high-intenisty playtime.  We are so excited because we get to borrow Gregory's friend again next week!!

It was teacher's in-service day today, so there was no school.  We went to the zoo to celebrate!!  I wanted to take the kids' picture by this pretty blooming rhododendron, but as you can see, three kids are about two too many for successful posing and photographing.  Oh, well.

Here's Gregory, posing as a morning snack for Mrs. Lion.  She was unimpressed.  She never deigned to look our way.  She sat there looking regal the whole time.

The bears were both up and roaming around their enclosure this morning (though only one shows up in this photo).  They are so cute and dopey-looking.  Well, all except for their gigantic paws/claws, which are just intimidating.

It's just not a complete zoo trip without a stop at these drums (Margaret, I can't remember what they're called ... I think there's a "d" and a "j" in the word).  The kids always enjoy these, and they're lined up in such a way as to create a cute photo opportunity.  We got finished with our complete pass through the zoo exactly in time.  It was just starting to rain as we walked toward the zoo exit, and was really pouring by the time we were on the highway.