dreamnight at the zoo

Let's rewind to the beginning of summer, shall we??  I am admitting that I cannot seem to catch up, and between moving and unpacking, this blog has officially become outdated.  My goal is always to catch up, but my wheels seem to be spinning.  We finally just got the internet installed in our new house so we are back in the real world again!  I promise a house tour will be coming soon!  I still have mountains of boxes to unpack, but tonight I'm choosing to put those aside and do some catching up... my fingers have almost forgotten how to type!

I saw this on Facebook and I just think it speaks volumes.  It is so true.  It has changed me for the better.  Without a doubt.

Every year the zoo puts on this event for families of children with special needs.  Everything is free, including zoo admission, and they serve food and beverages and it's always a great time!  This particular night it was raining- it seemed to rain the entire month of June!  But it started and stopped enough that we could enjoy most of the activities and animals. 

 Andrew made me laugh in the picture with Shrek- normally he loves characters, but not Shrek!  Ha!  I think he was a little scared of him (and can you blame him??)  But I made him go stand there and he made a face at the camera!  Ha!

They always have lots of characters and if you know our family (with the exception of Kerigan) you know we love meeting characters!

We hung out a lot at the inside exhibits to stay dry... this jeep is always fun, and the tigers walk right behind it- you can see them through the windows.

This was an indoor swamp!

The new exhibit is the rhinos- they are just adding the outdoor part so the rhino was inside.

Which worked out perfect because of the rain... and we could see him really up close.  Up close enough for Andrew to almost get peed on by him!  It shot straight out right towards us, and we all jumped back!  Andrew thought it was super funny!

Kerigan is at the perfect zoo age- she is just mesmerized by the animals.  This wasn't her first zoo trip, but it was the first time she actually knew what was going on.

This was my favorite thing ever... do you see how Kerigan is standing, legs bent, staring motionless at the giraffe?

This is how she looked at it, and she never moved.  She was completely enthralled.

I just love these pictures of her amazed face!  Ha!

Giraffes are her obvious favorite animal of choice!  

Tiger feeding time!

Recently they added a new sea lion and seal exhibit that is really nice.  Andrew was cracking me up, pretending to fall!

I made him be serious and smile and this is one of my favorite pictures of him ever!

Riding the train!

I think Kerigan was a little nervous about the train, but she kept repeating over and over "It's not scary, it's FUN!"  Ha!  I think she was trying to convince herself!

She looks a little scared!  Ha!

She loved the slides at the zoo park!

But not so much walking through the dinosaur bones!

And I'm ending with this... because it is my favorite picture EVER!  My little girl is obsessed with princesses.  And that is putting it mildly.  She is a princess herself, and she loves everything about them, dresses, shoes, bows, jewelry, you name it.  She knows pretty much every princess by name.  These are two of her very favorites.  So on the way out, we saw them standing there and I just about died because I figured she would just go nuts over them!  She was very apprehensive and shy, and she would not stand by them.  So they were sweet and offered to sit down with her.  So I plopped her in between them and she sat there like this!  HA!  It was THE funniest thing I've ever seen!  She didn't cry, didn't try to get down, just sat there and pouted!  Oh, and notice she didn't forget to pose like a princess though!  That girl is one silly kid!  Oh how I love her!!

We had a great time at Dreamnight, even though most of the other heart families went the previous night (we couldn't go then) and it was a beautiful, sunny evening for them!  Ha!  I was a little jealous but we made the best of it!  We can't wait to go back next year!

carnival and field day

I am combining some "end of school" events to keep catching up!  Summer has officially begun here and I am way behind in updates again!  I hope to take some time away from packing to make up for lost time on the blog!

Andrew's school carnival was so much fun this year.  They had tons of games set up in all the rooms and bouncy houses and slides in the gym.  They had tons of food and the kids kept shoving popcorn in their mouths all night!  Ha!

I didn't take many pictures, mainly because I stood in line all night for this.  There was a popular guy making the coolest balloon animals I've ever seen.  The line was backed up out the door and was about an hour long wait.  I stood there with Kerigan (well, she ate popcorn... and walked around the room entertaining everyone) so Andrew could go back and forth to games and the bouncy houses.  Daddy was working at one of the bouncy's so we just had him check in with us once in a while.  It felt so weird to let my son wander around the school with his friends by himself, but I guess we're at that age already!

When it was finally our turn, Andrew got his Ninja Turtle costume!  Ha!

Kerigan got a Minnie Mouse hat, which is kind of hard to see and she wouldn't keep it on.  Yeah, all that for her just to stare at it!  Ha!  I wish I had taken more pictures of the night, but like I said, I only had my phone and I was occupied in line most of the time!

Andrew's field day was last month, and I had scheduled our trip to the Great Wolf Lodge not thinking about what he had going on at school.  It was a week after his cath and so we wanted to go to celebrate the cath being over and Andrew being so brave.  When I found out field day was the same day we had planned to leave, I was crushed because I knew Andrew would be disappointed.  P.E. is his very favorite thing.  It's what he talks about most when referring to school.

So when I picked him up the day before and he was so excited about field day, then cried when I told him he was going to miss it... I looked into it a little bit more and found a workable solution.

Luckily his field day was in the morning, and so we were able to go and leave for Kansas City right after.  I loved that he was able to be with his Kindergarten class and all his friends, since he won't be at this school next year.

This game cracked me up- they put bandana's in their shorts and had to pull each other's out.  They did different things like red vs. blue and girls vs. boys!

Andrew was all over that one!  Ha!  He loves chasing the girls!

I think the tug of war was my favorite... they were so funny and had so much fun!

I love how he was really trying super hard to win!  He looks so athletic to me here (ha!) definitely doesn't take after his mama!

They played boys against girls and the girls won!  Ha!

Last ditch effort!

Favorite shot of the day (taken with my phone)- the boys finally won on this one!  Ha!

You may be wondering how little miss enjoyed field day... she watched Bubba for a little bit, but then she wanted to have her own fun!

Daddy and I had to take turns watching Bubba so one of us could stay here with her- she would not leave once she discovered it!  She wasn't too sure about this shaky bridge at first but she was so persistent and figured it out, then wanted to do it again and again!

There were lots of water games, which were fun on a hot morning!

They had a water balloon toss, which Andrew and his friend Isaiah lasted about one toss!

Splash!

Little miss pulled herself away from playing and walked right over and got herself a water balloon.  She loved it!  She carried it around so lovingly for quite a long time.

She was just strolling back and forth in front of all the big kids with her little water balloon.  It was so funny!  She finally dropped it and it popped.  I thought she'd be upset but she was fine with it!

I love how she just stood in front of everyone like she was in charge!  Ha!

The kids all got popsicles after field day

The kids lined up all around the playground in a huge circle, it was neat to see them all together with their friends enjoying the day.

This is Andrew's best friend in his class, Isaiah.  He talks about him nonstop and we had him over for a play date and they can't wait to do it again this summer before we move.  Isaiah is one of those "big" kids (even though they are the same age!) but he totally "has Andrew's back."  He adores Andrew and it means so much to me that he always includes Andrew, wants to be his partner and lets him "cut" in line!  Ha!

I hope and pray that Andrew will continue to find special friends like Isaiah along his school journey.

This is Andrew's sweet little class and his teacher Mrs. Rosburg.  I love the little girl posing in the back on the right!  Ha!  (That'll be Kerigan someday!)  Anyway, despite his academic year not going so well, he has made great friends and has enjoyed his classmates.  I always appreciate the children in his class for accepting him for his differences and helping him when he needs it (and sometimes when he doesn't...little mother hens!  Ha!)  They all wrote him the sweetest notes when he was in the hospital for his cath.  Andrew sat down and we read every single note and they were all so precious.  Things like "Andrew is awesome!" and "We love you Andrew" and "Andrew rocks!"  It made him feel so special and proud.  I know he will miss his school and these friends next year.

But we are on to a new chapter!  And I know it'll be a great one!