Family Fun

  A trip to the Zoo provides a lot of opportunities to see animals.  

It provides opportunities to mimic them too!

Charlotte enjoyed walking like a Chimpanzee.  

She's got the knuckles part down pretty good.  

Now if only her legs weren't so long!!

Here she is practicing her Chimpanzee communication expressions.  

This "full closed grin" means "I am afraid. 

There is danger nearby."

I think Charlotte has the "full closed grin" perfected.  

Lulu....she's been working on the "Relaxed Face"...which means "I'm OK, You're OK."  

I guess she isn't phased by the "nearby danger"! 

I'm not real sure what Charlotte is practicing here.  

Maybe her Gorilla stance...or perhaps her unhappiness at not 

being able to climb the rocks! 

Here we have the easiest pretending of all...and two of my 

favorite photos from our trip to the Zoo!

  

Got Photos?

While I'm waiting for a solution to my "busted" camera problem I thought I'd borrow some photos from other family members.  Even before my camera was "busted" their cameras were better...so of course these are great photos!

Here's a photo taken by my daughter Katie (Charlotte's Momma). 

Penelope and Charlotte taking a little break on a turtle.

My daughter-in-law Jacqi (Penelope's Mommy) took this photo.

Elijah is loving all the bubbles!!

Thanks Katie and Jacqi for loaning me some very cute photos

of my very cute grandbabies!!

The World Looks Very Beautiful

All three of my grandbabies love being outside.

I delight in the joy it brings them.

At the Zoo

On the Playground
In Gramma's Front Yard

The world looks very beautiful,

And full of joy to me;

The sun shines out in glory

On everything I see:

I know I shall be happy

While in the world I stay,

For I will follow Jesus,

I will follow Jesus -All the way.
KIDiddles

The Birthday Stealer*

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Today you're 2!

Charlotte will be having a Charlie & Lola themed party the end of this month ~ but not with all this Charlie & Lola stuff.

Katie is much more subtle with her themes.

Charlotte & friend at the "roll-in" movie theater ~ they're watching Sesame Street ~ very intently!

Charlotte thinking ~ "I can't believe that I have to wait until the end of the month for my party!"

Yes, that's a little peek at Charlie on her shirt!

"But, that's OK 'cause I'm going to the ZOO today! Yippee!"

Happy Birthday

Charlotte!!!

*birthday stealer ~ see the end of this post.

Happy Birthday Kevin!!!

It's so nice of you to share your birthday with Charlotte!

Random Monday Memories

UPDATE: The key pictured below is (sadly) not mine. I had this link underneath it but somehow managed to delete it in the original post.

~~~::~~~

When I was a little girl I had one of these magical keys. It opened up a world of information about animals for me and for anyone standing nearby when I used it. I used to take this key to the Detroit Zoo and also to the (now closed) Children's Zoo on Belle Isle in Detroit, MI.

When you put the zoo key into one of these "talking storybooks" a voice would start telling you all about the animal that lived in the exhibit that the storybook was near. It was such fun and a great adventure to go through the zoo looking for the storybooks. As far as I can tell the Detroit Zoo no longer has them but I did discover that interactive Storybooks have returned to the San Francisco Zoo. The photo below is what one of the old Talking Storybooks looked like.

I used to watch a Saturday morning TV show called Bwana Don. Bwana Don taught us about animals and he had a chimp named Bongo Bailey on the show. There were also cartoons. I don't remember the specifics, but I got my elephant key from him....what a treat it was!

What ZOO memories do you have?