Animal Lover

Friday, February 13, 2009

Yesterday Kate and I packed a picnic and headed out to the Fort Worth Zoo to enjoy the beautiful day. With our zoo membership we're lucky enough to get to go often, but it always surprises me how we seem to see new things each time and how each trip to the zoo is unique. Kate has gotten in the habit of yelling, "Hey (insert name of animal), wake up and see me!" whenever we pass an exhibit where an animal is asleep. Most of the animals definitely shrug that crazy toddler off without any sort of recognition of her words, but there are a few each time that will open their eyes and look over at her before they yawn as they roll back over to get back to sleeping. She LOVES that!

There are couple statues of animals throughout the zoo and I think because she can't get close to the live ones she particularly enjoys hugging on the statues - yesterday she just sat and hugged them for so long it was easy for me to get my camera out to capture some three year old sweetness.

She enjoys every animal at the zoo (with the exception of the gorillas for some reason), but turtles are still Kate's all time favorite animal to see... or even to not see: we've just entered the make believe friend stage and her invisible friend is a baby turtle who sometimes shows up with his momma :). Fun times!

The Girl Who Will Eat Anything...

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Who knew dry spaghetti makes a great snack for a toddler? Kate (after dressing up as a Tech cheerleader) was in the kitchen with me the other night "helping" me make some dinner. I had water boiling on the stove and started to lower the dry pasta into it. She asked me if she could have one and - thinking she'd give it right back after looking at it more closely - I handed her one. After biting a piece off she looked up at me and said, "It's yummy, Momma. Good job!" She's definitely easy to please in the kitchen.

Home Depot Apron

Since my post a few days ago about how Kate helped us work on her day bed, I've had several questions about where we found the Home Depot apron for her to wear. We got it from one of Home Depot's Kids Workshop mornings.

On the first Saturday of each month from 9 to noon Home Depot hosts a FREE clinic for kids to come make something. The target ages for the workshop are 5 to 12, but in addition to not turning us away when we showed up, I saw a couple other toddlers working on their projects too. In addition to getting to spend quality time with your child as you do a project for free, you also receive the project materials, a sticker, a pin for project completion, and an apron at no cost. Of everything she got that day, Kate was MOST proud of her apron - as we walked around the store picking up a few things we needed after project time was over, she tugged at my hand every time we saw a Home Depot employee wearing their orange apron too... and now nothing messy can be done at home without her running to her dress-up corner to put on her apron first!

Click here for more information on the Home Depot kids workshops.

Tom Thumb Redemption

Monday, February 9, 2009
This afternoon Kate and I made a trip up to Tom Thumb in search of some good deals (after a heads up from my pragmatic friend Jewelsie). We purchased eight boxes of Pop-Tarts, two boxes of Rice-a-Roni, two bags of Cheetos, and a bag of Fritos all for the bargain price of a mere $13.00. Can you believe it?!? Each item we bought was priced at only ONE DOLLAR! My total would have been lower if I didn't spend my Pop-Tart coupons last week on the sale Kroger was running, but nevertheless, I was thrilled with my $13.00 total. I left Tom Thumb with a smile on my face and felt that Mr. Thumb had sufficiently redeemed himself from all the ridiculousness I posted about last week.

This deal will run through tomorrow, so if you're lucky enough to live near a Tom Thumb and your family loves Pop-Tarts or rice as much as we do, be sure to take advantage of the sale!