Birdseed popsicles

Today I let the girls each have half of a whole fruit popsicle.

It just so happens that it was strawberry.

And Grace spit it out her first bite saying, "There's birdseed on my popsicle!"  After I told her it was just strawberry, she was okay eating it.  We've been feeding the birds on our porch and making quite the mess with the seeds, on our clohtes, in their hair, etc.  Hence, Grace believed I'd managed to get birdseed on her treat.

After they devoured their snacks, Faith and Grace took turns making smushy faces in the screen.

Oh to be that young again.

A trip to the zoo

Today I took the girls to the Gulf Coast Zoo.

We love this zoo in particular because everything is at the girls' eye level.  They can just peek through the fences and see all the incredible animals up close.

Like this porcupine.

And the baboons.  

We saw these monkeys frolicking.  I'm not exactly what kind they are but they were quite frisky.

We fed deer.  Grace named this one Bambi.

And we tried to feed the numerous rabbits running around.

We saw the tigers.  This one was twitching his tail as he watched my girls as they walked along the path.  Then all of a sudden he pounced towards Faith and she yelled, "Ah!  It stared me!" (Ah!  It scared me!)  and ran towards me saying, "Hole me, hole me!"  (Hold me, hold me!)  I was just thankful for the fence.  That tiger moved incredibly fast.

Then we watched as this peacock strutted his stuff across the sidewalk.

Next, the girls wanted to ride the merry-go-round.

And they didn't want to get off after their ride was over.

Until they saw that peacock start shaking his tail feathers!  Then Grace and Faith hopped down and ran over to him.  Faith was utterly delighted as she yelled, "Burd!  Burd!" (Bird!  Bird!) and he didn't fly away.

Grace prounouced, "Momma, I don't want to see his hiney.  I want to see his rainbow again!"  How sweet.

And after a moment or so, he turned around.

He shook his tail feathers for over 10 minutes trying to impress this lady but she just wasn't interested.  She was quite lovely, though.  I have to admit she's much more striking than the other brown birds we saw around.

Bread for the seagulls

It just so happened that we had some leftover homemade bread lying around the kitchen. 

So the girls and I decided to feed it to the birds.  Literally.

We walked to the pier and took turns tossing pieces out to the seagulls.  And Faith yelled, "Burd!  Burd!"  (bird!  bird!) over and over as they swooped down to eat.  Both of my girls have always loved birds and get very excited whenever they see one.

And the seagulls swarmed around us trying to catch every tiny morsel.

Grace especially enjoyed tossing it out while Chloe tried to sneak in a few bites.

And after Faith realized what it was we were feeding those birds, she started sneaking big bites, too.

We stayed out there even after all the bread was gone just enjoying a lovely day outside with each other.  Sometimes the simplest things in life can bring the greatest pleasure. 

Hiking by the bay

It was another gorgeous day outside today so we decided to go on a hike.

At first Grace wasn't overly thrilled.  She wanted to ride her bike but the terrain was a bit tough for her.

Faith insisted on riding her bike.  Which meant we had to push her over that same terrain.

Soon enough though the girls started to get a bit more excited.

Grace found an "umbrella" and decided to carry it along her journey.

We went down by the bay.    

And saw downtown Mobile way across the water.

It didn't take long for us to warm up.  Grace decided to carry her jacket instead of wear it.  How clever is she?

After an hour or so, even Faith wanted to venture off without her bike so we loaded it back into the car and continued walking around Blakeley.

We even had time to play hide-n-seek.  Grace is an excellent hider.

But her Daddy is an even better finder.

All in all, it was quite a wonderful day spent outdoors just enjoying each other's company and nature at her best.

Christmas train ride

So we came back today to ride the BIG train.

Faith certainly was excited!

But first we rode the little train again.  We never tire of it.

Then it was BIG train time!

We shared a bag of kettle corn.

My girls love popcorn - especially when it's carmelized!

Then bubbles, I mean snow, blew through our cabin door and we were off to the North Pole!

There we saw Santa Claus.  Faith does not like Santa.

Grace, however, adores Santa.  She sat right on his lap and asked him for a pink camera.

Then we decorated the girls' souvenir wooden trains.

Those trains are handmade by elves, y'know.

David took a hand at decorating.

And I did, too.

Here's both Grace and Faith's trains.  How cute are they?

While waiting for our train ride back to the station, the girls and I played peekaboo.

Then Grace gave her elf a big hug goodbye and we headed back to the train station.

There we were met with hot chocolate.

And cookies.  It doesn't get much better than that.