The Im Family

a little while back DH found a coupon online for a local zoo in maryland and thought it would be fun for the family to go up there, visit the zoo/safari and then camp the night at a local park/KOA.  so he bought a huge tent and sort of last minute we decided to go this weekend (b/c we were running out of weekends before the tickets expired).  we started the day at the Catoctin Zoo and safari in Maryland.  lots of animals to see and feed. although it was quite hot and ozzy decided 10 minutes into the visit that he would like to go home now (after several hours were spent packing and loading up the car, then driving for an hour to get there).  we kept shifting his attention to the animals and food and that seemed to work. while we waited for our turn on the safari ride, the kids played in the little playground by the outpost and mimi got to ride a camel.  after a quick potty break, then it was time for the safari ride.  the kids enjoyed getting close to t...

mimi asked me today if i missed my mom and was it hard to live away from her.  i told her i did, but we got to visit fairly often since she lived just a few hours away, so it wasnt too bad.  mimi said, "i'm really worried about growing up and living away from you, mom.  i'm going to miss you so much."  then she asked me who i loved more, my mom or her.  well, you, i said.  she answers, "that's terrible. you love me more than your MOM!"  i said, "you'll understand when you're a mom."  and she goes, "wow.  that makes me so sad.  i dont want to love someone more than i love you." 

DH has been in cali for work for a few days, so what better time to start a building project than now when he wont get stressed over the clutter?  :) yesterday i made three storage units to hold and display ozzy's Pixar Cars and Thomas and Friends.  Ozzy has some plastic Trackmaster Thomas and Friends that we house in the family room and store in large bins.  for the most part, they are fine in the bins.  Upstairs in his bedroom, we keep all of his Take Along and Take n'Play Thomas sets and trains, also stored in bins.  these trains are die cast metal.  i noticed that the paint on these have a tendancy to chip off, most likely from getting tossed into the bins every day. so my DIY project du jour was to create a place to store and display his vehicles so they didnt get damaged and he could easily find the characters he wanted (instead of excavating thru large bins), and show off the vehicles he's collected. the first one i built was storage for his di...

We had a last minute opportunity to go to NYC with DH.  course the latter part is supposed to be on the down low, so shhhh.  (DH was acting all secretive, like he was undercover or something, so people wouldnt be all, what? you brought your whole family???   it was rather amusing.  it was really nice of him to let us tag along, esp since i snore and hotel rooms fire up adrenaline in the kids and you might as well be speaking Navi because they dont understand the words, "Be quiet" all of a sudden.) Mimi was so so so happy to finally go see the Big Apple (which she took literally, and asked me where the big apple was).  she has wanted to visit for a long time.  as soon as i found out we might be going, i told her.  then it looked like the plans fell thru.  so i told her we werent going.  and she cried and cried.  then the trip was back on.  and it was like she was afraid to believe us the second time, since i'd already cried 'wolf' ...