Sunday Snapshots (of the new KidZooU)

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Since purchasing a Philadelphia Zoo membership, Elly and I have visited the zoo three times. On the last 2 visits, we spent the majority of our time in the new KidZooU.

The KidZooU section is located in the old elephant home. When the elephants moved to their new homes, the place was revamped for the kids. It’s like a Please Touch Museum except better because the kids get to touch animals.

Elly loves it!

Outside in the barnyard area, she’s petted several goats, a few sheep, and a horse.

Elly’s two complaints have been that she isn’t allowed to feed the animals and she isn’t allowed to sit down next to the animals. Although hay is provided for all the animals and the animals are almost always munching on it, the staff does ask that you not pick the hay up so little fingers are not nibbled along with the hay. Dear Elly desperately wants to feed the animals and I find myself constantly reminding her of the hay rule as well as discouraging her from finding rocks on the ground to feed the animals. Oh, the things I thought I would never have to say.

As far as Elly’s desire to sit next to an animal, well that is just her way of making friends with it. It is the cutest thing. The zoo staff discourage sitting on the ground only because the animals urinate and defecate on the ground. It’s understandable.

Outside, there is even a playground for the kids. Though it is designed for the older kid and not the population of 3 and under. Poor Elly had a panic attack on their rope bridge and I had to go save her.

Inside the KidZooU, Elly has pet a Madagascar hissing cockroach. How I wish I could show you a picture of that! Alas, Elly insists that I hold her while she pets the cockroach; it helps her be brave.

Though the cockroach is the only animal we have been able to pet inside the KidZooU, there is no fear a kid getting bored. Like I said, it’s similar to a Please Touch Museum, although to be honest, I have never been to a Please Touch Museum despite my best friend’s open invitation. Must rectify that.

Elly’s 3 favorite things to do inside the KidZooU are to play in the ant cave which is filled with foam ant eggs,

to play in the barn designed for children 3 and under,

and to operate the recycle box elevator.

If you have the opportunity to visit the Philadelphia Zoo, I highly recommend the KidZooU.

Excuses for No Preschool

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Elly turned 3 in February.

In September, most children her age will head off to preschool for at least 2 days a week. Elly will not.

I could come up with a few excuses to justify my decision, but the main reason is because I want her home with me for 1 more year. This is my time with her. Starting at age 4, she will be going to school for the next 13 years. If we count the college years, then she will go to school for 17-21 years depending on how much education she needs for her career. One year less won’t stunt her growth and it would mean the world to me.

But back to those excuses. You do want to hear them, don’t you? Of course you do.

Like most parents, I think my child is wicked smart. Either that or I am losing brain cells by the fist fulls because I have already lost arguments to Elly.

Thanks to the Moms Club, socialization is not an issue. Almost on a daily basis, Elly meets and hangs out with kids her age. She even has 2 best friends and none of them are family. The only best friend I had at her age was my older sister.

Elly has been exposed to every craft supply I can get my hands on. During the winter months when it is too cold to go outside, we make a lot of crafts. Other moms that have watched me buy supplies at Target and AC Moore have expressed amazement because they don’t have the patience for such messes. Thankfully, Elly’s favorite crafts are not overly messy: sculpting and painting. Though I just introduced her to pottery. It truly looked like a bomb had gone off when we were finished. Thus, I have deemed it an outdoor only craft.

We don’t sit at home. Yes, Elly is her father’s daughter and loves to play video games, but I do not.

When she is with me, very few video games are played. Instead, I keep her busy. We go to the zoo, the library, the local playgrounds, and anything else I can find. Idleness is the devil’s playground. It is also a fast ticket to madness for any mom.

They are pretty good excuses, no? Still that is exactly what they are: excuses. I just want one more year to spend every day with my little girl. She is growing up too fast as it is.

Just today, she told me that she wanted to go to school. I explained that she would indeed go to school in another year. Then, she asked if moms could go too. I said no. “I would miss you”, said Elly. Me too.

Quilt Top Finished

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Appliqueing the Dresden plates by hand took a lot longer than I had planned.

The plates are really big and most often I only accomplished hand sewing half of one down before it was time for bed. Of course, sickness and daily life ensured that I didn’t get to work on the quilt everyday.

Still the process was enjoyable. I got to watch a lot of Miss Marple. The series is not quite as good as Murder She Wrote though it is in the same vein, but perhaps that is because I am bias. I just adore Angela Lansbury.

After appliqueing the plates, the next step was to create a quilt sandwich. The only way I know to anchor the back fabric when a quilt becomes this large is to tape it to the floor, so that is exactly what I did. Blue painters tape worked brilliantly in this case.

A million pins were placed all over the quilt top to keep the sandwich together. Despite using quilter’s safety pins which are curved, my fingers were still bleeding by the end.

This is where I stopped in the process a few days ago. It always takes me a few days to build up my courage to start quilting and even then it might take a glass of port to push me into making the first line of quilting. I truly love to quilt. It’s the best part of making a quilt. Yet, it always gives me the butterflies. Part of me feels like I am taking a Sharpie and marking all over an art piece.

Sunday Snapshots (of fair rides)

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The last time I took Elly to the Boyertown playground, we noticed that they were setting up for a fair. From the swings, Elly could see the merry-go-round, the ferris wheel, and the dragon roller coaster. It was pure torture.

When Dan and I took her on Saturday if she would like to go to the fair, she jumped for joy.


She rode the merry-go-round.


She rode the caterpillar.


She rode the motorcycle.

Yet, her favorite ride by a long mile was the dragon roller coaster.

I lost count of how many times she rode the dragon. It was a good thing we had splurged and bought her the wrist band. She got her money’s worth.

Dave Painted Our Walls

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To be precise, Dave painted our living room walls in 1996. If we purchased this house in 2005, how do I know?

That is how.

It was behind the big mirror that has been mounted over our fireplace since presumable 1996. The big mirror that reflected nothing but the ceiling. For many years, I have wanted to take that mirror down. Finally, I got my wish.

Dan and I got a good laugh out of Dave’s signature and the garish pink paint.

Mr. Elliott, the husband of the couple that built our house, must have been a loving and tolerant man. I don’t know too many men who will allow their wives to paint their living room pink.

Before the day was through though, I had painted over it with a primer. I can tolerate a lot of colors, but pink is not one of them. Sweet Elly will have to live her entire childhood without pink walls.

Hopefully, relocating the huge mirror that once hung over the mantle into her room will make up for the lack of pink paint.

Though I would love to claim that moving the mirror into Elly’s room was my idea, the brilliance came from her Grandpop. He saw how Elly lit up in front of the wall of mirrors in her aunt’s house and promptly informed me that she needed a huge mirror in her bedroom.

Now she has one.

I imagine a lot of time is going to be spent in front of this mirror.

Rainy Day Fun

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It rained almost all day. After it finished raining, it still wasn’t nice enough to venture outside. The temperature had plummeted to a cool 50 F. So, we stayed indoors all day long.

Naturally, we read a lot of books.

We watched Finding Nemo.

Then, it was time to pull out the crafts.

Armed with a used egg carton, 2 bottles of Elmer’s glue, 4 bottles of glitter glue (Elly loves glue. Lots of glue), glitter, bells, pom poms and stickers, I was able to amuse Elly for close to an hour.

 

Every single hole was filled with glue. Lots of glue was needed to hold all the decorations.

 

Verdict: thumbs up from Elly.

Though I don’t think this is a project that will be treasured and kept. It’s a mite too big to fit into her scrapbook and it’s a disaster waiting to happen. The moment someone accidentally knocks it upside down will be the very moment oodles of glitter will be dumped all over the floor. Truly, I’ve had my fill of wiping glitter off the floor.

A Cast Iron Wok

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If I were a kitten, I would purr.

Instead I’ll just gush.

OMG, I love my new wok. Truly, I don’t know how I survived so many years without one. For the first time in my life, I can make fried rice without pulling my hair out. Nothing stuck to the cast iron. Not the eggs. Not the rice. Nothing. To clean it, I wiped it with a paper towel.

The cast iron retained heat beautifully once it was heated up. The trick of pushing up already cooked foods to the sides of the wok so they cooked at a lower temp worked brilliantly. Truly, the wok is an ingenious piece.

Just in case you want your own because I had you at purr, the wok is a Lodge Cast Iron Wok 14 inches. Because I don’t live in Tennessee near the Lodge store, I purchased mine from Amazon and had it delivered free thanks to our prime membership.

Even though the wok comes pre-seasoned, I opted to season it again by deep frying some doughnuts in it. (Really I just wanted an excuse to make some doughnuts).

Elly helped, of course.

But, back to my wok.

It’s big. I have no idea where I am going to store it yet. For now, it is sitting on top of my stove so every time I walk into my kitchen, I see it there and smile. I can see myself cooking a whole lot more in it than just fried rice and doughnuts.

A Dog Rug

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For a very small dog. Think chihuahua.

Jake’s head might fit on it, but nothing else.

Unfortunately, the rug is starting to get too big to fit in my knitting bag. It is also getting too warm to lay on my lap while knitting.

Tonight I took it to my neighbor’s house only to have Elly pull the live stitches off the needles. Then, she proceeded to stab the needles into the rug, informing me that she was knitting and helping me. It was very cute.  But, as you can guess, not a lot of knitting takes place when she is around.

Thus lately, I have only worked on it while at McDonald’s thanks to Elly being preoccupied and to the AC keeping me cool.

Sunday Snapshots (of warm weather)

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Before the recent cold snap hit, there was enough warm weather to pull out the new sprinkler.

With 80’s predicted for at least two days this week, rest assured that the sprinkler will get some more love.

Though if Elly gets her way, “Cookie Monster” will finally be blown up. She hasn’t played in it for about 9 months, but darned if she hasn’t forgotten.

Gahh, look at the chub on her! So cute! Not even a year has passed, but all that baby fat is gone.

It all went to her height. My little girl is getting tall.

No doubt she’ll pass me in a few short years.

Elly’s 1st Pony Ride

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A few months ago, Elly had informed me that she wanted a pet horse. As stubborn as my “little mule” is, she was not dissuaded by my excuses of why we couldn’t have a pet horse. Thus, it came as no surprise that the first animal Elly wanted to ride at the Philadelphia Zoo was a pony.

It didn’t matter that she couldn’t reach the stirrups. It didn’t matter that the staff woman held the reins for her. It didn’t even matter that she only got to walk slowly around in a big circle.

She was thrilled.

I held my breath after thinking she would ask again for a horse of her own. Thankfully, the zoo was filled with so many other animals to look at and places to run around that I was saved.

Of course, she did ask to ride the ponies again. As I’m sure she will ask every time we visit the zoo now.