Play choo-choos, play choo-choos!

I hear this phrase constantly now. One of Jamie colleagues gave Mathias her son's entire Thomas the Train collection. I'm talking like at least 30-something train cars, all sorts of cool tracks, and even a set of videos all in mint condition. It makes the train set we got him for Christmas look pretty pathetic but at least it does fit the new stuff. We have all enjoyed hours of train fun.

Album 09\25\2010 (139 photos), by Jamie Ellis

I'd like to share my Walmart Digital Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Album 08\04\2010 (152 photos), by Jamie Ellis

I'd like to share my Walmart Digital Photo Center photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.

Baking Cookies

Mathias has been practicing his rolling and cutting skills with Play-Doh so I decided to let him help make some cookies. Nothing fancy just sugar cookies.
He loved cutting out star-shaped cookies.

He quickly discovered that cookie dough was yummy.

I suppose he's my little chef in training!

Butterflies and Bones

It is not very often that we are all home for an entire Saturday. Last weekend was one of those special times so we treated ourselves to a trip to the FL Museum of Natural History and the Butterfly Rainforest. Jamie and I have been several times but this was the kids' first trip. So we packed a picnic lunch and headed to Gainesville first thing in the morning.

We went to see the butterflies first. The rules are no touching the plants or butterflies. They also say to wear bright clothing, stand still, and the butterflies may land on you.

Mathias was a little unsure at the beginning.

But you can see by the video that he warmed up pretty quick!

Analy really enjoyed it as well. She stretched as far as she could for a closer look.

The butterflies couldn't resist the sweet baby!

There were tons of butterflies everywhere.

Mathias did a great job of just looking and not touching.

Someone who worked there came by with a snake she had found. Of course we all had to touch it!

Or at least Mathias wanted Daddy to touch it. It was a cutie! As we were leaving the garden all Mathias would say was "Bye bye 'nake", even after all those butterflies we saw!

We walked around and browsed the other exhibits. We got to check out some pupating butterflies.

And see some wings up-close.

We checked out some sharks.

And lots of other skeletons.

Mathias even got to explore a cave.

We finished off our morning with a picnic in the Natural Area near the Entomology Department. A good time was had by all. Praise God for blessing us with such wonderful opportunities!

Peek-A-Boo

Box Boy

As always, kids enjoy the box more than the toy. I guess he was enjoying the view.

And here's Analy just because she's so cute!

Red, Blue, and Yellow

Mathias and I have been working on learning colors the past couple of weeks. I've finally loosened up a bit and allowed him to try some messier activities. 

On "blue" day Mathias got to try some finger painting. (I think it will be a while before we attempt this again.)

On yellow day, we played with some play-doh. Mathias enjoyed rolling it out and cutting out stars. He also likes making snakes.

I asked him to hold up his creation for the camera!

Analy is still crawling along on her belly full speed ahead. It exhausts me just watching!

With the slightly cooler weather, we are also making it outside a few times a day. We enjoy playing on the swing set.

Analy loves her swing.

Mathias enjoys playing with our dogs and digging in the dirt.

Basket Rides

Weekend Photos

Brother-Sister Fun

It finally seems like Mathias and Analy are starting to enjoy each others company a bit more. Mathias' new thing is to climb into Analy's bed when we go to her room to get her when she wakes up. He likes to climb in and jump like a monkey. Analy thinks it's pretty funny. Since we are getting some cooler weather (low 90s instead of high) we have been able to get back outside in the afternoon. The past few months it's just been way too hot! We are still enjoying time in the kiddie pool. Finally, Analy doesn't mind the splashing so much so they can share a pool.

She splashes plenty herself.

R.I.P. Hadeda

Yesterday our love bird Hadeda died. Thankfully we just found her dead in her cage last night. There wasn't a long illness or anything. I'm not going to say that I will miss the bird because honestly I will not. She was mean, loud, and messy. She bit anyone who put their fingers too close to her cage. Our friends who feed our animals when we are away certainly will not miss her.
We got Hadeda (named after an Ibis in South Africa) in 2004. She was pretty wild when we got her but I was able to tame her enough to where I could handle her. She liked to hang around with me and we tolerated each other. This photo is from 2005.
When Hadeda was about 3 years old, she started laying eggs and got really mean. I was always terrified she was going to eating my children! So she spend most of her time in her cage outside.
We figured she was going to out live us all but thankfully she went peacefully.
I hope my kids never ask for another pet bird!
Good bye Hadeda.