Easter Weekend

We started Easter weekend in Indianapolis with a Friday trip to the Children's Museum. What a great place! Mati had so much fun. Her favorite location by far was Dora and Diego land.
If you're not a Dora fan this will not mean much to you, but it was too cool for Mati.

Driving Tico's car.

Planting flowers in Isa's garden.

Hanging out with Dora and Boots.

In the Dinosphere (those are actual fossils behind us.)

Moving around the eggs in the dinosaur's nest. Every exhibit has something for kids to touch or wear to get in on the action.

Saturday we went to the zoo. Because Mati is such a Dora fan she insisted on reading the map. She couldn't quite tell how how to get places but she could identify the animals she wanted to go see.

One of my favorite spot in the African plains exhibit, the elephants.

Mati loves trains and loved taking a train ride around the park.

Watching the seals with dad.

Its hard to choose the highlight of the day, but this experience was pretty far up there... petting a shark. These are dog sharks. They were around 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 feet long and they feel very soft. Mati was excited to touch them.

Saturday night was the celebration for Holden's baptism and first communion. Here are the kids gathered around the cake.

Easter morning. Mati found her eggs and her basket and went straight for the chocolate bunny. I told he I like to bite the ears off and she said, "No, I eat the belly."

In our Easter finery.

Small Animal Videos

Mati milking a cow:

Mati and Aly petting a duckling:

The border collie doing some herding:

Small Animal Day at MSU

We spent Saturday at MSU for Small Animal Day. We had loads of fun with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Jen & Aly. Here's Mati on a tractor. Doug lets her assist in driving ours so she was a little disappointed it would not move but excited to be up so much higher than our tractor. Milking a cow. She dove right in. While waiting for our turn I asked Mati "How do you milk a cow?" She answered "You grab it, and pull the juice." Not far from the truth. She loved this cow. She wanted to feed her straw and at one point Mati even laid across her. We drive by cows every morning and say hello to them, any up-close cow time is treasured. Mati was patting the duckling and then looked to cousin Aly and said "C'mon Aly, duck." So sweet.

Lamb time.

Making a pig craft with Aunt Jen and Aly. She later chewed on her pig until it looked like Pac Man and then further chewed it to oblivion. It was fun while it lasted.

Hi horsey! Like at the petting zoo last year with the donkeys, she is still interested in their nostrils.

Cone in the Car

We made an ice cream run tonight. Our plan was to bring the ice cream home to eat. When Doug got back to the car he was holding a cone for Mati, not a cup. He said, "Should I just hand it to her?" I thought for a moment and said "Well, why not?" Everything is washable. So here it is the play-by-play as Mati ate her first ever ice cream cone, in the car. She is a seasoned ice cream connoisseur but a cone is a new thing. Just getting the cone, not sure how to approach it without a spoon. Figuring out the no spoon thing just fine. Yum! Oh yeah, fully into the cone; most of it is gone by the time we're in the driveway. There might be a little up the nose at this point. Full on chocolate attack.

Notice the jacket sleeve, right elbow.

Excited that Doug is offering her a spoon to scoop out the cone.

Really getting to work with the spoon now.

Yes!

We got her in the house and sat her at the table to finish the cone. Doug taught her to bite the cone which she did with great gusto. She got to the end and picked up a blob of ice cream with her hand. She decided it was too cold. At that point she shook her hand to get the ice cream off. Ice cream on the window behind her, carpet below her, the chair she was in , and the table in front of her. Doug took care of bath while I scrubbed down the immediate vicinity. True family fun! I love my family!

Starting the Garden

We started our peppers and tomatoes in a little seed starter greenhouse. Mati was very excited about the soil, seeds, and watering. Here she's doing double duty, she won't let go of the water pitcher and she's trying to pour corn seeds in. Time for water. She was very good at placing the tiny seeds in the soil and then giving them a press. I do think we have one or two sections that have 6-7 seeds as opposed to the 1 or 2 they are supposed to have. I can't wait for the threat of frost to pass so we can move these outdoors. Mati and I had a lot of fun tending to the garden last summer I can only hope this summer is just as fun.

Fred's New Habitat

We upgraded Fred's habitat to a file box. He has much more room and plenty of soil, leaves, and sticks as we learned online he needs. Here are Mati and Doug transitioning Fred from his intermediate home (a strawberry box) to the new permanent home. Mati likes checking on Fred and making sure he is still on his stick.

Home sweet home for Fred.

Fred

Here's Mati holding our temporary pet, "Fred." Fred is a caterpillar Doug found in the driveway. Here he is in his home, a pickle jar. So far we have fed it chocolate cake, ice cream, pickles, cheese (Swiss), salami, a lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, cupcakes and watermelon. Well... seriously we've fed it lettuce, an apple and small piece of banana. In actuality it eats leaves but we seem to be in short supply of leaves right now, nothing is blooming. I'm on the hunt for a leaf for the little guy. Maybe an indoor plant leaf? Do you want to eat a peace plant leaf Fred? Mati proudly showing off the jar. I've read online how to care for him so we'll see if we can make a go of it. It could be a cool spring break project.