I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

Ellie's dance class performed their Christmas recital a few weeks back. She performed in three dances.

They opened with a jazz number to "the most wonderful time of the year"...

...but the best was the tap number:

They danced to "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." That song has long been a Christmas favorite of mine and now I love it even more!

They ended with another jazz dance to "Joy to the World"

Click below to see the videos:

Zoo

My parents gave us a family membership to the Zoo for Christmas last year. We have been many times this and we love it! One of my all-time favorite gifts!

 The beauty of the membership is that we never feel pressured to stay for hours. We can just see a few things each time and not wear the kids (and ourselves!) out.

Over the summer Anna and I wanted to get some pictures of our kids to give to Grandma V for her birthday. What better place than the zoo? Since it was July, it got really hot really fast but we still had a good time. No pressure.

One of our favorite exhibits is the Giraffe Encounter. They have built a deck that overlooks the African Savanna habitat and you can hand feed the giraffes! Have you ever been eye level with this tallest of creatures? It's amazing! It's against the rules to touch them or let them lick you, but who are they kidding? It happens.

(Don't you hate it when pictures get overexposed?)

 Maddie loves all things with fur and four legs. Giraffes are no exception.

Quite possibly the best picture she's ever taken!

 Definitely the best picture these two have ever taken together! 

Kiss!

The children's area has a great little creek-bed with water for the kids to play in and cool down. Definitely the best way to end a hot day at the Zoo!

I hope we get to visit the zoo a few more times before the year ends!

Here's the slideshow with all the pictures from our outing:

Dance Rehearsal

Ellie's dance class is performing next weekend and they had their first rehearsal today.

Aren't they cute? They were practicing their tap number which is to my all-time favorite Christmas song - I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas 

Ellie was in la-la land for a lot of it. Her teacher says she's better in class - being outside is just too distracting! Click here to see the video 

Doodles

A few weeks ago Ellie drew these awesome pictures on her oldschool magna-doodle. I had my dad's camera at the time so I was able to grab some great pictures before she erased them.

   

 an ugly girl(!)

   

 a cat

I think she has talent, don't you? 

Hello Again!

It's been months years since I've posted anything on our blog. We haven't had internet access at home since then for various reasons but we are back in the 21st century! I'm hoping that I can be consistent with updates on our family....and maybe it will be a useful outlet for the craziness of my life :-)