Egg Hunt 2012

Our family enjoyed some great times together last weekend.  On Saturday we had our neighborhood’s annual Easter Egg Hunt.  I am one of the parents who volunteers my time to stuff 2000 or so eggs.  Thank goodness this year Jay and I had some help from Ava and her friend.  I also volunteered to bake for the bake sale.  Like many of you I have become hooked on  Pinterest and had pinned a really cute idea for rice crispie treats with Peeps on them.  You know, I had never made rice crispie treats before!  How did I get to be a (young looking) 40 something person and had never made the all delicious treat is beyond me!

Easter was a great day.  The bunny left eggs strewn about the house, toys and baskets filled with chocolate.  Ava and Sarah quickly went on a hunt and found the hidden eggs.  Even the dog had an egg filled with treats.  It was a great lazy Sunday; I plopped on the couch and read The Hunger Games! 

Beware the Emus of March

Yesterday I told you about our trip to Big Cedar Lodge.  We live outside Chicago so it was an eight hour drive each way.  On our way back from southern Missouri, we decided to take our time and make a pit stop along the way.  We stopped at the Wild Animal Safari Park in Stratford, Mo.  We had picked up a flyer showing a liger on it.  I’d never seen a liger which is a hybrid cross between a male lion and a tigress.  Next to Yertle and Snappy, engaging with these animals was a big highlight of our trip.  The girls both fed the tigers raw chicken through their cage with a pole.  How many people can say they have done that?  My favorite part was feeding Sheldon - a sweet baby giraffe!  There is a walk through part with a petting zoo (not the Lions, Tigers and Ligers) and a drive through where you feed animals that walk up to the car.  We had just bought a new car so my husband was a little nervous about donkeys, zebras, camels and antlered animals coming up to the car for a treat.  It all turned out well and having a zebra stick its head in the car was great, if not a little intimidating!  Oh and the emus?  They blocked the car until they got more treats!  It was a beautiful sunny day and just the perfect cap off to a great vacation. 

Feeding the Tigers

Sheldon the Giraffe

Zebra Up Close and Personal

Beware the Emu

Donkey! Donkey! Donkey!

"I'm a llama and I know it!"

Southern Missouri Sure is Purty!

I was going to begin this blog on April 1^st, but that is April Fool’s Day and I didn’t want anyone to think that this is a joke.  Though, I hope some of the things I say will make you laugh.

The family just got back from a vacation at Big Cedar Lodge in Southern Missouri near Branson.  We went there simply because we’d never been.  Wow, who knew how beautiful it is down there.  Lakes, trees, rolling hills.  We stayed at their beautiful resort decorated with a rustic lodge feel.  The girls thought all the heads of animals hanging every where were creepy.  I kind of thought I’d agree with them, but it works for the resort.  The best part?  Feeding the turtles at a pond in front of the lodge.  All the turtles were given names from the girls like Snappy and Yertle.  I told my husband that when we had children I wasn’t really sure why we were doing this, but now I know that having children gives you the opportunity to live a second childhood.

Yertle

Snappy