Itty Bitty Witte Family

Another Free Day

But this time at the zoo! We invited Kirsta and Patrick and Eli and Rachel and Anna and Isaac to join us in the fun.

Here we are waiting for everyone to come in the freezing sun. It was 41 this morning at 9:30am.

Lucas and Patrick looking at the Elephants.

After this picture I realized that this particular trip needed to be photographed by my 3 year old. So the next few shots are the zoo from Lucas's perspective.

These are the monkeys (above)

These are baboons I think? (above)

These are the penguins. I am noticing that the zoo is not for short people!

These are orange hair warthogs. (above)

Then it was time for the train ride.

I moved Bridget up so I could sit next to Patrick. Kirsta stayed with baby Eli and Scarlett.

Here is Isaac. He looks so cute in this one and this one too...(below)

Anna let me take one of just her! Those were her terms..."You can take a picture if its just of me"

Patrick made train sounds with me the whole way.

Then we stopped for lunch.

We figured it was time to head out since the little ones (except Patrick) were getting tired.

So we made our last stop by the Jumping Mat.

Bridget was concerned that Patrick wasn't jumping with her so she followed him until he did it.

but as she was giving up and walking away...he did it!

Rachel and I left and Kirsta stayed because she is cool like that and we all had a good time I think. You can't beat a free day at the zoo!

This kid here wakes up, gets himself dressed, brushes his teeth, yells out the bathroom "DANG-IT" (he forgot to eat first) runs downstairs and sits at the table and eats his breakfast. (Friday is a Pop Tart day so Thursday night after they go to bed I set out the pop tarts on the kitchen table so they can get it themselves) He then goes back upstairs brushes his teeth and yells "OKAY MOM I'M DONE!"

I need to add that while this was happening I was doing the dishes because Nathan tried to out-Chinese me last night by making Shrimp Foo Young and lets just say he made a mess! :)

I told this kid that I was glad he was done and that he could now put together any puzzle he wanted to and he said "but what about my hair?" I said I don't need to do it...it just lays there, you look great. I got a weird face and he insisted on Shark Fin Hair. So here it is...

A faux-hawk. I hate them, but he really really wanted one today so he got to have one. We had Nick and Alli over and Bridget was in Heaven. Bridget and Alli played babies and their cute little voices filled the toy room, it was so cute. Nick played cars with Lucas and we (all 4 of them) did an art project. They played a little bit of dress up and then it was time to go home. I think they had a fun time.

We waited for Nathan to get home and it was nice enough to ride bikes. Lucas was actually on his scooter most of the time because his bike is getting too small for him. He is pretty tall ya'know?

We were watching the kids ride while Scarlett was eating grass and then we packed the kids in the car to test drive a two wheeler. Lucas has been asking for one for about a week and I wanted to see if he could do it. He did pretty well with the training wheels so we will see when his birthday comes in a few months - wait - 6 months exactly!

Today Lucas is 3 and a half!

We were all so excited it merited a 1/2 birthday cake. So that is what we did after dinner!

We are weird but sometimes you have to celebrate the small stuff! Its ugly but the kids liked it!

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

We love to take advantage of free days in Denver....this includes the Zoo, the Children's Museum, and of course the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It is the perfect thing to do this time of year especially since we can't go to the park as much because of the weather. Don't get me wrong Colorado still is known for its 320 days of sunshine, but that doesn't mean that its not cold here. Last week I checked the mail and the sun was shining but it was only 11 degrees outside...not ideal for a park visit. Hehehe.

Luckily Nathan was home to join me and take advantage of this special free day. We had passes to see a featured exhibit so Genghis Khan for 10 people was only $3 a person, unfortunately we didn't have a big enough group so the rest of our pass went to waste but the kids liked seeing the "Chinese Food Letters exhibit"

They didn't let you take pictures inside BUT kids got these cool hats.

So cool we had to see the dinosaurs with the hats on.

Did I mention, we love the dinosaurs?

This particular museum visit we tried to hit different places that we don't normally go to like the gems, and the Colorado wildlife room.

Scarlett looked like this most of the day...

She wanted to get out and run. Instead she just played with her shoes and socks, so that is why she is barefoot...she likes to be like me. :)

They had these Dino puppeteers all over the Museum...

Here they are at rest on display.

Cool huh?

Then we went to the Discovery Zone room. They had a music and movement lady who sang and had a movie show. Bridget loved this...

I mean really loved this...

Scarlett played in the animal pit where she dominated over the one year olds. She was happy walking over to the babies and patting them on the head. It was funny. Here she is squeezing everything inside because she is so excited.

Lucas built towers, did all of the puzzles and then wrote his name on every left over paper in the coloring section. They had these big kid puzzles for 6 and up and he really liked those. He also thought Chinese Checkers was a lot of fun.

Then Nathan and Scarlett played with the blocks.

Bridget found the coloring table and was there for 20 minutes coloring her picture with every crayon in the box. She loves to color. Right now coloring is her favorite thing.

I look over at Nathan and Scarlett and someone was having a hard time sharing the blocks...

Then I look again and see that it was all Scarlett's doing...

Nathan was just "helping"

We were in this room for an hour, and then did a scavenger hunt that the museum provided. Went to the Boddy exhibit and did and age progression on Lucas and in 50 years he will look like Nathan!

Surprise Suprise.

We had a great day and are going again March 1st if anyone wants to join us!

Attention!

Ladies and Gentlemen

We have a WALKER!!!

Scarlett has decided to join Toddlerhood 2 weeks early!

Lucas and Bridget both started walking at 10 months and Scarlett had to one up them!

Just Kidding.

She does the walker a little bit

and then its on her own.

Of course I deleted the video but don't worry I will get one up.

She loves to walk "next to Bridget" and Bridget doesn't like this at all.

I would also like to add that she still has no teeth (yay)

and she still loves nap time(s)

Good Job Baby Girl!

The New Year

Nathan and I stayed up watching a few movies and playing games. We were invited to a party but our kids have been sick this week, so we didn't want to get a sitter to watch our kids while we went out...so we stayed in.

I tried a new recipe (which is a tradition for us) made a cheesecake (another tradition) and we let the kids pick a radio station and we danced till it was bedtime...8pm.

After we put the kids to bed Nathan and I did a goal check over what we had talked about 2009 to see how we did, and we were good on everything for the most part. We each made a list of goal setting things and then Nathan gave me a box. Inside the box it said "enjoy trying something new this year"

It was a WOK! I have always wanted one but never knew what to do with it so never pushed the issue or begged for one so I never thought anything else about it. It had a Chinese Food cookbook in it and he wrote on the cover Confucius Say "Good Luck" I laughed and then gave him a big hug and we watched our movies.

Then Friday morning we (the family) celebrated the new year. We banged on pots and pans at 7am (a tradition) ate waffles with Martinelli's for Breakfast (a tradition) and then rearranged the house. For those of you who know me this is an every other week occurrence! Hahahaha. We also watched the Rose Parade (which is a Horn tradition)

We each talked to the kids about their new year chores, and then played with them all morning. I of course was DYING to try my wok and cookbook out so we went to the grocery store and bought some stuff to make dinner.

I also would like to Thank my parents for our awesome Christmas presents this year...

here are some shots I took with my new camera!