Iris Turns 4 - Part I

Yesterday our little Iris turned 4 WHOLE YEARS OLD. She humbly requested a Princess Party and we extravagantly obliged. This was the largest kid party from a guest perspective that we've ever hosted and it was fun, but exhausting (for the grown-ups in attendance). We've not seen Iris as happy, though, as she was surrounded by friends, food, and especially presents. All the guests were incredibly generous and Iris received just about every Princess item available on the open market.

Here are some of the party highlights in photos, starting with the day before. .

Iris and Bella Paint Party Decorations on Friday
(A Gift from Rogee)


Dressed and Ready for the Party to Begin
(At 6:15am on Party Morning)

Grandma Susan Brought the Most Beautiful Cake Ever
(She Made It Herself with Help from the Most Anticipated Cake Topper)

Iris with Her Friend Hannah
(Other Guests included Bella, Jada, Tyler, Sydelle, Alejandro, Libby, Avery, and Angelina)

Iris Turns 4 - Part II

The Princesses Dance with the Queens in the Grand Ball
(The Two Little Princes Choose Not to Participate)

Opening Presents with Help from Many Ladies

Playing Pin the Kiss on the Frog
(Daddy Drew this Frog Freehand!)

Princess Avery Found the String Which Produced 100,000 Pieces of Candy from the Pinata

Beautiful Iris and Her Fabulous Cake During Happy Birthday Song
(How Fun to Hear So Many Friends Sing)

Iris Turns 4 - Part III

The Guests All Enjoy Castle Cake

Three Beautiful Party Guests

Iris Enjoys Coloring Her New Horse from Libby

The Girls Pose in Their New Clothes from Grandmom Sherry with Daddy

Two Sassy Girls Say "No More Photos!"

Da Mama Might Be Sick, But Picture Taking Continues

While the Daddy is Away, the Hippies Shall Play

YerTheBestDaddy is away for the weekend with the boys, riding their mountain bikes up north, and so the girls here in the south have gone WILD. I've always cultivated dreams of becoming a commune dwelling hippy, and short of doing that, at least I can let the children run around without their shoes on in the forest and then play in mud holes.


There is absolutely nothing in the world wrong with playing in a good mud hole every now and again, especially on a warm day in late summer. It rained for quite a bit of the night last night and continued until early this afternoon. After visiting with friends for coffee and play, we set off to a park near the lake with the purpose of finding a stone (had to be magical) to use as our base for stone soup. We tromped through the wooded park and pulled just the right stone out of the water, then went for the above referenced shoeless hike. That was fun for about the first ten minutes, but then our feet started to hurt (of course) and I ended up carrying Iris on my back. We still had fun though, with Bella setting a brave lead down the path.
Back at the parking lot, the girls proceeded to get muddy from head to toe while having the time of their lives. They would run across the parking lot while shouting "Cannonball!" and then jump with great drama into the various puddles. They also spent a great deal of time constructing mud pies and a mud wall.
It was straight to the bathtub with them upon our return home. Bella later put the magical stone into the soup and it smells delicious from here.

A little people city now waits my construction. I wonder sometimes if other children expect their parents to play pretend with them all the time? Did I cause this or is it just due to the personalities of my children? It seems like my imagination was depleted as a child or something, because I just don't have the energy for playing pretend any more. I'd rather be in the background cooking and cleaning, and maybe having time to myself, while they play, instead of being a "guy" along with them. But just now as I type these words, Bella has left the room crying because I told her to play with her sister instead of standing over my shoulder every second. It's hard to balance this crew sometimes.

Iris just asked, "Bella, why are you crying?". Apparently even hippies cry sometimes. We miss the daddy.

Back to School Week in Review

By Da Mama

This back to school week went pretty dern well. After starting out as a nervous birds, Bella (and her mommy) quickly settled calmly into the new routine. Daddy and Iris kept doing what they do and by the end of the week we are all back in a good rhythm.

1st Day Jitters / Pride

Bella loves her new teacher, the classroom pets (although "Fluffy" the hamster is under the weather - we think he is allergic to 1st graders), and she has a new best friend already. Now that she is back to acting like her normal self, it's clear how nervous Bella was leading into this new school year. We are relieved so see her settled so quickly and to have our happy little yippy yapping sprite back in action.

Todd has some flexibility in his work schedule with the new job and so he goes to work early every Wednesday and can pick Bella up right from school and then Iris early from daycare that day at 3:00pm. I do the same on Thursday and Friday - so that leaves just two "long" days each school week for the girls (Bella takes a bus to daycare on Mo & Tu) and the family - a pretty good balance for us. That extra 2 hours in the afternoon of at least one adult home with the kids to unwind and start dinner makes all the difference.

Grandma Susan visited for the day today. She's doing okay, but grieving after the death of her long time friend and companion, Floyd the cat, but we hope a day with the Grand kids cheered her up. She had special time with Iris Ruthie - playing at McDonalds and then at home, then the rest of the girls came home for the afternoon.

Swinging Beauty

After Grandma left, the girls helped me make dinner and then I took some fun photos of Iris on the swing. She knows how to "pump" herself - learned from her big sister - and she loves to be out on the swing, flying through the wind. Bella finally overcame her fear of the bees in our backyard and was outside playing quite a bit. We even managed to eat dinner outside on the back deck and she was proud of being brave - at least until a couple of aggressive bees sent us all back inside. We walked into town for ice cream and a little playing in the park this evening. Ruthie could barely keep her eyes open on the way back and wanted to "get into bed to warm up" before putting on jammies and brushing her teeth.

Much love to you all!

Angel Iris Art

With Fond Memories

Floyd Arnold Daydif

April 1992- September 2008

Floyd Arnold Daydif of Antioch, Illinois and Fountain Hills, Arizona, lived a long and happy life. As a young boy he loved to hunt chipmunks and dash about the house. He also loved to eat. Once he stole an entire chicken kabob off the kitchen counter which was later discovered upstairs under his bed. He loved his mother and would wait at the top of the stairs for her to come home at night. When she left for college he settled in and became the “main man” for his grandmother Susan. He was her “watch cat” and would jump off his bed and run down the stairs to greet her when he heard the car pull into the drive way. In his retirement years he enjoyed the puffy leather sofa in his Arizona home, and biting the feet of his dog friend and aunt, Abi. He was always a gentleman (well almost always!) and a friend. He was incredibly loved and will be greatly missed. He was a very precious boy-boy. He is survived by his devoted grandmother, Susan Daydif, poppy, Bruce Daydif, his Aunt Abigail, his mother, Alexandra Arnold and brothers Simon and Elliott, his Uncle Daddy, Todd Heal, Auntie Mother, Rachael Heal, cousins, Bella, Iris, and Jordan Heal, and his faithful friend Geneen Hoetzer. He is proceeded in death by his cousins, KC and Chris Heal.

“For all forest creatures are mine already, the animals on the mountains in their thousands. I know every bird in the air, whatever moves in the fields is mine. Psalm 50:10-11.

Iris Says

On our way to Taste of Madison this year, we each listed the yummy things we would like to eat. Iris said:

"I wanna eat. . . hmmm. . . what's the word for chopped up cow. . . bugger?"

Only from the mouth of the daughter of a vegetarian! I am soooo proud.

'Twas the Night Before First Grade

By Da Mama

'Twas the night before first grade and all through the house, every creature was stirring, even the mouse.

We're just off a long holiday weekend of playing, organizing, cleaning, and otherwise spending time with one another - all in preparation for the back to school routine.

Bella is nervous about starting first grade because she thinks it will be "hard". She has been looking for more reassurances from mommy and daddy than normal. It was good that we spent so much time together this weekend, but also might make the morning harder tomorrow. We'll see, though. Already, Bella has said that she does not want daddy to walk her inside the school and only relented on this point when she learned the other kids would also have their parents walk them in on this first day at least. She is most excited about "Fluffy" the room gerbil, a creature who looked utterly terrified on back to school night.

I am feeling homesick tonight. I always get this feeling right before a transition. Not that we are going anywhere, but home to me is not just space,but also time. Another time in our life has passed - the innocence of the first year of kindergarten behind us and summer behind us and a whole new group of kids, new teacher, new activities, new time ahead. The butterflies in my tummy are a'flappin tonight for certain.

Here are some photos from the last week or so:
Bella and Grandma Susan - one of them more excited than the other to have her photo taken yet again.

Bella had a friend sleep over this weekend for the first time ever. She and Sophia have known one another since they were twelve weeks old. The went to the beach, ate pizza and watermelon for dinner, watched Return of the Jedi, made melting bead animals, then "went to bed", then giggled for one hour before they both passed out.

Iris stamping and coloring - a very serious artist.

Bella's mango colored tongue at Taste of Madison.

Staying cool in the shade on a hot day in Madison.

Photo(s) of the (Every Other) Day

By Da Mama
These sisters have developed their own symbiotic system of Bella reading and Iris listening. Bella can read so well for an almost-first grader. She reads signs and advertisements especially well.
Daddy and Bella show off their superior paper airplanes. The paper airlines manufactured by mommy looked pretty after being decorated, but crashed and burned. The models by daddy, though not very flashy, certainly earned their wings.

Peace Love & Chocolate

By Da Mama

Long day today. I couldn't sleep last night and was up to all hours sewing a Frankenstine-ish Pillow out of one of Bella's baby blankees which recently became mysteriously fringed in silly putty. Had to cut the silly putty out. It was fun to make something nice and comfy out of a blankee that would have otherwise been tossed, but interesting to hand stitch with only a sewing repair kit.

Anyhow, I was tired, quite tired all day at work and daydreamed all day about sleeping. Todd is out tonight at the memory service of the dad of some of our closest friends here in town. Very hard, long battle with brain cancer. We send out love and strength to our good friends Jarred, Tara, Charlie, Rex, and Tommy.

The goal this evening: quiet and relaxation. And a whole lotta chocolate. The girls and I made a box of brownies and I found licking the bowl to be better than a spa to recover from my day. What else does a mommy need then Peace Love & Chocolate:

The Artist Known as Bella owes several of you art pieces. She's still in the creative-musing part of her process, so do not yet lose hope.

Kate, my mom mentioned you left a comment, but I don't see one from you. Wouldn't want to miss hearing form you. . .

Urgent Medical Alert

By Chip Chipheardt

No one thought it could happen on this street in this modern, Midwestern commuter town in this day and age. An age of rapid advancement, e-mails, cutting edge fashion and technology. An age of advanced medical treatments delivered at your corner urgent care center. The age of now. The age of the sparkling future.

The elders will tell of the affliction. They will tell and be hastily ignored by most of the denizens of this haven for young families. But listen closely and you will hear at least one young couple talk of the disease hereto unknown by most of their peers: Early Onset Nostalgia.

"It's hard to describe," the afflicted young mother described. "I think it all started with the Olympics. Just the sound of the Olympics on the television in the living room in the background of life. That sound took me right back to one of my earliest childhood memories. Were there summer games in 1980? I could look it up on the world wide intraweb, but have suddenly forgotten how. All I can remember is the smell of my mom cooking in the kitchen and the Olympics on television. Oh, crap, my heart hurts so bad I might puke."

"For me, it was the green beans," explained the young, afflicted father. "My wife grew several pots of green beans on our deck for the first time this year. She came inside with a handful one night last week and I snapped one in half and ate it immediately. That taste transformed me into a small boy in my Grandad's backyard, the smell of his garden, his smile and bright eyes, the green beans he grew each summer. I gotta have more of those beans. . ."

Typical Nostalgia normally strikes the elderly at a time in their lives when they can better cope with the side effects. Behaviors such as being frozen in place by a memory for longer than fifteen minutes, attempting to build a time traveling device with household appliances, and reenacting a conversation which occurred thirty years ago while in line for dinner, all seem less debilitating when experienced in a nursing facility. The staff of most such facilities are specially trained to treat those afflicted with the disease with kindness and patience.

Early Onset Nostalgia is highly atypical. Side effects become problematic due to the responsibilities of career and busy young family life. Feelings of shame and guilt often accompany the disease.

"I feel so bad," sighed the wife. "I have this great life right now. I am trying to enjoy each moment. I don't really want to travel by coffee pot back to the 1970's. . .but to play with my old Star Wars figurines in my dad's van while driving to Ocean City, just one more time, just one more time. . ."

Once in the grasp of Early Onset Nostalgia, the young couple found themselves quite unable to move forward with their current reality. "My eyes kept tearing up, "the young father reminisced about his reminiscence. "I passed a VW Vanagon on the road this week and I had to pull over to the side of the road. I could almost smell my own teenage, stinky feet which tortured my family on our long road trips."

But a late afternoon playdate brought a glimmer of hope for treatment and recovery. With an extra child in the house, the young mother was forced to be a bit more creative than normal to keep the kids occupied. "They started to fight over a cabbage patch kid, my old Corn Silk Kid to be exact, and I remembered that a whole slew of my old cabbage patch kids were up in the attic. So the kids and I went on a rescue mission."

"My mommy went up through the hole in the ceiling," the 3.75-year old daughter continued. "Then dollies started flying through the air at us."

The kids immediately began playing with the ressurected dolls and watching them brought the mother a sense of peace she'd not experienced since the affliction began. "Oh, I felt better right way. I knew then what we needed to do."

This weekend found the young parents immersing themselves in treatment. A young father said, "We took the girls to a matinee viewing of Star Wars Clone Wars. The theater was filled with other families just like us - parents in their 30's with young children. Looking around, you couldn't tell who was enjoying the movie more. I don't feel nearly as alone anymore. And then the girls ran around the house this afternoon playing with their Star Wars toys from McDonalds. They made shooting noises ('Pee-chew, pee-chew, pee-chew') and pretended to be Jedi Knights. It was great!"

Part of the Treatment Plan?

Other 70's-style activities enjoyed by the girls and happily encouraged by the parents included building a home for play figurines out of cardboard cereal boxes and stenciling with colored pencils.

The mother further explained, "My mom came up on Friday afternoon and cleaned my childrens' rooms, just like she used to do for me. I fell to my knees when I got home from work and saw those clean rooms. I was just flushed full of memories and I couldn't move out of gratitude covering 34 years. But then Iris came up and started throwing toys around her room and jumping in her pile of stuffed animals, just like I used to do and I was able to unfreeze and continue with my motherly responsibilities. Of course tonight the girls asked to go to sleep on the big pile of stuffed animals, and I let them. I took a picture of them all tucked in safe and felt warm and homey myself."

Lay Us Down. . . On a Bed of Stuffed Animals

Sadly, there is no known cure for Early Onset Nostaglia and it appears to be contagious. Several recent studies of the condition were discontinued after the lead scientific researchers became re-obsessed with Atari games and Etch-a-Sketches.

When told of these scientific failures, the now experienced young couple provided sound advice, "Those scientists should have their own children, immediately. Reliving their childhood memories through the newest generation is their only hope."

Question of the Week

By Queen Bee and Wild Iris

"Do you think we will EVER have cousins?"

Respond at will.

To Baama From Bella

Grandma,
Your picture is really good and you may not believe that I did it. But I really did, really did, really did. You can pick it up whenever you want. You may pick it up on Friday. I love you. Bye!

P.S. Iris loves you too. Bye. Happy.

ART SALE IN OUR YARD, Or Indoors Away from the Bees, Or Maybe on the Front Porch, But Only if We Can Run Inside If We See a Bee

By Da Mama

This summer we have attended several art fairs, including Art Fair on the Square (Madison) and Art in the Park (Lake Geneva). Bella especially enjoys looking at the art in various booths. She favors ceramics, jewelry, and furniture - the brighter and shiner the better. She always has money in her pocket to spend, but never quite enough. She will ask, "Mommy, how much is this (purple and pink flowered) mirror?" "Fifty." "I have fifty right here!!!" "No, honey, fifty dollars, not fifty cents." Obviously, Bella concluded, this art fair business is a great money making scheme, so yesterday she decided to have her own.

She worked hard all morning on art pieces to sell. She warmed up her creative muse with a dot drawing of me:

This particular piece was immediately claimed by the model and is not, I repeat, not for sale.

The artist then made several beaded bracelets and colored a picture from a coloring book. Satisfied with her inventory, she next worked on marketing. She an 8.5 x 11 inch sign on the front of our house:

End of marketing strategy.

The artist thought the best location for the sale would be near the street. She and Iris made a killing on a gaterade-n-popcorn sale in that location earlier this summer. But the bees are a problem. A serious problem. The kind of problem that makes two little girls run frantically from the car to the porch as though the front of our house is in the middle of a war zone. Every time. So she couldn't be that far from the house. She thought of being inside the house and tried that for a little while, watching from the front window for people to drive by and spot her HUGE sign. But that also did not work. She comprised on location and ended up on the front porch. She brought out a wooden display bench and a princess cash register and a 10-key machine for adding up sales. She recruited a sales assistant. She made price tags. She put on a dress. She and her assistant shouted to random passersby, "Sale! Art Sale! Sale! Art Sale at 317!" She had very little luck for so long that she almost gave up. She hit a low point when a wasp flew by and sent her screaming into the house.

As I was leaving to go to the store, she whispered, "Mommy, why isn't anyone buying my art?" My mind thought, "Because you had a poor marketing plan, and not enough inventory, and no one wants to buy another little kid's stuff." But my mommy heart thought, "Oh, my sweet little girl, if I could save you from every pain in the world including this one caused by all the moronic, mean, cheapskates who drove by without stopping (sorry if this includes any of you, our friendly neighbors), I would, oh, I would."

The best I could do in that regard was to come back from the store, pretend to be a passing stranger, and write her a check for $5.00 for one of the bracelets.

Later in the evening, she hugged me out of the blue and said, "Thanks for buying my artwork, mommy." Worth all 500 pennies.

Wild Iris Phraseology #1

OOOH LA LA!!!

Expression of pleasure after trying something new, especially food.

"This purple drink is OOOH LA LA!"

Bye, Bye for Now

By Wild Iris

Uncle Pheel and Auntie Coley are leaving for hot Florida. We don't know why. My mudder says its because they want to live near Coley's mommy and daddy. They will live near the ocean and we can visit Cinderella's castle close too. Today we drove to meet them and say bye, bye for now. We ate pancakes and drank coffee and saw a lake and a fountain and rode on a coach and pet a horse. We drank water and I got hungry and tired and then we gave hugs and said goodbye.

I don't want my Uncle Pheel and Auntie Coley to go and neither does Bella. They have come to every one of our birthday parties ever ever ever and we miss them. But my daddy says being in hot, hot weather will make them feel better than cold, cold weather and they will be happy. We all hope so.

Here are some picture from our day. . .

Pretty Fountain Girls
Carriage Riders

High on the Sass-o-Meter

Weekly Review

By Da Mama

Another work week almost done. Thursday night rocks, even more than weekend nights, because of the anticipation and hope for some time together this weekend.

Bella went bowling today for the first time ever. She expected it to be hard after her vast experience with bowling which mostly consisted of playing bowling on Wii (and most recently ended with a tragic Wii-to-the-head accident.) So she was nervous. But she did well. Said the bowling shoes were slippery, but she got three spares "not at the same time". She also scored better than several older kids in her summer adventure daycare camp and was proud of herself.

Iris has been a bit of a challenge lately, not that this is unexpected given her age. Her emotions lay so close to the surface. Most of the time she is good. Our little hippy love child likes to show her affection. But she also has a very quick temper and her good will can turn on a dime if you cross her. I can actually see a shadow of mean cross behind her eyes just before she loses her temper - phew she can get mad. This week I was carrying her to time out for fighting with her sister, and that dark shadow crossed behind her eyes, and she raised her little hand in the air and purposely scratched her fingernails across my bare shoulder. She immediately recognized her grave error; however, the damage was done. I keep thinking, if she is like this now, imagine her at 13 years old. . . In the photo attached to this post, I asked her to demonstrate her angry pout. Her sister had to help of course.

The Princesses have been running amok in our house this week too. Cinderella, Cinderella, Cinderella, we love you, Cinderella. At least my children love you. Da Mama ain't really so sure. I'm kinda tired of these Princesses. Not just because I've been overexposed, but also because those gals just wait around all the time to be rescued by various handsome princes. This is a theme that runs through not only Disney movies, but also most mainstream adult movies (anyone seen Spiderman III?). The more you notice it, the more you notice it. And I'm tired of it. How much of this really effects the way these young women view the world and their place in it? How much has this undercurrent effected my view of the world? How often have I unconsciously fallen back into the belief that a woman needs a man to save her, etc? I've felt this way before, that I just want to be rescued from whatever situation, and I get angry at myself about it.

So, I've been mad at the Princesses this week and told Bella as much. This prompted us to engage in The Great Princess Debate. . .

Da Mama: I'm tired of these Princesses.

Queen Bee: Why would you be tired of Princesses? I'm never tired of Princesses.

Da Mama: Because they just sit around waiting for Princes to save them and that's not the way the world works.

Queen Bee: Like which Princesses?

Da Mama: Cinderella for one. She just sings and dances and lets that wicked stepmother and stepsisters boss her around all the time and waits for the Prince to think she is pretty and marry her to get her out of that house. She should have said to her stepmother, "Stepmother, this house is part mine and this money is part mine and you don't have a right to boss me around. I'm leaving here and want my fair share. You and your stinky daughters can stay here and do your own darn chores!"

Queen Bee: MOMMY! But Cinderella was just a little girl when her daddy died. It wasn't her fault she lived with a mean stepmother. And what about Sleeping Beauty? It wasn't her fault she ate that poison apple.

Da Mama: Well, I'm just tired of watching those Princesses stand by while stuff happens to them. They should take action! Take control! Do something themselves.

Queen Bee: OH MOMMY! PRINCESSES AREN'T REAL!!!!

Wild Iris: You two stop fighting now!

Da Mama (Quietly turning to back to her eldest): Okay. . . But does your sister understand that they are not real?

Queen Bee: Probably. . . no. . . but we'll tell her when she gets older.

Good point. Anyhow, do I sound like a crazed feminist to even rally against these Princesses? Does it really matter? Today I discussed this with two of my dear work girlfriends and they looked at me like I was nuts. "Little kids should be able to fantasize about these things. They'll understand when they get older." Will they?

Beyond Princesses. . . Todd has been working hard this week getting ready for the Trek dealer show. He still has one foot doing his old job, and one doing his new, so that makes for some busy feet. We've both been crazy tired, I had a migraine earlier this week. . .he picked up a lot of the slack around the house and with the girls. I couldn't hope for a better partner in this happy chaos.

Family Fun Day at the Zoo*

By Da Mama

"We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How about you, you, you? You can go too, too, tooo. We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo."

Don't know those song lyrics?! Please, give us a call, and we'll sing them to you, loudly, repeatedly, and in unison, for more than one hour. Then you'll know for REAL.

We do love the zoo. And we sure did love our recent Family Fun Day at the Zoo*.

All of Iris' wild expectations were met by a trip on the steam train around the zoo followed immediately with a visit to the elephants. She was the very picture of innocent childlike excitement and delight, her eyes shining and her mouth lit up in a smile all day. She made me so proud because she walked around that zoo for almost five hours on her skinny little legs before asking to be carried. All you toddlers, preschoolers, even school age children in strollers, stand back from the wonder of a small child with leg muscles and endurance, driven by utter intoxication with looking at every animal at the zoo.

Bella was in her element, walking hand in hand with her Iris buddy, with her family, and able to talk, talk, talk to her heart's content. We gave her an allowance for the day of $10 in an attempt to control the begging for money and blind spending. This tactic worked fairly well. She spent her money within the first hour of the trip as follows:
$5.40 - - Twisted stick sucker with small stuffed monkey
$1.50 - - Ride on the steam train
$3.00 - - Ride on the aerial chair ride with daddy
After that, she found herself in the poor house, unable to purchase such luxuries such as Mold-a-Rama plastic animals and entrance to the shark petting exhibit. Buutt, of course, Da Mama and YerTheBestDaddy couldn't resist shifting some of our remaining family funds her way to partake in more fun. All the best laid plans. . .

My favorites are the bears - any kind of bear the zoo holds - black, brown, grizzly, polar. . I gazed at the bears with fond memories of my childhood study of bears, including writing scientific reports about bears. . .outside of school. . . for fun. Yes, I'm the kind of person who as a child wrote research reports for fun. And I still love to stare in wonder at those damn bears. I wanted badly to enter their exhibits and feed them fish and give them big hugs. Those large barriers are there for a reason, I guess.

Daddy soaked in the entire experience and showed his childlike wonder over the Mold-a-Rama machines. Do all zoos have those machines from the early 80s which make on-demand plastic animals? I love those things. Just walking past one of the machines, the faint aroma of burning plastic takes me right back to being a child at the zoo. And I don't think Todd had previously experienced the pleasure that comes with watching that machine make a molded plastic animal figure just for you. He shook his head in disapproval when I stopped to purchase a kangaroo for my own self, but then looked on with slightly more interest when Iris purchased her own koala. But the end of the visit, after the continual sun and fun had turned us all a bit giddy with tiredness and as we were headed for the zoo exit, we spotted a Mold-a-Rama for pink flamingos. Todd face just lit up - Iris' pre-zoo excitement couldn't old a candle to it - and that man needed one of those plastic flamingos. He needed it. But, to his great dismay, the hour of zoo closing had passed, and the machine had been turned off. His chagrin was so great that he actually looked around the machine for some sort of on switch or perhaps the plug was just unplugged? Nothing that easy should have been expected.

The day threatened to end on a somewhat bitter note until Bella chimed . . ."Hey, next time we come to the zoo, let's just put all of our money together and buy nothing but Mold-a-Rama animals. We'll get this flamingo and all the others that we didn't buy today! Don't worry, daddy, we'll get them all!"

Thus we ended our Family Fun Day at the Zoo* with hope and excitement reserved for another trip next summer.

*Family Fun Day at the Zoo is proudly sponosored by Aunt Ali. Aunt Ali is the greatest gift giver in the history of the world. Thank you, Aunt Ali, thank you for our Family Fun Day at the Zoo*!



Sitting in front of a dino we found.

Pouting in front of the Mold-a-Rama

Ruthie with her favorite animal.

Everybody needs a buddy on the train ride.