Zoo Boise

 We just can't get enough of the zoo!

Today the snow leopard interacted with the kids, the tigers went swimming, and of course the meerkats wrestled.

Lilly decided to be brave and fed the goats, this is a HUGE step for her!

The high today is only 84, so for Boise it's a nice cool day.

What more could you ask for?  Maybe to bring your stuffed animals with you in a doll stroller, and carry your own map?  Well then, I guess we did it all!

All the Day, All the Day, All the Day

On Thursday evening I noticed a huge water filled bubbled hanging from the ceiling in the family room.  Apparently the pipe to the shower was leaking from the upstairs bathroom, and water pooled in the ceiling right over the couch.  The house has a one year home warranty, so we called them up and they had a plumber here first thing Friday.  The work on the pipes was covered, but not the drywall.  I guess Ben will be learning to patch drywall sometime soon.  Until then we have these lovely holes in the wall/ceiling.

There's been a lot of smoke in the air from all of the wild fires over the last couple of weeks.  One day, after breaking up a dozen fights between Eli and Lilly we headed to Planet Kid.  The kiddos loved it, so we stayed for over 3 hours!  I'd rather be outside, but if the weather doesn't permit, this is a pretty fun place!

On the way home we had a rare and cherished moment of peace.

Here's Eli at the spray park, it's so nice to have weather hot enough to make these kinds of activities enjoyable!

Here's a picture of Hello Kitty Eli drew for Lilly, I love it!

Yesterday was Eli's first day of Kindergarten!!!

He got into a charter school and we couldn't be more excited.

His name was chosen in the lottery for a charter school in Oregon, and we thought it was pushing luck to get into two schools in one year, but we squeezed in.  He'd been number 10 on the waiting list all summer, and we got a call Friday afternoon that he was in.  It was a mad scramble to get their long list of school supplies and clothes ready over the weekend.  He has to wear any solid colored polo shirt and pants/shorts that are navy or tan cotton.  I love that the kids are dressing modest and clean, everyone looked so nice on the first day of school.  Starting in first grade he'll learn Yamaha technique keyboard, Spanish and advanced Science.  It goes up to 8th grade, with only one class per grade in the school, so it's pretty small, which I like.  I'm so excited for him and all of the opportunities this school will provide.  I think we're off to a good start!

Update

I attempted to potty train Lilly again, it didn't go well, again.

I told her the first day she could have a prize for going #2 in the potty, last time we had such poor success with this I didn't really expect any results.  Well, to my surprise she did it!!!  The only problem was I didn't have any prizes.  Luckily we had this weird Wendy's kids meal prize in the garage where you "fish" for keys with this crazy head band, and she loved it.

Update: After 2 weeks we gave up, we'll try again in a couple of months.

Poor Lulu is still falling asleep all over the place.

Our great friends the Christensen's stopped by to visit on the way home from Utah!!

We so lucky to be in between Utah and Oregon, we get lots of visitors stopping by.

Here's our ugly air conditioner.  This and the furnace are the last things that need to be replaced.  They're original to the house, so about twenty years old.  We're hoping they die while the house is still under warranty, although we did enter it into the "ugly air conditioner contest" at Home Depot for a chance to win a new one!

Rainbow Smoothies!!!

Does anyone really buy a ride on mower from Sears?  

I think they're just there to keep my kids busy so I can shop for a BBQ!