We decided to keep with the tradition of seeing some animals just a day or two after we get home with a baby. Saturday was opening day of one of local favorites, Prairie Farms. Who can say no to free adorable farm animals? It took a little longer and a few more trips back inside for forgotten items, but we made it out the door with 3! We ran into Jeff, Holly, Keira, Caden, and their new sister Zoey! It was fun to quickly catch up on birth stories. Ellie and Owen were quite independent as we walked around the farm. These 3 kiddos are mine. Whoa. There was a snow cone truck parked close to the entrance and I’m a sucker for nostalgic thing like ice cream trucks, even when cups of ice are $3 a piece. Ellie was SO excited to get her cup. We had fun just sitting and letting these two be goofy! All in all, a great first family outing!
I don't think we could have packed any more into this day. But it was such a great family day! Bright and early this morning, William and Owen had some fun time playing race cars:
Then I got some fun mommy/son time. This was really one of my first times away from Ellie! Owen loves loves loves music and singing and dancing, so we decided to sign him up for a Toddler's Music Class at the Champaign School of Music. He was his usual shy self during class, but was singing the songs all afternoon, so I think he has a good time. Here he is jamming out with the drums. These may need to get on his Christmas list:
After lunch and naptime, we booked it over to the pet fair at Prairieland Feeds. I didn't realize what a nice size event this is!
this tiger was HUGE
really, he was interested
then we petted some horses
under the tent, there was a camel
he was quite friendly
Owen loved the goats
Then, we decided to brave the mall for something I needed to get for the kiddos. After my quick run into Old Navy, we decided to try the carousel again.
trying to pick their horse
Well, it definitely was a bust. The lady stopped the ride early because Owen was crying pretty good. He loved it before he got on, but I think we'll just be looking at the carousel from now on! All in all, a fabulously packed day. I hope we all get good Sunday afternoon naps tomorrow!
How about you, you, you? You can come too, too, too. We’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo.
Today, we went on a little road trip to Bloomington’s Miller Park Zoo. It’s a perfect size zoo for a quick morning trip. There aren’t a ton a big animals, but for Owen’s first zoo trip, it was great. Ellie slept the whole morning which worked out fabulously. There’s a great playground and splash park there too. And the best part was that my brothers were in town for a wedding, so we all got to meet up for lunch at Avanti’s before Casey flew out (why didn’t we get a picture of all of us, oh well.) Combined with the great weather, it was a pretty perfect day!
We got there just in time for the sea lion feeding. Of course, I didn’t get any video of the cool stuff, just her talking (and William echoing back).
watching the sea lion
she put on a pretty good little show
a sun bear
sitting on a "tiger"
monkeys in the rainforest exhibit
this bird loved Owen and got very close and then followed him
Last Tuesday, we met up with some friends at Prairie Farms for a playdate with the animals! The last time we went here, Owen was still a little young to appreciate it, but this time was great! We were meeting Aubrey/Mataya and Leann/2 babes but when we arrived we also ran into Amy and Troy. So it was so fun with all the kiddos!
Whew, a little behind in the blogging world this week. Let’s backtrack to last weekend. The kids and I drove to Peoria for a packed but really fun weekend! We arrived at my parents house around 3 on Friday afternoon and soon welcomed my brother, Philip, home. We hadn’t seen him since Christmas, so it was great to see him and introduce him to his new niece. Philip wanted Monical’s Pizza for dinner and then we all just hung out for the evening.
blurry but adorable
Saturday morning, my mom woke up early with Owen and gave me a glorious extra hour of sleep! What would we do without moms? :) Then we got ready to head to Wildlife Prairie Park! This was a favorite activity of all the cousins while growing up. Whenever we stayed with my grandparents, they took us here. It’s a 2,000-acre zoological park that is supposed to be home to over 150 animals. Hmm, we didn’t see nearly that many. Maybe 7 species total. I think this park was in it’s hay-day in the 80’s/90’s, but we still had a good time!
We walked some of the trails which kept us out of the rain that had started. There was some really pretty forest and a few animals.
looking for the cougar
Ellie snuggled in and slept the whole time
yes, donkeys eat kleenex
rooster!
here piggy piggy
After we walked around most of the park, we headed back to the visitor center to meet up with my aunt, cousin, and grandma who were just driving into town! This is pretty exciting stuff because we haven't seen them since my wedding 4 years ago! They obviously haven't met my kiddos. It was so wonderful to see them. (More pictures of them in the next couple posts.)
petting a turtle
This was adorable. Owen went around kissing all the animals in the stone animal garden:
I am a 30 something stay at home mommy who lives in a great city in the middle of lots of cornfields.
I have 3 amazing kiddos, Owen (4), Ellison (2), and Miles (brand new). I love Jesus, my amazing hubby William, and our dumb orange tabby cat. I couldn't live without Diet Coke, snail mail, sushi, the color pink, my hot glue gun.
We ran into Jeff, Holly, Keira, Caden, and their new sister Zoey! It was fun to quickly catch up on birth stories. Ellie and Owen were quite independent as we walked around the farm.
These 3 kiddos are mine. Whoa.
There was a snow cone truck parked close to the entrance and I’m a sucker for nostalgic thing like ice cream trucks, even when cups of ice are $3 a piece. Ellie was SO excited to get her cup. 
We had fun just sitting and letting these two be goofy! All in all, a great first family outing!
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