The Zoo

Audrey and I went with Lindsey and Simon and Elliot and Simon's friend Mikayla to the zoo this afternoon. This was the second time that we had been to the zoo in a week! Daniel and I took Audrey last Friday as well. Both times, I was surprised by how unexcited Audrey was at the zoo. It's not that she doesn't like it; she just doesn't get as animated as we would expect. Outside of the zoo, she gets so excited when we see a dog, cat, squirrel, bird or duck. She laughs and wants to run up and say hi. But at the zoo, she looks like this most of the time: This is Elliot's zoo face, slightly more enthusiastic:

Simon and Mikayla took time out from seeing the animals to put on a show for us. They were acting out some version of The Wizard of Oz.

Here are Elliot and Audrey, watching the show.

That picture of Elliot and Audrey watching from the stroller reminded me of this picture, where they were watching Simon and Natalie go on the carousel at the mall:

And this picture, where they were watching Simon ride on the swings at the fair:

Poor Audrey and Elliot...always on the sidelines!!

Happy Easter!

One thing I love about blogging is being able to go back and read old entries. Take a look at last year's Easter entry (http://lifewiththesheltons.blogspot.com/2009/04/happy-easter.html) to see how much Audrey has changed in the past year!!

We had a nice Easter. After church, we had some friends over for lunch. I cooked a ham (for the first time) and made homemade rolls (for the first time). Our friends brought some more yummy food, and we had quite the feast! Audrey and her friend Hannah got to play and have a very quick Easter egg hunt (it was thundering and about to rain, so we had to make it short!). It rained a few times, but then it was bright and sunny and nice for most of the day.

(These next pictures were taken a couple of days ago when we had an Easter photo shoot and a practice egg hunt!)

I have more pictures that I will post to a Facebook album soon, but Facebook is not letting me upload pictures tonight. Check back soon for the link to those pictures.

(OK, Facebook is working now. You can find more pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=413870&id=521110244&l=6dfefb7b82)

First Dairy Queen trip

A new Dairy Queen opened in our area today, and we are VERY excited about it! We braved the crowds and headed to the grand opening today for an ice cream treat. We even let Audrey eat her very own dish of ice cream (instead of making her share with us like we normally would). I think this is the most ice cream Audrey has ever had, and obviously, she liked it quite a bit!!

Pippi Longstocking

Today I was able to get Audrey's hair into pigtails for the first time. She wasn't a big fan of me fixing her hair and she was very squirmy, so we ended up with messy, uneven pigtails. But she looked pretty cute still!!

My camera battery died right in the middle of these outside pictures...or else I probably would have kept taking pictures all afternoon!

With all this pigtails talk, I've had the Pippi Longstocking theme song stuck in my head all day. "Pippi Longstocking is coming into your world. A freckled face red head girl you want to know..." How do I still remember this song??

Yummy Broccoli

Tonight Audrey had broccoli and pizza on her tray, and guess what she was more interested in eating...the broccoli! This would have been completely normal a couple of months ago...broccoli (and all vegetables) were her favorite food. But she has grown much pickier recently. It's been a while since we've been able to get her to eat any vegetables at all. But tonight, broccoli was back to being a favorite. Personally I think she's crazy (I hate all green vegetables!), but it also gives me hope that maybe she will grow up to be a healthier eater than her mommy is.

Backyard fun

Yesterday Daniel raked all the spiky, gumball things out of our backyard. We have this tree that drops these annoying balls into our yard, and there were so many that Audrey could hardly walk in the yard without falling down. But they are gone now, so Audrey was free to run around. What did she do? She found her way to this little piece of cement outside our garage door. And she would not leave this spot! She never stays still for anything, and yet once she found this spot, she did not want to move! I wish she would have picked a spot that didn't have trash cans in the background, because it would have made for better pictures!

Hmmm...what should I do in this cool new place??

Maybe I will show you my belly button.

Here it is!!!This shirt is yummy!! (and my belly is big!!)It's so much fun to stand on the piece of cement next to the garage door and the trash cans.I think I will just stand here and laugh all day long.

Park Outing

The weather has been a bit warmer lately, still not warm, but closer to warm than it has been in a long time. So yesterday, Audrey and I went to the park for a quick little outing with Lindsey and her boys.

First we fed the ducks...for more on that see my Photo a Day blog.

Then we went up to the playground for a few minutes. Here is a picture of Audrey at the playground.

Notice how there is not any playground equipment in the picture. That's because as soon as I put Audrey down next to the slide or the ramp or any of the playground things that I thought she would like, she would take off in the opposite direction!Here I was all excited to get a picture of her on the slide, and she didn't want to have anythying to do with it. The freedom of all that open space was calling her name!And then she discovered this fun and exciting activity: stepping up the tiny step at the edge of the playground onto the concrete.

And then stepping back down the step into the playground mulch. And back up.And then back down. Over and over again. All of this fun stuff to do at the playground, and this is what she picks! Oh what a silly girl!
She did take time to stop and give this big stone dog a hug and a kiss though...pretty cute!