In like a lion . . .

It has been a long time.  We haven't been doing a whole lot with the unpleasant weather we have been having, but hopefully this weekend is the turn around and March will be a lamb soon.  I keep thinking that I should put up a new post, but then forget or am too tired at the end of the day.  We finally had a full day home today so I promised myself that I would find time to put up a post.  While the roomba is running in my cleaned up kitchen and dining room (I love the roomba) and Mackenzie is playing Play Doh and Isaac is playing with his Trios, I decided it was my chance to sneak to the computer.

 

One evening this week the kids and I played with the marble run. The kids (and myself) are finally getting adventurous and making our own runs rather than using the guide that came with them to make the runs.  I believe that Mackenzie and I did a marvelous job on our run:

 Isaac also did a great job creating his ramp:

 

This weekend Mackenzie went to a birthday party at the Toledo Zoo.  It seemed to have been a great venue for a party.  They spent the whole party in a secret room attached to the African carousel.  We have a membership to the zoo, so while she was at the party we took Isaac around to the animalsy he wanted to see (elephants, tigers, lions, polar bears and penguins).  The weather seemed to be perfect for most of the animals.  We got to see this elephant playing with a giant tire, which was very entertaining for the crowd:

Once we actually got to the live lions, Isaac barely stopped to look, but he was earlier extremely interested in the statues of the family of lions.  After we picked up Mackenzie she was also very interested in these statues: 

 The polar bears were also very lively.  They were splashing into the water just before this picture was taken and then they were walking around together:

I wasn't able to take a very good picture on the carousel since I was moving, but the kids rode the African carousel, Mackenzie and I rode on cheetahs (I believe that one was a jaguar, but Mackenzie thought that they were both cheetahs) and Isaac rode on a gorilla with Brian standing next to him.

After the carousel ride we had to stop and check out all of the statues on our way out.  The wolves were one animal that was not very active when we were walking around, the two wolves were sleeping the whole time, but when we went back with both kids they at least both picked their heads up and looked at us. 

Last night I went to a reception for All ND Women Connect, celebrating 40 years of women at Notre Dame.  When I RSVPed, I thought it was going to be about an hour from me, since it was hosted by the Detroit chapter of ND Women Connect, but it was actually an hour and a half away.  It was a lovely reception and I got to hear Haley Scott DeMaria talk about her experience in the fatal women's swim team bus accident in 1992.  I began my education at Notre Dame in 1994, when Haley had made her miraculous recovery from a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed for a week and she swam her first race after the accident that October.  So I knew the story, but not well.  It was pretty great to hear her tell the story.  Although I must say after seeing pictures of the bus accident and her in the hospital, it made me a little nervous during my drive back home in the rain.  It was also pretty great getting a chance to meet and talk to other ND women in the area, especially those that were among the first classes of women at Notre Dame.  Although I know that Theresa's mom was there the first year, I never really talked to her about what it was like.

So today we are hanging out, Brian is finishing up Isaac's room, which he painted this past week, the kids are playing, and I am cleaning (although I hope to finish up soon and get to work on my quilt).  A pretty good day.