Zoo fun and Mother's Day

While Logan was off on one of a few business trips in the last month we went down to Portland to hang out with the cuzzies. One cloudy morning we headed up to the zoo. I thought there would be at least a bit of rain so we were ready!

Luckily it was only slightly damp and mostly cloudy :)

First stop
Sea Lions!

Wyatt is the master at making faces.
Here's his Sea Lion face
(special hair styling courtesy of a recently removed beanie)

His sisters are naturals as well :)
Quite the family gift! Here they are imitating the Orangutan in the picture
(if you can, definitely "click" this one bigger! They're so cute!)

Rowan and the little ones weren't so much into the monkey faces but they obliged me with a good group shot.

Rowan liked the sun bear.

Here's the pig face... or maybe a warthog... I can't really remember

Just after Wyatt was done I noticed Danika poised and ready so of course I had to take her picture!
She's so funny :)

Genevieve showin' off her mad Amazonian fish face skills

I really like that the zoo has little play areas around the place, it breaks up the walking nicely and this one is well contained :)

Rowan thought Wyatt's elephant face was pretty hillarious!

So of course he had to try too :)

The newest exhibit at the Oregon Zoo is the Predators of the Serengeti, it's pretty cool.
Wyatt was pretty fierce looking but brave Garrett didn't even flinch ;)

Rowan liked the lioness

Here's the gang, minus the babies (and myself of course)
chillin in a jeep headed into one of the exhibits.
so brave ;)

These phones are all around. You can pick up the receiver and listen to the various animal noises.

In the barn near the NW exhibit Wyatt showed us his goat face,

as well as another pig face.

Outside the barn the girls posed on the tractor. Well, they tried anyway.
Katie was too excited and busy "driving" to even look up and when I asked the other girls to "squish in" .... well I think I confused Danika.
Oh well, they're cute anyway ;)

speaking of cute!

The other kids ran ahead with Joylynn and Garrett while Courtney and I showed Katie around the Great NW.
(Charlie was there too he just didn't get into these pics)

She was a bit wary of the cougars...

The ducks were more approachable.

She also liked the salmon until she realized she was leaning too far and couldn't get back up.

After traveling all the way across the NW she was getting pretty tired.
I don't think she even knew there was a bear there.

I actually had a little bit of a hard time finding it myself
so I gave you a little help on the right there ;)

We actually went backwards up the trail,
so here we are at the "end", at the beginning.
Can you find Courtney and Charlie?

(special note here, I'm not that good, this picture of just about everyone looking and smiling is too good to be true. This is actually a composite of about 6 pictures. Unfortunately even having all those shots poor Garrett was quite ready to go and not be squished between his sisters and cousin anymore. I didn't have any with him smiling. I think it's pretty good overall :))

One more for the road...

here is his, quite remarkable, mountain goat face :)

Happy mother's day!

I hope all the mamas out there had a wonderful Mother's Day last week! I sure did. We got back from Portland to find Logan home earlier than expected. Not only home but having had cleaned the house and left beautiful flowers on the bedside table! :D

Sunday was fun, the kids and Logan got me a cute card, a new shirt, a couple pairs of socks, and a new Wii game: Cookin Mama! :) We just hung out at home and had fun.

We ended the day with baths, Katie got out first and while we were getting her in pjs Rowan did this

I asked him why he did, if the toys were doing something special up there or anything. He told me he'd just done it "for fun" :)

The next day while waiting for our special visit from Gremmy and Ben, Logan made Rowan a "race track" on the driveway.

After quite a bit of racing fun Rowan decided to check out a puddle and Katie found herself a cool new spot for snacking.

She's quite enamored with Rowie's bike. I would not be surprised if she is riding one of her own by this time next year. As soon as the length of her legs catches up with her enthusiasm ;)

I saw Rowan doing this and thought, "He probably shouldn't be doing that but it's super cute" so I took a picture before telling him it wasn't so good.

I love this one, he's such a "cool guy" ;)

Typical Godsiff days

Don't break the ice... but if you must, please wear proper eye protection.

Extreme children's games!

As I mentioned in the last post our car is in the shop. It got bad enough that we were advised strongly to get it towed.






The kids enjoyed watching the tow men. It's not everyday that a giant truck comes and takes your car away.
















One of the reasons I've been so long in getting to the blog is because I was commissioned to paint one of Logan's buddy's bike helmets. The original request was for a pin up girl version of Jesse Ventura from the movie Predator. It was a little bit tough since I haven't done a whole lot of artwork lately but I think she came out okay. After that he thought a girl on the other side would look awesome. I cheated a bit with her copying the pose from a picture I found online but I came up with the gold shorts :)







So now you know at least some of why I was so slow getting to the "part 2" I had promised.

One morning, inspired by some unexpected sunshine and feeling artistic I snapped some "fancy" pictures in the backyard.

"Oh Mom! Please stop taking pictures and come inside!"

"Unless they're of me of course!" ;)
(The odd colors and lights are reflections, no editing done!)

I just love those toddler proportions! So stinkin cute!

On a weekend trip to Portland Rowan shows off his awesome big brother-ness hugging his sister on the porch swing.

More Projects

I had decided before Katie's birthday that I would make both she and Rowan quilts for their beds. Of course I put it off and put it off but once the helmet painting was finished I decided I was on a roll with projects and finally got the quilting supplies out and set to work.

Here's Katie sitting under her quilt on top of Rowan's. I made hers from snuggle blankies my Mom had sewn for her when she was tiny and a bit of new fabric that was the same as one blankie (which I think I lost in a parking lot)

Rowan's was made to match the colors of his room.
Katie is wearing one blue sock and a book on her head...

more silliness

Rowan came in while I was taking pictures and suggested we do some timer pictures.

Since it is officially spring now and Katie is able to actually get around in boots outside I've been trying to get the kids playing outside at least once a day provided it's not actively raining.

Katie thinks the trike is really cool. She often tries to push it along, which is what she was doing right before Rowan jumped on it here. So I made him stop and perched her up on the handle bars. I kept a hand on her for a while and she seemed pretty stable so I sternly told Rowan not to let go and backed up a few steps for a shot.

He really is a great big brother.