Happy Birthday, Brooklyn!

I can't believe Brook is 2. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday, April 25th. Her actual birthday was on Sunday, but it was full of meetings so we got the family together the night before. Grandma and Grandpa Anson and Emily and Chris came for the celebration.
Brook made a haul, as evidenced by the trash all over the floor. Chris told Zac to bury himself in the wrapping paper. So, he did. Zac thinks Uncle Chris is super cool and would do just about anything he said. Maybe we should be using that a little more to our advantage:)
Brook was hilarious. As we opened presents, someone would ask, "Brook, what is it?" She would say, "mine." She got into singing "Happy Birthday" to herself. All the unwrapping was a little overwhelming. She wanted to play with each gift she got. I think the highlights of the night were a Dora doll from Grandma Walker and the Snap and Style doll from Grandma Anson. She also got some fun animals from Ally, a snake from Zac (that she was not too sure about) and a puzzle from Sariah. Not to mention all the other fun presents from aunts, uncles and cousins.
Brook wanted a "Clue's cake." After searching for a little cake topper and coming up with nothing, I broke down and did the cut up cake on Nickjr.com. I think it turned out OK. When we asked Brook what it was she said, "Clues, I eat it!"
Her true favorite of the night was her new car. She would not get out of it. It was a rainy weekend so we left the car inside for a few days. She lived in it. When the sun came out, I took the car outside with visoins of many happy hours of fun in the sun. She still has not forgiven me. The first day walked around asking, "Where my car go?" We checked on it several times to make sure it was still out there. Occasionally she still asks to bring it inside. When we are all outside together she has fun sitting in it. As soon as she gets the hang of walking it around, she'll love it even more.



As promised, we now have video capabilities. I am still not sure how to edit so some of these first videos may be a little long. Enjoy. We love our Brook and her fun personality. She makes us laugh everyday. She is a little fiesty at times, but we couldn't imagine life without her. Happy Birthday, Brook!

Put Me in the Zoo

Wow! I have a lot to catch up on. Going clear back to Spring Break in the middle of April . . . we had a fun trip to the zoo with Aunt Nicole and Marc, Liz, Rachel and Benjamin. The kids were way excited to get to the zoo again. Brooklyn still talks about "my trip" to the zoo to see the "amnimals." The weather was great and so was the company.

Ally had a blast with Rachel. She literally dragged her from one animal to the next. Ally also provided the drama for the day. She was trying to jump out of the wagon and did not quite clear the side. She landed on her face. I did not see it, but Joseph said everyone around them just went quiet after they heard the thud. She scraped her chin up and had a nice bruise on her forehead. After we cleaned her up and gave her a few snuggles, she was fine. We were lucky.

Of course, one of the highlights of any visit to the zoo is a ride on the carousel. Zac chose the snow leopard this time. He usually likes to ride on a ferocious animal. The girls on the other hand . . . .

decided to play it safe. They all piled onto the peacock bench. Sariah especially wanted to ride without going up and down. They had a ball.
This is us leaving the zoo. We had to haul Brook out kicking and screaming . . . for real. It is a little hard to see, but the seat of her pants is wet. She had a blow out. That has not happened in so long that I did not have a change of clothes for her. Poor thing. All in all it really was a great day and we can't wait to go again!