This weekend was another great visit from Nana and Savta. They came in Thursday night and stayed through dinner on Sunday. It’s so much fun that we can prep the kids in advance so they know to expect Nana and “Fa Faf” after naps. Our 3 bees were very excited to see two of their favorite visitors.

On Friday we all went back to the zoo. Three trips in 8 days!

Amazing how geese can be as exciting as a tiger.

Almost as exciting! We aw a tiger! That’s a benefit of showing up early on a cool day. The animals aren’t hiding from the heat.

Amaya was checking out the zoo map, trying to decide our next move.

Sammy smiles for the camera.

The highlight of the zoo trip was this. FEEDING GIRAFFES. I love giraffes. They have knobby knees and long eyelashes and long prehensile tongues and they ware awesome. I bought a $5 ticket to feed a giraffe and was near-tears excited about it. The ticket allowed two adults up on the platform, plus kids. You got 2 leaves to feed to the giraffes. Steven is the only one I knew would be calm with the feeding and I was pretty certain that Amaya wouldn’t want to get very close. The plan was that Steven and I would do the feeding with one leaf each and my mom would take pictures. Sammy wanted to see everything so Savta walked with him up the line to the platform while Steven and I fed the (amazing) giraffe. Which was as cool as I anticipated. Steven did great! He was calm and fed this leaf to the giraffe like such a big kid.

When we were done, Sammy started crying that he wanted to feed a giraffe with mommy, too!! Uh oh!! We used up our turn and you can’t buy the experience right there.  Plus, it was sold out. I took my chances and explained to the zoo staff that I had a son who was crying to feed the giraffe like his brother. She took pity on me and let me jump back at the front of the line with one leaf so Sammy could have a chance, too. He did great!! it was so much fun!

Proud Sammy.

After the giraffes we had lunch at the zoo and called it a day!

The next BIG excitement of the weekend was Motor City Comic Con. This year, the main draw for us was Brent Spiner who played Commander Data on Star Trek: TNG. The kids did great while we waited on a looooooooong line to get inside.

The family that cons together, stays together!

Just the weekend activity Nana and Savta were hoping for.

Amaya loved sparkly, pink costumes.

We had a slow moving line for autographs and decided to ask Savta to watch the wagon while Jason, Nana and I managed the kids. All things considered, I was really impressed with how they did during the wait.

It was our turn! I told Spiner that the kids were exited to meet him and he said, “No, they’re not.” Which is true. But Jason and I were excited for them to meet him! They’re going to grow up with all of these personalized autographs from actors their mom and dad loved, haha. Spiner was incredibly gracious and recommends we check out an Indian restaurant in London called, Amaya. 🙂

Nana and Savta set up a grocery store in the house. Food was in different sections. Sammy had a grocery list. Amaya had the money. Savta was the cashier.

It was a fun, easy weekend with lots of together time.

Brunch out, where my kids ate at TON.

Besides the weekend events, we were jam packed with activities during the week.

Tuesday was music. Getting them in is easy. Getting them to leave is a little more challenging.

On Wednesday we went to the Ann Arbor Hands On museum. So much fun and considerably easier than on a weekend. Steven was so cute in the fireman’s uniform. I think he’d live in it if he could.

Holding hands!

A “picnic” lunch outside the museum.

Mr. Jelly Face. And hands.

On Thursday we went to Funtastic for some climbing fun. Sammy was a brave guy and conquered his fear of climbing through the mesh netting to go down the big slide. Amaya was completely fascinated by two older boys, maybe 6 yo, and their activities. She stood right next to them watching them play.

Steven really likes to organize chairs.

We loooooooove books. Book, books and more books. Right now our favorites are The Snowy Day, Go Dog Go and the Jewish holiday books from PJ library.

This week our big kids tried their first real sandwiches other than PB&J – turkey and cheese. Someday I’m sure they’ll tease me for celebrating “first sandwiches” but it’s a big deal when they can eat convenient, healthy, easy to make foods like sandwiches.

An even bigger deal… new seats at the table. We got ride of our high top bar-style table and went back to our regular kitchen table with booster seats. It’s really nice to have a table that fits us all and this feels like another step forward toward big-kid status.

Amaya approves!

Steven, this week!

He loves to buckle and unbuckle the straps on their booster seats.

Moving chairs again. Strong Steven!

Of course I’m not sure about his end goal with that one. 🙂

Sammy, this week!

Sammy is so funny. He picked up his baby doll and used her hand to hit himself in his head.  He then said, “Baby doll hit Bubba” and proceeded to put her in a time out in our time out chair.

Sammy, getting hugs from his sister.

Amaya, this week!

I love when she’ll let us do her hair with one ponytail in the back. She far prefers pigtails these days, though.

Amaya’s pirate smile.

Cuddles on the deck.

This week we are going to REST. Until Grandpa Homey and Grandma Betsy come to visit this weekend, that is!