Finding Nemo

Cole spotted the tank of clownfish and ran up to it, waving and talking to Nemo. I guess he was excited to see that the diver hadn't taken Nemo all the way to Sydney.
Just like at the zoo, the kids are drawn to a playground where ever they are:


Cole striking a pose:
More playground fun:

Cole loved climbing up the ladder. All was well the first few times, but then he spotted this older boy climbing back down the ladder and decided to turn around at the top and try for himself. We could see it happening but couldn't stop him in time -- he fell straddling the metal bars and hurt himself quite badly. That pretty much killed his mood for the rest of the day.

After the aquarium and lunch, we went to visit other friends, had a flat tire, and finally made it home around 9pm. We were exhausted, and Chase wanted to know when we could go back.

Under the Sea

Last Saturday we brought the kids to the aquarium with some friends. Chase had no map this time, so he was a much more relaxed traveler and posed for some pictures for me.

It was feeding time for the sting rays, and the kids really enjoyed watching the divers feed them lettuce. Well, my kids did anyway. Our friends' kids (not quite 2 year old twins) have been watching Finding Nemo lately and thought the diver was there to take Nemo away, and they were NOT pleased to see him.

Cole and Chase posing in the shark's mouth (I have a picture of Chase posing in this same spot when he was about 2; if I can find it I'll add it in here):

Can't see Cole in this one because he's not quite tall enough, but Chase LOVES the aquarium that you can crawl into:

Petting a shark (Chase petted the shark too, but I couldn't snap a picture in the split-second his hand was in the water):

More Zoo Tales

At the petting zoo, Cole spotted a rabbit and, since it was the day before Easter, kept trying to ask it if it knew the Easter Bunny (and could put in a good word for him). I explained to him that those were NOT chocolate eggs the rabbit was leaving behind and that it appeared the rabbit needed some private time, but he kept going back to it.



Even while playing, Chase keeps consulting his map:

With all there is to do at the zoo, the kids still love the playground:

Notice the little face peeping out to the left? They chased each other around this statue for quite some time:

Everyone had a great time at the zoo, although we didn't get to see everything since we got there so late, so Chase is already lobbying to go back next weekend. And of course he knows exactly what he wants to see and in what order and has already charted his course on the map.

Went on down to the Audubon Zoo...

The day before Easter, we brought the kids to the zoo. It had been a few years since Chase had been there, and Cole had never been to a zoo, so we figured they were due for a trip. When we got there and they gave us a map of the zoo, Chase immediately commandeered the map and started plotting out our course. I think he felt like he had to, since it had taken us 3 hours to get to the zoo with Charles navigating (Charles refused to drive over the Huey P Long bridge, and we weren't really sure how to get there, so we toured pretty much all of New Orleans before finally stumbling upon the zoo). Turns out Chase was more interested in following the map than seeing the animals. He'd race from one point on the map to the next, but once we got there, he barely glanced at the animals before trying to move us along to our next stop (think Clark Griswold at the Grand Canyon). He didn't have much patience for my picture-taking, but I did insist on a few pictures:

Chase & Cole posing with the flamingos:


Seeing how they measure up to a bear. Cole had considerably more enthusiasm for this than Chase (I'm fairly certain if Chase had been an actual bear, he would have bitten me for making him take this dumb picture, but being a 6 year old boy, he just glared at me and raised his imaginary paws half-heartedly), but I do have a picture of Chase at about Cole's age doing the same growl in front of the same bear cutout. When I can get my hands on it, I'll post that one too:



Petting a snake in the petting zoo:

Lots of cousins

Logan was sitting up at Cole's party, so he got to hang out with his cousins a little.

Cole's Dino-Mite Birthday Party

Cole's dinosaur cake. Not very professional looking, but I did the best I could and I think he loved it, especially the volcano and the bubble gum dino eggs (which were almost as big as the dinosaurs themselves).

Happy 3rd Birthday, Sweet Boy

Cole turned 3 last week, and even though his party is not until this weekend, we still had to have a little birthday celebration with cookies and presents on his actual birthday.

He's such a big boy now. He's been potty-trained for about a month now and has never had an accident. We're so proud of him.