our very busy (but fun!) week...

the first photo is of Daniel, Natalie and Nicholas at their playdate on Wednesday.

the second photo is of Daniel at the zoo - oh boy did he love those goats!

the third photo is of Daniel playing at the zoo in his tiger make-up.

i threw in the photo of Jake just because he's the cutest little three month old around.

Last week Mike had his gallbladder removed so his mom came over to help with the baby and Jacob - hehehe. This gave Daniel and I some great one-on-one time together.

His surgery was on Monday, but on Tuesday the fun began!

• Tuesday morning Daniel and I went to Airtastic. It's a great "bounce-house" center that Daniel just lovees (this kid loves to bounce!) Daniel and I had lots of fun in all of the jumpy tents and on the huge slides. Later that day we went to "the train store", it's a great place for Daniel to play with the trains, look at the books and for me to have a cup of coffee and look through a magazine. Daniel has gotten more and more aggressive lately when other kids want to play with the trains, so my "me time" at the train store is getting less and less. Hopefully this will end soon!


• Wednesday we had a playdate with our friends Nicholas and Natalie. They all had lots of fun playing on the swings and rolling cars down the slide. We went in for lunch and then went into the basement (one big playroom) and the kids played while Brandi and I chatted and actually got to watch some tv without cartoon characters in it! What fun! Daniel had a nice long nap when we got home and I mowed the lawn. When Daniel woke up, he helped me rake and we played outside until it got dark. This was a nice treat for Daniel to get so much outside time.


• On Thursday Daniel and I made a trip to Brookfield Zoo. This is the second time this Summer that Daniel and I got to go there - just the two of us. Both times we had loads of fun. He's at an age where he really enjoys the animals. This trip his favorite animal was the goat! (with the crocs and penguins a close second and third). We got there about an hour after they opened and stayed until they closed! We were leaving the Zoo and parking lot with the Zoo workers. Of course this threw us into rush hour traffic, but it was well worth it.


• Friday morning Daniel and I met Brandi, Nicholas and Natalie again. This time we met at the outlet mall. The kids actually had some fun playing in the stores and riding the little cars that cost fifty cents. They also had some fun getting out of the strollers and watching some tv at the Gymboree Outlet store. Poor Nicholas didn't want Daniel to touch his chair, but in true Daniel fashion, he kept putting one finger on the chair! Poor Jacob is really in for some trouble when he gets a little bigger.

In the end it was a good week but a long one. It's a lot of work keeping Daniel busy from morning till night with no help from daddy.