Happy Birthday Tasha

You never know what is going to happen when you mix your school friends with your church friends, but we didn't seem to have any problems in this area with Tasha, Andrew, and Noah...
Two hands, and two friends, easy.

Tasha had a "great birthday in the whole world" thanks to her friends and the Phoenix Zoo. What a fun morning we had just hanging out with the animals, playing in the children's area, and feeding the turtles and fish. We are so grateful that everyone could make this a special day for her, and we missed those of you who were not able to be there.

This is a shot towards the end of the day as she was contemplating how things were going. Her friends were very kind to her and let her set the plan for the day. We saw "giraffeses", elephants, and a few other things...

Tasha and Andrew held out the longest in the petting zoo. They followed the goats around saying, "cutie, cutie, cutie", then searching again and saying, "here's another cutie." It was pretty sweet, although I'm sure everyone else was bored as they were waiting for us to finish up. We made it to a birthday "bungalow" to have cupcakes and sing to Tasha. Wow was April supermom with the cupcakes in a bag and then whipped out the frosting in a can to spread on. Thanks! Obviously Tasha enjoyed them!





Some of the kids ate a little lunch here to wash down the sugar. Eventually, they all ended up at the edge of the lake checking out the turtles. All the moms were able to sit around and chat while Lorenzo manned the scene by the lake. At some point Jaylee decided that the turtles at the edge of the lake needed to be up on safer ground so Asher could check them out without her worrying about him falling in the water. Someone said, "who needs a clown?" as we watched Jaylee pick up turtles, carry them to the top of the hill and then release them to the delight of the squealing children. The turtles would race down the hill and back into the water and the kids would jump up and down and chase them. Not that Jaylee is a clown or anything, but her turtle antics sure were more entertaining for the kids than some weirdo in big shoes making goofy faces.

Before all of this happened we came upon some really big turtles. I missed the conversation between the kids, but I heard Noah say to his mom, "Mo-om, he said that's not a turtle!"

Well, no, it's a tortoise. Justin would know. Not only would Justin know, but he would care that you called it a tortoise and not a turtle. He probably knows the difference between the two, and I don't. So, on this one, I'm going to trust the 5 year old who seems pretty confident that it's a tortoise.

There are a lot more pic's that I want to post but I'm not so great at this particular skill. I really want to post this on her actually birthday so I'll end with the rest of her day: left the zoo, drove around looking for Sara's car, preschool, big-hug circle from the preschool crowd, about 30 minutes of down time before grandparents came over, 2 more presents, a little work on the super swing set, pizza dinner, butterfly cake, a few summersaults and bed.

Sound asleep, 4 years after her birth, almost to the minute.