We went to the zoo, zoo, zoo!

Last night when I got home late from my meeting and looked at the forecast for today I was struck with a sudden fancy to take the kiddos to the zoo!  It was the perfect day (just over 70 and sunny in July - too weird!) and we have really been wanting to get to see the new flamingo and penguin exhibit.  So we did :)  No long winded post from me today, the pictures are so much better.

In the pictures you can also find the kids interpretation of the state with their coloring maps (hmmm, guesses?).  As usual, I'm always a tad surprised by what they come up with :)  The boys were headed off to a Cub Scout event tonight but I did manage to make Red Flannel Hash for dinner tonight.  It was a good way to use up the leftover corned beef from the other night and the kiddos got to try beets for the first time.  (Dad, I'm really sorry if you're reading this...)

Catching up with some friends tomorrow and a really fun breakfast for dinner!  So until then...

New Hampshire Fun Fact of the Day:  Wallace D. Lovell built the Hampton River Bridge in 1900 called the "mile-long bridge". It was reputed to be the longest wooden bridge in the world.

I surprised them this morning and didn't tell them where we were off to :)  We pulled in and the first words out of their mouths were "Are Grandma and Papa here?"

Noah the Polar Bear

Bean the Polar Bear

Coins in the fountain

Checking out the seals

And the playing polar bears

Noah liked the arctic wolf

My favorite - the giraffes!

Riding the lion

The new flamingo exhibit

 

One really really really big alligator

Hippos!

The elephants were out

Speaking of elephants...

The new penguin exhibit

Seriously, we were really this close.  There is no zoom on this picture

Look at these two cuties!

I think I would have liked to just chill with the orangutan for most of the day 

This one's for you, Grandma

We made her a butterfly

And Noah drew his own snake

And then I did one for him

Good behavior earned a slurpee on the way home (Am I cool mom or what??)

Checking out the wall to decide what they want to draw

Noah's New Hampshire - complete with Mary's lamb and a jack o'lantern

(He wanted to make sure Cutey got in the picture)

Mikayla's New Hampshire (the three round things at the bottom are potatoes, the figure on the left is Mary and the top right is the lamb)

Red Flannel Hash - my kids LOVED this (and no, I'm not just saying that)  In fact Noah says that is might be 'birthday dinner' worthy.  You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Pretty!