As part of my plan to take Matthew on a few outings, I renewed our zoo membership and took them to the zoo for a couple of hours this week. It was HOT, but well worth it because we got to see some Lego animals! Matthew is all about Legos right now and it's fun to see what his incredible imagination comes up with.

Happy to be at the zoo!





The sea lions are always a big hit with the kids



Lego gorilla!



My frog with Lego frogs







Matthew insisted that I needed to take a picture with the Lego penguins. I love my boy.









After making our way through the Lego exhibit we decided to pay some of our favorite spots a visit.

My Lion with the lions. This was actually the first animal that seemed to hold his attention. I found that amusing.



Trying to get a better view of the grizzly bears.



Elise loves taking pictures with this giraffe





Cooling off in the mist



Elise having fun in the gift shop



I'm glad we got to go for a little bit. The Lego exhibit is only there through Labor Day so I'm really happy my boy got to see it before it's gone. It's always a good time taking my zoo to the zoo.

August is here. These months just seem to be slipping through our fingers. So many things going on this month. I may not make it through without shedding some serious tears. Our Jason is marrying his beautiful Vanessa and our firstborn will start kindergarten! The boy is so excited! Mommy, on the other hand, cannot look at the school dress code or supply list without crying.


The kids continue to get big. Here is Viviana showing off her pigtails :)



This is about normal for our house. Pure chaos.



My boy watching the storm from his favorite window



Go Dodgers!



Ryan has finally decided that being independently mobile is not such a bad idea. In the last 2 or 3 weeks he has started pulling up and cruising.





This is exciting! That is, until I find him climbing the stairs...



How was this 4 years ago already??? I really, really don't like dressing the girls in matching outfits because I swore I would never do that to them. Although, I don't hesitate as much when it comes to matching the boys' outfits... Maybe because the age gap is much bigger. I am not opposed to coordinating my kids outfits, however. Here Matthew is wearing a Batman shirt and Elise is wearing a onesie with Batgirl, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman on it. In the bottom picture they're wearing Star Wars shirts. I love it. Elise has been asking to watch the original Star Wars trilogy at least once a week. Daddy's girl :)



Ryan enjoying a song by our friends' band.



This series just makes me smile. I may not be a pet parent, but I do like watching Ryan interact with his dog.












I've been trying to squeeze in some outings with the kids before Matthew starts school, but Ryan didn't cooperate last week. He got sick and we spent most of the week and weekend at home. Hopefully that's all behind us now and we can take Matthew out a few times.

How is it that July is almost halfway over??? The next 7 weeks are going to be busy. Our Jason is marrying his beautiful Vanessa and Gil and I have been asked to be in the wedding and we couldn't be happier for these two. The Monday before the wedding our boy starts kindergarten!!!! Mommy's heart is not ready for this in the slightest.

Speaking of our boy. Here he is having fun at Grammy's:



The family clown doing what she does best



This boy is finally making an effort to develop his gross motor skills. He *finally* started crawling a few weeks ago and is crawling more than army crawling now.



He's also a good sport when I use him for entertainment



Our neighbor gifted us with some venison sausage a few weeks ago. He actually killed this deer himself. I used it for biscuits and gravy. It was good.



My Elise got a much needed hair cut. It hurt to watch her do this but her hair was ridiculously uneven and it looks so much more tame now. She did great during the process and absolutely loved that they put a ribbon in her hair when she was done. She's getting too big!









Speaking of getting big, my Vivinana is growing way too quickly as well.



Ryan has developed a love for Shipley Do-Nuts





Sword fight with his Auntie Esther



July 4th was spent with our family. The kids were in the pool for hours and we did set off some fireworks in Grammy's driveway.



Ryan has a rash, which I suspect is actually eczema, and he couldn't get in the pool because the chlorine makes it flare up. This was his way of cooling down.



We're throwing Jason and Vanessa's shower this weekend so I've been in crafting mode. Here are a couple of this week's projects.

Cake stands and movie reels getting sprayed!



I saw a girl wearing a shirt similar to this while we were in Austin last month. I knew I could make it fairly inexpensively. I think I only spent about $7 in materials. That's always a good feeling.

Let's try this again...

It's been well over a year since my last post. Things here are busy... to say the least. I'll try to give a short summary of the past year.

We adjusted fairly quickly to being a family of 6, although last summer was not without its drama. Mostly medical related but nothing too serious. I've found that with 4 small children there tends to be a lot of medical drama. Case in point: the months of December and April both brought weeks of fevers and multiple ear infections. April brought double ear infections for 3 of the kids at the same time. It was an interesting time.


Matthew turned 5 in September



Halloween brought quality time with Hawkeye, Black Widow, a pirate princess, the Hulk, and Tony Stark







Christmas was fun and Santa did not disappoint :)



Princess Elise turned 4



Ryan the Lion turned 1! (and tried his first donut)



Princess Viviana Frog turned 3!



Gilbert started playing around with making custom guitar pedal boards and has been getting a few custom orders. Ryan is the unofficial mascot of Relic Pedal Boards.



Thanks to HEB I'm able to go grocery shopping with my sanity in tact.



We've been getting in Grammy's pool



But mostly, these kids are just getting big:







I'm going to try update on a regular basis again. There's always something to say about what goes on at the Saldana Zoo.