Guppy Gala

Yesterday we spent the evening at the zoo for the annual Guppy Gala. The weather was grey, but mild and luckily the rain held off. It was quite similar to Boo at the Zoo without costumes, but in our opinion, even better because of more activities and smaller crowd.


The zoo provided its guests with Subway for dinner. And then we hit the array of candy, ice cream, and snack stations.

And Simone's favorite part was the inflatable playground. We spent quite a while on these.

With a little help from staff, she even scaled the climbing wall to come down the slide.

Here she is a little uncertain of the guys on stilts.

Around the lion exhibit, they had games and activities which held Simone's attention more than the actual lions. After she played the ring toss, pin the spots on the cheetah, and the fishing pond, she picked blue and orange dots for her hair at that silly station. I was thrilled... not.

Mom and Dad, on the other hand, enjoyed the lion pride more. It was getting dark by this time, so the video quality isn't very good, sorry.

Overall a really nice time that we all enjoyed. We'll be back next year for sure.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail...

Happy Easter! We squeezed in a terrific Easter weekend before mommy left on her work trip on Sunday. It's hard for us to pick a favorite part, but the flashlight Egg Hunt no doubt got Simone's vote. Here's a peek at our basket of Easter food that we brought to be blessed on Saturday morning.

Tony and Simone decorated all of the real eggs.

And then packed up the plastic eggs to bring to the flashlight egg hunt.

Simone was thrilled to hold the flashlight and run around collecting the eggs, which she found all by herself.

Posing at church before Easter Mass.

And then off to the restaurant for brunch.

Picking the dandelions has become one of Simone's favorite pastimes.

Two of the things that make Patowmack Farm so special for Easter is the airy outside feel with wonderful view, and the creative courses for every occasion. This was a baby carrot "planted" in a cocoa granola dirt. How cute! And in the background is the view from our table.

A practically perfect Easter weekend! Until next year...