Ascension Thursday

And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments.
Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen him going into heaven.
Acts 1:9-11

The part in bold always makes me chuckle. And what I wonder is where was Our Lady? Of course she wouldn't have stood their gaping towards the Heavens for she *knew*...

Ascension Thursday is a free day for us. We started our day by attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Then later we wandered off to the zoo....

Polar Bears



Penguins

Frodo always finds a pal.


Bilbo in his chariot.

Lunch and play break.


There was an old woman (that would be me) who lived in a shoe....



Seals


Now this looks comfortable!


Who can resist a giraffe?

Rhinos.
This is where the elephants used to be. I miss the elephants.


Back to the giraffes. There was even a baby one! (though very tall for a baby)


Aren't they just so intriguing?
I would think that strep throat on a giraffe would be very serious business!


This is by far the oddest play place I've ever seen but the children love it. Though they were sadly disappointed that the hanging swingy-thingy was removed.

I'm not exactly sure what this is suppose to be.


The merry-go-round is a must.


Frodo riding Aslan (our cast of characters is a bit off between Middle Earth and Narnia)


Bilbo went for a ride and I nearly fell over laughing as he was quite confused by this ride. He was catching glimpses of himself in the mirror.


Isn't this such a pretty carousel?


The gophers are always entertaining!

Mix and Match

The humming Birds are back! We first spotted the ruby throat in April!

Blurry but you get the idea. They are now getting friendly so much so that one sat right on Bilbo's hat on top of his head! Last year we had a picnic and one sat right on someone's plate!

Corn planting. Aragorn also has since planted the soybeans as well.


Sam's on the morel mushroom hunt. They should be ready in the next couple days.


Aragorn is getting ready to put up another windmill so Sam is taking advantage of the pole.





Practicing for a job in the circus.

Sam and Merry talking to each other through the pole and yes they could hear each other whisper.



God, the perfect artist.



Eowyn taking Bilbo for a walk.


This dandelion had 8 heads on one stem!


Mount NeverRest.


Bilbo Bear

The children have this *thing* for lining their critters up on trays. The neatest animals are those Schliech (sp?) animals.

Daddy got a toy.

Just by chance he was the first to respond on a nifty Craigslist find. I was scared to death when I got a ride. But for something so ugly, it is really cute.

To my disappointment I didn't get a shot of Daddy and Frodo zipping by with these silly grins.

April Baby

Happy Birthday to me! I'm the April Baby (yes I'm behind on my blogging!) I thoroughly enjoyed the gifts my children picked out this year. Sam came up with the idea that he wanted to buy me something by himself. So he accompanied me to the grocery store. I warned him ahead of time *not* to "hide" the item in his pocket before paying for it (!!!) that I would be sure not to peek. He said later he was so nervous. He bought 2 Snicker's bars and told me that this way Daddy and I wouldn't have to worry about what we would eat on our date that evening! Frodo and Galadriel decided they too wanted in on the shopping so they came with me another time and Frodo opted for a nut roll and Galadriel a big bag of starbursts (she is the one who takes forever to finish her desserts so that they last longer.... we just finished this big bag yesterday!) Eowyn made me a lovely bookmark and the others gave a variety of darling pictures.

In the morning we went with one of my SILs to a park.


I was glad to see "dangerous" playgrounds are coming back in style. Rosie was really whipping around on the spinny-whatcha-ma-jig.

Bilbo's first real swing at a park.

There are always treasures to be found. Frodo found....... a very precious...... broken off part of a dog leash, how much more lucky could he get (let me count the ways)!

Beautiful flowers (of which I cut off the heads!) and cupcakes and lovely homemade cards from cousins along with a delicious pizza lunch. And thank you to all those who sent well wishes and gifties and cards. It was all very much appreciated. Of course the best of all were the Masses said.

Most of the gang.

I kid you not... the day was very warm this APRIL day and the children insisted they go for a swim at our favorite private spot.

A few days later it was snowing.