Super Duper Toy Deal!

Ok, folks, not my usual, but I HAD to brag. My good friend at www.alaskacoupondiva.com clued me in on the 75% off toy sale at Target. Being the mother of multiples that I am, I had to check it out! So here we go. I got 20 items, which I will break down later, for $107.59! For this price I took care of Christmas for the boys, Christmas for 5 children of friends, and birthday for two children of friends. WOW. Original price - $377.02. That's a savings of 71.5%!
I scored:
2 Handy Manny Tool belts
2 Handy Manny Plush dolls
2 AquaDoodle zip bins (I love it, drawing with WATER)
2 Baby Elmo's (very popular at our house, known as Momo)
2 Plush frog backpacks
1 Block Puzzle
1 Infantino Tool Bench
1 Sesame Street stacking toy
1 Disney plush fairy
3 Barbies (the nice ones)
1 Mangext building set
1 stacking top
1 Barbie 4 outfit wardrobe Yay!

The Fourth Festivities!

On the Fourth of July, we headed over to a very toddler friendly party with our friends Gretchen, Ryan, and their little boy Gunnar (He's the curly haired boy, above). Ryan scoured the neighborhood for toys, so the backyard was a play wonderland. We had a lot of fun, although Rich and I didn't really spend much adult time. Seems we were the only ones really worried about supervising our 15 MONTH OLDS! oh well.

The boys playing with Riley-roo. Her parents Krista and Sam moved up here the same time we did, so the boys have known her their entire lives!

Hang on, Noah has to take this call on his penguin. They will use anything as a phone. We took off their shoes hoping they wouldn't cross the sharper gravel into the house. Yeah right. All we got was dirty feet.

Avery was obsessed with every "vehicle" there, as you will see.

Noah and Rachel, another one of Sam and Krista's girls

Noah loved the water table. It eventually got so muddy with gravel that I accidentally dumped it over. I know, party pooper.

Riley surrounded by the boys. Avery is here with Cassius (on top) and Ambrose. He was born the day after the boys.

another ride.

Very busy, very, very busy.

So we stuck to our schedule. At seven we jammied them, and gave them milk. At eight we loaded up in the car and they slept while we drove home. It really was a great fourth.

I told you I would, and now...The Zoo!

We made a family trip to the zoo! While the boys have been many times (they love to take visitors here to sight see) Rich had never been. We had received backpacks from another twin parent he works with, so we decided to try them out over a long weekend.

The Anchorage Zoo is the greatest for so many reasons! It's fairly small, which is a big plus at this stage of my life, and it has a very natural setting. It's soothing to go there and walk through the "forest".

It has an awesome variety of animals. Here is a Yak. She was upset because her calf was a few feet behind her and we were too close. She kept snorting at us. I snorted back, I had my own calves and was just passing through.

The final great thing is that almost all (I would say 80%, but I guess) of the animals are RESCUE animals! Isn't that great! For whatever reason, they can't be returned to the wild. There is a Bald Eagle with a wing missing. Many of the birds have wing or eye injuries. The pic above is an otter.

Rich and his portable person. You will all be so proud. We're phasing out the paci, named "Buh" (but obviously not here).

One of the moose, rescued after it was orphaned as a calf. The zoo ambassadors are a wolf pack, removed for over population. They are all brothers and sisters. I don't have a pic because they usually don't sit still long enough.

One of the polar bears (this is the male) was rescued in Alaska, the other was taken from a sea park in AUSTRALIA of all places.

A Grizzly bear.

Me with my sons, Avery and orange backpack. They took turns riding in the other backpack and the stroller. Avery is looking at a big "kitty kitty"

and there he is.

A Dall sheep, different than a Bighorn sheep, just don't ask me how.

A Caribou, or Reindeer

Hedwig! Not really, but a snowy owl. Her flight feathers were permanently singed from flying over an incinerator.

be patient

I promise I will post more pictures tonight!