Touch a Truck and the Zoo Playgroup

I cannot believe that the summer is already half over. We have been doing our best to keep busy and have a bit of a schedule. Monday mornings we have gymnastics, Tuesday evening more gymnastics for Morgan, Wednesday morning playgroup, Wed. afternoon more gymnastics for Pepper, Thursday mornings library storytime and Fridays are usually unscheduled. In between those set activities we have playdates and other West Akron MOMSclub activities. Even with all that, I still get asked constantly, "What are we doing today/next?" I love summertime but being the constant party planner can be exhausting. That said here are two fun activities that we did last week.





Getting Pepper ready for Touch a Truck. It was a hot day so I thought it would be good to get her hair pulled back. She always asks me to braid her hair but I don't always have the time or it's not easy with Hazel. Since Hazel was taking an early nap, I thought I'd take the time to do it.



We arrived at Touch a Truck a little early so the line for face painting was super short. Morgan had no interest but Pepper was excited.

I love her cute little cheeks decorated or not. Oh, and she's very happy in this picture despite her sad expression.

The bouncy castle was still pretty empty, too. Score!

Last year both kids were pretty scared of this raccoon but Pepper was very excited to see him this year. She kept us all notified of his whereabouts the entire we were there.

Now to the touching of trucks. Here's Pepper in a bulldozer.

A very happy boy.

Checking out the inside of the garbage truck.

An electric company drilling truck. The electric truck guys were very  nice and seemed to be happy to share their truck with a ton of kids.

This guy would help the kids into the lift and then raise it a bit. Very fun.

Morgan hogging the driver seat of the school bus. I was distracted for a couple minutes and a whole group of kids missed out on trying out the seat because of my two. Lovely.

Morgan's good friend, Sarah and her Mom, joined us for the outing. These two are too cute, even when looking into the sun.

Guess who snuggled her way into the middle of this picture?

We waited forever to sit in the fire truck but everyone seemed very happy about it so I guess I can't complain too much.

I'm not sure what I love more in this picture, Pepper's squished cheeks or Morgan's big bum.

Sarah hanging out in the back of the ambulance. About this time Hazel was done being patient and sweaty and hungry. So we headed over for some pizza and snow cones.

But first we had to take a picture with the Akron Aeros mascot. I guess Pepper has warmed up to large stuffed animals.

The group, including Sarah's dog, Maggie, enjoying lunch in the shade. After lunch, my girls were done and ready to head home for nap time. Luckily, Sarah's mom, Stephanie, was very  nice and offered to keep Morgan for the rest of the afternoon. Such a great day with friends and something out of the ordinary to do.

Last Wednesday morning, our playgroup headed to the Akron Zoo. It was a nice day, not too hot and we had a lot of people show up. Yay for us.

Some of the group at a play area near the jaguar.

Pepper and her adorable little friend, Isla.
We haven't seen much of Isla lately because she has a new little brother. But baby Miller is now old enough to join the rest of the group and the girls couldn't be happier.

Very happy to be on the carousal.

This past winter the zoo took down the jellyfish exhibit and put up a coral reef indoor exhibit. It was pretty fun and had lots of amazing sea creatures. We missed the climbing wall bu this bubble video wall kept everyone entertained for quite awhile.

Time to touch some sea creatures.

Working very hard to touch the horseshoe crab with only two fingers.

Stingray

They also have these other play sets for the kids to crawl around on.

Thank goodness for playgroup and moms club. I would never be able to survive the summer...or my life for that matter, without their support and friendship!