Flat Lincoln & Rylie

5/8/13 Lincoln and Rylie came to join us at the Lilac Festival on Friday.  We introduced them to the family..

David (dad), Leona, Lucas and Kim (mom)

 Then they helped us get Safari Sam and Safari Sara out in  the mail to take a trip to Lincolns and Rylies house in Arkansas!

 Leona and Lucas getting to know their flats (and future pen pals!)

 Look!!   We raised butterflies!!!   Licoln & Rylie arrived just in time for our Painted Lady butterflies to emerge from their chrysalis'!  When we first got the caterpillars, they were only as big around as pencil lead and only 1/2 long.  Before spinning their chrysalis' they grew to be as thick as a pencil and two inches long.

5/9/13   We took Lincoln & Rylie to the library for "Muffins With Mom" program in honor of upcoming mothers day.   When we pulled in, some one was plugged in and using the electric car charging station!  Cool!   We have never been able to see how it works before!

 Inside and after stories, we had some sweet little muffins.  the librarians had everything decorated with flowers.

The books we read.

A fish tank inside our Children's area of the library.

 Outside the library, we found a geocache!!  If you don't know what that is- first Welcome to Geocaching!  Second- look it up here  and check out the official geocaching site, http://www.geocaching.com/.  Yay!  Some are more exciting for kids and have some little prizes inside for kids to trade out.  Hopefully we will be able to find one before they return home!

 And here is a sneak peek at the lilac's!   These are the traditional lilacs- purple.  This bush borders a church parking lot near our home.  As soon as I drove up- I could smell them.  Mmmmm.

 This gives you an idea how large this one is.  Rylie and Lincoln are there!!

 Back at home- doing our school lessons.  For now, we have our lessons out on the three season room along with their toys. 

 And I was surprised when i picked up the mail, to find that we got our introductory booklet from Compassion International.  We just became a sponsor of this child Sakshi- who is 8 years old and lives in India.  I was so excited to get the packet so I could learn more about her. 

So- it has been an exciting day!!!  Flat Licoln and Flat Rylie are exhausted!



5/10/13
Lilac Festival- The Lilac Festival is held in Highland Park in Rochester and marks the beginning of the season for most Rochestarians.  There are over 1,000 lilac bushes and 500 varities of them.  The festival is ten days long and a tradition for many people to visit on Mothers Day.    There is live entertainment, childrens' activities, and arts and crafts vendors. 

It was pouring rain in about 5 minutes into our adventure!  We ducked in for cover under the food tent and got some "wold famous" curly fries and hot dogs.

 There were huge bounce houses, that were soaking wet too.  The kids were told taht they could go to the festival as a reward for good behavior during school time, so I treated (spoiled) them and let them go into the bounce houses anyway.  The slide had at least 3 inches if water- it was pretty much like an inflated slip and slide. 

 In this picture you can see the water splash up at Lucas feet!

 By the time Leona wet down, it was pretty much dry.

 Lincoln and Rylie's turn!

 Some of the other bounce houses.

 After changing their pants, we were off to see some of the flowers. 

 (When we go out some where I think will be crowded and I am by myself- I will have the kids were the same color shirt- easier to find them.)

 Three different kinds of Lilac bushes.  These are taller than I am.

 There are always vendors selling things.  We stopped to check this one out.  A Lawn Robot!  It cuts your lawn continously and will got back to it's charger on it's own to recharge or get out of rain!

 Snow ball Lilacs.

 Two toned purple lilacs.

 Interesting....

 On the way to the car- i spotted this paper wasp nest in the bushes.  Empty now.

 Lace Lilacs.

 These are some of the bushes in Highland Park. 

5/14/13 We released Leona's butterflies and the grass caterpillars were long enough for her to give a trim.

 Leona saying her last good byes.

Seneca Park Zoo

5/15/13

 Golden Tamarin, it was fascinated with the flat travelers!!  This Tamarin just had a baby!!

 Not a great picture because of the glare- but there is the baby.  Only the size of your thumb when he was born.

 Another new Zoo Mommy!

 For some reason I could not get my c amera to focus beyond Lincoln.  Could have been because my hands were full and still trying to take pictures without dropping anything.

 The lazy lions!

 Getting a seat on the safari bus

 African Elephants

 Rylie, offering a treat?

 Our Polar bears!   The male is the one on  the left.  The female is significantly smaller, but more photogetic.

 Penguins.  Did you know that the colored bands that are on their wings denote witch family each penguin is in?

 Party Zoo Animals!

 River otter.

  5 /16/13  Abraham Lincoln Park- A natural play ground with fallen trees used for climbing equipment.

  These are huge bees that we have seen at the zoo and again at the playground.  They don't the slightest bit interested in people, but were all over the natural wood at both locations. 

  5/18/13 Fairport Farmers Market.  We love going to the markets to get our fresh produce and locally made goodies.  We stocked up on locally produced cage free, organic eggs.  Leona thought Rylie would appreciate these pretty hair ties.

 Our favorite Gluten Free Bakery- Ellies.

  Our take home this week was 6 dozen (yes, 6 dozen) eggs, a dozen gluten free cookies (for the men in the family), 2 dozen regular cookies made by the Amish (for the ladies in the family) Chocolate Peanut butter, and gluten free Blueberry crumb cake.  We'll be taking most of this on out trip to Pennsylvania.

  Later in the day, we dropped of some old towels, sheets and blankets at Lollipop Farm, the Humane Society of Greater Rochester.  They house a variety of animals from the typical domestic animals, to livestock depending on the need at the time.  They provide animal training classes, animal adoptions, petting zoos, as well as an open admission animal shelter. 

 At home, I discovered what ate the heads of of my pea plants!  This little guy.

 A park and play ground are just up the street from us, so we went up there to have some fun.  It's called Harris Whalen Park.  It is known for the great sledding hills that were formed by  a receding glacier. 

 Here is a picture of those hills!

 This is the one we went sledding down and I couldn't sit for about 4 weeks!

  5/19/13 Leona wanted me to send a picture of her hair before church.

After church on Sunday, We came back to the same park with some friends and happen to catch the Boy Scouts of America there doing a big rocket launch.

 Some of the late spring flowers- Trillium.
 Found another Geocache.  we had already found this one earlier in the year as well, but wanted to show our friend and her daughter what it was all about.  

  5/20/13 Lucas lost his FIRST TOOTH!!  He's only 5 and a half!!