Art class, a giant Polar bear, and great friends

I am LOVING my art class 

(I signed up for another session).

My instructor is so creative and is teaching us all kinds of really cool things to do.

Last week, we painted with vegetables.

We used potatoes, broccoli, cabbage, onions, cauliflower, and celery.

I really like painting.

I actually love painting.

So I thoroughly enjoyed this class time.

I also may have tasted the vegetables once I painted them.

And at the end we made a cool little portfolio to put our work in.

Prepping the potato with a little green and blue paint.

Prepping the cauliflower.

I had a smorgasbord of paint.

These little spots of paint on my face are apparently what gave me away in my taste-testing efforts...
and the fact that Mommy knows I put EVERYTHING in mouth just to test it out.

Vegetable paintings

Does anyone remember the Knights and Princess of R Street Castle??

Well, there's now another princess and a lot of fun going on.

My family decided to meet up with them (and their parents!) midway from both of our residences and we somehow ended up in a zoo... which was fitting.

This is who greeted us:

Ella was always ready with a pose and a great smile.

Ella and Elly

Baby brother... oh wait! That's not my brother, that's a baby orangutan.

This is Isaac.
He kept trying to hold my hand.
I really didn't want him holding my hand...
however, I did let him cozy up next to me.

There are two babies missing from this shot.
But do notice the kangaroos in the background... with no fence.

This is inside the Polar Bear exhibit where you can see him being fed.

And he can come say hello.

And show off his HUGE paws.

We had so much fun; 

a timely little adventure when looking for a place to dine for dinner 

(our GPS somehow managed to find TWO carry-out only pizza shops, however we didn't know this until we arrived!);

and free cookies for dessert.

It was such a great trip.