The zoo!  Gracie’s favorite place, ever.  She LOVES her elephants and she loves the flamingoes!  She even tried really hard to be one:

I know, you just don’t get any more adorable than that. She rode the carousel with Aunt Brooke and had a blast.  She loves going all around and walked most of the way.  She has so much energy!  We had fun today.  Thanks, Aunt Brooke, for coming with us.  We enjoyed having you with us on our little adventure. And the weather was so perfect, I hope we can go a bunch before it gets too hot!

She brought home a plastic molded lion today and a stretched, flattened penny that says, “OKC ZOO” compliments of Aunt Brooke.  She won’t let go of that penney, by the way. What a very fun day!

For the rest of the pictures, they’re in the gallery.  You’ll just have to go there to see them! 

Fear is not a factor for Gracie… She tried to convince me it was a raisin, but she’d picked it up off the lawn and it had feet.  I told her it was a bug, and to throw it down but she, as always, gave me that look like, “I’ll do what I want ” and promptly stuck it in her mouth.  I watched in horror–I couldn’t get to her fast enough to stop her. She’d chewed it into two pieces before she got part of it out onto her tongue.  After I fished the rest of it out of her mouth, she said, “No, it not a raisin. It a buggy. No like it.” Ya think? Sick.

Wow, so much has been happening, I haven’t had the chance to sit and blog for all of you.  So sorry! 

We had church on Saturday night because of the OKC Memorial Marathon, so Gracie got to see all her church friends.  Then she went to Grandmommy and Grandpa’s house to spend the night, so that mommy could help with the marathon!  Lots of fun.  And she went to their church on Sunday morning! She loves going to Cherokee Hills nursery, and every time she goes with them, she tells me she has new friends.  She really adapts well.  She likes new people and new things. 

A thief and a liar? Gracie has decided she likes to collect coins from Daddy’s leather valet in our bedroom.  He keeps his change in there from the day, and collects it every morning for a cup of coffee.  A few times, Gracie decided that she needed it more than he did, and every now and then we would catch her in the act of transferring his money into her piggy bank, located on the shelf under Chris’ stuff. (It’s ceramic, so we keep it in our room) We would get onto her, but she’s so cute, it’s really hard not to laugh.  Well, the other day she was in there, and then in her bedroom, and then back in our room, and then back to her room.  I let her do this about 4 times and then went to “find” her in her room.  She was nowhere…so I called out to her.  I hear change clanging on the wood floor. 

“Gracie? Where are you?” 

“Yeah? I hiding! In here…wait…I hiding”

She scurries guiltily out from under her bed. With a penny.  I asked if she had anymore and she just smiled at me, held out her chubby little hand and said, “See, my penny!”  Then I moved her out of the way, and knelt to look under the bed only to find a whole pile of pennies, quarters, dimes, and nickels hidden away.  She’s been collecting them for awhile and keeping them under her bed.  Wonder what she’s saving up for?

More zoo excitement! Today we explored the zoo.  Gracie was excited about the elephants, but today, she really wanted to look at the elephant poop.  She kept making the other kids laugh by saying, “Ohhhhh, Elephant turds!” and pointing at them.  Gross. She’s definitely a youth pastor’s kid.  We also saw the bears, sea lions and apes.  Gracie loves the little baby ape.  She’s also very happy with the ducks and birds in the aviary (sp?) We spent quite a while just sitting and watching the birds fly around.  She also got one of those molded plastic elephant toy thingies.  We’ll see how long it takes her to crush it.  I had a whole collection when I was little though, so I think she needs one too.  It’s fun for me to get her toys that I fondly remember as a child.   

That’s it for now. Bye!

While Daddy was doing sound-guy stuff for important people like Mr. Vice President Dick Cheney and Former President Bill Clinton and our favorite–Gracie’s beloved Pastor Stan, Gracie and Mommy had some pretty special events of our own! The mom’s Bible Study group decided to cancel Bible Study for today since we couldn’t get within about 10 miles of the church because of the services. So Gracie got to go to the zoo today with Kobe Lakin and and Justice and Abby Janka!  Gracie had fun with Abby, but there was a very special connection today with the Princess and Kobe.  They held hands a lot.  There’s new pictures of the two of them in the gallery.  I ended up buying a ZooFriends pass, since they have raised admission prices (again!) and so we’ll probably go a lot this year.  Here, it’s too cute, I can’t wait to show you.  I’ll post one of them on here and you can go to the gallery for the other one:

Is Gracie dating? We’re going to have to keep an eye on her!

So for the first time EVER in Gracie’s life, I had to buy her some new clothes out of complete necessity.  Yes, you’re reading that right.  We have finally gotten to the place in her life where she’s worn everything from every shower (we had clothes up to 2T) and the hand-me-downs from Natalie and Maddie were all 1 year and 2T fall/winter clothes. Kindall and Kennedy gave us all their super cute 3T stuff, but it’s in storage till next year!  What’s a girl to do? We went to the thrift store first, to find somewhat decent play clothes that I wouldn’t mind throwing away at the end of the summer–I don’t like to send her out in the back yard or fingerpainting in her nice stuff.  I was so surprised when I found some great little shorts and shirts, even some nice stuff–with tags still on it from Baby Gap, last Summer’s line.  But when I went to check out, well, they didn’t take checks or ATM cards.  I NEVER carry cash, so I asked the lady to hold the items.  She can’t hold.  Huh.  So before I could even think or respond or anything, she said, “Do you have any change?” I replied that I did, but not $10 worth.  She took my items and rang everything up at 19 cents!  So I dug in my wallet for a couple bucks worth of change and she told me, “God bless you!” as we walked out. I called my dear friend, Phyllis Baker, who teaches the mom’s bible study.  We’ve been talking about the Lord’s favor and she was ecstatic to hear my story. It is true, God is so good and He does provide.  After the thrift store, Gracie took her mommy and Aunt Brooke to MacDonald’s to eat while she played on the (filthy, germ-ridden) PlayPlace.  Mmmmm.  Then we went to some other “new clothes” stores for some nice play sets and dressier clothes for church and for looking super-cute in the summertime. Target didn’t have anything I liked, I won’t shop at Old Navy or WalMart, and the mall looked too crowded.  We found some REALLY cute things at Ross (thanks, Laura! You were right!) and I’m happy with that. Isn’t it funny how picky I am, but when I go to the thrift store and they have everything I’m looking for?  Oh, the irony!