our trip to the akron zoo

In July, we went to the Akron Zoo.  We had talked for a year about going and we decided to make it happen. Plus, one of my 100x40 goals was to take Emmy to a zoo that we hadn't been to.  Not too hard considering we have only been to the Columbus Zoo.  

We went up on a Sunday and got there not long after they opened.  It really didn't seem too crowded when we got there, but as we left there were definitely more people.  Akron is small compared to Columbus, but it was really nice.  It was clean.  They had some animals that Columbus didn't have. We both agreed it was worth the drive up there for the day.  The bonus is that you get a discount on admission if you are a Columbus Zoo member.  

The first exhibit you come to is penguins.  It was a very nice exhibit. The neat thing they had was a platform you could climb up and watch the penguins from above.  There was a caretaker nearby who answered questions and told us how to spot the baby.

 

Emmy was excited about the lemurs, which are one of her favorite animals.  We knelt down and watched them eat and play (and, of course, poop).  There were several types of lemurs in the exhibit. The ones above are ring-tailed.  

  

Emmy & I in the giant bird's nest. This is how big an eagle's nest can get.

 

The Akron Zoo just opened Grizzly Ridge that summer.  It was home of, surprise, two grizzly bears. They also have a great river otter exhibit there.  We stood there for quite a while watching the crazy otters swim around and fight with each other.  It actually has a clear slide you can go down through the otter exhibit.  We tried to get Emmy to go down, but it was a no go.  The otters were such a hit with her that she chose a stuffed river otter as her souvenir from me.

  

Emmy's favorite thing had to be feeding the goats. She loves goats. Ever since our trip to the petting farm in Virginia Beach, she's been all about goats.  This was probably the busiest area we encountered all day.

Their little aquarium was nice.  They had jellyfish and an octopus along with other things like fish.

  

Here's Emmy checking out the Capybara. It's the world's largest rodent and looks like a giant hamster.  He was pretty content with sunning himself.

That's our trip to the Akron Zoo in a nutshell.  We had a late lunch at Red Robin's and then did some shopping before heading back home.  I asked Emmy what her favorite part of the day was. Shopping in the gift store was her answer.  Typical girl.

make // a 50th birthday quilt

I had known for a while that I wanted to do something special for my cousin's 50th birthday.  Once she started talking about finishing her basement and making it Ohio State, I knew the perfect thing...a Buckeye quilt.  I cut the material out on a couple snow days this winter, sewed the top together in June, basted in September, finally started quilting in October and got the binding on a few days before her birthday.  For the top, I used various prints in red, gray and black (mostly from Fabric.com). I have made two other Ohio State quilts and some of the material makes an appearance in all three quilts, which I think is a nice touch (the other two belong to my cousin's mom & aunt). 

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I snapped before wrapping it up.  The back is solid black and I made the binding out of the same material to match.  I machine stitch my binding on.  You can find the instructions to make this quilt here: Cluck Cluck Sew: Hunky Dory Baby Top.  Since it is a baby top, I obviously constructed more squares.  I ended up with a quilt that was almost full-sized.  Perfect for snuggling up in.

craft with emmy // fall tree painting

It had been a long time since I'd done Q-tip painting with Emmy.  I decided it would be the perfect time to make a fall tree - one for us and one for Uncle Don, who had just gotten out of the hospital.  I free-handed a tree trunk on white construction paper.  Then Emmy colored in the trunk with crayons and added grass, too. I asked her what color leaves were in the fall- orange, yellow, red, brown - and used those colors.  They turned out super cute.  In the picture below, she was half-way through painting the first one.  Leaves ended up in the grass, too, because where we live the leaves were already starting to fall.

Here is one of my favorite painting tips.  I once got this Crayola Washable Paint Set for a special project we were working on in my preschool class.  When the paint was all gone in the jars, I washed them out and then added our school paint.  Before I was using paint cups, but I was always throwing tons of paint away at the end.  These Crayola jars have lids that screw on and will keep paint good for a really long time.  I buy lots of colors in larger bottles of paint (like this) and refill the jars as needed.  I'm wasting less paint and the jars are perfect for painting with small paint brushes, Q-tips and toothpicks.

craft with emmy // owl painting

On Halloween afternoon, Emmy & I did some crafting.  I printed out this witchy owl template.  I highly recommend using cardstock, especially if using paint.  This website has lots of printables I pinned in the past and I think we'll be doing lots of these projects in the future.

Here is the first one she did that she actually gave to me to keep, which does not usually happen.  I plan on mounting this owl and framing it to use as a decoration next year.  

craft with emmy // scrap art

Back in July, Emmy and I had an art day out on the porch.  I decided that we would do some open-ended gluing. I had purchased the Seafoam 12x12 paper to cut down into 4x6 pieces to use in my Project Life album.  There were leftover pieces of paper and I didn't want to just throw them away.  Into my "Emmy Art Stash" they went and they turned out perfect for her art.

I gave her a pair of scissors and she was able to cut down the strips.  We started with small sheets of cardstock at first - probably 4x6.  Once that was gone, I gave her a piece of 8x11 cardstock.  That is when the magic kicked in.  She decided to fill in the entire sheet. It looked like a quilt when she was finished.

I just love open-ended art like this.  It is so fun to see what kids will end up making.  And maybe Elise - the designer of the Project Life Seafoam Edition - will design some super cool fabric next?