DINOSAURS at the Birmingham Zoo

Seriously, Birmingham area friends, go.  And gripe about how you have to pay $3 a person to see these dinosaurs ($5 for nonmembers)  grrr.   

But really, that's my only beef.  And I know, I know.  It's probably expensive to have these things here, plus the zoo has to feed lots of actual real animals.  But it'll limit the number of times I take my kids to the zoo because I don't want to hear them complain about how I won't shell out $9 every time they want to see them.  ($12 if Husband comes).  But I'm a softy so we'll probably go a couple of more times.

Anyway.  back to the awesome part of the post:  the dinosaurs really are super cool.  All four of us REALLY enjoyed it.

The kids were hesitant at first, like we assumed they would be.  So in the car we talked a lot about how we all know dinosaurs are extinct and these are robots that can't chase you or even move anything except their heads or tails.  (some spit water, but that really is a fun surprise.  even better in a hot day)

Daughter and Son really like dinosaurs and thanks to many, many library books, Dino Dan and Dinosaur Train, they already knew the names of over half of the dinosaurs just by sight. seriously.  They were telling us if they were carnivores or herbivores and imparting all kinds of knowledge. They had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun.  Husband, who isn't a zoo lover, had a lot of fun too.

it took a little coaxing to get this first picture

full on dino love

Son kept looking over his shoulder at his carnivore.  

t-rex

this one was intense.  like, had a fish in his mouth with blood AND spit water  AND was pretty close. 

The last dinosaur and also a spitter.  Her babies were close by.

waiting for the train

she's always my seat partner on the train.  Notice my glasses.  My last pair of contacts were a casualty of pink eye.  And I've been more than lazy about scheduling an eye exam.

It's garden 2013 time

The only new thing I'm growing this year is cilantro.  Everything else is the same old same old.  I'm moving things around a little hoping somethings get more sun/shade. starting from seeds is SO much cheaper than buying plants, but well, it's nerve wracking.  So much room for error.  too much sun. not enough sun. too much water. not enough water.  too cold.  

my first cilantro sprout

hoping for tomatoes, peppers and basil galore.  

check out my cross eyed porch cat.

THE twin frontT-shirt quilt finished

Finally. Finally. Finally. I finished the top well over a year ago and pretty much just put it to the side while I took my time looking for ivy and rose fabric.  I ended up finding something I wasn't wild about but I thought was good enough. But before I started putting it together, I found what I thought was the best I'd find.  yes.  

So, here it is:

the front

the back

LOOK AT THAT AMAZING QUILTING.  I had no part in doing it.  Well, I paid for it.  a lot.  but it was well worth it.  There's no way I could have gotten this VERY heavy quilt through my machine.  money well spent. 

the rose and ivy fabric.  Also, the binding is the same shade of red as the JC 03

Daughter's Friendship Quilt

A couple of weeks ago it was a WIP. Now it's on a five year old's TWIN bed!

 I'm really happy with how it came together.  I think most of that is just me getting more used to mixing patterns and moving away from solids.  There is actually NO legitimate solid on the entire quilt.  The red is the closest and it's tonal.  

You can't tell from the picture, but the binding is a purple with silver dots on it. 

the front

the back

I originally wanted to try to hand at hand quilting.  But then decided I didn't want to learn how to hand quilt on a huge twin quilt.  So I just did my typical beside the ditch straight lines ... in purple to better tie in the binding.

Daughter loves it.