Catch the moment: Week 11

A visit from the grandparents can't be complete without a trip to the zoo. Penny absolutely loved the Kimodo Dragon exhibit. It was like seeing a modern day dinosaur for her. She talked about it for the next few days.

The bonus of your kids having birthdays a week apart is that you can schedule their well child visits together! Woo hoo! Penny was very good at showing her little sister how to be brave for the doctor.

I've been compiling Target coupons for a few months and somehow managed to use them all at the same time for a portrait session.. So instead of the session costing $86, we paid $10. I call that a screaming deal!

Ooops, no pictures taken on day 73. The first time all year!

Continued expeditions outside. Ruby is getting more accustomed to being on the ground.

It's a good thing I have a sense of humor. Our craft store has a small tub of magic sand that kids can play with while mama shops. I left Penny there and went an aisle over to look at fabric. I can hear her playing and check in on her. Doing good. A minute passes by and over the intercom: "Can Penny's mom come to the front of the store?" Oh man. I find my very sheepish toddler by the register with magic sand in her hair. I felt like *such* a mom and that I had earned a new badge. But not the kind that you really want to display!

Another warm day! I relaxed in the backyard while Penny dug around in the grass and dirt. Reminiscing on last summer where we had picnic dinners out in the grass in the shade of our maple tree, the delicious scent of peaches wafting over from our tree and the curious clucks of the chickens.

Catch up on previous weeks: 

Catch the moment archives

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Mother's Day + RadioFlyer Ultimate Family Wagon Review

Since entering the fabulous ranks of motherhood, our annual tradition for Mothers Day has been to take a trip to the zoo. Here's our trip last year...it's crazy that at that point we had no idea that we'd be a family of 4 the next time around.

Because I love going to the zoo so much, Adam got me an annual pass to the Woodland Park zoo as my gift last year and I have taken Penny at least a dozen times. It was awesome! I kind of wondered how I'd fare with two kids and a couple weeks ago a friend and I took our children (4 kids under the age of 3) and I learned very quickly that handling my own two at the zoo is no easy feat. This year I decided to take a break from my awesome annual pass and wait until next year when Ruby is a year old and Penny is 3. Then it'll be easier, right?!

Anywho, our trip this year went really well because Adam and I employed our divide and conquer technique and made it through with as little fuss and muss as possible. If you've seen me at all over the last 2 months, you'll know that I pretty much wear Ruby all the time and that's how we like it. Adam had Penny, and when he wasn't chasing after her she was riding in her princess wagon.

Let me take a moment to introduce Penny's Princess Wagon - aka the Radio Flyer Ultimate Family Wagon.

Why do we love this wagon? Because it's pretty much the bomb dot com. It has everything I can think of!

• Double seats
• Each seat folds down so you can also have it become a mobile changing station (or toddler lounge bed, whatever floats your boat)
• The seats have cushions, which are removable therefore washable.
• An easy to remove canopy (read: UV protection)
• 6 cup holders (which hold both adult and child sized cups)
• Seat belts
• Storage
• Lightweight, so it's easy to pull and lift into the trunk

So far this wagon has accompanied us on two zoo trips and a fair experience, and it has been such a huge help. We often have play dates with other toddlers so it's nice to have a wagon that can easily hold two and still have space to carry a snack bag and a few extras. We have gotten so many compliments and envious side glances on this wagon - it's pretty much the creme-de-la-creme of wagons, if you ask me!

You can find the RadioFlyer Ultimate Family Wagon at Toys 'R Us and on Amazon.com.

When we got home, Adam and the girls had a surprise for me - a new lilac bush to plant in our front yard under our bay windows! That way I can open the windows during the bloom and smell that intoxicating scent. I felt so loved by my family <3 br="">

See what zoos The Pierogie Mama has written about

Disclosure: Thank you Radio Flyer for sending me the ultimate wagon for our family outings! Product was provided for review, no other compensation was provided. All opinions expressed are my own. We LOVE this wagon! This link contains affiliate links.

Epic Playdates at the Woodland Park Zoo

This summer we've been hitting the zoo almost every two weeks. My annual pass gets myself and two adults in, and kids under age 2 free! We've taken advantage of this deal several times with friends and family who have kids of similar age to Penny.

Why is the zoo an epic playdate for toddlers and little kids?

In Seattle, with the likelihood of rain so high (as a torrential downpour occurs outside), the Woodland Park Zoo is set up to be a great playdate idea even if it's drizzly. Many of the exhibits feature indoor structures that give you a closer peek into the exhibit.

Zoos are getting better about being accommodating to patrons of all sizes and abilities, especially toddlers. Our zoo features windows and activities at eye level for toddlers.

For older kids, many zoos offer day camps and themed days (such as treasure hunts) that get them involved with animal and habitat activism.

One of the greatest benefits of zoos (and you know I'm a mom when I say this) is that the variety of animals, excitement of climbing over different structures, and general running around is that kids are tired by the end of the day! That makes this mama feel good when a day of play with Penny's friends is both a highly physical and educational experience.

As Penny gets older, our playdates will evolve to her abilities (though will always include trips to the zoo!). As a pretty outdoorsy family, we've talked about taking the "all American family road trip"for several years and have been holding off until our kids will be old enough to appreciate it. Gosh, I feel so old saying that. When we do get there, I'm keeping Dooce's trip to Moab in mind because A) geology is awesome and B)...geology is awesome! It's funny seeing the family walk around these normally very hot parks in their winter gear, because this Washington girl pulls out the shorts and a t-shirt when it hits 55 degrees.

What is your epic playdate plan for this summer? Will you be taking trips to the zoo, fun camping trips, signing the kids up for cooking classes, or zip lining in Costa Rica? Ps, if you are, please don't let me know, because I'll start whining about how I wanna go zip lining in Costa Rica!!)

See what zoos The Pierogie Mama has written about

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own. Follow along on Facebook and Twitter with #EpicPlaydate #CGC hashtags.

If only Planet Wise wet/dry bags had been around in the 80's...

This post was originally published as a part of the Keep Cool in the Sun giveaway hop.
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When I was about a year old, my parents took me to the Calgary zoo. We were viewing the hippo pond, which at the time was a pit with a 15 ft wall around it and you could view the hippos below. That afternoon, most of them were lounging and sleeping - being boring old hippos. After a few minutes, excitement ran through the crowd as one got up and started pacing around. "Look the hippo is moving! Do you see the hippo?" parents would ask their children, who were delighted to see this mixture of a short elephant-cow thing walking around. 

My mother recounts that this hippo proceeded to back himself up against the wall, which was seen as pretty hilarious to the families watching. Unfortunately this particular hippo must have had an upset tummy, which is probably what instigated him to get up and move around a little bit. Within a few seconds, the squeals of glee quickly turned into screams of shock and disgust as black matter shot up the wall and up onto the crowd. You can probably guess what this mysterious black matter was. This story has been told many times, and each time my mother gets this forlorn look as she remembers the beautiful white dress I was in. My dad, with a sh*t-eating grin (ok, bad choice of words, but so fitting), explains how when he took his glasses off, his eyes had been protected and he had a line of poo where the glasses had been. My dress had to be thrown away, as no one was going to carry around a poopy dress for the rest of the zoo trip. And I'm not quite sure what my parents did with their clothes, but I'm assuming it was much more acceptable for a toddler to run around in her diaper and the adults just had to deal.

The kicker to the story is that after we got cleaned up, we passed by the hippo pond again (this time staying a safe distance away) - and it looks like the hippo was going for round 2.

In 2013, I'm sure it would have been a viral video sensation (or at least one of my parents would have snapped a shot with their phone, I know I would!). But this was the 1980's and film was to be reserved for good pictures. So sadly, no photographic evidence exists.

This was on my mind when we visited the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle last week. Had this been something that happened to Adam and I with Penny, the least I would have been able to do was save that pretty little white dress - because Planet Wise graciously gave me the opportunity to try out their Travel Wet/Dry bag and the Sport bag.

Planet Wise is well known for their incredibly well made wet bags that don't allow any leaks or stink to escape. After all, they're primarily used by cloth diapering families to store dirty diapers between washes.  Something tells me that hippo poop has a much stronger stench than baby poop, but at least it would have been something!Who wants to read about a collaboration between the zoo and Planet Wise to see just how stink locked the bags are? I just might be half serious...

We took the sport bag with us on our trip to the zoo last week (thankfully the hippos were not out that day!) and it was a really easy way to keep Penny's clean and used cloth diapers separated from the rest of the diaper bag.

Like all Planet Wise bags, the protection goes both ways - these bags aren't just for keeping your wet stuff away from your dry stuff.  They're also great for keeping things dry! The PUL liner maintains a protective barrier from both sides of the material.  So this is a perfect bag to keep on your back when at the water park and you want to keep a small towel or a change of clothes dry.

The small travel wet/dry bag also has great uses. My favorite use is having it be a safe place to carry my expensive face lotion while traveling. How many of you have had a bottle of lotion burst from pressure change while in your stowed luggage during flight and gotten all over your make up and hair brush? It's happened way too many times to me!  For mama-cloth users, you can use it as a way to carry your new and soiled pads as well.

Planet Wise has a ton of different products that will fit your needs - from wet bags, diaper covers, changing pads, pail liners, nursing covers and cloth wipes! They probably several hundred prints between all of their fabulous products.

To add to their awesomeness, Planet Wise has graciously offered one of my readers a set of their Travel Wet/Dry and Sport Bag in the print of their choice!


See what zoos The Pierogie Mama has written about!

This giveaway is over - thanks to all for entering! 

Keep an eye out for more Pierogie Mama Giveaways.

Disclosure: Thank you, Planet Wise for providing me with products to accurately facilitate this review.  I did not receive any financial compensation for this post. 

Mother's Day Recap

This weekend I got the best of both worlds - a Mother's Day celebration in my honor and another in conjunction with my own mama.

Last year for my birthday we went to the Portland Zoo with 2 month old Penny, who slept through the entire experience. I saw that the weather was supposed to be gorgeous on Saturday of Mother's Day weekend so I made the request for a family outing to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. As we were getting ready, I was checking my facebook and my real life / bloggy friend Gretchen of That Mama Gretchen posted a picture of her family getting ready to go to the zoo too.. A quick text exchange followed and we made plans to run into each other there!

Since it was A) sunny B) Saturday C) Mother's Day weekend (1/2 off for mamas!) - parking was horrendous. If there is one thing that my husband can't stand it's trying to look for parking. We both grew up in the suburbs where parking is never an issue, but somehow I am more tolerant of this problem. He always teases me that whenever we go out to "treat" me, it's always in the city. Well, that's where a lot of the fun stuff is!

Nonetheless we trekked on, had a quick pow-wow with Gretchen (who was the cool mom and dressed up her family in preparation for their zoo visit!) and meandered our way around the zoo.

Thanks for the pic, Gretchen!

Penny took notice of a few animals - mostly the small and fast ones. Her favorites by far - the otters in the grizzly bear exhibit...

...and a mama wallaby with a baby in her pouch!

I'm really looking forward to many more visits this summer because an early birthday present was an annual pass so that Penny and I could take advantage of the zoo during less busy times and enjoy all the different activities the zoo has to offer (like feeding an elephant or giraffe for $5! Isn't that amazing?!).

 Afterwards we drove down to my family's for the weekend and surprised my mom. She wasn't expecting us because I had to gently remind her that I'm a mama now too - and there will be holidays where we celebrate on our own. Well, we visited anyways and on Sunday she and I had our annual Mother's Day pedicures and rounded out the weekend with some delicious grilled salmon and asparagus on the lake house's deck.

The weekend left me feeling particularly blessed for such a wonderful family. How did you celebrate?