weekend trips!

we visited the bronx zoo for "boo at the zoo".  penny tried to go into the haunted house, but she was too frightened.  the very nice zoo staff let her have some candy anyway.  we got onto the monorail and penny's reaction to the elephants was priceless:

this weekend, penny's possible true love desmond came for a visit.  though the two had never met before, we are determined to get them married to one another ASAP.  i think they're off to a pretty good start:

we all went to the museum of natural history together, and penny brought along a notebook and pen so that she could take notes.  first up, a picture she drew while we were hanging out under the blue whale.  from top to bottom, there's a crab, the whale and three fish, all covered in waves because they are underwater:

next up was the elevator that took us from the lower floor to the upper level:

a triceratops:

a portrait of daddy:

and the letters A-E:

not too shabby.
the next day was our family celebration of alex's birthday.  penny waited while alex went to get the car:

and we went to the children's festival at the queens county farm museum:

we fed the animals:

ate grilled corn, watched pig races, and were unsuccessful in finding a candy apple for penny to try.  we drove to the red hook fairway and spent a good hour or so wandering through the grocery store.  i had penny distract alex so that i could grab the ingredients we needed to bake him a pumpkin pie for his birthday.  he didn't suspect a thing!  penny wrote the words DADDY and PENNY in his card all by herself!  it's pretty fun around here!