Even though this is lilies, my husband H said, "Look: Three Roses Minnesota!"
After the butterfly garden we went to the new grizzly bear exhibit. It is called Russia's Grizzly Coast, and it is a very well designed exhibit. They have sea otters and grizzly bears in a very nice exhibit. You can see the sea otters swimming up very close, and you can also get very close to a grizzly bear. The girls loved it.
After you see the sea otters and the bears, you get to a spot where you can pretend you are digging out a woolly mammoth. This held the interest of Roses #1 and 2, and Nadia, for quite awhile:
Rose #3 also very much enjoyed digging in the sand. Regarding her attire in this picture, here is the thing. Between the butterfly garden and the grizzly bear exhibit is a HUGE water fountain in which children are expected, nay, encouraged, nay, nearly compelled, to run. We had 1) no swim diaper 2) no towel and 3) no change of clothes. For either Rose #2 or Rose #3. (For some reason I had a change of clothes for Rose #1 which my colleague, quite correctly, pointed out was kind of strange. Who carries a change of clothes for the 6-year-old but not the 4- or 2-year-old?)
Anyway, all of this by way of explanation regarding Rose #3's diaper peeking out here. She was just wearing a t-shirt and diaper by this point (luckily I at least had a dry shirt for her)!
After the sand pit we checked out the wild boars and then headed home. We had a very delicious dinner with Anna and Nadia of brats, bean salad, watermelon and lettuce salad.
I am very grateful that we can do things like take our kids to the zoo and then bring them home for a delicious dinner with good friends. At dinner, Rose #1 said to Anna, "I feel like you are members of our family, and that Nadia is one of our cousins." Rose #1 is such a good girl. I was very, very proud of her to say that.
And here she is this year (being held up so her hair did not catch on fire from her birthday candles).
A birthday is not a birthday without a good game of "upside down." Here are the Roses and Nadia playing this fine game. Luckily this game happened before dinner, since the upside down game can be hard on one's tummy.
(Can you tell how much we love being invited for a party?)
Rose #2, on the other hand, struggles a bit to keep up with where exactly she is supposed to go and what she should be doing. Here she is, for once appropriately placed in the outfield:
Last night our kids only got one chance at bat (yes, in a 1 hour game). There are no outs at this age, so everyone who goes to bat gets to run the bases. Rose #2 did a pretty good job! 
Rose #1 cracked a line drive down center field. Then she ran around the bases with her chestnut hair flowing behind her: 
Guppy and Poppy came to the game and entertained Rose #3, who mostly wanted to drink the entire water bottle down to the dregs. I had to go back to the rec center to refill it!
Guppy and Rose #1 making the list in my previous post:
Circle time with the fabulous Mrs. Webster:
A shot of Rose #1 at her cubby:
And the best of all - Poppy, Rose #1, and Guppy.
It looks like sushi but trust me, it is small Asian pastries with a lot of chocolate sauce drizzled over the top. She loved eating her special birthday cake. In case if you are wondering if the container at the bottom of the picture is ketchup, it is. The buffet also serves mac and cheese and french fries!
On Saturday evening we had our neighbors over for dinner for a birthday party. Rose #3 just loves them, and we had a great time eating burgers off the grill. We all sang happy birthday to Rose #3, and she opened her gifts from us - Ladybug Girl and a Lemon Drop Dora. Lemon Drop Dora smells just like a bottle of furniture polish. Yum.
When I first found out I was pregnant with Rose #3 it was, to put it mildly, a bit of a shock. But now I can't imagine life without her. She looks like a miniature version of Rose #1 but she has a personality and a mind all her own. She is very stubborn and independent and she always wants to be included. That must be the personality of the youngest child! Now that she can talk I love chatting with her, and tonight we were reading the book Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type. Rose #3 can say: "Click Clack MOOOOOO!" I love you so much little bunny. Happy birthday!!
My sister Charity has become the family cakemaker. Below you can see the princess cake WITH the ladies-in-waiting cupcakes. I think the one on the far left looks curiously like Elizabeth Taylor!!
After the guests gathered we went to our local park. The kids really enjoyed playing under the bridge. Here are a few shots of them:
I only had to bring three girls back to go potty during the 20 or 25 minutes we were at that park. I guess this was my fault for not forcing all the children to go before we left! After we got back, it was time to open presents. H had the fine idea of putting the birthday girl and the friend whose gift was being opened on the steps. The other birthday guests sat on the rug in our living room.
After gifts we handed out the prize bags, which were comprised entirely of items from the $1 bin at Target. (Hooray for the $1 bin at Target.) I think everyone liked their prize bags and I did not feel like I was contributing overly to the propagation of cheap plastic toys in this world.
Then we got down to serious business about showing off our muscles. Rose #1 really has PIPES!
Imagine that you exist in a state of ALWAYS looking for your next sugar fix, but that you are at the whim of a horrible dictator who is always withholding the sugar. This is Rose #2's moment-to-moment existence ("Mom, can we have a treat? Mom, is there any candy? Mom, can I have dessert?"). She is so accustomed to hearing "No" that whenever she hears "Yes," it seems like a miracle. Doesn't she look smug?
Alas, by the time I got to Rose #3, the ice cream sandwiches were all gone. Never fear. Rose #3 got a pudding with squirty whipped cream on top. 
Here you can see how she painted herself with pudding including on her dress.
Here are the June birthdays (all except baby Kate, who was VERY sad tonight because of her 2-month-old shots! I sure hope she will sleep tonight for her mom):
Thank you Guppy and Poppy for the fine June birthday party.
Rose #2 likes to sit on Poppy's lap and borrow his reading glasses. Poppy has at least two pairs of glasses - the cheap $10 reading glasses kind, and the very very expensive bifocal kind. I hope that he always gives Rose #2 the cheap ones.
Rose #1 enjoyed the kid menu, which doubled as a coloring sheet. Rose #1 is old enough to keep herself occupied with crayons for quite awhile.
Rose #3, by contrast, can only play with crayons for about 36.2 seconds before she is literally jumping out of her skin. Here she is playing with Poppy:
We had an enormous amount of food. I took a picture of the table after we were done. It was very good (I had the senior plate, which Poppy ordered for me. I ordered his breakfast, which was two sunnyside up eggs, 3 pieces of bacon, and 3 pancakes. The only part of that breakfast I would actually eat is the pancakes.) 
After breakfast was over, we went to the pet store to buy The Fish. Here are Roses #1 and #3 looking at the available fish. I had to restrain Rose #3 several times from climbing up the fish tanks like a ladder.
Finally I put Rose #3 on my shoulder so she could see the upper level of tanks. We stared at the sharks for awhile. It is easy to get more ambitious about fish when you look at all the available varieties at the pet store.
We ended up getting 5 girl guppies (Rose #1 kept telling me they were tomboys, to which I responded, "tomfish"?) and 3 boy guppies. Guppy, the namesake of these fish, is really hoping that we will have fish babies. Here we are putting the bag of fish into the tank.
I am VERY pleased to report that none of The Fish have died (yet). Also that Roses #1 and #2 reached a compromise about the names of the snails. Rose #1 wanted them to be called Gary and Patrick; Rose #2 wanted them to be called Amelia and [some other girly name]. They compromised on Gary (aka Snail #1) and Amelia (Snail #2).
For the first time ever Rose #3 was permitted to hold Baby Kate (under STRICT supervision of course). She thought she was the cat's pajamas. Look at her smile! You can just tell what she is thinking: Look at what a big girl I am!!
Rose #2 never lets a little baby-holding action pass her by. When I was putting her to bed tonight she told me that holding Baby Kate was the best part of her day.
We also got a chance to say "hi" to Daddy on the phone. H is in Phoenix for work. I honestly do not know exactly what he is doing but it involves airplanes. This is the picture he sent to me from his phone.
One of the most alive parts of my day was running through the rain after work. It was POURING DOWN RAIN right when I came out of our building. I had no umbrella (of course) and so I got soaking wet. For some reason the sidewalk I normally walk down was JAMMED with people right when I wanted to go through, so I ended up dodging under people's umbrellas. I felt like I was in a pinball machine!
Here we are with the neighbor kids. 
After a great weekend, it is back to work tomorrow. Tomorrow is June 2, my birthday. I will be 27. Again.
Time sure flies from age 1 to age 2! By the way, if our Apple laptop had not been ruined by the Lemonade Incident, I would have included a picture of Rose #3 on the day of her birth. Alas.
