It was a fun filled father daughter Saturday. Jasmine has been asking about a zoo trip since we met her. Since Mommy was under the weather, Daddy saw an opportunity.  Jasmine really liked the bats and must have petted at least 20 goats. She saw seals, penguins, monkeys, giraffes, zebras and a baby elephant, but the highlight was the hippo butts.

After finishing the zoo, we headed to the Rose Gardens playground. It features an enormous play structure, sand pit, swings, and those ever important bathrooms. And by some miracle I got a parking spot right next to the park. If you have ever been to the Rose Gardens on the weekend, you know that parking is a challenge. Anyway, the playground met Jasmine’s approval and she is ready for a return trip.

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We had a wonderful family fun week with our new daughter Jasmine. We did lots of activities together, such as the Children’s Museum, shopping, and story time. There was also plenty of one on one time. Mom and daughter worked on many crafts including expanding the cardboard playhouse. Dad and daughter had many outings to playgrounds and libraries.

Jasmine is eager to be involved with household chores. Jasmine helps mommy in the garden and cooking. Jasmine helps daddy put the dishes away and with grocery shopping. Although, after three crashes she lost her grocery cart driving license yesterday. We’ll see if her driving improves next week.

Last Friday we met Jasmine’s kindergarten teacher, and we had a tour of the classroom and school. This morning Jasmine had her first day of school. She didn’t remember much, except that there were two recesses.

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We made our first trip to the Children’s Museum.  An array of parents walked around in a daze, while kids ran with glee among the many diversions. We were exhausted after two and half hours which felt like an eternity to us, but in kid time probably felt like a half hour.

There are several play areas: theatre stage, grocery, deli, doctor’s office, shipyard, construction site, clay studio… Jasmine especially enjoyed the waterworks section which contained several interactive water gadgets.

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Among Jasmine’s many wonderful attributes is her mad biking skills. Foster dad Ron told us us Jasmine was learning how to ride a bike with the help of foster brother Devon.

Soon after the move in, Jasmine was raring to go and new daddy Jeff took her out to the bike path. Well, the first journey was quite wobbly and required much stabilizing by dad. The second day, she was biking mostly solo except for some helpful pushing up the hills. And the third day, she was cranking up and speeding down the hills by herself, looping around a local park.

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Easter was very special this year, since this weekend Jasmine moved into our home. New grandmothers and grandfathers sent wonderful cards, gifts and Easter candy to welcome Jasmine into our family. And the Easter Bunny made a fabulous showing with a basket of goodies and Easter eggs hidden around the living room. Lucky for us, Jasmine is a good Easter egg hunter.

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