Auntiesparkling Goes Visiting

I went to my sister a-ster's house for a few days last week.  I like to go and do nothing, as I might have mentioned before.  It's the laziest 4-5 days I can ever come up with and I revel in it.

Usually, we do some errands on a day or two and the only major thing we do is a trip to the National Zoo.  We all like it and now that l-ster is big enough to walk around, she can really enjoy it.  We went in April and actually saw the pandas eating and never was a child as fascinated as l-ster.  She has more than a little passion for pandas.

Thanks to the scorching weather we're stuck in for the rest of our lives here on the east coast, the zoo was the last place I wanted to be last week.  95 degrees and hot animals just don't appeal to me.  Add in walking around, lots of other hot screaming people, the smells of zoo food, the drive into the city.  UGH.  Anyone else think that sounds like pure hell?

So, other than the library and grocery stores, we didn't do much.  My sister did a lot of catching up on her sewing while I watched l-ster and we tried to play outside with the kiddie pool one afternoon but the mosquitoes put a rapid end to that.  

The one big thing we did was a couple of hours at a park that had a carousel and train.  The train was fun and much more of a train than I expected.  It went for about 15-20 minutes and you actually felt like you were on a small train.  It was on tracks and there was train bridge and a tunnel.  My niece thought she had died and gone to heaven and if her panda had been allowed on the train?  Well, I can't even imagine the joy.

Not having concrete plans and the weather being rather unpleasant for outside play, we spent a lot of time playing in the house.  At one point, l-ster got out some exercise bands that she likes to play with and started making a hat for me and a hat for her.

One thing lead to another.

I wish she looked as happy here as she was.  This is what she does when you tell her to smile. She was laughing, cackling and played with them for a while.  She thought these "hats" were the best thing since sliced bread and when she suggested we put one on panda and I actually did, well.  That was pure bliss.

Is anyone else hearing "Kung Foo Fighting" playing in their heads right now?