Boo at the Zoo!

We made our first trip to Boo at the Zoo this year and it was a hit all around. There was trick-or-treating, a haunted train ride, and free carousel rides. When you first enter, the kids are given nine tickets for trick-or-treating. Each ticket is worth 4 pieces of candy although I am pretty sure that our cute little Lemon Meringue and Pirate got a few extra pieces in a couple of spots. One of the first characters we spied upon entry was Elmo and let's just say that we currently have a little guy who is obsessed with Elmo. Josh was awe struck and really wouldn't get too close. He desperately wanted to see him and touch him and while Emma did give Elmo a big hug, Josh couldn't bring himself to even give a fist bump.

Before heading out to collect some candy, we rode the carousel. Then it was off to find some treats. Emma, of course, was an old pro after last year and it didn't take long for Josh to figure out that you pass over a ticket and you get something in your bucket. He would walk up to the tables, put the bucket on the table and say "here you go." The funny part was that he never really looked to see what was going in the bucket and didn't realize until we were leaving that there was candy in there. In addition to the trick-or-treating, we got to see a fire truck (another obsession for the boy) and go on the haunted train ride, which was just about the perfect amount of exciting and not too scary for the younger set. All in all, it was a fun evening for Emma and Josh up until the point where his mean Mommy wouldn't give him his candy bucket at home and then took off his pirate costume. Can I just say that the boy is all about being a pirate? Thankfully he has a couple more opportunities to wear it this weekend.

Lemon Meringue
The wig did not stay on long and she kept pushing it way back; we'll see if we can do better on Halloween! Brad and I were told that we had to call her Lemon Meringue all night and had to call Josh, Pirate.
Aarghh Matey!


Looking for Daddy "Grilla!"

Are You There?

Psst, we're here believe it or not! What have we been doing since I last managed to update the blog. We made a trip to KC for a half marathon and fun weekend with family. Emma had a field trip for school that I was able to attend. Finally, we went to Boo at the Zoo for the first time this year. Looks like I do have a few things to catch up on but before I start recapping in no particular order, here are a few photos of Emma and Josh playing in the leaves. Initially I was the one who would rake the leaves into a pile but then Emma realized she loved to rake (I am keeping that one in mind) so she took to raking the piles for her brother to jump in, run through, etc.

Telling me about his silly rock!

The boy loves his trucks and especially his big dump truck! Jumping
Emma is looking too big!

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

A couple of weekends ago, we made a trip to the Pumpkin Patch with most of Emma's friends and their families for a fun filled morning including a picnic lunch. It was a different patch than we had visited in the past but still tons of fun for both Emma and Josh although Emma did tell me that she missed the slide at the other one. This patch had animals including pigs, a donkey, bunnies, and goats. Josh was terrified of the animals but after a while felt himself getting braver and wanted to go look at them again. I told him okay and started to walk over with him at which point he stopped, turned around and pushed me back while saying "myself." I didn't get it at first so I kept walking when he started going again only to have the previous sequence of events repeated. Guess there are some fears a boy has to conquer on his own.


The corn pit was tons of fun.


All of the kids enjoyed the maze and thankfully it was easy to spot them.



We took a hay ride through "Scarecrow Land" as Emma kept calling it as opposed to Scarecrow Land. Josh enjoyed the ride so much that he went twice. Along the route was large farm equipment and the trailer was pulled by a big tractor so no surprise as to how much he enjoyed the ride.



Believe it or not, there were pumpkins as well. Brad didn't get any photos of Emma in the actual pumpkin patch since she took off with Libby and Libby's Daddy.



We had a great time at the pumpkin patch. Hopefully Emma will enjoy our field trip to a different pumpkin patch this Friday as much.

Five Things about Emma!

1. Loves to dance and loves to teach others to dance. When her teacher was a few minutes late last week, Emma stepped up and took the reins at the front of the class.

2. Thinks she is so big now that she is in the junior class and every morning she has to show us how big she has gotten overnight.

3. According to Emma's teachers, her biggest weakness is her gross motor skills. Upon clarification, this simply refers to her tendency towards clumsiness; she comes by it naturally. This weakness, however, is not evident when she dances.

4. Emma's "on" switch is apprarently on her forehead. I thought she was sleeping soundly when Brad gently touched her forehead and she came alive, talking at a rate of 500 words/minute (may be a slight exaggeration). She was definitely on!

5. Has to rock her babies to sleep each night before she can settle in and the babies must be swaddled.

Five Things about Josh!

1. Sometimes refers to Brad or I as "Dommy" when he is trying to get something off his mind quickly and doesn't want to take the time to think about whether he is addressing Daddy or Mommy.

2. His favorite questions to ask currently are "what happened" and "where'd Daddy gilla (gorilla) go?" If you follow up the later question with, "I don't know Josh, where is Daddy gorilla?", he'll respond "at the beach." If you then ask him what he is doing at the beach, Josh will tell you, "eating all the grass."

3. Josh's favorite adjective is "big" and he especially loves big trucks and big snakes. A truck is obviously a truck but a big snake can be just about anything from a tree branch to a spaghetti noodle to a piece of toast. At least the first two actually resemble snakes.

4. Has become very expressive talking with his hands. When he is talking about "a lot", he makes a big circle.

5. Completely disinterested in learning his colors. If you ask him what color something is, the answer 99.9% of the time is "green." However, last week he surprised me. I had to take him to dance class with me and he was across the room talking to this large door stop shaped like a frog. He held out a crayon to the frog and said "here's the brown one." The shocking thing was that it was actually brown. Guess he does know some colors even if he doesn't want to admit to it.