Lights at the Zoo

Last week my cousin Kate suggested that we take the boys to see the lights at the zoo...she is so sweet...how many college students choose to spend a Friday night with their little cousins?  Then she offered to watch them Saturday morning while I got some Christmas shopping done and Graem hunted.  Yeah, she is pretty great.  (Thanks, Kate!)


Two monkeys + a goat:






Happy stinker...






They had a snow machine at the zoo entrance...M&R were pretty fascinated with the snow...


Happiness:

Fox's Farm

A few weeks ago we spent the morning at Fox's Farm with a group of friends. The boys just eat up this type of thing...hayride, animals, searching for pumpkins in a haystack, what more could you ask for??

Please excuse the quality of my pictures...sometimes the thought of toting my big camera around while keeping up with both boys is exhausting, so I have become increasingly dependent on my iPhone camera.





Here is Mason, our chicken-loving boy, being introduced to a Chinese Chicken.




This sweet little donkey got lots of love from the Clark boys.

It's November!

November 2nd, to be perfectly accurate...which means my big ultrasound is today! (11/2/11 at 2 -- yall know I like numbers!) I'm so excited!! I'm praying for a good appointment, with news of a healthy baby who has his or her legs spread wide open! :-)

I have some catching up to do with pictures from all of our Halloween festivities. Well, not all of our Halloween festivities. I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have any pictures of our trick-or-treating experience. Roper ended up with pink eye on Halloween so he was quarantined at the house.

Most of you know that I grew up on a farm, so on Halloween we always went to the fall festival at our church and then went trick-or-treating in my grandparents' neighborhood. Most days of the year I do not love having neighbors on all four sides of me...I miss the privacy of living in the country...but Halloween is one exception. I love our neighborhood on Halloween! We get lots of trick-or-treaters...I feel like all the children from Lexington County that don't live in proper trick-or-treating neighborhoods end up in our neighborhood and I love it!

So even though I don't have pictures from the actual night of Halloween, I do have some of our little firemen, aka Sam and Elvis. (You might recall that Mason went through a prolonged phase of referring to himself as Fireman Sam, and he referred to Roper as Elvis...Fireman Sam is still around, but thankfully the obsession has tapered somewhat).

My plan was to dress Mason as a fireman and Roper as a dalmation, but Roper insisted that he be a fireman too. Here the boys are before the Browns pumpkin carving party...



On the way to the party I needed to run in the grocery store to pick up some chips to go with the dip I made...and lo and behold there was a fire truck in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot! The firemen were so nice and let the boys climb all over the truck.



Here are our pumpkins...Graem's emoticon pumpkin came in second place in the contest. I was pretty proud of my bat too, but I heard at least one trick-or-treater refer to it as a moose...



Our next Halloween outing was to Boo at the Zoo with the Smyth family. It was Jr. Gamecock Club night so we got to visit with Cocky and the cheerleaders. Roper loves Cocky...from afar...he refused to get in the picture.



The Smyths...










A hot dog dinner was included with the Jr. Gamecock Club thing, and they also had a d.j. The children were cracking us up with their dance moves!



Ro-ro loves baby Frances...


A sweaty fireman and a goat...


All 5 of the children...

Conquering the Rock Wall

Before I share more about the weekend, let me back up to last Friday, when Mason had his first chance to conquer the rock wall at Riverbanks Zoo.

This zoo trip back in April sparked an obsession with climbing the rock wall. At that point, Mason was still several pounds shy of the 40-pound minimum. So...we did what any parents would do. These words were spoken often over the past six months:

"Eat your {fill in the blank} so you will be 40 pounds and big enough to climb the rock wall."

Ever since his 4-year check-up, when the nurse announced his weight (40.25 pounds), Mason has been asking when he will get to go to the zoo and climb the rock wall.

His perfect opportunity was Friday morning...my mom was in town...he asked her...and, well, she doesn't say "no" to her grandsons very often. In fact, she said she would climb the rock wall with him. And she did. :)

Gearing up...








Roper entertained himself on the playground while Bebe and Mason were rock climbing.



Then on to the train...



And then to the ponies...Roper insisted all the ponies were named Minnie, which is the name of my uncle's pony. He wanted to ride, or at least thought he did, until it was time to saddle up, then he changed his mind. Mason climbed right up!



It was a quick zoo trip, which is one of the perks of living close by and having a membership...you don't feel like you have to stay all day to get your money's worth!