a zoo day with Owen

What a great morning to head to the zoo!  We bundled up with mittens and matching moose hats for the boys, the car said 37 degrees when we were heading inside, brrrr.  It seriously felt like we had the whole zoo to ourselves!

We were the only ones in the polar bear exhibit, getting the low-down from the zookeepers on each of the polar bears.  This here is Neil, and he wasn't having a good morning :(  He was mad he had to search so hard for his snacks this morning, so he was pouting.  I'd be mad too, Neil!  They still have one female refugee polar bear from Duluth (since it flooded there in the spring) who is half Neil's size (a mere 500 pounds compared to Neil at 1000 pounds) but she's turned into the boss of the group.  Well done, lady polar bear!  

Whoa, I mean ROOOAAAR!  Can you believe how close I am to this thing?!

The giraffes were awfully frisky this morning.  They say the giraffes & zebras can only be outside when it's above 50 degrees during the day and at night, so no outside play-time for them, bummer.  I'm guessing they were going a little stir crazy.  Mr. Giraffe, I feel your pain, Henry goes stir crazy, sprinting round and around the house when we can't get outside, too :)

pumpkin "carving"

Once again, this year, we used our Mr. Potato Head-like pumpkin "carving" kit.  It still counts as carving a pumpkin, right?!  I know I said this last year, but these things are absolutely genius for little kids!  I "pre-drilled" the holes and he decorated as he wished, over and over and over again!

Not crazy about the pumpkin guts on his hands here :(

Check out that concentration, tongue out and everything :)

Ta-da!  Now that is one scary looking skeleton!  Boo!

run, go, fast

Here we are on our nature walk (I mean, run) this week, looking for leaves, pinecones, and acorns!  Why walk when you can run, right?   

Within just a few days, we went from wearing this.....

.....to wearing this, brrrrr.  Now, here we are watching the Twin Cities marathon/10 mile run this morning in St. Paul.  Our friends, Candace & Steve, came down from J-town to run the 10 mile.  We made sure they did some good carb-loading on Saturday night with spaghetti!  Steve and Henry bonded over their love of Eddie Vedder videos on YouTube.

"Go fast!"

Probably the best part of the race, the cops on motorcycles with flashing lights and sirens!  They were leading in the first place wheelchair marathoner.

Holy cow, do they ever go fast!

Well done, everybody, well done!  

We're loving fall!

Time for fall craft projects!  Last week we had a play-date with Henry's buddy, Owen, to make some bird feeders (aka toilet paper roll, peanut butter, and bird seed).  Here she is, isn't it so pretty?!  It's been up in a tree in our front yard for a few days now.

Henry wanted to take Katie back to the Eveland Farm to show her all his favorite farm animals, buy some more pumpkins, and play in the corn maze (unfortunately, the cows destroyed the actual maze part of it, bummer, but we still got to play in the corn field).

This weekend, we went to Anoka County Farms with Oma & Opa for some more fall fun.  It was 80 degrees outside, crazy!  Roosters, bunnies, & goats, what more could you ask for?!

Apparently, we can't get enough of fall-themed cut-outs!

Henry had the choice between two ponies for his pony ride, Butterscotch or Sneak.  The boy made a good choice, he went with Butterscotch.  I know I wouldn't have chosen a pony by the name of Sneak, either!

He got right up on the pony, which kinda shocked me!  Oma walked beside him, and I guess he wasn't the biggest fan during the ride....didn't want to pet the pony, didn't want to say "Hi" to the pony, didn't want to say "Hi" to the boy who was leading the pony, just wanted to go "play toys" instead!  

And this is where we spent the majority of our time, "playing toys" of course!  There must have been 50 different trucks, tractors, forklifts, cherry pickers, you name it, the boy was in LOVE!  

Pine Tree Apple Orchard

We checked off another item on our Fall bucket list with our trip to the Pine Tree Apple Orchard in White Bear Lake.  We didn't get to pick the apples ourselves (they don't let you pick the Honeycrisp's, my fav), but we did take a walk through the orchard and enjoyed some apple treats, of course!

Mmm mmm, apple donuts and apple cider, delicious!

Happy Fall :)

Eveland Family Farm

Lady Gaga & Papa (aka Grandma & Grandpa Olin) were visiting us this weekend, so we started checking some activities off of our Fall Bucket List!  On Saturday, we went to check out the Eveland Family Farm in Andover.  Farm animals, a pumpkin patch, a hay ride.....a perfect outing for the fall!  What a chilly morning, as mittens and hats were in order.

This pig was massive (and kinda gross looking, if you ask me)!  It was roaming around the property, destroying (aka chowing down) the decorations in it's path.  Henry sure didn't mind, "more pet pig".

He said this guy (or girl, not sure) was his favorite thing of all at the farm :)  

For the hay ride, we sat right up front so Henry could watch the tractor, in awe, as the farmer drove us through the corn field and the area where the cows were hanging out. 

He had the pumpkin patch all to himself, what a selection!

He picked out 2 little pumpkins to bring home, just the perfect size for him.  We'll have to get our carving tools out pretty soon!

Jackson Street Roundhouse

Last week, we checked out the Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul for their Tots & Trains event with Henry's bud, Harrison.  The more these two play together, the more nervous I get about what kind of mischief they'll be up to when they're older :)  They are two peas-in-a-pod!  What more could a little boy ask for...big trains to check out, little trains to play with, train puzzles, and train storytime.  Here are a few pics from our fun day..... 

The boy loves his choo-choo trains!