Beautiful Wedding

This weekend we went to visit Meme and Bob-Bob's house and also attend a wedding of a friend of mine, Amber.

She looked gorgeous, the ceremony was very touching and the kids had a ball!

Cassie, Amber and me

A wedding with cotton candy, an ice cream bar and cupcakes?  The kids liked. A lot!

SUGAR!

A bounce house for the KIDS to enjoy.  But that didn't stop two older kids from joining in on the action.  For the sake of the kids, of course.

I'm so happy we had a chance to see old friends and spend some time together.  It was a great evening, and even then we choose to leave dockie doodle at home he also had a great time.  I heard that he climbed to the top of the tallest slide in the world {according to Riley} at least 15 times!  

Cleveland Zoo

On Monday we gathered our crew and made the trek up to the Cleveland Zoo. This was a very memorable trip for me, for many reasons.  This is where Mike and I got engaged {yeah!} and this was the first trip where Dawson was genuinely interested in looking at the animals.  You could tell the instant when Dawson saw an animal because he began squealing and laughing.

Daddy and Dawson checking out the elephants.

By gauging the volume of his squeals and the amount of hair he pulled out of Mike's head, the giraffes and Lemurs were a big hit with him.

Pure Ava

Ava's favorite animal at the zoo was also the giraffe.  Except she calls them ja-raff-ees.

Our zoo treats: little stuffed animals with a lollipop

Carter's favorite animal at the zoo was the wolves.

The cutest meerkats ever

Enjoying his zoo treat.

Thank you Carter, Ava and Dawson.  We had such a great time with our little family at the zoo.  After it was all over and everyone had passed out on the way home, your Dad and I both remarked how well behaved you all were.  We stayed at the zoo until 3 o'clock!  Everyone was obviously exhausted towards the end, but you kept it together.  What a fun day with my favorite people in the whole world.  

Mike's 30th Birthday Celebration

What a fun day spent on the water with our family.  We love you guys so much and we LOVE spending time with you.

Thank you Bo SO MUCH for driving the boat.  Legally, Mike can't drive until he gets a boating license and I was a little too afraid I would wreck the boat.  Dawson had a ball sitting in Bo's lap and driving the vroom-vroom.

The view from the back:  Aunt Tiff, Dad, Ava, Carter and Uncle Jason.

Remember, he was wearing a hat to conceal his pretend bald head?

I was really surprised how much Dawson enjoyed fishing.  He spent quite a bit of time sticking his head over the head of the boat to stick Ava's barbie fishing pole in the water.  This of course made me understandably nervous with his little tip toes barely touching the seat, so I held onto his back.  Luckily we did not have to retrieve anyone from the water.  

Carter also enjoyed fishing quite a bit.  He was pretty dangerous with the fishing rod and I was really scared that he would get someone with the hook when he was casting.  But once again we were lucky and no one took a hook.   Well, except Jason, but that was Bo's fault.  And apparently fish spine are pretty prickly because Mike took one to the leg that drew blood.  But don't worry, that was the extent of the injuries. 

Ava enjoyed playing with the little fishing game that I bought Dawson.

She also liked looking out over the edge of the boat.

Carter and Aunt Tiffany

Daddy wants this to be HIS boat and HIS house.  The one on the right of course, not the left.

This baby found a bag of pretzels and gorged himself.  Of course, since I am an outstanding parent I allowed this to happen because hey, it was keeping him quiet and entertained.

Thanks to everyone for joining us on this fun day.  We came home to swimming at the pool and a dinner of ribs and mashed potatoes, Mike's favorites.  Couldn't be a better way to celebrate!

HallZOOween

HallZOOween!

Chicken baby was there

Polar bears playing with pumpkins.  FUN!

We also got to see a magic show.  Wait a second, that volunteer from the audience looks awfully familiar.  Uncle Patrick!  Yes, he volunteered to have his head sawed off.

There he is! Don't worry he left the magic show fully headed. 

Right after I took this picture of these two, Dawson latched onto Uncle Patrick's nose and gave him one of his patented face sucks.  Of course I missed that moment, but I did catch...

Uncle Patrick's reaction!  Baby slobber up the nose, not cool.

Fun Day with my baby chicken, soldier, and puppy.

A day at the zoo

Today we went to the zoo.  Meme was down for the day and she got to join us!

First we rode the train.

Carter rode in the caboose for the first time.

We also got to ride the carousel.

Since I had extra hands, Ava got to ride the carousel also.  Usually she's on my hip while Carter gets the ride.

Meme believes in starting them early with the visor.

Checking out a rooster at the children's zoo.

On the other side of this fence were GOATS.  Ava likey.  A LOT.  She stood and screamed and yelled and giggled at the goats for quite awhile. 

Meme got Carter the world's most annoying toy.  It's a penguin that makes really loud squeaking noise.  Carter had to show it to every single animal, adult, child, volunteer, and plant that we saw at the zoo.  It may disappear tonight.

What a great evening! During the summer the Cincinnati museum center has free friday's once a month. We met Mike at the museum and had a blast! Carter hasn't been to the museum in over a year. Here's some pictures from our evening out:

Carter is playing with the water table. He loved sticking his hand into the water fountain.

Carter loved driving the dump truck. He's totally into "dirt" these days.

Look at that smile on my boy's face! I swear he ran around with this same smile for about four hours. And the ball area, well let's just say it was his absolute favorite.

And A was there too. She loved her some tummy time in the infant area.

All in all a great evening as you can see. We'll have to do it again in August for the next free friday.