Boo at the Zoo in St. Louis

We wanted to go the the St. Louis Zoo one more time this year.  The only weekend that was available was Halloween weekend, so we got to experience Boo at the Zoo.  It was pretty cool with all the kids in costumes :)



It was a little cooler out so a lot of the animals that we don't normally see (because they are hiding from the heat) were out.  We always get a kick out of the Rhino exhibit because most of the time we don't get to see them.



This cat was so beautiful - here are two pictures of him.





Here's our required snake picture!



Warning - lots of elephant pictures ahead!  My favorite animal is the elephant, and the St. Louis Zoo has a HUGE elephant area.  This is Raja, he was born right after my parents moved to St. Louis in 1993.  Now he is the man of the house as I believe he is the only male elephant.



I can't remember this little girl's name, but she is so tiny!  The second picture is mostly for size reference.







She's a little bow-legged when she walks, I could have watched her for hours, but the family wasn't quite as enthralled as I was.




This video is quite cute.  It's the little one playing with a branch



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Moving on...
These bears are quite small (for a bear).  They looked so cuddly until you looked at the size of their claws.  Wow.



There's a dinosaur riding this carousel



and a ninja...



The boys favorite part - the train!





Can't say I have ever seen this before at the zoo.  The female lion was up in the tree.  The second picture shows how high up she was, and the male lion is sleeping under the tree.









I think the coloring on the dark giraffe is pretty cool

KC Pumpkin Patch

We went to the KC Pumpkin Patch with Adrien and kiddos.  Wow, this place has a ton of stuff to do!

Here is the tricycle race track






They had a pumpkin cannon - that was cool :)



Not sure if you can really see how far the pumpkin goes in this video




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A barrel "train".  I think Eric would have been happy to ride this for the entire day.





They had a pillow bouncer instead of a bouncy house.  This is way cooler than a bouncy house!  The kids loved it.  Only problem was Eric couldn't get up on top.  See the video after the pillow pictures, we were quite the entertainment for all the spectators.









Here's the video of Eric trying to get up on the pillow




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And....back to the train.







All the kids in the giant chair



CLIFFORD!! Eric loved him!





Note how his ear keeps blocking all the kids - oops.







shocking.  back to the train.



Finally got the kids off the barrel train, and we find a train playset.  Progress!



They had a huge sandbox filled with all sorts of John Deere trucks and tractors.  Ryan and I played in this for quite a while.



Riding on a bigger "train"



Here is the PVC roller slide.  I wish Sean had video of Adrien and Jorja going down this, it was hilarious.




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After the pumpkin patch we decided to try the Sporting KC corn maze.  Wow.  I can see why they post those signs that say "LOST? Text XXXXX for directions"  I think we only made it through about half of the maze.  At that point I was determined to just survive and get out :)  I think this would be a lot more fun when the kids are a little older and we can follow a map through it.

Homecoming Parade

Love living in a small town.  We went out to the "main street" to watch the homecoming game.

This might be my new favorite picture of the boys



Fire trucks and police cars = happy boys





Here's our next door neighbor, Steffie, playing the clarinet.  Her brother, Jake, is just off to the left, playing the drums.  We weren't fast enough to catch a picture of him.  oops.



This is Maddie (in the middle).  She has red hair just like Ryan and is now a Senior in high school.  She was one of the referees for the pre-K and K soccer league and was Ryan's very favorite ref.  Look how excited she was to see Ryan :)  (not that Ryan noticed right away)

Deanna Rose Farmstead

We went to Deanna Rose Farmstead today with the Blanchards for "safety day"  Lots of fire trucks and police cars to climb around in.  We all had a good time but it was really HOT!

I like this picture, but it is a bit blurry.



Here's Ryan and Eric on the water rescue boat



Sean took the boys in to feed the goats







Jorja - could she be any cuter?  She is a mini-Adrien :)



And super-cool Jackson



This picture cracks me up :)



Honestly, we did not plan these outfits, but it is pretty funny.



"CHEESE" on the train



They have a cool track to ride pedal tractors

First Grade!

Ryan started school first grade this week :)  We had back to school night last Thursday, this is when we found out who was in Ryan's class and who his teacher would be.

This is Ryan and Mrs. Durand.




First day of school!


This year I have worked out my schedule to work from home in the afternoon so I can get Ryan off the bus.




Ryan had a great first day - although getting any details from him was a bit tough.  I asked him if he was going to tell me about his day and he replied "NEVER".  I would imagine it only gets worse from here on out.