The North Carolina Zoo

It was kind of drizzly, but it didn't seem to faze the millions (well maybe only 100's) of kids on field trips on this Friday before Halloween trip to the zoo, we survived, but next time - no trips to zoo on Fridays...

but first...a shampoo and cut from Gordon's favorite stylist (and one for Mommy too, thank you!...although I didn't get to lay on that countertop for my shampoo!)

Typical kitty cats

My T-Rex hatching

I have no idea what these flowers are, but I love them - perfect color for October

Hellooo Rhinooo

Some kind of lion food...way off in the distance hiding from the peepers, I mean people.

Begging the elephant, please turn around, fine, I'll take a picture of your behind then. I think he/she has been rolling in the clay

Well at least I got something besides the backside finally.

Giraffes are my favorites

Well, my 2nd favorite...

A grizzly bear. Nice bear.

He seemed rather bored, poor thing.

The highlight for Gordon, the geyser replication.

A fast black bear, too fast for my camera anyway.

This was the saddest though, the polar bear looked so dejected and bored. Last time we were here there were two and they played and swam and looked happy. Now there is only one, and he was either really tired or just extremely tired of being in his "habitat", alone.These characters had no such problem, they were having a great time together.

Some tired zoo visitors, the trails through the zoo are about 5 miles of walking...and require a GPS to navigate.

Halloween 2009!

A reflective pirate (and an unswept front step!)

Finding his inner pirate "Arrrrggghhh!"Was that too much?

The first trick or treat stop was a bust...but he practiced yelling Trick Or Treat at the door.

The 2nd stop he forgot the words and just said "do you have any candy for me?" as he dropped his plastic pumpkin...ah the stress of it all!

Thankfully this neighbor had lots of candy for our first time trick or treater.

We went to a nearby church which hosts an annual "Fall Spectacular" - totally free! What a great thing to do for our community.

Any H1N1 in there? Ack! Let's hope not!

This year he was tall enough to ride the swings! He stared in a trance up at the center where all the chains connect to the "spokes" - he was so dizzy and I think very close to getting sick from it. We tried to get him to look at us, but he just kept returning his gaze up at that axle. Maybe he was trying to figure out how it worked, he is a little engineer and is always trying to figure out how to build things and figure them out.

On to the games to win some booty (candy)!

That's a little close...but oh well.

And the big event - the pony ride, same horse as last year, "Chief"

A fun night capped off with goofing around in his glow in the dark Halloween pj's and tickling with the "vampire" gram and "tickle monster" papa.

Sometimes We Stay Home, Sweet Home...Our Fall Home Tour

Welcome!

This month has been full of activities, but we did stay home plenty of days and decorated for fall, and just enjoyed some "free" days with our (mostly) beautiful fall weather.We made some new "ghosties" this year - I love them! The first one below covers the candy corn dish that was vulnerable to sneak attacks from my little gremlin...now they are safe again.Some days we even stayed in our pj's all day.Some cluttered fall decor on top of the fridgeGordon loves to rearrange my pumpkins...a mix of real and fake ones, so I just let him, until they start disappearing and we go on a search for them in his room."Mommy, take my picture, I'm a chipmunk!"My autumn decorated mantel, this will take us through Thanksgiving so kept the "Halloween" out of it. Deb - do you recognize some of the florals? That beautiful arrangement you gave me was not "child friendly" so got put in the attic for a while, well that didn't go so well...but I ended up loving using the florals here. I hope that doesn't upset you that I re purposed it.Gordon's room...it is "evolving" from the nursery. It is crowded, but I put the other twin bed in there, he loves having the bed to roll around on, look at his books and toys. The decals on the wall (below the rail, the above part is the farm mural painted by my Dad) are part of our counting lessons - the train cars have a certain number of animals on each car, so we count and see the number to learn our numbers...plus they are cute.We are also learning to identify days of the week and the concept of months on a calendar. This also helps to show him "how long until..."Just because he loves his room, doesn't mean his stuff stays in it though...And just to spread the mess...we do our crafts in the dining room...A beautiful evening, the sun going down just lit up the colors.The bird feeder looks like it is glowing!Viburnum berries catch the sunlightPyracantha berries and burgandy dogwoods mix in to look like fallMy pumpkin lovin' boy...and the poor mums that have been chewed on by the bunnies.This giant gum tree (I think it is a gum?) hasn't turned yet, but there are some touches of yellow starting.

Happy fall y'all!