Leaves!

Last weekend Matt and the girls raked leaves while I cleaned and organized the house.  I think they got the better end of that deal.  Matt called me outside to "find Charlotte".  She had buried herself completely in the leaves.  It was pretty funny.  They were having a ball!

Charlotte taking on the rake.

Oh, how I love those eyes.

Where's Charlotte?  Where's Audrey?

There's Audrey!

Do you see Charlotte?

There's Charlotte!

Random Fun

This is just a collection of pictures from the last couple of weeks that I wanted to share.  No real story.  Sorry.

Charlotte and her BFF, Abby, at Abby's birthday party  As we were leaving the party, Charlotte informed me that Abby was her best friend, "Not Harvey."  Abby has officially past Harvey in the important people in Charlotte's life.  High praise.

Audrey's first Krispy Kreme donut.  She loved it!

This face just kills me.

Charlotte being her usual "cooperative" self for picture taking.

Playing in their "houses", also known as boxes from the vanity and toilet in our new (completed!!!!) bathroom.

Behind the Scenes at the Zoo

Since my parents are donors at the St. Louis Zoo, they get to go on behind-the-scenes tours of different areas of the zoo.  This year they invited us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the children's zoo.  We saw a lot of cute little animals and the girls got to pet quite a few.  Audrey fell in love with all of the birds and especially the screech owl.  It was adorable.  She jumped up and down and got so excited when she saw the first owl.  The girl loves animals!

Meeting and petting a (stinky) ferret

Audrey checking out the animals.  I think this one was the fox.

The reptile room!  This where our tour guide spends most of his regular time, so we spent the most time in here, learning about the different snakes and lizards.  The girls were oddly uncreeped out by the snakes.  Mommy cannot say the same thing.

Petting the toad

 After the behind-the-scenes tour, Allie, the woman responsible for keeping donors happy, gave us a tour of the zoo on the cart.  Now don't get me wrong- I love walking the zoo.  It is beautiful and great exercise, but when it is a little windy and cold and there are two kids under four with you, the cart is definitely the way to go.  We saw a lot of the zoo very quickly.  It was great.

The lions cuddling together.  They looked so sweet!

Audrey checking out the giraffes

Dexter, the young male giraffe, was right up at the front of his pen, making from some excellent  photo ops.

I love this picture of the two of us! (or three?)

Audrey telling Allie and Grandpa where to go

This orangutan is new to the zoo.  Allie told us that he loves children and after what I saw, I believe it!  He was hanging out by a group of kids at another window, but when they left, he looked over our way, saw some kids, and headed towards the girls.  He sat right down by Charlotte and put his hand up.  Charlotte was nervous, but Audrey toddled up and put her hand up by his.  So cute.

Riding the carousel

Audrey was not a fan.  I held her as we went around and Grandpa stayed with Charlotte.

The Gorilla

Sitting where so many generations of kids have sat before.  I love the history of this city!  I know there's a picture of me as a little girl in the same place.  Makes me happy to raise my girls in this city that I love so much.

We watched the gorillas for awhile, too.  The last movie I saw, however, was Planet of the Apes, so it added a bit of a creep out factor.

The flight cage.  Audrey and Charlotte spent a lot of time with the birds.

Charlotte wanted me to take her picture with this bird.

Audrey getting nose to beak with one of the birds.

Charlotte telling her to be careful

I love birds!

Charlotte thought it was hilarious that the birds had a pumpkin.

We spotted a peacock!  I wonder if this was the one that knocked on the door of the Lakeside Care when Matt and I got married (stupid bird)...

Checking out the prairie dogs

Catching up- Halloween!

Since Halloween was a Monday, the girls both had parties at their schools.  I didn't want to mess with trying to remember two costumes when I picked them up that night, so I just sent Audrey to school in her Mizzou cheerleader outfit.  It ended up being a good thing later that evening.  As we walked from house to house, Charlotte's costume started to get bigger and bigger and she was having a lot of trouble walking.  I bought the costume on Amazon and while it was beautiful, it was too big and I had some trouble pinning it well.  It worked ok at first, but it got a lot of wear over the weekend at it wasn't holding up.  About halfway around the block, Charlotte said she wanted to go home.  Matt finally figured out that it was the dress that was bothering her and making it difficult to walk, so he took Audrey's lady bug costume off her, put it on Charlotte and Audrey became a cheerleader.  Genius!  We finished the block in our new costumes and had a great time.

Enjoying candy from their school parties

Dressed and ready to go!

Cinderella and her pumpkin

Audrey had a blast trick-or-treating.  The night after Halloween, Audrey grabbed a basket and her costume and dragged them to the door, screaming and crying "Outside!  Outside!"  She really wanted to go again.  Charlotte explained that she'd have to wait until "Next night", but Mom clarified that she needed to wait until "next year".  Fun weekend!

Catching up- Not-so-Haunted House at the Magic House

The Magic House had an Not-so-Haunted House event the two weekends before Halloween.  We have a membership that lets us take some friends for free, so we invited Abby and her family to come with us the Sunday before Halloween.  We planned on meeting at opening time, 9:30 AM.  We were running about 5 minutes late and pulled into an empty parking lot.  Odd, but it was Sunday morning.  We saw the Pleimanns outside the entrance and discovered that the place wasn't open yet.  Despite me TRIPLE CHECKING the stupid website, I failed to realize that it didn't open until 11:00 on Sunday.  Major FAIL.  In my defense, the door said October 30- 9:30, which was that day, but it said Saturday, October 30, not Sunday.  I did not notice that discrepancy on the website.  Bummer.  So we had to figure out how to kill an hour and a half.  Luckily, Peggy made the brilliant suggestion to check out the Kirkwood Farmer's market.  So we did.  And found a play ground!  It was the perfect way to kill some time.

Climbing the rock wall

I just love this action shot.  She's so big!

Watching the trains, with Charlotte at a safe distance because it was "Too loud!"

A fun little tire swing

This picture just cracks me up for some reason.  When did these girls become kids?

FINALLY inside the place and having fun at our favorite place - the sand table.  There were workers dressed up as different fairy tale characters throughout the place with little treats for the kids to put in their bags, but the exhibits proved too much fun and we only hit up maybe four of the designated areas.

A sight I'm sure we'll be seeing in the not-so-distance future.  Pretty darn terrifying.

Water play!

Even Noah and Audrey were able to get in on this fun.

Feeding a baby in the nursery

Checking out a video in the library.  We left shortly after this and left Abby and her mom to enjoy a few more exhibits.  Hopefully we'll be back again soon!