We headed to a dog park this weekend with our dog, Jake. We haven't taken him to one in a while so he and the kids loved it.
Elizabeth wanted to throw the toy for Jake most of the time,
and Ben was busy digging in the dirt!
The park was right next door so we ended up going to play and eat lunch.
Elizabeth made it across the wiggling balance beam. Tom and I both had a lot more trouble!
Tom's work has a great family day - the kids had so much fun. There was a ton of food and games for the kids to play. Here Ben is enjoying a popcycle. He wouldn't stop until every bit was gone.
Elizaeth had some ice cream too, but I caught her eating the healthy watermelon instead!
They loved the petting zoo. Here they are petting the goat.
I love the animals, mom!
Tom and Elizabeth had a great time on the bounce house slide. Good thing daddy was there to climb up that big thing with Elizabeth! It was just this little rope ladder - tough work! We had a great family evening.
In zoo school this week the kids got to see and hear all about alligators - one even came to their classroom! So when Elizabeth got home from school she got all "fancy" and carried around an alligator and called herself the alligator keeper. It was pretty cute.
Loving the cute alligator.
We babysat Cooper today and went to the park in the morning. The kids got so dirty that we had to go home for a bath! This was the first time I was brave enough to give all 3 a bath at the same time!!! They loved it - and I'm sure Jessica will like coming home to a clean little boy!
The big sister
Cutie Cooper
Crazy Cheese Boy Ben - that's how he smiles now, with his eyes practically shut! So funny :)
Ben is in the perfect class for him - a tumbling class! He is such a monkey, always running and climbing on everything. So this class is right up his ally.
His cousin Cooper is also in his class. They are great on the balance beam together!
We had a great day playing at the park with some friends - it is actually cooling off here a bit in TX, so we can play outside more.
Elizabeth was so worried about her brother! She kept telling me to hold his hand and not let him fall in.
Ben was enamored with the ducks. He kept following them around.
Whoo! This one didn't like that!!!
Elizabeth had her second day of school today. Here she is, all ready to go.
The boys and I were left to kill 3 hours. My mom decided to come with us to the park near the zoo. Here is Cooper, loving to ride the turtle.
Ben is having fun on whatever his thing is! The two of them are very hard to watch at the park. They both go in different directions and think they are bigger than they are, so they are always climbing up big things and falling down. And absolutely no tears! They are such brave boys :)
Cooper is hugging the baby elephant - he is very loving towards animals - real or fake!
Ben was enjoying riding in the jeep with the animals. We had a good 3 hours and then picked Elizabeth up from school and ate lunch at the zoo. They all had a lot of fun and fell asleep on our drive home. It wore them out! What a great day!
You can't really tell in the picture, but the rain had just started to come down pretty hard, and Ben didn't like it!
He likes it much better under the cover of the porch.
So does Elizabeth!
The cousins all together for dinner for our last minute "hurricane" party. It was supposed to be really bad out - but it was pretty nice once the evening came, just a little windy!
The stormy sky as the hurricane passes by.
Mom goes away to put her contacts in, and look what she comes back to! I knew Ben was too quiet!! He was having lots of enjoyment eating the cereal off the floor, and then walking through it to hear it crunch.
Elizabeth was sitting there watching saying, "Mommy's not going to be happy about this!"
He then found it very interesting to watch the cheerios go into the vacuum. At least it was an easy clean-up!
Good morning!
Elizabeth is all ready to get to zoo school. She said that she was excited to go to school! We were hoping the excitment would last....
No tears!! Success!! She went right in to the classroom, sat down, and started coloring with the other kids.
After...still happy, and a little wet! She had a great day at school! They do all the regular school stuff, circle time, arts and crafts, reading. Then they get to go to the zoo for about an hour to see the animal of the day (it was raining today so we brought rain jackets and they still went to visit the zoo). The last 15 min or so they get a snack and a special visitor! Today their visitor was a penguin who walked into their class. Elizabeth had so much fun and can't wait to go back! I am so relieved!!
Enjoying his favorite food - cake!
Elliott, Josh, Drew, and Elizabeth 
Cooper having fun with his new coloring book!
The kids each made their own visors.
