Boys First Trip to the Zoo

I wanted to do this post separate from the weekend recap because there's so many pictures and I wanted it easy to find later when I'm looking back on old blog posts. We took the boys to the Reston Zoo on Sunday. It was a lot of fun. It was more of a HUGE petting zoo than a traditional zoo. It's owned by the same people who own the Virginia Safari Park, which we also wan to take the boys too when they're older. This zoo was so much better for the boys at this age than a traditional zoo. It was very hands on, and they were able to run around and really enjoy themselves. It was a little less than a 2 hour drive up there. We left about 8:30 and got there a little after 10:00. The boys usually do great in the car in the mornings, which was the case on Sunday--thankfully. We left around lunch time which is also their nap time so they could sleep on the way home. That didn't go as planned--Evan took a pretty good nap, but Carter's was super short. They were both really good while they were awake on the way back, though, It was a very fun trip, successful car ride, etc. I'm so glad we went.

This was the first animal we saw when we got there.

Then, we went through the barn and the boys fed the goats, lambs, etc. They also gave a baby lamb a bottle. It was impossible to get pictures of the boys looking at me. There was just too much fun stuff for them to bother with the camera.

Daddy and the boys feeding the animals.

You can kinda see in this picture how the allergies have affected Carter's eyes. They're red, puffy, itchy. It's so sad. They are just as bad inside as they are outside, so we're not keeping him cooped up, we're letting him still be a kid. We gave him benadryl before going, and afterwards, we wiped both boys down with baby wipes and changed them into clean clothes before driving home.

Evan looking at the ducks. The cage in this picture had monkeys in it. The boys weren't very interested in anything in a cage, which makes me glad that we chose this zoo over a more traditional one.

The boys LOVED feeding the ducks. The ducks do not play around though. They will stick their beaks through the fence and grab the food out of your hands. It didn't phase the boys in the least, they thought it was funny.

Llamas that came up to you and you could feed them. Carter actually crawled under this fence and got in there, but Greg got him before he even got on his feet. haha, never a dull moment.

There is an area where you can go in with bird seed on a stick and the birds will land on you and eat the bird feed. I was pretty sure that the boys would do fine, but heard lots of shrieks, so I started to get a little nervous. But, the boys did great. They had NO fear. This was my favorite part of the zoo. (you can still see Evan's poor nose where he got hit with the book)

This is blurry and not a good picture, but I wanted to post one to show how brave Carter was with the birds. He just reached over and pet them (he did try and pick them up, so we had to watch him) He wasn't scared at all.

Greg feeding the birds.

Evan squating down with the birds.

I'm so glad the boys aren't scared of the animals. It'd probably be good if they had a little fear, but if I had to choose being terrified of animals or having no fear, I'd rather them have no fear.

This was how it was a lot of the time. It was so open, we just let the boys roam around and we followed them. I think they loved not being cooped up in the stroller and getting to explore. It was the perfect activity for them.

They had a tractor pulled ride through a field where animals like camels, llamas, etc came up to you, but the boys were exhausted and we would have had to wait 45 minutes for the next ride, so we skipped it this time.

I'm so glad we went to this. We all really enjoyed it. It's so nice to do something different on the weekends. The boys love to run around and just be boys, so I love that the weather is getting warmer and we're able to do outdoor things like this. I have a few more things that other moms have suggested that I want to try out before it gets too hot. Although, this wasn't a traditional zoo, it is called the Reston Zoo, and they had monkeys, llamas, camels, etc. So, I'm counting this as their first trip to the zoo and I'm also marking off #16 on my 30 Before 30 list. ;)

Weekend Recap

We had a great weekend. The weather was nice and we were able to do some fun things AND I was able to get some not so fun things done around the house. Saturday afternoon, after the boys nap, we went to the park and let them play and then we went to mexican for dinner. We sat outside so we wouldn't have to worry about the boys being too loud and it worked out great. The boys are pretty picky these days, but they love mexican food.

Sunday, we woke up and went to the Reston Zoo. I'm going to do a seperate post just on the zoo because there's a ton of pictures and it was their first time at the zoo. It was a blast! When we got home, the boys unpacked the lunch box that we had drinks in and got two sodas. They would put the unopened sodas to the mouths and make gulping sounds and kept saying "mmmm" it was so funny!! I guess the cans were cold because they kept setting them on the ground and then picking them back up.

Mmmm....unopened diet dr. pepper. yummy.

After we unpacked our car from the zoo (it was 2 hours away and I brought enough stuff for a weekend getaway) Greg took the boys into the basement and played with them while I organized both pantries. We needed to go grocery shopping but had no idea what we already had because the panty had become such a mess. I've been wanting to do it for awhile, but it's not something I can do with the boys in the kitchen because they'll get into everything.

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I was pretty fast with the pantries, so I also organized my junk drawer in the kitchen. It was getting out of control.

I still have some work in the pantry to do, I've seen so many cute, organizational ideas for pantries on Pinterest. I hope to find the time to do some more later, but at least now we can at least see what we have.

Our weekend was definitely too short, but Greg only has to work 4 days this week, and then he has a 3 day weekend! yay! I'll do a post on the zoo seperately later. I also got tagged in a blog award, so I'll do that post soon, too. It's nice out and in the 80's, so after the boys nap, I'm going to take them outside and enjoy this weather.

Our Week

I'm a little behind on posting this week. I planned on doing little recaps after each day, but it's been busy, so I'll just do it all in one post.
Monday, we went to our weekly moms of multiples playdate. It was so much fun. The boys had fun playing and I'm so glad that we have this every week.
Tuesday, I hosted a playdate at our house, two other moms came over and there were 5 kids total. It was nice and low key, and I didn't get any pictures. ;(
Wednesday, we went over to a friend's house in the neighborhood for a playdate and the boys had a blast. She has a little girl who is a year old and a boy who is 3, so there were all kinds of fun toys for the boys to play with.

Carter's allergies seemed worse on Wednesday than they had ever been and we were told to call the allergist if they got worse and they'd give him some prescription allergy medicine and nasal steroid spray, etc. I didn't want to go any further and put him on any medication without making sure that there wasn't something else going on in addition to allergies, like a cold. So, we made an appointment with our pediatrician. Greg kept Evan, so I could take Carter by myself. They found that he wasn't getting air into part of his lung and gave him an albuterol inhaler and it worked right away. They put him on Singulair and were going back in one week for a follow up. That evening he spiked a fever and ended up going to bed around 5:00, so we called the on call doctor to make sure we shouldn't be worried. I woke him up and gave him another puff of the albuterol and put him to bed. When he woke up on Thursday, it was hard to tell at first if he was better. The allergies seem to be the worst in the morning, and he was really fussy, so we weren't sure whether to take him in or not. He ended up getting better throughout the day, still having allergies, but breathing fine, no fever, and not coughing like he was. I thought Evan broke his nose in the morning after he got hit in the face with a book (thanks to Carter) so I kept an eye on that all day. And my allergies were awful and I was exhausted, I ended up sleeping for 3 hours while they slept. It was a rough day for all of us.

Friday, everybody was doing better. I took the boys to the gym. They LOVE the childcare center there and run in without even hesitating now. After their nap, the boys and I went to the new Joannes' that I've been super excited about, did our weekly grocery shopping. Grocery shopping with two toddlers in a double stroller is not easy task. I brought snacks and had my hands full pushing the stroller and trying to carry the basket and all the food, but the boys did great. No meltdowns or tantrums equals a successful shopping trip in my book.

This morning, I took my car to Honda for an oil change and enjoyed over 2 hours of peace and quiet. I read my Us Weekly, played on my iphone, cleaned out my purse. It was quite a nice morning. ;) Greg took the boys to the gym. They're all napping now. The weather is beautiful out, so we're definitely going to take advantage of it after everybody wakes up. Here's this week's pictures from my iphone.

The boys love their pull out bed/sofa. I'm so glad we got these for the boys.

They have recently started covering up and reading books which is really cute.

The boys watching tv. This probably lasted like 15 seconds before they were both off in different directions.

The boys at our moms of multiples playdate. If there is a ball anywhere around, Evan will find it. It's hands down his favorite toy. The sweet girls in the child care center at the gym always get them out for him when he gets there because they know how much he loves playing with them.

The house we went to was SO nice. It's so big, with plenty of room for kids to run around and there's several places set up with toys and things. It's the perfect house for playdates.

And just like Evan loving to play with a ball, Carter loves his tractors.

So, I have to put this in here even though nobody will care but me, but Carter ate two deviled eggs on Monday. Both boys HATE eggs. Carter threw up the first time we gave him eggs (and he's not allergic to them). We have given both boys eggs, several times, in many different forms, and every time they spit them out. Just Saturday, when I was sharing my cheesy, bagel and egg sandwhich with Carter at the Farmer's Market, I tried to sneak in a tiny piece of egg with lots of cheese and he spit it out. He saw me eating a deviled egg on Monday while they were eating dinner and they both wanted a bite. I gave him a tiny bite and he wanted more and ended up eating two! I couldn't believe it. Evan took a few bites but didn't seem to like it nearly as much as Carter.

The boys are like two peas in a pod now.

Walking to our friend's house in the neighborhood. This will never get old to me, I will always thing them holding hands is the sweetest thing ever.

Playing the piano at our playdate's house.

Both boys like to act like they're sleeping now. It's so cute. Evan will say "night night" and then lay down and it was so cute when they were doing it together.

Evan's poor nose. This was not taken right after it happened, I comforted him and he had calmed down and then got upset when I was taking his picture. I wanted to get one to send Greg at work since it looked swollen to me. I thought it was broken at first, but he's fine now. It still looks just as bad, I think pretty much everybody that saw him out yesterday said something.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

It's been several weeks since I've linked up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday, and I'm excited to be doing it this week. Let's get started.

I'm loving the book "What Alice Forgot". It took me awhile to read it, it's kinda hard to find time to read with two active toddlers, but I finally finished it. I loved this book, it was so good!! It really made me think of how I was 10 years ago and what my 19 year old self would think of how I am now.

Now, that I'm finished with "What Alice Forgot", I've finally been able to read"Hunger Games". I've been dying to know what all the fuss was about, and now I understand. I really liked it. I was afraid it'd be like the Twilight series which everybody hyped up and I wasn't that into, but it was really good. I can't wait to read the other two books in the series and I can't wait to see the movie.
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GCB. I love this show. I'm really surprised because I don't really like soapy, girly shows (like Desperate Housewives) but I do love all things southern. I love Leslie Bibb and everything that she's been in, but I don't really love her character, Amanda Vaughn. I actually like the 3 "bad" girls and Amanda's mom the most. Kristin Chenoweth's character is so funny!

I'm loving the coconut mocha coffee that I got for my Keurig. It's so good! It's the perfect flavor for summer. I add sweet cream creamer that my friend, Brandi, introduced me to and it sweetens it without adding a different flavor. It's so good. Mmmmm.....

I'm loving the new candles I got at Yankee Candle this weekend. I have the carrot cake one burning right now and it smells so good. I always have a candle burning throughout the day.

And I know I've said this a lot lately, but I love how close the boys have become. Even though they do their fair share of fighting and stealing each other's toys. They also are so sweet to each other. They hold hands, share things, make each other laugh. It really melts my heart.

These were all taken today, before lunch. Look how many cute moments they had. It almost makes me want to have more. Almost. ;)

And of course, I'm loving spring! I waited all winter for it. ;) It's been pretty cold the past couple of days, but the weekend was nice enough to play outside, go to the farmer's market, etc. This coming weekend it's supposed to be in the 70's and 80's, the perfect weather for this momma of two, active boys.

What are you loving this Wednesday?