zoo run

last weekend my mom, addison, and i ran a race at the zoo.

the weather was great. it was a little chilly, but not freezing. and a little sunny, as evidenced by addison's face below.

i had every intention of wearing my hello kitty hat {which is why, as an adult, i had pigtails. still not sure that's a good enough reason}. anyways, it was too hot for me to wear the hat. so i just sported the pigtails.

i ran with addison in the stroller. the path through the zoo isn't very wide. i may have clipped a number of people with the stroller. unintentionally, of course. but some people do need to take a race etiquette course. runners on the left, walkers on the right. that's all i'll say about that.

we didn't get to see that many animals because we were running, but they had the elephants and {new to the zoo} kangaroos out and really close to us. so we stopped and looked at both. i don't think i've seen all the elephants that close. and i was really excited about seeing the kangaroos. they were really close!

the race was sponsored by outback and michelob ultra. so they had a ton of free food and beer. great way to finish a race!

ghouls at grassmere

sunday night we went to ghouls at grassmere. we've gone the past two years and addison's had a blast. so of course we had to go back this year! addison was a fairy the first time we went and she was a pirate last year.

this year, she wanted to be ariel. she's a little obsessed with the little mermaid. but she wanted a pink tail/fin thing.

i made her costume again this year {i'll tell how i did it in another post}. i've been lucky and have been able to find pretty easy ways to make her costumes. i'm just waiting for my luck to run out.

we went right after the titans game, so addison was a little worn out. and it was pretty cold. but getting candy definitely perked her up!

addison has a halloween party/parade today at school. then we're going to the park to trick or treat, and then maybe around the neighborhood. last year addison was more excited about handing out candy, so she may just want to do that again this year. we'll see!

happy halloween! hope it's filled with lots of fun {and candy}!!

randoms

oh blog. you have become neglected.

i'm sorry.

my dad has been pestering me to post some pictures, so here i am. finally blogging. and it's going to be a bunch of random stuff since halloween.

addison went to her first classmate's birthday party the saturday before halloween. i'm so glad we went! i was able to meet a few of the parents and watched addison play with some of her new friends. and she had SO much fun. they had playtime, snacks, cupcakes, face painting, balloon animals, and goodie bags. i want to be invited to a birthday party like that.


addison and i went to my friend's halloween party later that night. addison was a pirate, and my friend and i were mr. and mrs. potato head. i was the mr. and haley was the mrs. i made them the night before for only $9 i think. super cheap. we found the pullovers at cvs for $1 each {who woulda thought!}. and then we just got felt and velcro {i made them to where you could move the pieces around so we could swap throughout the night. that was a lot of wasted effort because it would have been just as easy to switch pullovers. oh well. they were cute!}


on halloween, we still have 2 pumpkins that needed to be carved. so i looked up some stencils and settled on one. i thought it may be kind of hard, and it was. mainly because the pumpkin was so freaking thick. whatever. it was totally worth it. turned out super cute.

i love hello kitty!


we went to the zoo last week with my friend amy. it was a perfect day. i didn't know how many more days we'd have like that, so i wanted to take advantage of it. we went through the whole zoo, which we hadn't done in a while. there were a ton of kids there on field trips, but they were all dispersed so it didn't seem that bad.


addison is obsessed with all of my friends. so whenever they're around, she wants to play with them and not me. so she wanted amy to take her to see the meerkats.


we went to the petting zoo and a lot of the goats were actually out. so addison got to run around and pet a lot of them. one of which was quite fond of me and my sweater. i had forgotten that they like to eat clothes.


and addison promptly passed out on the way home. seriously passed out. i tried to wake her up to get lunch and nothing. if i hadn't had to drive, i would have passed out too.

happy halloween!!

addison had her halloween party at school on friday.

she was a ghost. my mom got the idea off pinterest and made her shirt and tutu.


we i made sucker spiders for all of the kids in addison's class. they were a little difficult at first (the legs, at least) but i got in the hang of it. i thought they turned out super cute!


addison let me snap a picture of her with our pumpkins the other night too. i had to trick her into smiling, but hey, it worked! i carved tinkerbell in my pumpkin, and i'm pretty proud of her



last night we went to ghouls at grassmere. it's a trick-or-treat thing at the zoo. we went last year, and we all had fun. so we decided to go back this year.

i didn't know if it would be crowded because it's the last night of it and the night before halloween, but it ended up not being too crowded.

but it was kind of chilly.

addison was a pirate. it was completely her idea. i made the skirt and i love the way it turned out! i made it like i did her tutus, but with fabric and a little tule. she already had the leggings and shirt, and my mom had the head scarf thing. the black shoes were the only thing we had to buy, and i think they are super cute and i know she'll wear them a lot after halloween.


she didn't really let me take pictures, and it was dark, so i didn't get many good ones. hopefully i will get better ones tonight.

there was someone working at the zoo that was dressed up as a pig, and addison loved it. she went and talked to the pig and didn't want to leave. she even gave the pig a hug goodbye. so sweet!


i'm excited about taking addison trick or treating tonight! and sharing her candy :)

visiting rio

addison went to the zoo last week...twice.

her daddy took her on tuesday and i took her on friday.

this kid knows her way around the zoo. she should be a tour guide there.

but seriously.

anywho, we met mary and gavin there and we brought addison's wagon. she's really wanted to take it to the zoo, but we just never have. until friday!

it was really nice outside. and it wasn't too crowded. it's definitely better when all the kiddos are back in school.

when addison went with her daddy on tuesday, they rode the train. she really wanted to ride the carousel, but her daddy gets a little dizzy, so they couldn't. that was the first thing we did when we got to the zoo...

after saying hi to rio on the way in, of course. addison loves that movie. i still have yet to see it. there are 3 blue birds right when you walk in the zoo, and i guess they look like rio. so addison has to say hi to them on the way in and bye on the way out.

addison wanted to ride the giraffe on the carousel. she was all excited until she started walking up to it. i think she had second thoughts, but i was able to get her up on her giraffe and she did great! she didn't want to let go of my hand at first, but she did eventually. such the big girl!


she loved riding in her wagon.



i think she loved it even more because gavin was in there with her.


we tried to take some pictures but none of them turned out great. either addison wasn't smiling or i was making a funny face. so this pretty much sums up our attempt.


addison also loved tickling gavin. she would reach over and tickle his belly. i don't think it really tickled him, but she thought it did and she would always laugh.



goodness he is so cute. i can't believe how big he's gotten.


and momma mary. i love these 2!!


it was definitely a successful trip to the zoo. hopefully we'll be able to go back a few more times before it gets too cold to go. we've definitely gotten our moneys worth out of our membership!!

elephants!!

being a member at the zoo rocks.

addison and i get in free, and we can bring a guest. fo free.

now that they're charging for parking, it's even better! we don't have to pay to park and neither does our guest.

so last week, we headed out to the zoo. and my friend jenna met us there.

let me just say, addison loves jenna. she'll ask about jenna at least once a day. and when we're with jenna, addison wants nothing to do with me.

so addison had a blast showing jenna around the zoo. it was packed though. there were a couple of schools that were there on a field trip, and then just lots more people. and it was hot.

but we made it through! i didn't take many pictures though.

jenna took these while we were walking to see the elephants and giraffes. addison was being really silly.


when we got to the elephants, they were so close!!


and as you can see, addison does love jenna. she demanded jenna carry her/hold her hand most of the day. when we left, we went to get sonic and addison wanted to sit in jenna's lap and eat.

i'm glad addison loves all of my friends and they love her too!

just another day at the zoo

over easter break, addison and i made a trip out to the zoo. just me and her.

i haven't gotten to take her to the zoo by myself, so i was really excited to have a mommy/daughter day.

with my camera in tow, we headed out to the zoo.

her favorite animals at the zoo are the monkeys. they're pretty close to the entrance/exit, so she got to see them a few times while we were there.


i tried to get her to pose by the meerkats, but she didn't want to.


they have a little petting zoo where you can pet goats. only one goat was out of their little blocked off area, and i felt kind of bad for it. all the kids descended on it. but it didn't really seem to mind.



my mom loves flamingos, if you didn't already know. the zoo added flamingos fairly recently, and addison has a new love for them. she can now say flamingo, and it's so cute! i was able to get her to pose with them after about 50 tries.


we hung out in the alligator room for a while because no one was in there and addison wanted a snack. i don't think she really cares for the alligators, but they play music and addison likes to dance to it.




and she's really into jumping lately. sometimes she'll try to jump instead of walk. she's a silly one.




it was a really fun day, and i can't wait to make lots of trips to the zoo this summer! which is almost here, by the way. only one more exam tomorrow, and i'm free!! well, not really, but that's ok. at least i'll just be done with the semester :)

happy easter!

yesterday we went to addison's first ever, official, for real easter egg hunt.

it was at the zoo.

i was excited. and a little nervous.

they had one in the morning and one in the early afternoon, and we went to the morning one. we figured it would be hotter and more crowded at the later one. and since we went to the earlier one, we got to walk around the zoo for a little bit before addison got tired.

let me just tell you, addison rocked!

we started out the morning like this...


...which made me a little worried.

but she perked up and was ready to hunt for some eggs!

one of addison's little buddies was there with his family, so she had a little friend.



don't think i'm crazy, but we had practiced some with her in the back yard earlier in the week. not so she'd win and be the best egg hunter ever, but because she had never done anything like that before, so we wanted her to kind of know what she was doing.








and she was awesome! she got out there and picked up eggs like she had been doing it all her life. her age group was 2 and under, so there weren't any older kids pushing everyone around. and there were tons of eggs. the way they did it was that the eggs didn't have anything in them, but you turned your eggs in after you finished and everyone got the same little goodie bag. i really liked that because no matter how many eggs you got, you still got the same thing. addison filled her basket about half way up, and then we stopped. she took her time towards the end and would just watch everyone else.


it was a lot of fun, and i'm really glad we went! they had a lot of other activities for the kids to do, as well as the same ole zoo stuff, which addison loves. we'll definitely be going back next year if they have it.

hope everyone has a happy easter!!