Zoo & Huber's all in one weekend.

We took the kids to the Louisville Zoo for the halloween party this weekend.  This will be the last year that we waste our time on this crappy event.  You wait in aweful traffic with rude people who think it's ok to drive to the front and expect to get in, then you pay $5.00 to park (it's free any other time) and if you are not a zoo member it costs $8.00 to get in.  It used to be that if you are a zoo member you get in free, now, you have to go on the "zoo member" weekends which are the first two in October.  All of this for....wait for it...... 7 pieces of candy.  I'm not kidding, I'm not being dramatic, LITERALLY 7 PIECES OF CANDY.  Are you kidding me???  This used to be such a cool thing to do with the kids and now it's just a huge waste of time and years of my life shaved off due to the high blood pressure enducing madness. 

OK.  I'm done with the gripe.  On to the positive.  Eden is beautiful, even when you use eyeshadow to paint her blue.  My good friend Andrea who is an amazing artist and is currently in cosmotology school agreed to do her makeup for me and WOW am I impressed.  She did a great job and we had all kinds of people talking about how amazing her makeup was.  Google Avatar makeup and you'll see just how awesome Andrea is.  It's not an exact match but still looks great!

Tyler wanted to be Darth Vader.  Him and Jacob were both so cute!  They both called him Dark Vader.

Eden took a friend with her.  Nya, vampire queen.  Makeup done by Andrea.

Jacob as Indiana Jones.  Five o'clock shadow provided by the lovely Andrea and brown eyeshadow.  He thought this was the coolest thing ever.  Sat right in the chair and let her "paint" him with a makeup brush.

 After the nightmare that was the zoo on Saturday night, I took the boys and Eden to Huber's with Keith, Dana, their three, Mom, Erin and Erin's friend Beth.  They loved the tractor ride to the pumpkin fields.  Personally, I wasn't such a huge fan.  It's been really, REALLY dry here and the dust from the tractor tires was pretty bad.  At least it was a gorgeous day.  Sunny, low 80's and a nice cool breeze.

Eden wasted no time picking her "perfect" pumpkin.  She grabbed this one within the first two minutes and it's the one she carted back to the barn. 

However, Jacob did not pick his right away.  He thought he liked one until he put his finger in a big hole, then he thought he liked this one here.  Then, I picked up a pumpkin that is so smooth and perfectly orange I just had to show it to them all and guess what.  That's the one he liked. 

I thought it was cute.  So does he.  If you look closely, he's decided to draw on it with a green crayon.  It kinda looks like a pancake.

Grandma helped Tyler pick his out.  I like it.  It's small and kind of pear shaped. Tyler didn't pick up the first thing he saw, but he did have to be told that you can't just drop them if you decide you don't want it.

I think he's happy with his decision.  What do you think?

Back on the tractor to head back to the barn and pay for our u-pick pumpkins.  All in all a pretty good weekend.  Even if I did think I was going to have to cut a b!tch if she let one more line jumper in while waiting in traffic to get into the zoo.

Family Fun

I'm so excited I got to spend some time with my cousin who's in from Tennessee and her kiddos. Louise, they were all so well behaved and they are absolutly adorable!

I'm pretty impressed with myself too! I actually kept the twins straight all day! I loved it when Natalie came over and started checking my pockets for tokens to ride the tractors. That was so cute!

I can't believe they only had three of these tractors, but they actually did pretty good taking turns. We only had one major meltdown and it was pretty short lived.

He's not real good at sharing, but then again, my boys aren't much on sharing either.

I think the kids really liked feeding the goats. Poor May May was the only one who had a goose mishap. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from that area.

Sweet little Conner, thinking about kissing the goat, since that's what his mommy suggested. Then he decided to just pet his ear.
Natalie and Conner getting corn to feed the animals. I think they are feeding the deer in this one.
Tyler petting the baby goat. This one was just his size and stood at the fence and let him pet him for a long time.
Jacob, just like his daddy, always in a hurry to get somewhere. Isn't he precious? Looks just like his daddy!

I love this picture of Regan, she was watching the other kids on the tractors and when I said her name, she turned to me and smiled right before I shot this picture. She knows when there is a camera on her! I also noticed that she is a big helper! She rode with Conner, because he couldn't quite reach the pedal to make it go and she was happy to let him steer while she pushed the button. Such a big girl!

Sweet little Madyson, I don't think she felt very good, but she was so good. I took her to the pedal cars and helped her and Regan go around the track once. The pedal cars are a little to big for the smaller kids, but her and Regan had so much fun, and she didn't even get upset when Regan started saying "I'm winning!" Mady was so sweet, she was happy for her sister.
Eden, the oldest on the trip today, she did so good with the younger kids, here she is waiting patiently for her turn. I know that I am biased because she's mine, but I still think that she is so beautiful. Sometimes, I forget just how pretty she is, and I love days like today, because they bring out the little bit of natural curl left in her hair. Couldn't you just drown in those deep brown eyes?

Here's Louise helping Dalton over the little tractor bridge. This was before the meltdown, when he was still being really good.

And little Mady who was just content to sit in the stroller. I think she actually fell asleep in it not to long after this picture.

Aren't these some of the most precious kids you've ever seen!?! We "Smith" girls sure do make pretty babies! This includes yours Amy, you just weren't here for me to take pictures of them too! I hope you can make it up, or I can make it down there soon and I'll get pictures of your kiddos too! Louise, I have a ton more pictures that turned out so good. I'll send them to you if you want. Just let me know. Here's the last one I want to post. I love the look on Conner's face. Michael took this picture and the look on his face is just so precious!