Cosely Zoo trip.

So due to the FRIGID temps. (Come on 30's in October?) we barely did anything over the long weekend other than try to keep warm in our house. Slippers, movies and blankets were a priority!

On Saturday we had the Thatchers and Nathan over for dinner! I have no clue what I was thinking, but we didn't take any pictures. So not a single shot of 8 beautiful kids!
We had a great time, the kids broke stuff, and played together really well. And Hope and I hit it off really well. I enjoyed my time with her immensely! It was nice to have someone to just chill out with. We had a big spaghetti lunch, but we ate pretty late, it was almost 2pm. So by the time 6pm rolled around no one had really considered dinner yet. Nathan brought icecream, so we fed them that for dinner. No. I'm not even joking. Five adults and that was the best we could come up with. ;)

It was delish! The kids were thrilled. My digestive system is not fond of icecream in the evening. It really is not fond of ice cream as the only food I eat in the evening. I felt pretty lousy all night, but it was worth the price for that yummy chocolate mint!

Sunday was football, the bookstore and trying to keep warm. The kids got new books and settled in with some reading time. I bought a new cookbook, The Hungry Girl book, and so far, I LOVE it!

Then Monday Patty, Shala and I took the kids to the free zoo in Wheaton. Oh good lord. I don't know why we thought going to the zoo when it was 45*F was a good plan, but we managed. We even had a picnic! The best part? It was small. It took about 2 hours for eating, wandering, making a craft and playing on the big stack of straw bales. The kids were worn out and cold enough to not complain when we said we were leaving! YAY!

So here are some pics from the day. Overload I'm sure. Sorry! I cannot.resist.the.cuteness. We all have some DARLING little kids! What can you do?

First some sibling shots:
Michael and Andrew, Patty and Quentin's boys:



Not sure who they belong too, but cute right? ;)


And these darlings are Fiona and Ava, Shala and Jason's gorgeous girls!









The kids got to make a spider as their craft, we took up more than half the table.






I liked this caboose learning center because it was "indoors" at least partially. Plus it was cute!





And you have to admire Evan in his pink gloves. He borrowed them from Ava and didn't give a hoot what anyone said he said his hands were cold, it didn't matter what color the gloves were because they were warm! ;)



I tried to get everyone with the pumpkins but Fiona said no, and Andrew was missing every time I tried to find him. Oh well. These turned out cute I thought!