Put me in the zoo!

So last weekend Aunt Sue and I took Mima and Granny to The Metropolitian Cooking and Entertaining Show for a girls day out. In addition to perusing the 200 some vendor booths present we had tickets to see Paula Deen LIVE! She is even more personable and fun in person then you could even imagine. Come on, you know you've tried to imagine it. Well stop trying - because really your imagination wouldn't do her justice. She was awesome. I even got to sample some beans & rice that Paula made herself! And by "herself" I mean her assistant made then and then she came, tasted, threw in an extra stick of butter and stirred up. Her assistant was also some famous chef. I cannot recall his name for the life of me but he was some hyper little British guy with a somewhat maniacal laugh who was making and drinking Jim Bean and Cokes right on stage during the presentation. LOVE it.

Okay I know this isn't Kelly's Place (Hmmmm .. you know I am pretty interesting. Maybe I need to start a Kelly's Place blog!) so I'll get to the point. While the ladies were off eating and socializing, Jack and his daddy had a "Man Day" outing to the National Zoo! Or as Jack referred to it "It's MAN DAY Daddy! NO ladies allowed! NO ladies, right? Just you and me Daddy? Shoo ladies SHOO! It's MAN DAY! Just Daddy and Jackie!". I could tell he was *really* going to miss me.

The boys learned about Sloth Bears ...


And Orangutans ...


And Island Iguanas in Peril ...

This particular iguana does not look exactly "in peril". Look at that thing. I bet he weighs more then Jack!

They saw little somewhat spotted kind of possum-esque type creatures:


And butt-faced pouf-tailed monkeys ...

By the way - someone should totally put me in charge of naming animals.

This guy was all "If I were king of the forrrrressssssssst!".


They saw elephants roaming ...


And seals sunning...


Apparently Jack's favorite part of the trip was seeing the beavers. He's been obsessed with beavers since Uncle Paul and Aunt Sue came back from their Alaskan cruise and showed us a picture of a tree that a beaver had chopped down. Not a picture of an actual beaver, mind you. Just a "beaver tree". For about two weeks straight after seeing that picture all I heard night and day was "Remember that beaver tree Uncle Paul showed me? Remember? Can you tell me about beavers? Can you tell me about beavers again? And again? AGAIN I said!". So anyway you can imagine how thrilled he was to see real beavers live and in person. And check out how close they got!



And of course no trip to the zoo is complete without a pigeon chase!


A ha-UGE thank you goes out to Mike for making sure to document the whole trip so that I (and you) didn't have to miss out on the experience. Isn't he just the best daddy? Yes, he is. The best Daddy and husband EV-er. We are just so lucky. :)

Chef Jack

So Friday we had "Make your own pizza night" for dinner. I was lucky enough to have the cutest little chef in the world to assist with all the dough rolling, sauce spreading and topping applying. My little assistant INSISTED he have a chef hat before going to work. I told him I didn't have one - but that answer was simply not acceptable. The following improvisation was all his own idea:



GENIUS - no? I'm thinking I need to add "chef's hat" to the Christmas list.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I thought this place could use some jazzing up, so I have added some background music for your listening pleasure.

Love it? Yey! Hate it? Scroll down to the way bottom the page to the the little green rectangle-ish shaped thing and hit the pause button.

And because a post just wouldn't be a post without a picture ... here is one from soccer this Fall. Can you BELIEVE I have yet to blog about soccer? Yeah neither can I. I will let this post as a reminder for me to do that this weekend.


Best.Goalie.EVER.

Halloweenish stuff

A few weekends ago we drove out to the "High Hill Farm Pumpkin Patch" in beautiful Winchester, Virginia. It was the perfect day for a Fall drive with the weather being perfectly crisp and the leaves being just about at peak color. I love heading out to Winchester as it is the the home to one of four locatons of our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Tolteca. Everytime we head out to Winchester for the day I know that tacos are pretty much a sure thing for me. That makes me mucho happy.
Oh, and I enjoy spending time with my family too.

Here is Jack "driving" one of his most favorite things in the world - a John Deere tractor:


"Iceberg RIGHT ahead!"



The highlight of our High Hill Farm trip was the corn maze. Jack pretty much led the way the entire time.


An experienced corn-mazer doesn't walk the stalks - he RUNS them!


Check out how nicely Mike matches the sky. He totally planned that.


A short break for some conversation:


Conversation with who, you ask? Why, the maze master of course!

He's the one who makes sure everyone that enters the maze also leaves the maze. Always smart to stay on his good side.

Hydration is important.


And lest you think I was not brave enough to enter the maze, a self-portrait to prove I was there. I was trying to get my face with the boys in the background - but looks like my big fat head blocked them:

Corn mazes make my nose look pointy.

And a picture of our fearless leader and I after emerging from the maze victorious.

Notice how the knees of my pants are just as dirty as Jack's? Mike can't take us anywhere!

Jack's first election!

Jack participated in his first presidential election this week. He was beyond excited to witness democracy in action and lend a little tiny hand in helping to shape this country's future.

But mostly, he was excited about the free stickers.

Larry the Dinosaur came with us to vote and even got a sticker of his very own. The sweet little old guy assisting with my machine handed me two stickers when I was done rockin' the vote and ....

Me: "Oh thank you. Actually could I possibly get one more sticker, uh, for Larry?"
Little Old Guy: "Miss I already gave you an extra one for your boy."
Me: "My boy is Jack. The furry little red one is Larry. It would mean a lot to all of us if Larry could have a sticker too."

Little Old Guy kind of started at me for a moment like I was crazy, or on something (you know the stare, right? No? Why do I know it so well?) but .... mission accomplished:

We walked out of there three stickers richer!

Both of them showing their voter pride:


And showing off Jack's "election day present" (the book) from Mima:

(Jack is holding a toy helicoptor in front of his face indicating that he is DONE with my picture taking.)

My "election day presents" included a free tall coffee of the day from Starbucks:



And a free soft taco from California Tortilla"


I wish it were election day EVERY day!