A Day at the Cleveland Zoo

 Daddy had Good Friday off and the weather turned a little warmer, so we packed the boys up and headed to the Cleveland Zoo. It was a little chilly, but a light coat was all we needed. The sky was blue and the sun was shining! We had a great time looking at all the animals and spending the day as a family!

2 of my little animals

The first stop was to see the elephants!

There were 5 altogether.

Harrison walked the entire time!
He only got tired at the very end of the day.
He wore his monkey backpack so we could keep track of him
& he was so well behaved!

Carson's first trip to the zoo.
We brought the double stroller for him & Andrew.

Waiting patiently while Mommy fed Carson.

Checking out the koala bear & lemur.

Carson decided he wanted to be held so I wore him in my wrap.

Taking a break from the animals to play!

Since the boys were so well behaved
 we let them pick something small from the gift shop.
Andrew chose an elephant.
He sleeps with it every night and calls it Ellie.

Harrison chose a tiger. He calls his Tiggie.

Carson got a lion rattle that he loves to hold.

Snow Pooh!

A few weeks ago we got a good, wet, packing snow. The boys and I couldn't resist building a snowman. When Carson was taking a morning nap we bundled up and headed outside. Harrison & I rolled balls to make our snowman. Then he brought me snow to fill in holes and smooth it all out. I asked him if he wanted to make it a snow bear & he said, "a snow Pooh!" He insisted that he have a honey pot, have buttons, a hat, and a scarf.

He loved his snow Pooh!
He took a few pictures of it with his camera & then let me take a few.

Harrison kept peeking at his snow Pooh through
the window to check on him. Unfortunately,
 he did not last until Daddy came home to see him.
The temperature warmed up to 42 degrees and he toppled over.

This boy LOVES the snow!

More fun in the snow.

Making snow angels.

Andrew isn't too big on the snow.
He will play a while but gets tired of it quickly.
He had fun playing for a while, but had no interest in helping
with our snow Pooh. He did enjoy looking at it through the window
 . . . and still peeks outside to see if it is there lol

Finally some new pictures!

The last time I took the boys to get pictures taken at a photo studio it was when Andrew was a few months old. I desperately needed some new pictures of the boys for our living room wall. Especially since Carson came along! 

I am not a fan of photography studios. They always seem to rush through the pictures, never take safety shots, don't have patience for the boys, and don't worry about trying to get good smiles. This time I tried Portrait Innovations. Instead of being inside another store like Sears or Walmart, it is self enclosed, has a play area for the kids while you are picking out your pictures to order, and they print your pictures right there in their lab while you wait. They took 3 pictures of each pose so we were sure to get good smiles and no blinks. I think they turned out pretty cute!

Carson was a bit unsure at first.
So serious, but at least he is not crying!

He got more comfortable and squeaked out
some small smiles for us.

The photographer quickly popped on this hat
and I was instantly in love!
 I knew Ryan would like these pictures too.

Harrison & the photographer kept readjusting
 his hat so it doesn't sit as cute on his head.

I am not a big fan of scenery backgrounds,
but I think that this one looked nice with their outfits
and the crate they put Carson in was too cute!

Best Buddies!

One of my favorites! The boys are always kissing each other,
but let me tell you how hard it was to get a picture with both of them
kissing Carson at the same time!

Playing with Toys

Carson is growing up so fast. Probably because he had a jump start at birth. He turned 3 months old yesterday & is wearing 6 month clothes. He loves to smile, coo, laugh & blow bubbles. He also is starting to enjoy playing with toys. His brothers never played with baby toys much . . . at least not this young. The toy in the pictures is one of his favorites. It is easy to hold, jingles & he likes putting the ball ends in his mouth.

"Mommy, what's next on our plan?"

 "Mommy, what's next on our plan?" I hear this question a couple dozen times a day!

Harrison has some special things he only gets to do when Andrew naps & is always eager to do them. To help him realize that there were other things we could do until naptime, I would list things we were going to do for the day. "First we are going to do this, then that, then lunch, then Andrew will take a nap & you can play Legos."

This developed into Harrison wanting me to write down what we were going to do. I would ask him what things he wanted to do that day, write them on a notepad, and check them off as we did them. He loved this! So developed the question,  "Mommy, what's next on our plan?"

In the last month I have tweaked this a bit. I made a weekly calendar of things we are going to do, as well as the toys we are playing with for that day. It mixes it up a bit more and reminds him of toys he doesn't always think to play with. Part of our new play plan is a scheduled reading time & play-doh. We always read to the boys, but I wanted a scheduled story time in there. Now I read to them as they are eating their lunch.

 Here are a few pictures of the boys during play-doh time one day. Yes, they are in their jammies . . . sometimes jammie days are part of the plan too!

Snuggles in the sling

 Carson is a happy baby. If he is fed, he is content & rarely fusses. One day he just really wanted to be held. No big deal. I like baby snuggles, especially if the other two boys are playing nicely together, but I needed to make dinner. I changed him, fed him, snuggled him & attempted to lay him down in the swing for a while. He was not going to have it! So I gave my new baby sling a try & he drifted quickly to sleep. I get baby snuggles & dinner made at the same time! Perfect!

Pizza!

The boys used to never eat pizza, so when we would order one we would make them mac 'n cheese or something. Then I started making my own pizza and now they love it! The crust is softer & the sauce isn't as spicy. Harrison's favorite is pepperoni & mushroom but recently tried ham & pineapple and liked it. Andrew, on the other hand, will eat it with whatever we put on it . . . including the crust (which Harrison refuses to eat). We just couldn't resist snapping a few pictures of him in all his pizza bliss!