Halloween (Finally!)

Yes, I know there are only 9 days until Christmas...but I have to post Halloween pictures! If for no other reason so our parents can see Ethan's costume. So here goes:

I was looking forward to Halloween all year with the hopes of an elephant costume for Ethan. My friend, Robin, made it a reality and I couldn't wait until Trunk-or-Treat at church to see him run around in it. This is how that morning started:

Ethan found my hot chocolate leftovers in the garbage and indulged a little...

How can you be mad at this face?
We headed over to the Trunk-or-Treat later that evening. For some reason he always has no expression in moments like these...but I promise you he was having a blast!

I loved how his little tail looked whenever he bent over...what a cute little man!

I finally caught him when he stopped moving!!!

We had to take a moment to get a picture with his good buddy, Drew. They are both sooo tired by this point!

His "I'm tired" face after a long night of trunk-or-treating
We had a pretty low-key evening on Halloween. We went to church in the morning and spent the afternoon with Becky at our apartment. We had painted pumpkins earlier in the month, but needed to put the finishing touches on Ethan's pumpkin still. So my brilliant idea was that we should put Ethan's handprint on his pumpkin this year...I would NOT recommend it. It was super messy and didn't work out that well, but we tried!

Becky joined us for the festivities (I'm pretty sure he's pointing to his pumpkin here).

Family pumpkins--2010
We decided to dress him up again and let him run around the apartment complex a little. He is so excited to be an elephant (or to be outside...but I'm guessing he's excited to be an elephant)!

By the time we tried to take a family photo Ethan was tired, hot (the joys of Fall in the south--random hot days) and didn't want to sit still. Oh well, maybe next year!

Feeding dad a mummy dog
Ethan loved carrying his pumpkin around

Ethan showing off his pumpkin

A busy day calls for a BIG drink of water! He loves drinking out of the straw on my water bottle.
Halloween was lots of fun and we look forward to many more celebrations as a family!

More Fall Fun

I was really looking forward to Halloween this year to see how Ethan liked being in costume and trick-or-treating. But before we could do any of that, we had to get pumpkins!!! We decided to go to our local fruit stand again because we were a little crunched for time. I think Ethan was overwhelmed by all of the orange "balls".

He just kept saying, "ball" as he looked around!

Trying to be a strong boy

Pictures with mom and dad

We have really enjoyed getting to plan playdates with our friends, especially since the weather has been so beautiful. We decided to meet up with some friends at the Baton Rouge Zoo one afternoon. This was actually before our trip to the New Orleans Zoo, but it was still another great day to be outside and looking at the animals.

Standing on tippy toes to see into the tank

The tigers were so much fun that day...they were playing with each other and hiding and attacking each other...it was a great day at the zoo! After playing for a little while this tiger needed to take a rest in the shade! I love how Ethan's mouth is open in this picture!
Turtle pond!!!

My big boy walking and snacking

The giraffes were definitely a highlight of the day. It came right over to us and was letting the kids feed it leaves and grass and even pet it! We could have stayed there all day enjoying this beautiful creature!

After the petting zoo-like experience with the giraffe, we headed off to the actual petting zoo! At first I had to fight to get his attention on the animals instead of their droppings, but eventually he came around.

I think he was trying to decide if they were dogs (his favorite) or not...

He seemed like such a big boy as he wandered around just petting the goats.
We ended our day by stopping at the playground so the kids could run around and get all worn out!
It was a great day with good friends! This kid can't get enough of the zoo!

Fall in Louisiana

The fall is, hands-down, my favorite time of year in Louisiana. The weather is great and you can actually go outside without sweating your brains out. I'm just sayin'...We got a chance to get out and enjoy the PERFECT fall weather with some good friends at the New Orleans Zoo. We joined Nathan, Jill and Drew for the day and we ended up (well, Jill ended up) picking out the perfect day and we had a great time. I can't believe we didn't get any pictures together, but I promise, we were there with the Britts! As you can see, Ethan was too enthralled by the Who Dat monster to look at the camera!

Checking out the white alligator

This statue looked so real! Maybe we have a future gator wrestler on our hands? I sure hope not!

Hanging out with Dad by the Black bears
Stopping for a photo op!

The boys watching the jaguars "play"...I'm just glad Ethan's not old enough to ask questions yet.

I can't believe how much of a little boy Ethan is now! He got out of his stroller periodically and walked. He did a really good job of holding my hand and sticking by me.
I LOVE this statue. Of course, we had to get a family picture in front of it.

By the afternoon it had warmed up a little bit, so it was nice to get some relief from these water stations. Ethan was thrilled!

Toward the end of our day we found this little watering hole. Since it had gotten kind of warm and Ethan and Drew were kind of restless, so we decided to let them wade in the water. Well, wading turned into swimming, but it was a much needed break and lots of fun!

Ethan was soooo happy to be in the water! I'm pretty safe to say that this was his favorite part of the day.

Two happy boys!

We had fun getting a chance to pet some of the animals while we were there. Ethan did pretty well, but he wasn't too sure about this hedgehog. I can't blame him, though, I rubbed it the wrong way on accident, and it was SHARP!
He liked the goats a little bit better...maybe because he had seen them before.

These pictures are mostly for my parents. They have a picture of each one of us kids with our "spaghetti face" on and have been wanting one of Ethan. Up until recently, he never had a REALLY good spaghetti face--but this one was pretty good!

We really enjoyed the beginning of the fall season and the fun that it brought with it!