Silly Faces

I couldn't bear to delete these from my phone...

Zoo with friends!

On Tuesday, we were able to go to the zoo with Cortney and her children.  Cortney and I are just starting to do more things together and I love it!  It's been a lot of fun getting to know her and her family better.  Cortney and I married cousins, Ammon and Josh.  She is a lot of fun to be around and is such a good mommy.  I learn a lot just by watching her do her thing.  : )

The zoo was tons of fun.  We got to see quite a few unusual things.  For one, we got to see the alligators being fed.  I know that the ones in the zoo are mostly tame because they've been trained but, have you seen the show, Swamp People??  My sister, Michelle got me hooked on it and seriously... you would not catch me in an alligator habitat with a stick in one hand and raw meat in the other.  Scary!  We also saw a turtle eating a frog and a snake eating a mouse.  Here are some pictures from our day!

From left to right:

Raelyn, Gracen, Morgan's head, Jack, Griffin's arm, and Noah

(not pictured is Everett)

Here they are watching the puffins.  : )

Jack, Morgan, Noah, Griffin and Raelyn

We made a stop at a super cool park in the middle of the zoo.  Noah and Jack climbed to the top of the spider web!

Griffin and Gracen.

Our zoo membership has gotten quite a bit of use this year.  We used it at the NC Zoo a couple times, Zoo Atlanta, an aquarium, and the Columbus Zoo.  The Columbus Zoo ranks #1 with us so far.   It was so cool!  Plus, that's where I went as a child so... it brings back fun memories for me.  We'll need to renew our membership soon so that we can keep making wonderful memories for our children.

The best kind of math lesson...

You guys probably all know that we live in Mayberry.  Yep.  Andy Griffith grew up here and the Andy Griffith Show was based off of this town.  All the characters are based off of real people in Andy's life.  Anyway, this is our town's claim to fame.  We have tourists coming through all the time to visit all the "historical sites".  We've never gotten into the whole hoopla.  Never gone on the guided squad car tour.  Never gone to Snappy's lunch or Opie's Candy Store.  Until Wednesday.  Wednesday I decided to take the boys here.

The place is full of candy.  You can fill a bag for $5.50/pound.  I showed Noah and Griffin how to work the scale.  I told them that they could fill the bag until it weighed 16 ounces.  They had a blast going around collecting candy and then running to the scale only to find out that they could get MORE candy.  It was a good math lesson.

Despite how they look in this picture, they had a ton of fun!  They ask to go back multiple times a day.  :)

Canoe racing

Our youth activity this week was... canoe racing!  All the kids had a bunch of fun and we only had one canoe tip over.  : )   Before the youth started racing, Ammon took our boys out on the water.  They were both scared as soon as they stepped in the wobbly canoe.  Noah got over it pretty quickly and went out a few times after their first ride.  Griffin however, didn't like it at all.  He didn't cry or whine but, when he got back on solid ground, he just wanted me to hold him.  He kept telling me that he didn't want to get back on the boat because it was too scary.  We'll see how long that lasts.

Strawberries!

Last week, the boys and I went to a local strawberry farm with some friends.  The boys had so much fun being "strawberry hunters".  They were really good at finding perfectly ripe strawberries.  We ended up buying 2 gallons.  We had enough to make strawberry freezer jam, strawberry shortcake and plenty to just eat fresh.  The freezer jam turned out really well.  I used this recipe.  If it ever stops raining around here, we plan on going back so we can make more jam and freeze some for smoothies.  Yummy!

cracking eggs

Griffin woke up early this morning.

Just like every morning...

I picked him up and took him into the playroom.  I placed him on the lovesac, turned on the tv and pushed play on his Dora the Explorer dvd.  I staggered back to bed and fell asleep.

zzzz...

The next time I woke up, it was because Ammon was talking.  Here's what I heard:

Ammon - "Griffin, what are you doing?"

Griffin - "cracking eggs"

Ammon - "You're cracking eggs?  Where are you cracking eggs?"

Griffin - "on the lovesac"

Ammon jumped out of bed and checked the playroom.  Yep, sure enough, he had cracked an egg on our lovesac.

Why?

Well, according to Griffin, he wanted to "plant the egg in the dirt and watch it grow".

A few words to describe...

... my mom.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom.  I love you SO much!