Halloween Cookies

The weather was not the best yesterday with off and on rain and clouds, so we stayed inside and baked and decorated cookies. To say that my kitchen was a mess after this endeavor, would be an understatement! Having a toddler help you cut out cookies, keeping him away from the hot baking sheets, making sure he wasn't taking one bite out of EVERY cookie that was cooling, making sure to not burn the cookies, and supervise decorating is not as easy as it might sound for one adult. But, Ian had fun and we have lots of tasty cookies to eat!
Pressing the cookie cutters into the dough.

He kept calling the flour on the counter "chalk" and wanted to clean it off. :)

Testing the products...

"Dusting" his hands off after getting lots of little orange and yellow sprinkles on them...this meant that I then had lots of orange and yellow sprinkles on the floor that then stuck to the bottom of his feet. (I decided to assist with these sprinkles from then on.)

Finished cookies! (I know the icing colors might not be traditional for Halloween, but I mixed up the colors that Ian wanted.)

Guns up, little Red Raider.

Sampling his work.

Total concentration.

Sneaking a bite of the dough. That's one of my favorite parts, too!

As Ian was waiting for me to clean the kitchen so we could play, this is what he was doing to pass some of the time (he gets a lot of practice watching me push him on the swings!).

Cameron Park Zoo

I took Ian to a zoo in Waco this past week. He was beyond thrilled to go, and he woke up at 6:40 am telling me "Mama, I'm ready to go to the zoo!!" The weather was nice, and it wasn't crowded since school was in. We had a great time, and Ian loved identifying all the animals he knew and learning about ones he had never seen.

One very excited boy!!

This is not the best photo, but it just proves that I do exist! :) Ha ha. Some nice lady offered to take our picture with the white monkeys (gibbons) in the trees behind us.

With all the live animals around us, Ian wasn't sure whether this one was real or not.

The rhinos turned out to be his favorite.

Inside a small cave looking through a window underwater.

This is what Ian was seeing! Yikes!

There was this cool slide that went through the river otter exhibit. The otters could swim under the slide and swim/climb over the top of it so Ian got to see them up close as they played. It was hard to pry him away from this one.

Bison.

Not quite tall enough for the red ladybug, but I love his enthusiasm!

There was a great playground for Ian to play on, and this huge snake was part of it. (Hope you scrolled past this one quickly, Jess!)

This was how a lot of the day was spent; with Ian running ahead to see the next animals.

As we were leaving and I was trying to convince him that it was time for a nap (especially for a boy that had been up before dawn), it seemed that a lot of the animals were also napping. Great persuasion for a toddler! :)

Flamingos.

Hugs.

I love how relaxed he is in this picture; like he's always had a gorilla to hang out with.

Play Ball

Ian loves just about any sport that requires a ball, but he especially likes hitting his baseball. Here are a few pics of him playing in our backyard.

Outside Fun

The weather has been wonderful here lately, and we have been outside enjoying it! Here are some pictures taken over the last week or so.

Concentrating on his artwork.

I don't know what made Ian more excited: that his jacket has a hood or that his jacket has pockets!

Helping Mama plant some mums.

Silly boy showing off how dirty he got.