Dallas Zoo

This morning Lily and I met Courtney, Trent & Elise and Meg, Travis & Allison at the Dallas Zoo. We've never been before, but they all have memberships and go often and they invited us to join today. Normally we spend Mondays with Chip, but he had a lot of studying to do today and he had to take my Dad to the airport in the afternoon so we decided to check out the zoo! I was a little nervous this morning about going since Lily didn't fall asleep last night until after 10:30 and woke up at 6:30 yelling "It's not dark anymore!" which is usually what she says in the morning, but now it is a whole hour earlier. This time change kinda sucks. We have her windows covered to make her room darker, but there are still cracks where light shines through -- we'll definitely have to fix those soon!! So needless to say she was pretty tired at the zoo. Plus, Britney woke up vomiting and with diarrhea so that had to be dealt with too. Thankfully Chip volunteered to take her back to the vet so we could go to the zoo. They think it is due to the antibiotics she is on and they are giving her a new kind -- a shot! But actually as bad as that sounds, I think it may be easier to administer a shot rather than try to get her to drink her meds, so we'll see how that goes. We have to pick her up later this afternoon.

But, back to our trip to the zoo -- Lily was pretty tired and actually asked to ride in her stroller a lot of the time. Trent kept asking Lily to walk with him, but she wanted to ride. We only stayed a few hours which was fine by me since she was so tired and I wanted to race home before she fell asleep in the car. It is about 30 minutes away, but I managed to keep her awake and about 10 minutes from home she had to use the potty so we made a quick pit stop at El Torito for her to pee and that kinda woke her back up for the rest of the ride home! But the zoo was fun and hopefully we'll get back again one day soon and see the rest of it!

Lily, Trent and Elise

They were SO cute holding hands and running through the zoo.

Travis, Trent, Lily and Elise

Checking out Jenny the elephant.

Lily and her boyfriends. :)

I tried to get Lily to take a picture with the giraffes for cousin Jeremy, but she was starting to get cranky.

Running up the hill.

While we were back in the hilly area a zoo employee drove by and had us evacuate the area due to a "situation" with an unhappy animal! I never got the whole story, but it was kinda exciting. :)

Riding the kangaroos.

In the Children's Play Area. They also had pony rides for $2 and Lily was all ready to go, but while waiting in line she suddenly had to pee, so we went potty and came back and then she changed her mind and wouldn't get on. I have to wonder if she watched everyone else take a turn (there was only one horse) if she would have gone ahead and rode the horse. Oh well, maybe next time!

In the egg

Another egg.

Looking at fish.

Lily and Elise were so funny. First Elise stood between these 2 poles and said "Help, I'm stuck." and Lily pulled her out. Then Lily went between the poles and said the same thing and Elise pulled her out and then Elise went back and Lily again and so on and so forth until we told them it was time to go!

Halloween Night

We had the best Halloween! I invited our playgroup friends over for dinner and trick or treating, since I figured Lily would have more fun with her buddies and I'd have my friends too. Plus it was a good chance for Chip to meet everyone and get all the husbands together. It was a total success and everyone had a great time. The kids were so cute trick or treating and Lily had a blast! It didn't take her long at all to catch on and would walk away from one door and yell, "Ok, on to the next house!" Everyone came over at 5pm for dinner and we left to go out at about 6:45 and didn't get back until nearly 9pm!! It totally didn't seem like we were trick or treating that long, it all went by so fast! But it was so much fun. After all that Lori and family and Patti and family came back over to the house (where my Dad was waiting to watch the USC game and passing out candy) and hung out for awhile longer. We figured since it was Daylight Savings Time, we had an extra hour and we were all having such a good time no one wanted it to end!! It was a super fun night and I can't wait until next year!!

The dessert area.

I had candy, cookies and little cream cheese pumpkin pie bites which were the hit of the party -- they were yummy!
Appetizers
Salsa and guacamole.

Some of the decorations I got at the Dollar Tree! :)

All the kiddos eating dinner.

Chip grilled chicken breasts and we had pasta salad, green salad, and biscuits (plus all the chips and dip, cheese and crackers, fruit and assorted appetizers).

Good times!

I also got a pumpkin shaped ice cube tray and froze OJ pumpkins to serve in water with fun straws for the kids. They were a huge hit until the pumpkins melted -- then they wanted juice boxes.

The whole gang!
Hannah in front and then from the left -- Dylan, Ashley, Trent, Emily, Elise and Lily

We even dressed up!

Patti, me, Heather, Courtney and Lori

We jokingly told the husbands to line up for a photo and they did!

Chad (Heather's husband), Paul (Courtney), Chip, Matt (Lori) and Bryan (Patti). Bryan's shirt says "Go Ceilings!" -- he was a Ceiling Fan. :)

Lily's first ever house to trick or treat at on Halloween!!

I LOVE this picture!

(Chip considered his old jersey a costume)

The temp was in the lower 60's, so I made Lily wear a shirt under her costume, but it wasn't cold at all! I don't think she really needed it.

The 2 Cinderellas!

"Ok, on to the next house!"

One house had an inflatable haunted house that they could have stayed and played in all night.

The Beer Wagon

Courtney mentioned that her neighbors use to drag a wagon of beer around with them when they took their kids out. We all thought it sounded like a fun idea -- and it got the dad's excited and more willing to come! :) We covered our bottles with a towel, since no one was 100% sure of the Texas alcohol laws. But it was also nice to have the wagon to carry Lily and Emily's crowns and wands and other assorted Halloween accessories that the kids didn't want anymore!

Tiny Hannah pulling the Beer Wagon.

Back at the house playing after a fun night!!

Patti supposedly got some good shots of the 2 of them, so hopefully I'll post a few of those soon!

Britney Update

We got the lab results back from the lump on Britney's tail. It was a tumor, but thankfully, it was benign. So now we just have to concentrate on getting her stump to heal from the surgery and that is the worst of it. Britney doesn't seemed phased at all really and has been in a really good mood, probably because she is getting more attention that she has gotten since Lily was born. Sad, but true.

She was being real playful this morning, so I got a toy out for her and Lily to play with. They both had fun and it was even more reassuring to see Britney playing like a kitten again.

Then the silly cat somehow got into the little play refrigerator that is built into Lily's tent house.

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And here are some random photos of Lily from the other day. She just stood there and told me to take her picture, so I did!