a glorious fall day

the forecast for this week doesn't look at that great.  when i was listening to the forecast for today this morning it said that the rain was going to stay off until overnight and i decided to spend as much time outside as possible.

we dropped madelyn off at school and the boys and i headed over to barnes and noble for some train time before story time. they pretty much had the table to themselves for an hour and mason still hadn't had enough! they were so cute.  when we move into the house and get our train table out of storage, we may never see mason again...

 after stories and a craft (making an apple tree), we headed over to a park near madelyn's school to play for about 45 minutes.  first we hit up the racquetball courts with our can of tennis balls.  mason liked throwing them up in the "sky" and bouncing them into the "wall".  then we went to spend the rest of our time on the swings.  both boys had so much fun!

since it was so beautiful out, i thought that we should eat lunch at home and then head over to the zoo. both boys fell asleep waiting for madelyn - this happens almost every day.  usually i let them sleep after we get home (until 1 or 2:30), but today i woke them up to eat.

thanks to their power naps and a good lunch, everyone was in great spirits for the zoo.  madelyn and mason even managed to take turns pushing the automatic (yes, handicap) buttons - instead of fighting and crying like normal.

 several exhibits were already closed for the season.  and this is the last month for the jellyfish exhibit (i think...).  the kids are going to be so sad when it is gone.

maddux got in on drumming the "rhythm of the jellies" for the first time

co-anchors

they even got a private session at the "touch tank" thanks to the lack of visitors today.  i couldn't believe how few people were at the zoo on such a beautiful day!

i often have mason say "bye" to animals as a way to get him to move along, but today he kept saying "hello" to each one.  it was so cute.  he would even turn to me to tell me that he said "hello".  sweet boy.

maddux was really engaged with the animals today.  he did not know what to think about me rolling him up so close to the bear pushing it's nose on the glass. i think he felt better about it when mason came over too.

i forgot how frisky the animals get when the weather cools down.  we were splashed by the penguins zipping and leaping in the water, spent a long time with the lemurs leaping in the trees and watched two bears pestering each other.  so nice.  i hope we get a few more good days like this before the winter greys settle in.  love.