boo at the zoo 2013

it is that time of year again where we get a ton of candy just for playing dress-up where other people can see us!  and we christened the costumes at boo at the zoo.  the kids were originally going with a theme - knights, dragons and princesses.  matt and i were even going to wear crowns to be the king and queen.  but then madelyn realized that she wouldn't get  a new costume (because she has at least 10 princess costumes) so she randomly chose minnie mouse.  then mason said that he wanted to be "camouflage"which i translated into a soldier and maddux didn't like the dragon costume i found so we went with the fireman costume we had at home.  since the theme was no longer happening, manning got to be a lion just like the older three were at one.

i told the kids to get their costumes on and they couldn't wait to get their hands on their trick-or-treat bags, but they didn't even care where we were going until we got into the car.  matt and i were laughing about how little the "where" mattered as long as they got to wear costumes.  i thought that our "car of critters" was pretty funny.  mason was the first one to figure out that it was "boo at the zoo" but he had an advantage because he has been talking about it for almost a month and we went this week to see all of the decorations.

it started raining on our way there.  the forecast wasn't great, but it is rain or shine and if you don't go on the day of your tickets then you just miss out.  i am happy to report that other than a few sprinkles when we first arrived, it was a great fall afternoon.  it was actually nice that it was so overcast because we could enjoy all of the lights.

we let manning walk and 'trick-or-treat' for a little while.  he thought that it was just the greatest! 

the 'finish line' to the soap car derby station. 

the line for the new streamlined soap box cars were fairly long so we decided to go 'old school' where there was no line.  the kids still enjoyed trying out the steering wheel.

they had some people carving pumpkins with some of the others they had already completed.  we decided that we needed a picture of mason with the "wounded warrior project" one.

we didn't bother with most of the animals because we come so often and we wanted to get through all of the trick-or-treating before it rained any more (which, thankfully, it didn't until we left), but the bears were running all over and playing together so we stopped for a while to watch.  it has been rare to get to see them without a wall of people around this new exhibit.

we had to get one group shot on our way out.  of course, we didn't take a single picture of me with any of the kids.  oh well.  i am happy that matt was able to join us.

manning and madelyn were the only ones awake on the ride home.  i love how he reaches back for her to 'get' him.

boo at the zoo was great and the kids can't wait to wear their costumes again soon!  love.