Fall Hydrangeas

Getting lost in Mommy's hydrangeas. I never did get around to pruning them all this year. It'll be a fun spring project.

Cookies!

This weekend, I visited with some friends and decorated some cookies. After we were done decorating, the boys showed up, and had to taste-test them.

Joey also helped decorate one (hence all the silver sprinkles on the plate).

He definitely enjoyed them. It was hard to keep his little paws off them!

More Leaves

I finally got around to downloading the photos off my camera. I think these are over a week old now. They still show how much fun raking leaves can be!

Daddy's Little Helper

Joey loves to help his Daddy clean up the leaf piles, especially when they pile up in the basement entryway. He gets his broom and dust pan out (you can see the flash of yellow in his left hand - that's the dust pan) and will throw the leaves into the garbage can. He'll even tell us when it needs to be done! I hope he keeps up this "little helper" attitude into the teen years.

Movember

Even Joey's sporting a mustache for Movember. Of course, it's just a smoothie mustache, but what a cutie!

Steak and Shake

While I was away at my conference last week, Joe and Joey had a boys' night out at Steak and Shake. (Coincidentally, it was also a fundraiser for daycare where a portion of your purchase goes to the school.) If I remember correctly, at least one of those tiny cheeseburgers made it home. None of the shake did.

Z is for Zoo

Friends of ours were in town from California, and after lunch, we headed to the Lincoln Park Zoo. We walked through the Primate House, the Cat House, saw the gorillas and some zebras and even some camels. But of course, when you ask Joey what his favorite part was, he says the Tractor.

After we walked around the zoo proper, we stopped by the Farm at the Zoo. One of the nice things is that the part Joey likes is completely in doors, so we stayed nice and warm and out of the wind.

All the kids got into the action - and somehow we managed to get at least one good shot where we could see all the faces!

For those who haven't been, this is a real tractor, and Joey must have gone on at least four times. The most fun for me is watching the dads stand in line and then yell at their kids to come over when it's "their" turn.

They also have these giant tractor wheels (with recycled rubber instead of sand) which is fun for all to play in. And the rubber cleans up so much easier than sand! (If we ever do a sandbox in the backyard, I'm thinking the rubber also is less attractive to the kitties.)

The Singing

(Just watch his face while we're singing. Priceless.)

Happy Birthday, Joey!

I know it's been a week, but the hard drive's been full and we've been busy. I finally had a few minutes this morning (since Joey woke up at 5:40am) to get some things off the camera.

Here are all the kids getting ready to sing to Joey. (Including the babies, left to right, it's Diego, Wolfgang, Joe, Tano, Sammy and Annbel.)

And here they all are helping him unwrap his presents.

Tub Time