Lights at the Zoo

Friday night we took a trip down to the Toledo Zoo to see the Christmas lights. It was only about 40 degrees this year,instead of our regular 0 degrees :) Bob and Bev were still in town from Thanksgiving and wanted to go check out the lights, we thought it was a great opportunity to go along. We had a great time.

Jackson sitting in the beehive in the new kids area of the zoo.

Checking out the fish in the aquarium.

All bundled up for the cold.

Enjoying the "dancing lights".

Jackson trying on the animal masks.

Under the Big Top

I was so excited to hear that the Barnum and Bailey, Ringling Brothers circus was coming to town. My parents used to take us to that circus, and I still remember it. Matt, my mom , and I all went with Jackson. It was in the new Lucas County Arena, which is very nice. We had such a good time. We had been talking about it all week, so Jackson was so excited by the time we actually got there.

There were 7 motorcycles in this cage all going at the same time, it was amazing.

My favorite part was of course the elephants.

Jackson and Gubbi enjoying the show.

Jackson's favorite part was the tigers. He had been expecting to see lions and talked all week about the lions we would see at the circus. He was a little disappointed when he discovered there were no lions. But the tigers were a pretty satisfying replacement.

There was so much going on that Jackson was pretty much in awe the whole time. He told Amy and Colin all about the circus the next day. I am so glad that we could take him-we all had a great time!

Jackson's clown hat :)

Lesley's Wedding

We took a trip down to Wittenberg University for Lesley and Brett's wedding. We had a blast!! Lesley is one of Aunt Carli's best friends; so her and Uncle Joe were there, along with Gubbi. Lesley looked absolutely stunning, as did all of the bridesmaids. I need to get some pictures from Carli and Joe. The food was fantastic and there was lots of dancing and fun at the reception.

It is so difficult to get a good picture with Jackson actually looking at the camera any more. This is the best that we could get.

Handsome little man. He still loves wearing a tie. I was getting our things packed in the morning and he saw me get out the tie. He had to wear it with his jammies until we were ready to go :) Of course he fell on the driveway and bumped his head just as we were ready to leave, giving him the lovely bump on the forehead. I swear it is always when we are going to an event or he is getting pictures taken that he bruises up his face.

Jacskon's little buddy Nolan was at the wedding too. Jackson shared his dinosaurs and played very nicely with him.

Thanks Lesley and Brett for a great weekend-Congratulations again!!

The Tool Man

My Dad graciously agreed to come over and replace our old kitchen sink with a new one. This project of course became more complicated thatn originally anticipated. (don't they always) Jackson throughout the whole time was "helping Keycoo". He is fascinated by my Dad's tools. At one point my Dad looked over and his tool belt was completely empty, Jackson had pulled every tool out of it. We finally gave Jax all of the nut drivers because they had no sharp points. He walked around the house with them "fixing" things. He also kept trying to get under the sink with Keycoo to help him.


There were a few issues and at one point my Dad was starting to get a little frustrated. Jackson heard him and came over and said "Keycoo, are you having trouble? I will help you". This of course helped to ease some of my Dad's tension. :)

After two days and lots of trips to Home Depot, we have a beautiful new, functioning sink. Thanks Keycoo!!

Halloween Eve

Halloween started a day early for us this year. Jackson wanted to wear his Batman mask for breakfast on Friday morning.

Then Daddy took Jax down to Perrysburg to Aunt Carli's studio. The businesses in downtown Perrysburg did trick or treating for little kids in the morning.

Got his bucket, ready to go.

Checking for treats :)

Leaves

Friday night it got up to 75 degrees. We had to get outside and enjoy the wonderful weather. we went out and raked leaves with the neighbor kids. Of course the main reason to rake leaves is to have a pile to jump in! We had a blast.

Trick or Treat

Our schedules have been a little crazy with Matt working seven days a week on seconds. We were not able to carve our pumpkins until Halloween morning. I thought that Jax would want to help us clean out the pumpkins and pull out the seeds. He wanted nothing to do with it-he took one look inside and said "no, you do it Mommy."

So after we cleaned the pumpkins out, I brought out some pictures of jack-o-lanterns and his pumpkin buckets to show him a variety of faces. He wanted a skeleton, and only a skeleton. I thought for sure that he would want a cute smiling face like his treat bucket.
Luckily, we had bought a pumpkin carving stencil kit that had a skeleton in it.

The skeleton pumpkin and Jackson showing his skeleton face.

Jackson dressed and ready to start passing out candy to the trick or treaters.

Jackson and I walked to some of our neighbors houses to do a little trick or treating. He was very polite, said thank you to everyone with out being told :)

Then it was back to our house so that he could give out some candy to the kids. He had so much fun seeing all the costumes. He kept asking all of the kids with masks on what they were. He also roared at some of them. He wasn't so sure when one boy roared back.

Our pumpkins turned out great. (thank goodness for stencils!)

Jackson enjoying some of his Halloween treats. The Halloween pretzels are such a great idea- I will have to look for those next year. (I know children would probably disagree)

It started to get pretty chilly by the end, luckily his costume along with some layers kept him very warm. When we went inside after trick or treating was finished, he said "Mommy, we had a fun day!" I totally agreed :)