The best day ever (in a toddler's eyes!)

Yes, I'm insane.  Let's get that right out in the open.  So when you read that I took my two, count them, two toddlers to the zoo and a baseball game on the same day, you won't be thinking, "is she nuts?"  Because you already know the answer.  Yes, yes I am.  That being said, we had a great time at both events, and only the drives home were a little frightening... and the next day when they were insanely sleep deprived... but I'm trying to block that part out.

We started out our day at the Blank Park Zoo.  It's a nice small zoo here in Des Moines.  The boys had a good time looking at all the animals.  Of course, the giraffes were a highlight.  N refused to look at the camera, but at least the giraffes were cooperating!

N and Grandma L practiced milking a cow.  It was a fake cow, so don't get all "what about the germs?" on me.  Yes, I thought it was strange that there is a fake cow at the zoo, but this is Iowa you know!  At the Iowa state fair there is a butter cow every year.  Yes, literally a life-sized cow carved entirely out of butter.  People will travel from miles around to see the butter cow, and there will be a line to get to it.  So a cow at the zoo doesn't seem so odd after all, does it?

They had a special guest at the zoo this summer.  Rosie the elephant and her baby J.P. are in town doing a show.  It wasn't like going to Thailand or anything (right Lynn?) but it was still pretty cool.  Too see the elephants my friend Lynn got to ride on in Thailand, go here... Someday... someday.

If you asked N what his favorite part of the day was, he'd probably tell you the choo-choo.  The kid does love a good choo-choo ride.  We were all pretty tuckered out by this time, as you can tell by the boys' faces!

Even though he was tired, e was still practicing his lion roar with Grandma.  He has been roaring ever since... like every couple of minutes!  Then N roars, then e roars again.  It's like we  have our own pack of scary lions in the backseat!

After we left (and had an ear piercingly loud car ride home).  We decided to go to the I-Cubs (minor league for the Chicago Cubs) game that evening.  The game starts at 7 pm, which is the boys normal bed time.  But since we went to the zoo they got really late naps, so I thought they could handle staying up a little late.  Besides, I love going to the baseball games, and this was going to be our only chance.  So I decided to throw all caution to the wind and go for it.  Recipe for disaster, I know, but they obviously enjoyed themselves!


The boys split, and ate all of, an entire foot long hot dog.  Little e was all about it.  Here he is trying to stuff it all in his mouth at once... his standard way of eating pretty much anything!

Well, it was almost time to head for home and let these boys get some much needed rest, but first we had to let N practice his batting skills.  They have this little wiffle ball game, where a stream of air holds the ball up over the cone for kids to hit.  You can see that N was very concentrated on the ball.  Little league here we come.  I can even hear my dad now, "keep your eye on the ball!"  He did manage to hit it several times... he obviously doesn't get his athletic ability from his mom!