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birthday continued

girls v. boys: hope daintily munches a
cookie while john gobbles a cupcake.
john's birthday festivities have been unofficial but neverending this year! on saturday, we adventured to the audubon zoo with john's friend hope and her family. we started with a picnic in the parking lot thanks to hope's mom, and wrapped up lunch with cupcakes i'd held aside from john's birthday batch last week.

it was the hottest day in the history of mankind (ok, maybe a tiny exaggeration!) but the kiddos had a grand time. some of the highlights included:
  • acting like monkeys at the orangutan/gorilla exhibit
  • not seeing elephants at first, then seeing elephants on the way out
  • watching the white tiger "night night"
  • seeing two rhinos, and then "other one rhino!" ("rhinos mommy's fave.")
  • playing on the playground
  • a double two-year-old freakout on the carousel
  • splashing around on monkey hill's waterfalls (naked but for diapers, of course)
  • watching the white alligator get fed
but the very best part, according to john, was feeding the giraffe. the zookeepers gave everyone a piece of romaine lettuce, and you could hold it up so the giraffe would lean down and take it from your hand with it's looooong tongue. john giggled with utter glee. and he has talked about it pretty much nonstop - at random intervals, he'll say, "raff eata leaves! give raff leaves!" and he does a mean giraffe impression that involves sticking his tongue as far out as possible.

all in all, despite the heat, we had a great day. then we came home and collapsed as a family, 'cause man, did i mention it was HOT?



friends at the zoo! left - crawling through the "log tunnel." 
right - holding hands after the monkey hill adventure.
*   *   *
what a message we send to two-year-olds - his birthday continued even to the wedding shower we hosted sunday for my cousin and his fiancee. some of the family hadn't gotten to see john yet, so they brought a present along to the shower, and after the bride opened her gifts, john got to play birthday AGAIN! (he ate more cupcakes that day too. cupcakes are quickly becoming this kiddo's addiction.)

john's new truck set thanks to his cousin! and he's playing so nicely
in these pics with the bride's younger sister - good sharing on both sides!



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