Southwick's Zoo, Franklin Park Zoo With Friends, and Big Boy Bikes

Okay...still sifting through hundreds of pictures from this summer and organizing them for your viewing pleasure.  Here's another photo dump highlighting our visit to Southwick's Zoo, Franklin Park Zoo, and the boys enjoying their big boy bikes!

Me, getting in some quality snuggle time with our first born:  Oscar!
We like to have staring contests, but he always wins.  :-)

July 12, 2014, we ventured to Southwick's Zoo which is another one of Joseph's favorite places to visit (and the boys, of course) because you get to have a lot of up close contact with the animals.  We're huge animal lovers in our household.  :-)

Joseph and Alex checking out the capybara.

And some beautiful macaws.

Alex was seeing how his hands measure up to a tiger's paws.

The prairie dog has got to be one of our favorite animals. :-)

William, Joseph, and Alex getting ready to go on a
train ride through the forest to see some animals
in their natural habitat.

Gorgeous views of the wetlands from this train ride!

North American Elk

A mama and her baby :-)

Simply stunning :-)

A small frog balancing itself on a lily pad

The kids loved this ride.

While we were walking past the monkey exhibit, I noticed something chubby
scurrying below.  I walked over to get a closer look and saw this adorable little woodchuck!

Woodchuck!  What are you doing near the monkeys?  :-p

And now onto the Deer forest!  This is one of our favorite parts of the zoo because the deer come right up to you and eat out of your hand.  Some of them can be a little more aggressive than others, but overall they're very sweet and gentle.

Joseph handing out food pellets to the kids in order to feed the very hungry deer.

William and Alex were quite tickled by how friendly the deer were.

Gotta love those dimples on Alex :-)

William kept dropping the food as soon as the deer would get near his hand.
So, Joseph had to hold William's hand with the food in it so the deer could eat.
William LOVED this.

Joseph was in heaven. :-)

Our happy little JubJub at the zoo. :-)

And here's our big guy...can't forget him, of course. ;-)

"More food, peeeeeas, Daddy!"  :-)

This one was exceptionally sweet.

Me giving a "Where's the deer? face" since
the last time we were here with my friend Erin and
her son Grant, there was a woman who walked
into the deer forest and asked, "Where's the deer?"
(When she was SURROUNDED by them!!)
I, of course, couldn't keep my mouth shut and said,
"Those ARE deer."  To which she replied, "Oh!  I didn't
know that's what those were." 
Oh my heavens...that was painful.

My.freaking.nightmare.  WILD TURKEYS!!!!
They are bullies and roam wild in Massachusetts.  They are all over Brookline
and Newton and I have seen them chase grown men down the street.
I do not like turkeys...except if they're on my sandwich.

Lunch time!  The boys were ready to dig in.

Our handsome little men :-)

Woo hoo!!  Elephant ride time!  Joseph and Alex got to ride on Rosie the elephant.

Joseph said it was a reallllly bumpy ride.

They both had a blast, though.

Awwww!  So sweet. :-)

This one got a LITTLE too close for my liking.  Yucko.

William and Mommy selfie

And now for our absolutely favorite part of the zoo:  The giraffe encounters!  We each got a branch and were able to feed the giraffe!  It was so awesome.  Boy oh boy, you really have to hold on tight to the branches because they pull and tug with all of their might.  They're very strong!

Here's Alex, bracing himself while holding the branch to feed the giraffe.

Me and William Billiam feeding a giraffe

They were so sweet and friendly.

Joseph had to help Alex out because the giraffe was pulling really hard.

Lol!  It looks like the giraffe is posing for the picture
with Joseph. :-)

Up close and personal

Family photo op with a giraffe photo bomb!

Now we're all in :-)

The giraffes "om-nomming" away.

A very sweet moment of the boys playing nicely together.

"Peek-a-boo!!"

Also in the summer, we met my friend Roshni and her son Arhan at Franklin Park Zoo to play around.  Arhan is only a month older than Alex, and they've known each other since they were toddlers.  They had a lot of fun running around the zoo that day.

Alex and Arhan - Our two big boys :-)

This adorable goat wanted nothing more than to snuggle.

What a sweetheart!

Alex and Arhan went in to pet the goats.

Our cutie patooties

After a fun-filled day at the zoo, the boys went on a carousel ride together.
We always have a blast with the Hegde family :-)

In July, we decided that Alex was finally ready to get a big boy bike (complete with training wheels, of course).  We headed over to the bike store and had him test out a few bikes.

William wanted to test out some bikes as well.

Here's our big guy, ready to ride up and down the driveway!

Alex riding his bike for the very first time!

Right before our dear friends, the Hearnes moved, we tried to have as many play dates as possible so that the kids could see each other (and the mommies as well).

Here's Alex and Sanders hugging it out.

What a sweet bromance!

Woo hoo!  First harvest from our itty bitty garden. :-)

We quickly realized that William needed a helmet,
and since his head is so big, he couldn't fit into toddler-sized helmets.
Thus, we had to get him a helmet that's aimed for children 5 and up.

Here's William, very happy, modeling his Leonardo
Ninja Turtle helmet.

Our big boys on their bikes!

Watch out, ladies!

Both boys riding their bikes!

 Here's a typical view of what kind of obstacles I have to deal with if I'm cooking and the boys are awake.  William always gets his toys and brings them to me or decides he wants to play with them at my feet.  So, I usually spend my preparation time dodging a toddler and maneuvering around him so that he doesn't get food on him somehow.

He's such a darling.

He can't get enough of his mommy, so he has to lay down and just look at
me while I'm cooking.  :-)

 I still have a couple hundred more pictures to go, so hang in there.  :-)  Happy weekend and I'll keep the photos and recipes a-comin'!  Until next time...

Love and kisses,
Nikki