First, cotton candy! We all love to see cotton candy machines. The kids love to eat it, of course, and I love that it’s a treat that is allergy free

Then we got balloon animals from the purple haired clown:

Rory and Daisy got sharks. Elliot got a killer whale.

After lunch and ice cream, we went outside to see the visiting petting zoo! Elliot especially was excited to see real a live cow, sheep, horse, donkey, llama, goat, rabbit, pig, chicken, and rooster!

Even better, after petting all the animals, everyone got to go for pony rides! Rory loved it so much, he waited in line FOUR TIMES so that he could ride again!

Daisy rode twice, and she was very happy about it too

Even if she doesn’t look particularly thrilled, lol.

But Elliot was the cutest I wasn’t going to have him ride at first, because I thought he’d be too small and get scared. But he kept begging, “I ride a horsie!” so we decided to give it a try! He did great, and was very proud of himself. He even talked to the woman leading his pony, and he’s usually shy around strangers!

While Rory was doing his 3rd, 4th, and 5th pony ride, Daisy and Elliot wanted to get their faces painted!

Pink and purple with sparkles; it doesn’t get much better than this!

Elliot was very insistent on what he wanted painted. I tried to talk him out of it at first, because he picked a WHOLE FACE painting…but he wouldn’t let it go, even though we waited in line for over 20 minutes.

He just kept insisting.

“I ‘PIDAMAN!”

He sat still through the entire process, and although he was a little freaked out when he first looked in the mirror, after a minute he decided he looked pretty cool

Of course, I don’t think the real Spiderman would have fallen asleep so quickly on the way home!

Um-on: Carry me or pick me up. I think because when I pick him up, I often say, “come on up.”

Bee-bal-el or owm-bal-el: Water bottle. Literally, “big bottle” or “own bottle.” Big bottle usually means he wants some of MY water, own bottle means he’s not giving it back.

‘Nake bee-lot: Snake bracelet. His MedicAlert bracelet, which has the “staff and serpent” symbol on it. He’s had it on for almost a year, but only recently began paying attention to it and showing it off.

I love the way he pronounces things!

Beebee soup: Bathing suit.

Ree-rop: Robot. Elliot likes to pretend to be a ree-rop and does a great ree-rop voice! He even has a ree-rop beebee soup.

Kickey Mouse: That one is pretty obvious. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is one of his top favorite tv shows.

Oh Gabby!: Yo Gabba Gabba. Another favorite tv show.

Way-go-go:  Diego (as in Go, Diego, Go).

Ha-sick-o: Motorcycle.

Daddy-bee-twuck: All big trucks are Daddy’s Big Truck.

Ha-co: Helicopter. This one took me a long time to figure out, lol.

Butson: Basement OR button. Very confusing.

And then there’s his favorite phrase, which needs no translation:

I DO IT SELF!

Usually followed a minute later by, “Hep, peese, Mommy!”

(He has very good manners;))

Daisy: Cover me in! Cover me all up!

Me: You want me to bury you in the balls?

Daisy: Yes! Bury me up!

I cover her completely, and hear her shout: I’m BURIED TREASURE!

Elliot then demanded to be buried as well, and yelled: TREASURE!

We did this several times.

Daisy: I’m a treasure BOX!

Me: Oh yeah? A whole box of treasure? What are you filled with?

Daisy: CHOCOLATE COOKIES!

Feeding the turtles with our homeschooling group.

Digging into their buckets:

Elliot’s favorite item was a “shiny ball.” He’s slept with it almost every night since!

Rory’s favorite was a pack of multiplication flash cards. The Easter Bunny sure knows his stuff

The egg hunt was very exciting.

Coloring before the egg hunt.

I love the look on Elliot’s face when the Rabbit approaches. He didn’t get scared, but he was definitely wary.

He never took his eyes off of the Bunny, but also didn’t want to be too close.

I didn’t even have to explain what to do. As soon as the kids were let loose, Elliot was grabbing eggs!

The boys were brave enough to sit with the Easter Bunny for pictures…as long as I sat with them! Daisy wasn’t having anything to do with it, under any circumstances!

Post egg hunt sugar crash:

Better late than never

Since Elliot is allergic to eggs, we decided to forgo the real thing this year. We decorated plastic eggs with stickers instead!

I recommend this approach to any parent of small children. First of all, it was a LOT cleaner! And no worries about eggs being dropped, cracked, or not being found and going bad

But the best part was, they could all actually do it themselves! All I had to do was peel the stickers off of the paper for Elliot. They had much more fun doing it this way than dying eggs, where I do most of the work.

He’s also learned how to tell on his older siblings. He came and told me that Daisy hit him today. Her defense? “I didn’t HIT him. I PINCHED his arm.”

He has some new pajamas that have Toy Story characters on them.  I asked him who they were, and he said, “Woody and Other Guy.”

He’s still nursing, and it’s so cute. He asks by saying, “I want pwease milk!” This is different from milk in a cup, which is just, “Milk, pwease!” He also now asks, “Another one!” when he’s ready to switch sides. It’s adorable. And he’s so polite!

We went to the zoo earlier this week and he LOVED it! He was very excited to see the “ephalants” and “g’las” (gorillas), especially when one of the g’las started clapping! He clapped and waved through the observation window, yelling, “Cla hands, g’la! Cla hands!” He also loved the turtles and frogs in the reptile house, and yelled “brubba brubba” (ribbit ribbit) at the tree frogs. He wanted to see the tigers, and pointed out all the pictures of them that we saw, but we had to leave before we got there. He did roar back at the lion when we heard him, and blew bye-bye kisses to the “mingos.” We’re going to have to go back there soon.

And, I wanted to post this picture, because there may not be many more opportunities! He’s been cutting back on nursing, and going up to 2 day without asking at all, so it may not be long before he stops altogether.

He’s such a sweetie