Today, I really lived in a zoo.
Henry put his zookeeper costume on right after breakfast, and within minutes, I heard the dreaded whine, "I don't know what to do, Mommy." Hmmm. Maybe you should take a cue from the costume and play zookeeper?
The boys don't always like my suggestions, but today, they hopped right on it. First, they had to write the signs for all the animals' enclosures.
Will took his job very seriously, and made sure he spelled everything correctly. You wouldn't want to mistake a "snake" for a "snack," after all.
Henry wrote some signs too, all by himself. Obviously, I didn't help him write "bear" here, as it is written backwards and his B is really just two circles. But, still, I'd say it's not a bad effort for a 3-year-old.
We had four animals in our zoo. A blue horse, of course. 
A purple snake. 
A brown bear. You probably can't see it in the photo, but Will chose to use his sign, and not Henry's "rAE8." Go figure. 
And a curious monkey. It was feeding time, so Will gave his monkey a pear. 
The snake got two "live" mice. Will wanted to cook them first (he is so civilized), but I told him it was unnecessary. 
Blue Horse was feeling, well, a bit blue, so Zookeeper Will brought out the medicine. All you have to do is match the picture on the medicine bottle to the animal's facial expression. So clever. 
The zookeepers even cleaned up the animals' messy cages. 
And Zookeeper Henry kept an eye on the whole thing (or at least on me) with his handy-dandy binoculars. 
See? It really is a zoo around here.
And can you see the cup marks on the boys' faces from tipping the cup practically upside down? 
Smoothies... they're good to the last drop!
Henry is very serious about his water guns. 
Happy boy!
Posing for Mommy. Henry had trouble pointing his water gun the right way.
Finally got it right! 
Yep, I've got two cool, water-gun-yielding boys and a super cool tiny new camera! Whee!!!
Seriously yummy. 
The circle of watermelon. 
Is anyone ready for a snack? I've got about nine more pounds of watermelon in the fridge!
I like how he substituted the heart for the word love. So much easier!
Aw...sweet boys! We love Henry too. And we love our big, love-letter-and-sentence-writing-almost-Kindergartner!
Yes, you read that right. Weezie has caught lizards and garden snakes for years and years but she caught her first possum and bird last week. The bird was one of the many many mourning doves we have and it sadly did not survive. The baby possum that Weezie caught and proudly deposited at the back door did survive. It "played possum" and Weezie didn't care for it once she thought it was dead. As for me, I was very happy to watch the little guy get up and wobble off, leaving me only the bird's corpse to deal with. 
A couple of days after Weezie caught the possum, Gene found this little guy out by the garage on his way to his early-morning workout. The baby possum ran into the garage and hid in a corner and hissed at me when I tried to nudge it out with the broom. Good thing Weezie was safely inside that morning!
Who knew there was so much wildlife in the heart of the city??
The birthday boy picked a Cuban restaurant nearby that we'd never been to before. We indulged in yummy sangria, ate loads of delicious food, including Katy's famous chocolate sheet cake, and laughed a lot.
The waitress brought Katy a huge butcher's knife with which to cut the cake! 
Belinda put so much effort into this second party just for my guys but it was so much fun! All of the kiddos loved the water slide best! 
Baby Nicholas even got to try it out!
These are my best group shots! Will was trying to eat everyone with his toy shark.
Happy, wet boys!
After feasting on pizza, loads of fruit and a yummy snack mix, it was cupcake time!
Happy 5th birthday, Chloe!
And happy 4th birthday, Bella!
Magic candles! The girls blew them out again and again!
Then we made a super cute craft -- painting stencils on backpacks! I didn't get a pic because I was helping the boys, but it was fun! Next up were presents. I am not in-the-know when it comes to girls' gifts so I kept it simple with a board game that we own and love (eeBoo's Fairytale Spinner Game is awesome if you don' t have it!) and two not-your-typical-prince-saves-the-princess princess books (The Frog Prince, Continued by Jon Scieszka and The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch). 