Zoo Adventures

We got a membership to the Nashville Zoo this year, and in June we were finally able to go! I get half days on Fridays in the summer, so I figured going to the zoo would be a great activity for me and Griffin. But summer is so busy that we didn't have a free Friday until after we got back from youth camp.
Griffins first visit was a mommy griffin date. We had a great time! Now he is hooked. He talks about the zoo all the time. Mr. Pate and I took him one Saturday morning again, and then when we were in Louisville for the 4th we went to the Louisville Zoo.
We, by far, liked the Louisville Zoo better for a kid Griffins age. The animals are closer and easier for them to interact with. I mean, for the animals sake I like Nashville Zoo bc they have way more room to walk around. But Louisville has more animals, more interacting opportunities, and you are closer.




Mommy and Griffin's first trip together.

















These bulls got in a fight right in front of us.














Louisville Zoo:




















Griffin has talked about these lions alllllll summer! The female got mad about something, stood up and made a short ferocious sound several times. And steam came out of her mouth! Weird. "One is sittin and one is standing up" as griffin says over and over...























Back at the Nashville Zoo again:





If you look closely, there is a red panda up in that tree above.

















- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Livvi's Bday Scavenger Hunt

(Gonna be playing catch up, so pardon the super old subject matter. I wanna make sure I can look back and see what our summer was made up of.)

Earlier this summer (like June), we headed down to TN to celebrate Livvi's 9th birthday party. It just happened to be the day before we were leaving for camp, so we went ahead and left Griffin there for the week.

This year, Livvi wanted a mall scavenger hunt for her Bday. Justin, Griffin and I were on Team Pink. Unfortunately, we did not win. But we sure had fun!















- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

A Few Fabulous Crock Pot Recipes That Never Seemed to Make it onto the Blog

If you know me, or have been a reader for a pretty long time (read- read the blog when I actually blogged often) then you know I am totally in love with my crockpot. I even have a link to the top right that has all our favorite recipes in one spot for you.

But I just noticed that somehow I have never blogged about a couple of our favorites! I am gonna go ahead and blame that on having a kid, mmmkay? Haha! So here are a few of our easy crock pot favs, just in case you need some ideas:

Ranch Crockpot Porkchops

I found this recipe from Fantastical Sharing of Recipes via Pinterest. We dont usually do the potatoes part and just make instant ones. We are an instant potatoes kinda family. So basically you just take:

• 4 or 6 pork chops
• 1 packet of ranch seasoning (we get the big container so 3 tbsp of that)
• 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup

Throw it all in the crockpot, and cook on low for 8 hours. I tend to throw my meat in frozen. This is sooo yummy.

Crock Pot Shredded Chicken Sandwiches

These are yummo! Found this recipe on Mostly Homemade Mom via Pinterest as well.  You will need:

• 3 or 4 chicken breasts
• 1 pk Onion soup mix
• 1/4 cup zesty Italian salad dressing
• 1/4 cup water
• garlic salt to taste (I think i use 1 1/2 tsp)
• sliced swiss cheese
• hamburger buns

Put chicken in crockpot and coat on both sides with onion soup and garlic salt. Then pour dressing and water over. Cook on low 8 hours then shred. I put cheese on buns and broil until cheese melts. Make a sandwich and enjoy!

My Baby Boy is TWO!

Griffin turned two on Thursday, TWO! Time really is flying! Just like last year, Mr.Pate and I took the day off to celebrate with some good quality family time. The boy said he wanted bacon and eggs for breakfast, a child after my own heart! We decided to go have breakfast at our fav spot, Judy's Castle.

Then we headed down to the Nashville Zoo. It was a really really muggy and hot day, but we still had a really great time. Griffin really just loves animals. A lot. We took our time strolling about and then played at the playground. By the time we did that and ate lunch it was 3:00! So we loaded up and the kid took a late afternoon nap while we headed back to BG.

We went to Go in the Grove, our church's backyard bible club we are doing this summer, later that night. All the kids sang to Griffin and his face lit up! It was a precious moment.

So thankful for the past two years with this little man.






Red Pandas! Such cute little things!






































- Mrs.Pate via my iPhone

Glorious ol Church Softball...

So I just realized that I haven't blogged about church softball at all this summer, which is funny because we spent the whole first half of summer there I believe! Even though I complain about it often, church softball was actually a really fun social activity this summer. I loved getting to see our church family outside of church on a regular basis. Griffin was head over heels for softball this year, and if he saw daddy get that green softball shirt out you better believe he was immediately on his way to find his! He did great at the park and actually watched quite a bit of the games. 

We got runner up in the regular season and won the tournament. Way to go Grove!