Thursday, May 29, 2014

Summer Goal

Our summer goal is to cross off all 48 parks in Ankeny visiting each one. We started yesterday with Sawgrass. Rode our bikes and the kids had a blast pretending to be monkeys, playing soccer and throwing rocks in the water. What a fabulous morning!












Stay at Home - LOVE

Today was an absolute great day to be a stay at home mom. We got up early and spent the majority of the morning moving huge piles of dirt up the hill and into the garden...I am pooped! Grayson was such a great helper! At one point he was taking big dirt clods and loading his little shovel and walking up the hill to dump it in the garden. Kenna did a great job of digging weeds and spreading the dirt I loaded and Zachary took quite a bit of direction and then spent his morning finding nice rocks....he really hates to be hot, get dirty and sweat in any way....hopefully he grows out of that! Rewards with gatorade hence the absolutely filthy kid below with a blue mustache!

After dinner we rode to crocker and the kids played on the playground equipment for an hour. They played tag all three of them and actually got along great! They took turns pushing eachother in the swings and there were tons of giggles had by all. Everyone in the bath now soaking - but had to write about it as it was the absolute perfect day!!


April Visit

Oh what a whirlwind! My BFF April is in a transitional phase of moving right now. Her husband recently finished his schooling/army assignment in Atlanta and was reassigned for a short stint in Alabama. The tricky part is that he gets a one bedroom studio hotel room for the 3 months they are there....with 2 kids and a dog that is tight.

So, April took the 3 day car journey to come visit me! The boys were definitely tired of being in the car when they got here, and it took us a few days to figure out how to manage 5 kids, but in the end we had a great time :) I can safely say that I am extremely happy that we have 3 kids, and that we are done with that many...how people with more do it is beyond me!! We could barely all fit in one vehicle!!




There was lots of silliness and just general playing. Zachey taught Kanon a few of his favorite games from school. I think his favorite was "hide the lemon." Definitely found my real lemons in places that were quite funny. Kanon was perfectly happy playing outside most of the time, although was hard to keep track of all of them running around!

We made it to Big Creek - which I think was the best day. At first there was a field trip there from southeast polk, but after they left we had the toy and the beach to ourselves! We had a picnic, and the boys got filthy and wet, but still wouldn't have had it any other way!







Another day we made it to the zoo. The weather was amazing and we got to see almost everything before the boys got worn out. The giraffes were by far the best part...could almost touch them they were so close!



Kanon was a little leery about riding this train - but with a little mom trickery, he actually really enjoyed it :)



Declan is a giant. He is really happy and easy going as long as he is fed and rested. He really just was along for the ride most of the time and barely fussed at all!

Kanon LOVES fish/aquatics. We spent a lot of time picking up fish food and throwing it in the koi pond.








We also ventured to the science center. The boys loved playing with the water exhibit and sorting the fruit and veggies....always a crowd pleaser! Declan just enjoyed sitting and playing and watching!

A few things that we didn't take pictures of were visit to Gona and Baca's place to see the progress on the fence they are ripping out. Daddy was a little over zealous and knocked a tree down on top of the tractor...thank goodness for roll bar!

We went to a few parks and let them run their energy out! The first day they were here it was less than 50 degrees and we had to wear winter coats!!






April and I managed to squeeze in a few grocery shopping trips (woohoo!) Made it to costco and hyvee - life of motherhood I guess! We did have a girls night out where we got pedicures, had a drink and saw "The neighbors" movie. Big thanks to Uncle Spencer and daddy for watching ALL the kids so we could go! Great practice!

Also great practice was carrying an almost 30 pound 8 month old around the farmers market! We went twice, once with both of april's kids, and once with just Declan. We had to spend almost 30 minutes finding parking because the farmers market, color run and DMU graduation were all downtown...SOOOO crowded! I did have an amazing breakfast sandwich with asparagus and egg, my fav! Well worth it!



This picture pretty much sums up the trip...A LOT of work to get the boys here and try to get them acclimated. Poor april didn't sleep much and we did a lot of correcting of behaviors...but in the end well worth it to get to see eachother!! Hoping they land a somewhat bigger temporary housing situation for the sanity of her family!!

Thanks for visiting Auntie April!!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Kenna Birthday

This year we continued the theme of, well, theme parties for the kiddos. Kenna after scouring pinterest, decided on a rock star party. The girls came and did their hair in crazy side ponies and painted it pink and purple. They adorned themselves in rockstar attire and painted their faces. The girls had fun making their own pizzas and decorating their cupcakes. Luckily Josh was able to download the latest version of Just Dance, because that MADE the party! We moved the couches out of the way and the girls rocked out for at least 30 minutes...was pretty impressive!

She got spoiled with lots of outside water toys and monster high paraphernalia...quite fun :)