Fun Friday

Today was an especially fun day with my girls. We first went and bought some sand toys and then we went to the park and played in the sand for a long time! Lexi was having so much fun and even Christine liked it for a bit too!

Our "Sand Mountain" as Lexi called it. 

Then, during Christine's nap time, Lexi and I did a U is for Umbrella activity. Lexi had been studying this letter at school last week, so I thought it would be fun to do our own U activity to reinforce what she has been learning. We had a blast making our own Umbrellas. Lexi even used glue to make "rain drops" When the glue dried, they really did look like rain drops, it was cool. Then, she traced the letter U with marshmallows. I love seeing Lexi's attention span getting longer, and I love watching her learn and discover things. She loves school and learning and this makes me happy :)

You can even see on the bottom left hand corner where she practiced writing the letter U all by herself. Pretty good, I think. 

close up of her umbrella made out of half a paper plate and straw

tracing the U with marshmallows

So, Happy Friday everybody!

Chris is 29 Years Old!

This year, Chris turned 29 years old! I cannot believe how old he is :) Anyways, upon request, he wanted family over for pie and homemade ice cream. I was shocked! No cheesecake? I said. See, every year he asks for cheesecake on his birthday, but not this year for some reason. Instead, he wanted coconut cream pie and my homemade rocky road ice cream. I have to say, it was fun changing things up, so good job, honey. So, I ordered some pies, made the ice cream and invited the family over. It was fun just chatting and eating.

Also, earlier in the day, we went to Joe's Farm Grill, where he got a free burger and then we went to Freestone to play and walk around. We also went out to dinner with my mom and dad, shane and shawn to Anzio's Landing.  It was a good day, beautiful weather, and fun times just being together.

One year older and wiser too, Happy Birthday, to YOU Babe!

The girls and I got him two new games to add to our collection: Bang and Wizard. Both are super fun!

You can see the pie with the candles lit up if you look close enough on the counter 

Austin and Sarah's fam came and Joel and Adee, (Autumn was sick)

Chris's Aunt and Uncle came

And, my parents and brothers came over as well

Thanks everybody for celebrating the night with us!

Spring Break Trip: California Style!

For Spring Break, the girls and I hitched a ride with my mother and Shane to California. There, we stayed with my Grandma and Grandpa King. We also were able to visit with some of my other Cali relatives. Good times! This trip was dedicated to Alexis, my animal lover, because we spent most of our time looking at animals! It was a very fun trip. I already cannot wait to go back!

The World Famous San Diego Zoo

Shane was such a good sport on this trip

I was actually really surprised that Christine liked the petting zoo. I thought for sure she would scream, but she proved me wrong, I love it when my kids do that :)

I really love my brother, Shane. He was so helpful on this trip. 

The Birch Aquarium in La Jolla

Lexi thought the sea horses were so cute!

They even had a dramatic play center where the kids could play with coral and sea horses, etc. We had to bribe Lexi with lunch just to get her to leave

In front of the shark exhibit

Lexi played teeter totter with this little boy. It was her first time on this and she loved it!

Shane and my mom built a route for Lexi to send boats to

This was cool. You have to push back and forth to cause waves and the goal is to make the lighthouse light up. Fun and a workout all in one.

The view of La Jolla beach from the aquarium! Love La Jolla!

After the aquarium we got lunch and then we got some Sprinkles cupcakes. The best frosting on cupcakes ever! 

It was hard deciding what to get, because they all looked incredible, so we just got 6 and tried a little of each. I think I ate almost all the frosting from each one. So good! My favorite though, was the one with the clover. It was their St. Patty's special and it was delicious!

Lexi is mine afterall, she loves the beach!

So, Shane took this pic and no, his finger did not smudge the top, it was just some random dark cloud that decided to hover as we took our picture. I promise you, the weather was perfect!

Sea Port Village

The bridge to Coronado in the background

I took this pic especially for my father-in-law, whose favorite flower is the birds of paradise. These flowers are all over at SeaPort Village. Beautiful Cali is in the spring!

Thanks for letting us stay with you Gramps and Gran, even if my kiddos decided to not sleep for 3 days, it was so much fun!

Family Fun at Papago Park

Today is such a beautiful day, that we just had to go on a family adventure outside. So, Chris chose to go to Papago Park, over by the Phoneix Zoo. It was perfect. The weather was great, the "hike" was just the right amount for our girls and their were lots and lots of ducks, which made our animal lover, Lexi very happy!

Happy Saturday everybody! By the way, now that Chris is done with school and the bar exam, and has a regular job, we are going to have a lot more Saturday adventures together. Yeah for family time!

Highlight for Lexi: Feeding the ducks!

They got really close to her, she loved it!

The "hike" we went on. We went up to the hole in the left hand side of the mountain

I love my family

Beautiful view

On the way back from the hike, Christine stopped being scared of the ducks, and started to feed them too, with daddy's help, of course!

Then, we walked up to this tomb. Lexi asked if this was Jesus's tomb :) The whole time we were there, she kept saying, "This is so sad, that somebody lives inside and cannot get out" 

I love this pic because they were not told to hold hands they just were. Ahhh!!!!

We were gone for about 2 hours total, with driving time, but it must have been tiresome, because both girls fell asleep on the way home. 

We love exploring our desert home, especially when the weather is in the 70s. I love Springtime in AZ!