Bowling, Hiking & More - May 2016, Week 4

One evening a month, we usually get together with some other young couples and young families from our church.  This month, we went bowling for the first time.  The girls LOVED it!  It was cosmic bowling and both Katelyn and Brooklyn bowled.  Katelyn used the ramp at first, but starting throwing it down later (still used bumpers).  There was lots of dancing in the lights and even Madison seem to have a lot of fun.  I think we will be doing this more often as a family.

The next day, Kyle and I went on my favorite type of date.  Hiking!  We went about 30 minutes away and did a 5 mile loop that we have done once before.  Then a quick dinner afterwards.  Love this guy.

A nice view of the valley.

Kyle also wanted to have a fire one evening.  Love these weekends when we get to spend a lot of family time together.

Reading by the fire with my girls.

I found this on my computer one day.  I have no idea how Madison does these things, but she can't leave the mouse alone.

 Madison is getting so big.  I've been trying to enjoy some snuggles with her when she gets up from her nap.  It usually lasts less than 30 seconds, but I enjoy it while it lasts.  Any other time I ask her for a hug, she runs in the other direction (she is usually just trying to be silly). Not ready for her to get bigger and lose this precious time together.

She, of course, lifted up her head when I took my phone out for a picture. 

May 2016 - Weeks 2 & 3

Mother's Day weekend we needed to get out of the house, so we had some gift cards for Gameworks and decided to the take the kids.  Maybe we shouldn't have. . . .  They enjoyed several of the games, but got frustrated with the things they couldn't do and it just ended with a lot of crying.  But here are some pictures of them having fun.

First time for air hockey.

Racing other cars with daddy.

Sunday morning (Mother's Day) the girls had their Sunday School awards before church.  They both did really well throughout the year learning memory verses.

Katelyn in the middle.

Brooklyn on the left in black.

The girls made me this with the babysitter (we LOVE having my cousin Jessie babysit).

Katelyn is orange, Brooklyn purple, and Madison blue.

Katelyn also wrote this card for me, that just makes me want to cry.  She is such a thoughtful kid.

There was also a picture that she drew.

Because Katelyn had her field trip the Thursday before Mother's Day, they had the moms come to school for pampering the following Thursday.  It was a lot of fun.  The kids were so excited.  Katelyn gave me a few gifts they had ready, served me some food, painted my nails and pampered me.

Overall, we have had a very cool May and have been spending a lot of time outdoors.  We were also able to pick up a new bike for Katelyn with a great deal on a brand new bike from Craigslist.

Brooklyn's drawings of Olaf - her drawing gets better by the week.

Katelyn's new bike.

She's HUGE.

Lots & lots of swinging lately.  Madison wants to swing all day long.

Lots of chalk always going on at our house.  The neighbor girl likes to come play with them.

Twinning!  They love each other.

We've been going to the park more lately.  Here we were meeting some friends.

Here are a few more random pictures.

Messy eater.

The first time Katelyn painted her own fingers & toes.

Katelyn made this 'Family Flag'.   (Bottom right is biking.)

LA Zoo Field Trip - April 2016 Week 4 & May 2016 Week 1

Yikes!  I can't believe it has already been about a month since I last wrote.  I didn't have that many pictures, so I skipped a week and then just didn't get back to it. 

Life has been pretty much going along as normal.  Kyle was working quite a bit, so the bathroom was making slow progress, but he was able to get some things done this week and now all we really need is it to find a mirror we like.  I am planning to paint the upstairs bathroom tomorrow.

We have been doing quite a bit of bike riding lately as Katelyn now really enjoys it.  She has about 3 weeks left of school.  I can't believe how quickly the year went. 

Here are some pictures from the first couple weeks I missed.

Part of the reason I wasn't posting was just an overall sense of being overwhelmed and having zero time to myself.  This is what my life looked like for several weeks.  Fortunately, now she is playing on her own a little bit better again.  Unless the I try open the back door.  Then she grabs me by the arm or leg and pulls me outside to push her on the swings.

Real life right here. . . . .  Mommy is not allowed to do her hair, or cook, or pretty much anything.

 The marker monster strikes again.  This happens a lot in our house.

A treat having cupcakes with Grandma.

Playing Guess Who at Grandpa & Grandmas.  This was on game that my sister Laura and I played a ton.  It was fun to watch them playing it too.

 

The first weekend of May is always a big air show at the airport by our home.  The girls were watching it from their playset.

 We may have used gift certificates that the girls got in order to have Yogurtland . . . . for dinner.  Don't judge, the girls had fun.

We had our year end luncheon for my Bible study and the Story Hour kids sang for us.  I'm not sure why Brooklyn is the only kid wearing dress-up clothes for the singing, but they were cute and she loved Story Hour for the last two years.

This is how Madison thinks the table should be set.  I can't turn my back on that girly for a minute.

Katelyn had her first fieldtrip to the LA Zoo at the beginning of May.  She had a great time.  I went with her, but evidently didn't think about getting a picture together (I'm still not too big on the whole selfie thing, so we will have to see if I can get over that).

The reptile house was our first stop.

Playing with a bunch of classmates on the big snake.

Looking at the komodo dragon.  One of her two favorites of the day.

Katelyn and her good friend that we hung out with all day.

Her other favorite animal of the day.  She did here animal report on giraffes and put this picture into the report.