Zoo Day

A couple weeks ago, my friend Melissa and I took our kids, plus a couple, to the Brookfield Zoo.

We did a lot of walking, saw a lot of animals, and had a lot of fun!

Cole loves his little friend, Harper. He talks about her a lot, hugs her when he sees her, and likes to hold her hand.

Hayden's not in this picture, because the giant hornet makes noise randomly, and it scared her a bit.

The kids were mesmerized by the dolphins.

 I didn't get a picture of the baby buffalo, but he was so cute. I've never seen one before, he seemed so little next to the other giant buffalo.

Avery, Hayden, Zoe, Aniela, Addie, Cole, Harper, Weston

We had to get the traditional picture on the lion. I included two for a reason. Seconds after snapping the top picture, Avery started screaming because she thought she was falling off. Hayden then burst into tears, because Avery screamed in her ear. Yeah, it was time to go!

Everyone was tired. We got everyone home, stopped for some KFC, then went home for an early bed time.

We are sure going to miss these fun outings with our fun friends!

Preschool Graduation

Hayden had her Preschool Graduation on May 14th. She went to preschool at Lake's High School, and she loved it! Ryan took the morning off to come support Hayden, and she was so happy to have him there. What an awesome Daddy!!

She was excited for the graduation, but was a little nervous when it first started. She has a habit of putting her fingers and hands up by her mouth when she is being shy or nervous. The graduation was held in the auditorium of the high school. My camera was having issues in the dark, obviously.

After a few minutes, Hayden relaxed, moved her fingers away from her mouth and sang along with her class. Each student was given an individualized award. Hayden got the "cutest laugh" award.

Cole was so good during the ceremony and kept busy clapping away. Being the stinker that he is, he did joke about a girl's name. They announced something about a girl named Megan. Super loud Cole starts laughing and yells, "Megan? That's a funny name!" Nice.

Afterward, we went back to the preschool classroom and had refreshments and took pictures with friends. This is Addie. Hayden and Addie worked together a lot, because they shared a main teacher.

This is the group of LDS kids in Hayden's class. It's funny that so many of them were together!

Hayden with Avery and Zoe, our great friends!

Hayden's main teacher this semester was Julia. Hayden had a lot of fun with her. On the way to the graduation, we stopped at the store and Hayden picked out some flowers for Julia. She picked a rose and some carnations. She was very excited when Julia had a carnation for her, too.

Hayden was being shy while I was talking to Julia. Julia couldn't believe it, because she calls her her wild girl. But Hayden gets really shy in these situations when Ryan and I are there.

Mrs. Schneider is the lady in charge of the whole program. We were so happy with this preschool. Hayden loved it and learned a lot.

Then we headed to Culvers with the McMillans and Middletons for a lunch celebration.

Now it's on to Kindergarten!!

To Be a Mother

I am so blessed to be a mom and I love my little ones. Mother's day was so nice this year. There were no church meetings for Ryan or me, so we actually got to spend the day together and even drive to and from church together. That rarely happens!

Hayden surprised me with a beautiful plant she picked out all by herself and Cole gave me a rose! (Cole's nursery teacher gave each of the kids a rose to give to their moms. So nice!) At our wedding, we had disposable cameras on each table for the guests to take pictures of whatever they wanted. Almost 8 years later, we still hadn't developed any of them. For Mother's Day, Ryan surprised me by getting a couple of them developed. It was fun to look back on the memories of that special day.

After church, we spent the day relaxing and just being together. It was a great day for me to remember how lucky I am to be a mom to such great kids!

Chi Town

Ryan went to China for work earlier in the month. Before he left, he had to go downtown to the Chinese Consulate to get his visa. We love downtown Chicago, so the kids and I tagged along. The kids were excited to ride the train down.

 Once we got there, Ryan headed to the consulate and we headed to Michigan Avenue. Hayden was mad that she had to walk while Cole was in the stroller, but once we got to the main part of Michigan Ave, she was excited to take pictures with the pretty flowers she found.

Then we ran into this guy. Usually the guys that do this don't move at all or they dance, and you can't get your picture with them unless you give them a donation. This guy must have been having a slow day. He called us over and made a balloon flower for Hayden and a balloon dog riding on a hat for Cole. They were beyond happy! I didn't have any cash on me smaller than $10, so poor guy got the 30 cents Cole had in his pocket.

We continued up the street, got Garrett's Popcorn, visited the Disney Store, then met up with Ryan for lunch. We ate at the Mity Nice Grill, which we love. Afterward, we went to the American Girl Doll store and to the lego store. Cole thought the lego creations were pretty awesome!

Then we picked up Ryan's visa and headed to the train. We took the train back to our car, but then we still had about an hour drive home. Cole hadn't been to the bathroom for a long time. Not wanting him to have an accident on the way home, he had his first experience peeing on a tree in the train station parking lot. We're so proud ;)

Going downtown was a lot of fun, but a lot of walking for this pregnant lady. We were all exhausted by the time we got home and headed to bed early!

Chocolate Festival

Hayden was being a stinker, as you can tell by her stinker face.

We had nothing planned on Saturday, so we checked online to find something fun to do. We went to a Chocolate Festival in a historic town nearby. Our friends wanted to come with us. Their baby ended up getting sick on the way, so we took their daughters with us. We didn't have much chocolate. We tried a sample at one of the shops, but the kids picked candy sticks at the candy store. All of the actual booths were way to expensive to actually buy anything. Which the kids weren't too happy about. The kids did get to go down the big blow up slide, but the hit of the day were the animal puppets the kids got to make dance. It's always fun to get out, and we enjoyed the time together!

Easter Weekend

We went to Indiana for Easter this year. Sunday was Easter, Camille's birthday, and Quinn's blessing. Grandma and Grandpa Woodland were also there, so lots of fun visiting took place.

 Saturday was filled with Easter fun. We started off with an egg hunt in the yard. We were lucky to have beautiful weather! Hayden was peeking while Ryan hid the eggs, so she was extra ready to get started.

 They both got lots of eggs and lots of candy.

 Next we dyed eggs. The kids had dyed eggs at their friend's birthday party that week, but we were lame and didn't do it at our house, so they were excited to have another chance.

 Then Hayden and Cole each got a special present from Grandma and Grandpa Woodland. A fishing pole!! Cole go a special green pole, of course, because he LOVES green!

 They were so excited and ready to head out to the pond behind Eric and Camille's house. There were tons of fish looking for food. We were just using bobbers, so no fish were caught, but the kids loved it!

 Sunday morning the kids followed the clues left by the Easter Bunny and found their baskets. Candy was skimped on this year. The kids got cups, watercolors, pencils, and stickers.

Saturday night I started feeling really gross. By the time we left for church on Sunday morning, I was pretty miserable. We went to Sacrament meeting, where Ryan got to help bless Quinn. Then right after the Sacrament we left for home. Unfortunately, we missed all of the birthday and Easter fun that was planned for after church! We drove the almost 5 hours home and I spent the next 2 days in bed.

Despite the bummer ending, we had a great weekend, especially since we got to get some cuddle time in with Quinn!

We talked a lot with the kids this year about the true meaning of Easter. We taught them about Jesus Christ and his resurrection. It always warms my heart when they can answer questions about Jesus. I'm very grateful for the Easter season and for my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Random

 Life has been crazy around here, but we've taken some time to have fun!

 There is a forest preserve near us called Independence Grove. We love it there. It is so beautiful, there are fish to feed, and a great playground. The kids are always excited to go there.

 Hayden got to bring home Ellie the Elephant from preschool. We took her around and then Hayden took pictures back to her class to show what we did. Hayden was so excited, and took Ellie with us everywhere we went.

 We took Ellie for a walk around our neighborhood, and down to the pond by us to see the big frogs.

 Another day we took Ellie to the Volo Bog. The kids were excited, because we saw worms, birds, spiderwebs, and a slug. All kinds of exotic wildlife to be thrilled about ;)

General Conference weekend was wonderful! We got to actually sit and watch all sessions this year. The kids were so good. We had yummy food and some fun projects. One of our projects was dying rice. The kids thought it was cool to color the rice and kept going back to play with their rice throughout the day.

Here is a pregnant belly picture from March 22. I was about 27 weeks. Now that I'm almost 34 weeks, I'm much bigger. I had 3 different people tell me how big I am yesterday. One was Cole. He was sitting on the couch and I bent over to pick something up. He said "Momma, your bum is big. REALLY big!" Then at church 2 women told me they couldn't believe how big I was, because I'm SO BIG! Luckily, I don't get offended by these comments, and I actually think they're funny.

I'll post pictures of my huge self soon ;)