Zoo time

This was a fun activity that we did one day. It was a great day, sunny and about 70 degrees. It had been cold a few days before, and the weather man said that it was going to be cold after this day. We were so greatful that we had a sunny warm day to visit all the animals. While we were at the zoo we met one of Aby's good friends, so she had a great time, and kenzie had a great time with Bryn. We are so greatful to have her live so close. Kenzie and Bryn are the best of friends.

The first stop after the monkeys was the Elephants. This is always a favorite for the kids. You can see the Elephants in the background. it was really cool because as we moved down the path the elephants came closer and broke a big stick to chew. The girls were impressed with how strong the Elephant was. On a side note, one of the female elephants is pregnant right now, and will have her baby in another 19-20 months. Can you imagine how hard it would be to be pregnant for 2 years!!
I haven't been to the zoo in a while, and was shocked when I saw that they had completely redone the big cat area to an Asian Safari theme it was pretty cool. In this picture Aby and her Friend Mati Ball are on a statue of a Tiger.
Now it was Kenzie and Bryn's turn.

This is one of the items that the shops in the Asian area were selling. I didn't buy them (they wanted 15 dollars a had.) The kids did have a great time trying them on.
Finally at the end of the day we stopped at the playground. This has also been redone and added to. Kenzie had a great time on the giant spider web, and Aby had fun on the snake slide until she was running up the stairs too fast and fell and hurt her lip and nose, then she was done. Kenzie like the slide also when she found her way out of the spider web.
Ahhh the end of the day, we were tired, but had a great time, and we can't wait to go back again.

Easter FHE

One the Monday after Easter I decided to do a special family home evening to help the girls learn the real meaning of Easter. I had origionally planned to have the egg hunt outside, but it was dark by the time we started so we ended up in the basement. (so glad that it is finished.) We started out by having a song and a prayer and then the girls went downstairs to find the eggs. In some of the eggs I had hidden strips of paper with different aspects of Christs life and Atonement. In other eggs I had hidden candy. The kids had a great time, and were actually more excited to find papers and talk about Christ than the candy. It was a great family Home Evening. I am always so impressed by what my kids can remember about Christ and how much the love the savior.
Here is Aby looking for some of the eggs.
Aby and Kenzie go for an egg in the hallway. (Kenzie got it.:)
Ahhh.. and the winner is everyone. We all learned a lot about the life of Christ.

Art Time

Aby and Kenzie love to color, paint, cut, paste, and anything else that has to do with being creative and artsy. I am so greatful that they enjoy doing stuff like this, and so I do my best to encorage thier efforts.
I had been downstairs doing laundry and picking up, and when I went upstairs it was to find that the girls had gotten out the craft supplies, and were working very hard on some pictures that they were doing for their dad, and grandma. You can see the paint, glue, and cotten balls. In the end the mess was worth it, and the pictures turned out great.
Aby loves to pose for the camera. Who wouldn't it you were that cute.

Trouble

Doesn't she look happy? How can I even bear to shut the drawer and take her out, I can't so I don't. I have removed all toxic and dangerous items from the drawer. Brooklyn likes to spend a lot of time just playing in the drawers, and bathroom in general. For the most part I didn't used to mind, but in th epast few days, she has learned how to lift up the lid on the toilet, and likes to play in the water. (yuck) since then I have started to shut the bathroom door. It makes her mad, but at least I don't find her wet with toilet water.

First Popcicle

When Kenzie had her surgery my neighbor brough over some popcicles for her, they were great because they are ony 1/3 the size of a regular one. This is great because my kids don't usually eat a entire popcicle and so this is the perfect size. This was the first time that I gave one to Brooklyn, and her face is pricless, you can watch the discovery process as she finds out what this is.
Hmmmm.....cold and slippery
I think it will taste ok....right?

OHHHHH brain freeze! That is cold.
That was good, I think that I will keep eating these. And she has popcicles are one of her favorite treats.

Is it summer yet?

Ok I am not sure why the picture turned the wrong way but there you have it. After Mckenzie's surgery I was feeling like a bad mom, so I gave into her and because she was so brave I bought her Dora flip flops and crocs. She was so excited, that she came right home and tried them on. She also put on her sunglasses, and her skirt. She wanted to go outside, but it was really cold so she put on her coat also. Can you believe my children!!! You would think that they are related to their mother.
Check out thoes sexy flip flops!!

The whoe ensamble. Are we ready for anything or what.
This is my favorite. Tiffany Jones gave her these sunglasses for Christmas and they have been her favorite ever since. She is so cute in them.

Chocolate Factory

In my unofficial job of arranging activities for the kids in our ward to do, I was able to arrange a tour of Cavanaghs Chocolate Factory. We actually got a fantastic tour because it was led by one of the ladies in our ward. (Colette Call) She works at the factory, and got permission to take the kids into the factory and let them make chocolate covered gummy worms to eat. (all of this for no charge.) The kids had a great time, and I know that most of the parents enjoyed themselves as well.

Here is Aby she is waiting by the gummy worms for her turn to place them on the chocolate conveyor belt to get covered.
Here are mom and Kenzie placing her gummy worms on the chocolate conveyor belt to be covered. We really had a great time.
You can see how excited the kids were after they placed the gummy worms they would run down to the other end and keep a watch until they could see the worms. The funny part it took nearly 10 minutes for them to come to the end. That didn't bother the kids at all.
Everyone got their worms and we were ready to move onto my favorite part, the caramel section. OHHHH....the samples that we had in there were divine.

Caramel.....need I say more, ok the kids probably didn't enjoy this as much as the chocolate machine, but that didn't stop them from trying out the candy.
Kenzie and Bryn tasting their caramels and moving on to the next room.
At the end everyone gathered around to watch an interesting movie on how chocolate is made. We really did have a great time, and I will never think lightly of how hard it is to make the little chocolates that you eat.