Girls being silly

Heather, Ashlyn, and Jade came over for lunch. The girls were playing well together which is always beautiful and I caught this snapshot of them. I believe Ashlyn is a plane, calling the airport, and Hannah is a passenger on the plane. Hannah said they were going to China.

Learning about the icecream truck

This was a fun day. I had to run some errands and I had free kid's meal tickets for them at Sonic so we picked up their food and I brought them to a small, out of the way park that we hadn't been to in their current memory. It had a big sprinkler in the middle and we had fun playing pretend. Then I heard the icecream truck and saw it pull up beside the park. I explained to the kids what the icecream truck was and we hurried to the parking lot to see if I had any cash in my purse. Hannah was trying to get in the car, thinking we would have to chase it down. I happened to have two 1 dollar bills and we raced to the truck. They each picked out a popsicle (no tax). A very simple and happy memory.

Sometimes I wonder about her.

This is a picture Hannah has been planning for a very long time. We love the library and Hannah always asks if I brought my camera. She wanted to get a picture of herself next to this cat. Months have passed since she first conceived the idea. Well, I finally brought the camera and she solemnly walked over to the cat. "Wait." She hands me some books she is holding so that they won't obscure her new summer reading medal. She walks back to the cat, straightens her medal, places one arm around the it's feline shoulder and stares at it's face. "Hannah, look at me and smile!" No response, I tell her twice more to look at me before I come to the conclusion that she wants the picture taken while she is gazing at the cat. Sure, whatever you want. Glad we can finally scratch that off our to do list.

Monkey Joe's

This was a day when Jeff was working late and the kids just really needed to let out some energy. I was able to get Heather to come with her kids to Monkey Joe's. It is a huge building with all these inflatible slides and bouncing rooms.
Here is Ashlyn and Hannah racing down twin slides.

This is my favorite picture. Ashlyn's momentum threw her on the mat at the bottom. Look at her little leg flying up in the air and Hannah giggling. Precious.

Jacob riding a pony!

My kids are not the real adventurous and daredevil type. Or even the cautious type. More like the No way am I doing that and you can't make me type. I try not to make a big deal out of it while still encouraging them to try new things (well, I do make Jacob ride an animal on the carousel, Hannah still likes to simply sit on the peacock bench and wave). Sorry bud, I can make you. So I was very excited when Jacob decided that today was the day he was going to ride a pony. (They were the only kids that wouldn't ride the donkey my mom rented for her 60th birthday party for cryin' out loud).
The pony was named Spooky which I thought was a rather poor idea. The woman leading the pony asked why Hannah wasn't going to ride. When I told her that she was afraid, the woman asked if Hannah would like to pet the pony. "Maybe." I replied.

We stayed at the zoo too long and so things were a little dicey near the end. Here is Hannah putting Jacob in a headlock while yelling: Look at the camera! Look at the camera! That was the last photo for the day.

I really should be sleeping

I got a new camera! Love it, Sleek little Canon that can take a timed shot (so I can be in it)! I haven't tried that yet. Finally installed the new software and so here are pictures. My friend Katy says that she blogs when she should be doing other things and I am the same way. Seeing as how it is 2:39 am and I am supposed to meet Jessica to run at 6, I really should be sleeping but I am not feeling tired so I am blogging. Finally. These are photos of Henry's first trip to the zoo. Nat and he coordinated their outfits. : ) Both my kids wanted to help Nat push the stroller.

He looks so big here!!!

Knowing that two good things (downloading photos, updating the blog) do not cancel out what I should be doing (sleeping) I decided to add one bad thing (eating a brownie). This evening Jeff had asked: Do we have anything sweet? which was funny because I had Heather (who is preggers) and her kids over for lunch and she had asked the same question (like totally verbatim) which is why there where not anymore nutty bars left. So Jeff made a box of my FAVORITE brownies when I am trying so hard to avoid that stuff and once it was all finished his hankering for sweets was gone. So there is a 9X12 pan minus one square (well, rectangle) of brownies sitting just fifteen stairs away from me. They have got to go.