Fun around town!

We've had a great week hitting some places around town - some old favorites and a new favorite too!

Swimming at a local rec center (again, loving Willow's confidence in the water!):

 We've made cookies, breadsticks, blueberry banana bread, and 2 different Kale smoothies!

We met Kim and Hannah at our favorite U-pick blueberry orchard. Owen lasted as long as it took to take this picture but Willow was a blueberry picking champ:

Owen found the sandbox at the orchard much more appealing:

We've been enjoying a lot of new books from our library:

At the time of this picture we were at 52 books for our 100 book challenge. We're over half way!

Willow iced some of the cookies previously mentioned. I think she added enough blue tube icing:

Hopefully you didn't skim over the Kale mentioned above. Owen is a big fan!!

Yes, he walked around the house and ate this whole bowl of it! Here he is admitting to liking it (I foresee us showing him this when he's older and doesn't eat vegetables).

Rainy and ridiculously hot days call for indoor options. The pet store at the mall and the local SPCA were fun!

One of our summer goals:

An indoor playground at the mall made for a fun rainy-day-was-supposed-to-be-pool playdate:

Check out our "hamster" in action.

This is fun too! Here the girls are in action.

Willow's class took a field trip to the local art museum and came home raving about it. We checked it out today and were equally excited about it! They have an "art venture" area for kids where they can let their imaginations run wild:

Check out their puppet show.

and it has a great 3rd-floor view of the city:

"Look! The star!"

Spring Phone Photo dump

There are multiple reasons why I don't like taking pictures on my phone, the biggest reasons being (1) they get trapped on the phone and never get off (and the Blogger app no longer allows me to add photos to a post?!?) and (2) the quality of the picture isn't always that great. Well...tonight was the magical night where pictures were unloaded. So...here's the "spring compilation:"

Seeing "Cinderella" in the theater with Gramma

Reading books with Nana over Spring Break

 Sydney's birthday party at "Just Dance:"

Alli likes the window seat pillow that Nana made for us too!

Ballet of "Cinderella" with Gramma and Nana on her birthday weekend

 Don't we have the best view as we leave Walmart? Seriously it makes me smile every time!

So does the view coming down the hill into our neighborhood (in all seasons!):

Alli's rare cuddle with Owen for a post-nap tv show:

Willow was pretty adamant about getting a toy My Little Pony (where does she find out about these things??). It kindof broke my heart when, a week after her birthday, she was asking, "For my next birthday can I have a My Little Pony?" I mentioned the idea of using some of her birthday money to buy one herself and she was all about making her first purchase! It wasn't nearly as quick of a process as I'd thought it would be since we went with the purpose of purchasing a pony or two. But there are sooooo many choices (pony and non-pony toys!)!!! We definitely scoped out all of the options seeing which ones she'd brought enough money for, then ended up with a couple ponies and some Elsa jewelry. She even proudly handed her cash to the cashier and was ready to walk away and let her keep the change (clearly hadn't been part of our conversation prior to the experience!). 

The Seths autographs for Sarah's wedding card:

Spoiling Owen with a Krispie Kreme donut "morning snack" during my first week of summer break:

Mrs. Bray's hug attack from her sweet class during their End of Year party:

A fun Home Depot building project:

One last playdate with McKenna before they moved a couple hours away:

Fun at Elena and Vanessa's pool:

Well, maybe one benefit to videos from my phone is that I don't have to load them to YouTube first?? Check Willow out jumping off the diving board at Elena and Vanessa's pool! It took a little convincing, but once she did it, she wanted to go and go and go! She probably went 8 or 9 times while we were there!

Playing in the fountains yesterday:

Watching "Paddington" in the theater for $1 each!!

 I'm glad Owen seems to be out of his "undressing after we leave his room at bedtime" stage!!

T

Family dinner to celebrate Grandpa's birthday:

Willow's sidewalk drawing of Anna:

I woke up one morning to Owen yelling, "I don't want you! I don't want you!" When I entered his dark room to figure out what in the world he was talking about, I stepped on something slick and reached around him noticing that he was bare-bottomed.....welp...this is what I found:

Owen is as tall as a lily =)

She  had very good intentions when helping me make the cupcakes:

I love moments like this!!

Watering the tomatoes:

An afternoon ice cream treat with Owen during my first week of summer break:

When I told Owen to use a different paint brush for each color, I didn't mean a different paint brush for each color EACH TIME! This is the pile of used brushes we ended up with:

Owen, the two-fisted painter: