The Last Days of Summer

 During our last days of summer vacation, we took 2 trips to the zoo.  The first was to Niabi Zoo in the Quad Cities.  Our membership at Glen Oak transfers to Niabi so we got to enjoy a members night for free! 
We went with our favorite monkey Lizzie Aigner!

They  had free train rides, free hotdogs and drinks, inflatables and carousel rides!  So much fun!

After the zoo, we stopped for ice cream in town, ppor Colson looks exhausted!

It was such a fun evening!  Alyvia's last day before school started, we went to Glen Oak zoo and had a picnic.  Always a fun time!

 These silly kids always want to climb on that lion statue...it's almost the most exciting part for them!  Colson and Lizzie got to feed the giraffe this trip too (Livi got to the last time we went).  Sidenote: I just realized I didn't have any pics of Kendall :(   Poor girl was stuck in her stroller!  It was a fun day to end our summer vacation with.  This summer flew by in the blink of an eye....again!  We're excited for what fall will bring with school starting for Alyvia and Cole, dance class, birthday parties, and who knows what else!  Here we go! 

April Happenings

Where did this month go and what have we been up to? Plenty!  At the beginning of the month, Kendall had her first visit to the zoo.  During spring break, we took a day and met Kristin & Lizzie at Glen Oak Zoo.  We had a picnic first and then visited the animals.  Although a little chilly at first, it ended up a beautiful afternoon!

Mommy left Daddy and the kids at home and headed to Chicago for my cousin Shannon's bachelorette party!  Lindsey and I left Saturday afternoon and drove up to the city.  After a short detour through the city, we finally found the Hard Rock Hotel and we're ready for some fun!

We had food and drinks at the hotel and then headed out to The Baton Club-it was eye opening to say the least!

The next weekend, Alan and I had a date night and went to a wedding!

This past weekend we met some new neighbors.  A mommy, daddy and some kits :)

On Sunday we were finally all able to be at Mamaw and Papaw's house to celebrate Easter with the kids.  They got to do another Easter egg hunt and each got another Easter basket!

Kendall, Reagan & Brenner

Alyvia, Rylie, Colson, Kinsley, Reagan, Brenner

That night Alan and I got to go on another date night...I know, we're getting spoiled!  We went to see The Band Perry at Bradley.  It was a good show and fun to get out by ourselves again!  We've had a busy, busy month, filled with fun.  Hopefully it gets warmer now so we can do more outside next month!

Week in pictures

Saturday-woke up to these 2 cuties taking over my bed :)

Livi and I went to Naperville for my cousin Amy's wedding shower and Cole went to work with Daddy!

Sunday-we got up and went to church and then Livi and I went to our friend Lizzie's birthday party.  It was a yucky rainy day, but we had fun anyway!

Then we had to leave for a Snyder family picnic at Bradley park.  It rained more today than it has practically all summer!!  The kids obviously still had tons of fun :)

Will & Colson having a blast throwing ice!  I foresee trouble with these 2!

Alyvia, Joseph and Ben playing in the rain

Colson (the boy who hates the sprinkler) joins in on the fun in the pouring rain!

On Tuesday, Colson and I had a quiet day planned at home....but Daddy had other plans for us :)

 Poor Daddy got a bad burn on his hand while working :(  So Colson got to spend an impromptu couple of hours with Papa while daddy and I went to Prompt Care and picked up supplies to take care of Daddy's hand. 

We have an appointment next week with a hand surgeon to make sure that his hand is healing properly...

On Thursday, this cute boy hung out with Colson and I all day!

Poor guy had a fever the day before, so he came to Aunt Katie's instead of going to the babysitters.  He was so good, just had a yucky stuffy nose that made it hard to take a good nap.  I tried to get a picture of him and Colson together, but Cole kept telling me "doe!"

 

On Friday, Cole and I got to have a "Mommy & Colson Day".  I've been wanting to do something special with Colson since Livi started school-he doesn't get as much one on one time as she did.  So today, we went to the zoo!

My big guy and I got to see the baby tigers out playing!  They were cute, but not as cute as my little guy :)

After the zoo, we met Nana for lunch at Avanti's.  I had so much fun spending a couple hours having fun with my little boy :) 

We had a busy, busy week!  I'm sure it won't slow down much :)

A Little Getaway

Livi has been having some issues at school the past 2 weeks.  Little girls can be so hateful, somehow they just know how to hurt each other.  It has been one of the few things that made me nervous about having a little girl.  And it's already happening....in preschool.  The little girls have been telling her "no Alyvia's allowed", "you can't play with us", "I don't want to be your friend" and so on and so forth.  Livi was in tears when the babysitter picked her up on Thursday.  SO, after a big pep talk for Livi (and a talk with the teacher), I decided that she was skipping school on Friday and we were going to have a fun day!  We went to lunch with Nana and then to the zoo!

Took a picture of the Tamarins for Nana :)

 

Colson LOVED the giraffes!  He kept laughing at them :)

 We had a super fun day together and are completely enjoying this 70+ degree weather in MARCH!!  We're going to regroup over the weekend and "attack" school with confidence!  Because my girl is beautiful, brave, strong and kind :)  (That's our new mantra)