Menchies!

I forgot I had these pictures from when we went to Menchies for my birthday. If you have a card with them you get $5 to spend on your b-day! 

Sharing.

I was cooking and turned around to this.
She even ventured out into the driveway like this!

Playing in her sandbox!

Cuties at the park.

Free Fun

Fun can be described in sooo many different ways. What may be fun to one person could be not so fun to the next person. Our girls enjoy quite a few things together, but I think Lily has found a new fun thing that Emma would not consider fun. 

She just lays around. 

Most of the time it's like the rest of the pictures. She just sprawls out wherever she can on her back. 

But, we found something that was super fun for Emma this weekend. Homemakers is a big furniture store in Urbandale and they had a free family carnival. We happen to run into one of Emma's favorite friends, Everly! They enjoyed a fun train ride together and a bounce house!

So excited for the bounce house and slide!

It was about 95 on this particular day, so we only stayed for a bit. The rest of the day we were in and out of grocery stores running errands and riding in lots of fun carts!

Sporting the new skirts Auntie Cara got them.

A creamery was giving away free ice cream at this Hy-Vee!

In between these pictures there was a nap and Red Robin! We had a free burger from my birthday and decided it was the perfect night to use it!

Way more interested in the fries.

She switched sides because there were more fries over there.  

She loved the water and thought it was really, really....

......refreshing!!! AH!!!!!!

We forgot the mall closed at 6; so more car carts!

Bo Time

Yes there is no typo. Not Go Time, Bo Time! We've had some extra time with Mr. Bowen lately and the girls are loving having a boy in the house. 

Most mornings start out like this:

Then some playing:

Some moments of the day have felt like this, for all of us. 

But, most of them were happy ones like this!

 More playing:

And, of course we had to have snack time!

The distributor. 

Better rest while they do :)

Birthday Blessings :)

As I get older, birthdays have come with a lot less expectation. 

For example: My dream was that the girls would be overly obedient and just perfect little angels on my birthday, and that Jay would stay home and hang out with us all day. What a mom dream :)

Well, I think the Lord heard me! Jay stayed home, although it was because he had a flat tire. So, he worked all day. But, we got an extra hour with him since he can just get up from the chair at 5 when he's done from work instead of making the hour commute! What a treat! 

The girls..... this was a real treat. They both slept in until 7:45. (that's late in our house) We then hit up the park for 2 hours after a trip to Starbucks drive-thru for a free b-day drink. 

We hung out with a good friend and came home for a nap. Lily took a loooonnnngggg nap. We had lunch with Daddy. After lunch, the girls played separately for 30 minutes without a peep. Now that is a once in a million chance! Lily decided she didn't really want to take an afternoon nap but was in the best mood I've ever seen her in. She eventually took a cat nap. 

You'd think the blessings were over. 2 more to go. 

We have volleyball every Monday night for church. Jay watched the girls so I could play. He's done this before and it has been so relaxing to play again and get a little break from the girls. The girls were playing so well that I got to play 3 whole games! When we got home a good friend dropped off a frozen meal for whenever I needed a 'no cooking' day, some new fingernail polish, and a sweet new workout shirt. She is a gem!

The night ended with some homemade s'more ice cream cake. 

I'd say it was an awesome 27th birthday. 

The Zoo & A GG Visit

We recently were blessed to go to the zoo with Skyla and Jenna and their kiddos! Emma had such a blast hanging out with Noah. I think they are becoming great friends.

Checking out the animals!

Forgot Lily's hat; good thing her shirt had a hood on it :) 

Checking out the monkeys.

Noah & Emma.

Water break.

Train ride!

Skyla & Bowen.

Love these women!

My mom decided to, spur of the moment, drive down for a few days! We enjoyed quite a few garage sales, getting groceries, painting, tennis shoe shopping, and the library!

Playing with the trains.

Of course there was playing in the girls room too :)

She graciously snapped this picture of the girls and me.

And for one random picture, we were eating breakfast one morning and my mom and I got to snap pictures of this:

A hawk. ( I sadly missed the moment it flew away. It was carrying a squirrel! )

Thanks mom for a great visit to brighten up the middle of our week!