Tessa's Field Trip

Yesterday, I got to go with Tessa and about 100 other Kindergarten students to the zoo for their big Field Trip to the Hogle Zoo! Tessa has been so excited for this Field Trip. Like Adam, she was so excited to get to ride the bus. Gwen spent the day with Ma and I got to spend the day with my Tessa Boo.

 On the bus and ready to go! She loved the bus ride up to the zoo, but hated the ride home. We both did. It was so bumpy. We both came home with horrible headaches. 

 We had a group of 4 girls. Tessa, Olivia, Holland and McKylie. For the most part, they were all pretty good. I didn't think there was anyone on earth slower or more distracted than Tessa. I was glad to find out that I was wrong. Little Holland has Tessa beat by a landslide!

As soon as we arrived at the zoo, we saw the wolf walking around. We stopped to look at it and it started howling at us. It was so cool!

 Thankfully, my little group was up for lots of picture taking. They begged me to take their picture on every statue we passed. 

 Tessa and the "brown bears".

 Checking out the Polar Bears and Seals. 

 We loved watching the elephants! We got there just in time to see the zoo keepers doing tricks with the baby elephant. We got to see her do a handstand on her trunk. The girls were amazed to see her eat a whole cantaloupe in one bite!

 We loved watching the Gorilla too. He was just chowing down on some tasty cardboard.

They couldn't wait to get to the zoo and by the time we left, they couldn't wait to go home. I love the attention span of kids. It was fun to spend the day with them and watch Tessa be a good friend and leader. She was by far the most excited about all of the animals. It was nice to have a fun day together making some special memories. 

Turning 34

This past Wednesday was my 34th birthday. I'm not sure why, but this year I feel old. I can't really believe I am already getting to my mid thirties. I feel like I just turned 25. These last 10 years have seems to fly by. I am hopefully getting more wiser as I age and I hope I age gracefully like my beautiful Grandma Lemley. 

The morning of my birthday, the kids were doing their chores before school and then Tessa told me that she and Adam had made me a birthday breakfast. They heated up a leftover pancake from the day before, put a candle in it and had the camera ready to go as soon as I lit the candle for them. Adam snapped away with the camera while the girls sang to me. It was so sweet and so fun to have them do our birthday morning traditions for me. 

 Tessa was sure to give me a golden candle. 

 I had a pretty low key day, which was nice. Dee and Eddie treated me to a yummy birthday breakfast, Kristin and Katy both brought me birthday treats, Eric brought me some beautiful flowers and took me out for a yummy dinner at The Bombay House, and I even got to watch like an hour of a mommy movie. 

A huge thank you to everyone who made my day a special one!! Maybe getting older isn't going to be so bad after all. 

Earth Day

Years ago I came up with some ideas for observing Earth Day to go along with Mommy School for Adam. Well, those little activities that I planned over 4 years ago have turned into family traditions. My kids have been asking me for weeks when they were going to get their Earth Day pancakes. Tuesday was Earth Day so we finally made their favorite pancakes. 

 My little artist spent some time in the afternoon making the earth out of her new sidewalk chalk. She did a great job! 

We had some plans for the afternoon-like going around the neighborhood with our Litter Monster, but a crazy storm picked up. I promised them we would go out with it later this week and feed our favorite Monster. 

 Our Earth Day ended with some Heavenly Dirt for dessert. Eric told me the first time I made this, he had a hard time eating it cause it looked so real. The kids gobbled their dirt up and were so happy to eat some worms!

Easter 2014

We had a fun Easter morning at our house. The kids were up bright and early to see if the Easter Bunny came. He did not disappoint them. He even left his bunny tracks all over the house. Tessa wants to know why he has so much powder on his feet. 

 They were excited to see that their jelly beans grew into bunny lollipops!

(Love Gwen's hair!-total bedhead!)

 Gwen wasted no time on making a dent in her candy. She loves peeps!

 Tessa trying out their new hula hoop. They laughed watching Mommy teach them how to do it with her baby belly. 

 New coloring books and flip flops.

 Adam was pretty good at catching jelly beans. 

 The Easter Bunny left them a little egg hunt to do around the house. They were happy to see their baskets get even fuller when whey emptied all of their eggs. 

 Our attempt at an Easter Sunday picture. I sure do have beautiful babies!!

 There was a dog running around our yard while I was trying to take pictures of the girls. Gwen was far more interested in the dog, so this is the best we could get. 

 What a handsome boy!!

 Adam sang with his little choir at church and they did such a good job. After church, we headed down to Ma and Pa's house for Easter dinner and to celebrate all the April birthdays. They had a little egg hunt out back for the kids. 

 Gwennie was thrilled to find more candy!

Overall it was a fun and happy Easter. Mostly, we are grateful for our Savior and for all that He has done for us. Because of Him, we can be together forever, overcome our struggles and make each day better than the last. I am so very thankful that we have the gospel to teach our children and to help them come to know the Savior and understand how important He is. Because of Him, we are so very, very blessed!