Mother's Day at the Zoo

Mother's Day was on the same day as Tommy's birthday this year, so we had a busy day celebrating. We were up early and made it out the door to church by 8:30. We stopped on the way to get me a Mother's Day donut!!! Church was a great service, given by our pastor's wife, a mother of 5.

After service, we took advantage of the one warm day we had over the course of a few weeks and headed to the zoo. We had a picnic lunch, which we ate at the park outside the zoo and then headed in to see the animals. We met friends there and just enjoyed the sunshine and being together.

Late in the afternoon, we loaded up to head to our favorite Mexican food restaurant. All 3 girls crashed in the car on the way there. We had a nice dinner and then I went to get a pedicure. It was a perfect day!!!

In a Week

Catching up on lots of blogging and leaving my future self a reminder of the kinds of things that went on in a house full of small people. Here are some highlights from one week.

Baby Chick practiced her walking skills!!!

I took Addison and Reagan to see a Christian Youth Theatre production of Annie. They loved it!!! We have since gotten the soundtrack and they sing and dance to it everyday. The girl who played Annie was 12 years old and AMAZING!!!

Ready for our girls night out.

Gracyn stayed with a babysitter for a few hours on Friday morning while I took the big girls to dance. She did her first finger-painting with the babysitter and loved it....though she didn't much care for posing for her picture with it.

I spent every spare second I had all week, scrubbing blue crayon out of an entire load of my children's Gymboree clothing. One of my little darlings has been warned NEVER, NEVER to carry crayons in her pocket, EVER again.

Reagan, Gracyn and I went to Addison's school to read books to her class.

2 of the 3 Brimberry girls came for a few hours one morning, while their Mommy took the 3rd sister to the doctor. It was a fun-filled couple of hours with 5 girls!!!

Our neighborhood kids have 12 birthdays in about a 6 week period. We had 3 parties this week. Ava had an afternoon garden party. They released several thousand ladybugs in their backyard and the kids had a blast hunting for them.

We had 2 more snow days. I thought they would be our last, but alas, we have 8-18 inches in the forecast for tomorrow. So much for all the flowers we planted last weekend.

Clara had a Chuck-E-Cheese birthday party.

Another neighbor wasn't feeling good during the party, so we took her oldest two girls with us to the party (Yes, everyone I know has 3 girls!!!!). The girls had a blast....Tommy and I were TIRED after keeping up with 5 girls in a busy, crowded Chuck-E-Cheese. Do you see in this picture how tall Addison is???

Presley had her first birthday at the gazebo near our house. Thank goodness, we had a break in the snow on her party day.

We went out to eat several times with our crew. It starts out looking something like this.

And by the end, it looks more like this!!!

It's a busy life but a good life!!! Want to come visit and join in the fun?

Green, Finally!!!

So May in Colorado is the big pay-off for all the cold and snow of winter. The world outside transforms daily. Flowers are blooming, grass is getting greener and the trees are coming back to life. It makes me crazy to wait so long for the warmer weather, but getting to see springtime almost makes it worth it. The girls and I worked this afternoon planting flowers in the backyard. They love helping!!! Gracyn did great for her first year....though she may have eaten some dirt. They also loved finally having warm enough weather to play with the water table they got from Aunt Tressia and Uncle Bryan for their birthdays. I love the new colorful view from my back windows.

We went to The Melting Pot, last night, to celebrate Tommy's 32nd birthday. Ryan and Sarah brought their two little girls over and we had a babysitter watch all 5 girls. Dinner was an experience....my first with fondue. We all loved the cheese sauce that we started with and then I ate Tommy's salad and mine. I am not so sure about the main course....I am not the greatest fan of raw meat and may have even gagged a few times. They suggested you cook the meat approximately 3 minutes....I cooked mine 15, just in case. It works for us though. I ate both salads, Tommy polished off all of our meat. Finally the highlight of the evening came. That dessert is amazing. It was a great night, a break from the everyday. I may have to get a fondue pot and start melting my own chocolate.

A Few More

I give up and Blogger wins....which means, here are a few extra birthday party pics in a separate post....just pretend they are part of the next post, like they should be.

Addison's 5th Birthday Party

We celebrated Addison's 5th birthday today, with a puppet show. The show was great, the kids laughed and had lots of fun watching a talking book, an orangutan, a bookworm, and Jack-and-the-Beanstalk. Next we ate delicious Barbie Cake and visited with our friends. After the party, a few families headed out to dinner at a local pizza place....14 people...6 adults, 6 little girls, and 2 baby girls with highchairs (I don't think either of them ever sat in them). It was crazy but fun. Finally we came home and opened her presents. She got lots of cute gifts, plus between her savings over the last few months and birthday money/gift cards, she has about $160 to shop at the American Girl store on Tuesday. She can't wait. It was a great day celebrating my girl....hard to believe she is almost 5!!!

We put Gracyn in the cake box, so we could get the party set up.

If she wasn't contained in the box, she was climbing everything!!!

Baby girl LOVED the puppets.

The talking book, a big crowd favorite.

Happy Girls!!!

My sweet 5 year old.

The Barbie Cake of her dreams.

My sweet family.

Friends.

Opening Gifts.

Another American Girl card.

This morning Reagan said she wasn't going, just bring her some cake, but she decided to join us!!! :)

Gracyn loves to be upside down.

Daddy and his girl.

Reagan had earned a special prize, so I got her the doll chair. I knew Addison was getting one, and they love to put them in the chairs and do their hair.