Park fun

On a nice spring night, we took the girls to the local park, that is about 1/2 a mile from our home. There is a large cement sidewalk right off the park, and we took chalk for fun. Between bubbles and chalk, we were the family that all the other little kiddos wanted to be around. 

The girls both got in on the fun of drawing a large communal artwork in the park. It was a blast! Here's some highlights. (Sorry about the quality of the pics, they are from my phone so not that great.)

Love, J.

Park lunch dates

My office is thankfully about 1/2 mile from a really big park. It makes for great lunch dates, on days when Jason is home with the girls. The last 2 weeks he has packed a picnic and picked me up at lunch and we jet down to the Park. We have lunch and still have time for a little play time before they have to take me back to the office. It definately makes for the best part of my work week!

Hannah having lunch.
Jason and Addison having lunch.
A little play time on the park.
Look how high she is! Yikes she's getting so daring!

Love, J.

Frenchmans Bar Park

After Jason went to work this afternoon, we decided that we needed to get out of the house for a bit. So off to the Vancouver Lake area. Did you know that Vancouver has a lake? Well it does, close by an outlet that goes into the Columbia River. 

We decided to go for a walk. Well a long walk. 1.3 miles from the parking lot to the restrooms and park. So off we went. 

Addison enjoys a little swinging. In the distance you can see the river (unsure of exactly which river that is, but it's not the Columbia River). 

Hannah decided that she wanted to use her scooter on this walk. 

That didn't last long, thank goodness the stroller was about to stowe it! 

After the walk to the restroom and park, it was WINDY and COLD. So we decided to high tale it back to the van. Thankfully the stroller is sturdier than expected. Hannah sat in the stroller and held Addison, for about 1/2 of the walk back to the van. 

All in all, I walked about 2.6-3 miles, Hannah walked closer to 2 miles. 

Though it was a great time outside. And lets just say that 13 minutes after they were tucked in, all little girls were quiet and asleep!

Love, J.

Rainbows!

Happy 5th Birthday Hannah! 

My monkey bug, Lady bug, bug, hurricane. . . 

5 whole years since we became a family of 3!

Today we had a small party to celebrate her turning 5. We are so thankful for the family and friends that love our kiddos nearly as much as we do and joined us for some kiddo fun today!

Here are some highlights of our day. 

Goody buckets for the kiddos

Goody buckets had crayons, stickers, bubbles, playdough, and the older kiddos had a sucker- everything colorful!

Buckets lined up!

Crafts prepped, though in the end we only did 2 of them. 

Cakes- Rainbows, and Hannah requested butterflies, so one cake had butterflies on it. 

Rainbow theme continued, veggie tray

Fruit tray.

Hannah, Brenna and Jonathan making their fruity cheerio necklaces!

Every notice that a lot of the photos I take are blurry? Well that's because she is almost always moving, here is yet another one, but she's smiling and having fun!

Glueing colored pastas to make rainbows- turned out awesome!

Inside of the cake- YUP- it's rainbow, how did you guess? Easy peasy, take a white cake box recipe, seperate into separate containers, add food coloring, layer in the cake pan and back per box instructions- TADA!

Addison, enjoying some cake! NUMMY!

Presents- Lots of brightly colored, spring/summer clothing! Art supplies and books were a big part of the gifts too!

Addison getting in there to help- somewhere in there is Hannah. You can see the back of Cleo's head in this one too. 

On lookers while Hannah opens colorful clothing!

More presents. 

Colorful clothes!

The gift that stole the show- Hannah got a Leap Pad. She was super excited about this gift. Though I am not one that really believes in electronics for children, I have come to see how there are some games/electronics that have some learning value. So Hannah received a Leap Pad from Jason and I, along with a math game and a reading/spelling game. 

Overall it was a wonderful birthday with some special treats along the way- Shopping just Hannah and Mommy for balloons and a few other misc this morning, PB and Sprinkle pancakes, Pizza at home for dinner, Game night with the parents, and a nice long story and song time at bed time. 

The last 5 years have been one adventure that's for sure. Though it's been hard at times, we love Hannah, very, very much. She is growing so quick and we are trying as parents to grow with her. We feel very blessed to have Hannah in our life. If you haven't spent much time with Hannah recently, you are missing out- she's super smart, imaginative, creative, tells wonderful stories, loves arts and crafts, stories, is inquisitive, and a wonderful helper. 

Love, J.