"school work"

I love all the papers that come home with them from school.  I love looking at them & watching them "grow" on paper.  Hayden's is on the left.  Olivia's on the right.  She takes everything in & knows SO much, but her fine motor skills are behind the boys a bit.

 Then there is Logan.  His fine motor skills are just EXTRAORDINARY!!  I'm not sure mine would look like this!  I wouldn't believe that he does this on his own, at first I thought surely he makes his teacher help him.  Except they have a program on their LeapPads to trace letters.  Its very difficult & it expects you to do it perfect.  Perfect to the extent that sometimes I have to trace 2 or 3 times to "pass" & Logan can do it.  So I know he can truly trace letters this well.

The difference in their art work.

Can you guess whose is whose?

 

 

 

Olivia's.  We'll call it abstract art :)

Logan's.  He really stays in the lines so well!

 Hayden's.  I love how he opted to color in all the dots!

Sneak Peek of our Last Week

We have had a busy last week! 

It involved a little of this:

 

And a little of this:

 

I promise I will blog about it when I have some down time.  Hope you all had a fun filled Memorial Weekend!!

3 1/2

Someday I will actually invest in some photoshop software for my computer to edit the pictures I take.  For now I just do it with the freebie online stuff & pretend I'm good at it.

We DIY'd some 3 1/2 year old pictures at the park this beautiful morning!  I think I actually got a couple of good ones.  Enjoy!

Hayden at 3 1/2 years old.

 Olivia at 3 1/2 years old.

 Logan at 3 1/2 years old.

A couple of outakes.

And my favorite pictures of my favorite 3 1/2 year olds!!

My absolute favorite!!  Love you Hayden, Olivia & Logan!

Late Mother's Day trip to the Zoo!!

I worked on Mother's Day & Jeff brought the kids up to have lunch with me at work.  But since we didn't get to do much, I decided we'd celebrate Moms on a different day & we joined Grandma GG, Molly & Analeigh for a trip to the zoo.  Who would have though, given that May 1st it snowed & that last week it froze overnight, that the temps would reach 100!  We drank a lot of water & did a lot of indoor exhibits.  There weren't many people there & we literally closed the place down.  We had a blast.

 

We took our newest stroller.  Its a double sit & stand.  But the back part is big enough that 2 butts can share, or one can sit back there & there is still room for one to stand.  There were a few fights over seats & space, but overall it worked well.  It wasn't so huge like our triple stroller/wagon that I felt like I was chasing 3 running kids & hauling a semi.  But it still held all 3 of them as needed.  Best part about this stroller.... my friend Amy gave it to me for free, along with a slew of other things we cleaned out of her garage one afternoon. 

 Love these little guys.

 Checking out the bat caves...

 All you can see of this HUGE alligator is his glowing eyes.  He was HUGE & up oh so close!

 Then we checked out the monkeys & gorillas.

Can you believe my babies are officially 3 1/2!!  They hit the official 1/2 mark on Mother's Day.

 We saw the not.so.little baby lions too.  Super cute!

 Stay away she says!!

 And the aquarium of course.

 That penguin just hung out right by the kids in the bubble for a long time.

This picture is just awesome!!  Sting ray.

 

 And finally the jungle.  The front zoo doors closed at 5, but we discovered the jungle is open until 6.  We were literally the only people in there. We didn't see anyone else.  Molly coaxed the kids across the bridge.  Their first time crossing! 

 Once the did it... we couldn't drag them away!

 Luckily we found other fun things to play on.

 There are rays right there.  Its crazy!

There was fresh fruit out hanging by the bats, that are NOT in a cage in the jungle by the way.  When we walked the lower level, it was almost 6 & apparently active feeding time for the bats.  They were swooping & diving & flying literally by our heads & knees.  Dozens & dozens of them.  We screamed & ran.  I know its just fruit bats & they wouldn't be free to fly if it wasn't safe.. but yuck!  The kids talked about it all day today.  I'm hoping the zoo people at least got it on video & someone got a good laugh at us! 

We caught the last train of the day, luckily they waited for us!  The kids begged all day for a train ride & we just randomly hit the last one.  We would have never heard the end of it had we missed it!   What a fun, fun day!!