Bella's first day of preschool!

Bella has been excited for weeks now about going back to school. I think she got a little nervous the morning of though when she didn't want to get out of bed. That is not like her at all! I finally got her up and she dressed herself and ate breakfast. Benjamin and I went to drop her off and she was a little clingy. I made it through without any tears, a little teary eyed, but no breakdown! :) When Benjamin and I got home he was looking around for her. It was so sad and so sweet. He played with his truck for a little while by himself, then laid down on the floor like he was bored! He didn't have his playmate, his best friend, his Lella. When it was time to go pick her up I asked him, "are you ready to go get Bella?" He said Yes right away and practically ran towards the garage! He was ready to bring her home! So sweet!

Pizza 51

This weekend we had our pizza club at Pizza 51. It was so good! I had hawaiian and loved how big the slices were! We went to Glace artisan ice cream afterwards where I had their peanut butter and jelly ice cream. I know it sounds weird, but it was sooo good! Brandon and I also scoped out the new Trader Joe's on our way home! Great night out!


Mo and I enjoyed the beautiful weather and amazing ice cream!

The Zoo with Sammy and Andy

We were so excited to the Armstrongs this week! With the weather being a bit cooler we met at the zoo and a highlight was definitely the monkey house. There were in full swing and Benjamin was loving it! The two monkeys were chasing each other, swinging, and make their extremely loud noises!

We rode the train out to Australia!

We were lucky enough to be feet from a kangaroo! I had to hold Benjamin back, I'm sure he would have loved to run up and try to hug it!

We also love feeding the birds! Benjamin has gotten so brave!

And just look at this face! Where is my little girl go? I look at this and think she looks so grown up! Time must slow down!

Prayer Pot Stew

Let me begin by saying I love things like this! Creativity is my outlet and I love doing fun projects like this one! Let me also say that I'm great at "borrowing" ideas from other more creative people than myself. This one I got from my friend Wendy.

Prayer pot stew is our new family tradition at night that we just started. Each of the kids got a bowl filled with different kids of sponges and things that each stand for a vegetable. Like the green luffa is a head of lettuce. And the prayer for the lettuce is "Lettuce love one another". We have turnips, peas, squash, and thyme. The kids just loved playing with it the first night as I read through the prayer. I know Bella will pick up on it quickly the more we do it, and Benjamin loves doing what big sis is doing.

Thanks Wendy for the great idea!!!

A visit from Grandpa Bob

There was a lot of playing done this weekend with Grandpa! They love getting traced with chalk!


We made a trip to Crown Center and visited the Candy Store. They each got to pick out a sucker! This was one of my favorite things to do when I was a little girl too!

We went to the Rainforest exhibit and Benjamin loved putting the puzzle bridge together. Fingers and feelings got hurt a couple of times. An older girl came over and was "helping him" when he didn't want any help (or need it, he was doing great!) She just took over and his sad little eyes looked up at as and the tears came pouring out. It was so sad and sweet at the same time.

Bella loved looking through the microscopes and magnifying glass to explore different animals.

And of course, we made it to Fritz's. Benjamin loves trains at this age of course, so that was the main attraction!

Bella loves Kaleidoscope! She knew just where she wanted to start, which was the painting room where you send your painting through the dryer at the end!




Chuck E. Cheese is always on the to-do list when Grandpa comes. Another favorite of Bella's! Does she remind you of anyone? haha!

Papa comes to the zoo!

While Gigi is in Peru with Uncle Kev, Papa came along with us to the zoo! As soon as he pulled up and got out of his truck the kids starting going wild! He's our local celebrity! It was still very hot at 90 degrees even though it was the coolest it had been in weeks. We headed out to the Africa side today and got a great view of the gorilla, and lions! I think my dad had a great stroll through memory lane getting to see all the fence he installed for the zoo many years ago! We had our lunch in the air conditioned viewing room for the lions! What a treat! We love you Papa!

Movie Day

Aunt Christie and Uncle Barry sent such a cute and fun get well package for Benjamin and Bella who has been "helping him" feel better. It was like Christmas with each thing we pulled out of the box! Of course, it all matched the theme of Dr. Seuss. There was a cute Dr Seuss bag filled with 2 movies, popcorn, popcorn cups, swedish fish (for one fish two fish) socks, and water bottles! After nap they couldn't wait to put on their socks and get their snacks to enjoy their new Dr. Seuss movies. Benjamin continued to only want to wear his Dr. Seuss sock for days! At least it matched his red cast!