Backyard fun

Vance loves the Henry train he got from Uncle Paul.
Vance catches Zoie at the bottom of the slide.
The slide is not ready big enough for 2 wide, but they figured it out. Notice how she is trying to make her way to the front.

This is my swing. They love to wind up the swing and untwist very fast. I can't say it enough, these kids love to play with each other. As I sit here, they are downstairs playing doing I don't know what and don't really care unless someone come up crying.

Zoie & Vance mix up a snack

As I was trying to prepare the kids lunch, they pulled out all of the mixing supplies -- measuring cups and bowls, shortening, brown sugar, mixing spoon, and a pretend rolling pin. Quick thinking mom gave them some ingredients to mix up -- small marshmellows, cereal, animal crackers, and mini m&m's. They enjoyed stirring and eating! Kept them entertained & fed!

Vance never wears clothes.

The Zoo with Plaz

This week the kids, my mom and I met my friend "Plaz" (Rebecca) and her 2 girls, Elsa and Heidi, at the Woodland Park Zoo. Plaz and I met in 1995 at Camp Kirby, we were both new staff members and easily became friends. We spent 2 more summers at camp together, one in which she was the director and I was the assistant director & counselor-in-training director. These were wonderful summers. Plaz was one of my bridesmaids in my wedding, only months having her first daughter. They now live on Anderson Island and run a family farm. We don't see each that often so this day was fun to visit.

Birthday Sundae

Instead of going out for ice cream, we made sundaes and cones here at home. After much blowing, she gave up on putting out "the fire".

The Birthday Call

After a visit by Great Gramma Ruby, Bill and Jean called to sing happy birthday to Zoie. She laughed and told them that was enough about half way through the song.

Happy 4th Birthday Zoie!

We had a party for Zoie on Saturday afternoon. She was responsible for putting together her party bags for her friends and was a wonderful host to introduce everyone at the party. Nana made the best cake in the world, a candyland cake, which was loaded with candy of every kind. Zoie's face lit up when nana brought in the cake. On Monday, we had a lunch party at Chuck E. Cheese's with nana, Mr. Mopar, and Breanna. Then after dinner, Ty made ice cream sundaes and we sang happy birthday with one candle stuck in a banana.

Alberta tries to help Zoie set out the picnic dishes.

Rasar State Park playground

Zoie and Vance wanted so badly to go to the water/river to play after we were packed up and ready to go home. But we did not want them wet and sandy . . . so we distracted them at the playground for about 30 minutes and headed home without any grumbles.

Rasar State Park Nature Pictures