31

I turned 31 today. For some reason 31 is harder than 30 for me. I didn't mind turning 30 at all. 31 just seems that much farther from twenty-something. But at least the lady at the drivers license place said I looked like I was in my early twenties when she asked how old I was. That made me feel better. =)

My Birthday started out last night when the boys and Jeff brought home these beautiful flowers for me.

My wonderful husband took the day off of work today and let me sleep in, then brought me breakfast in bed. The kids gave me their cards and presents and then we went over to my parent's house. Since it is Spring Break for my nieces & nephews too, some of them came over to my mom and dad's today (with my siblings) where my mom and I had planned a treasure hunt and scavenger hunt.

Here are the kids running to find the first clue for the treasure hunt.

After finding several clues and then finding the treasure (ring pops & bubbles!), we had all of the kids sit down for a picture. (Believe it or not, this is not all of my mom and dad's grandchildren!)

My brother was nice enough to bring over a Birthday cake for me. The kids were very excited about cake!

After that we had the scavenger hunt where the kids looked for items hidden out in the yard.

Jeff helped Lily find her items.

Later on we came back home where Jeff & the boys made brownies for me! (They were yummy!) We went out to dinner and came home for brownies & ice cream.

Jeff asked me if I had a good Birthday, and I had said yes. Then Riley said, "There's still more time to do more stuff mom! We have at least a couple more hours left until bedtime!" I asked him if he had any ideas and he said that he wanted to play outside. I couldn't think of a better way of ending my Birthday, playing with my family.

The boys got me this card. Zach has been wanting to buy this card forever. He loves this song. Press the pause button on the play list and then watch the video to hear the card and enjoy my silly, adorable children.

Spring Break Part 2

Today we went bowling and to the zoo. Here are the boys ready to bowl. They have been excited about this for days!

Lily thought she was big enough to pick up a ball herself too.

Aunt Amy came along and helped Lily bowl. Lily loved it!

Riley had a hard time holding the ball....

this is how he rolled (threw) it down the alley.

Zach is getting pretty good at bowling.

When the ball would hit lots of pins, Zach had a little dance he would do.

It looked a little like this:

Then we went to the zoo with a lot of my family members.

Here are Zach & Riley with their cousins Cooper & Carson.

Riding the horse in the barn.

Petting the sheep.

Looking at the penguins.

Another eventful day! It was great that Jeff was able to take off work today & tomorrow, so that he could join in on the fun too!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

On St. Patrick's Day, the kids wake up to find that Leprechauns have come into our house and messed up our family room and left green footprints and chocolate gold coins! This year, the boys both made traps to catch the Leprechauns, so we put those out last night. They didn't catch any Leprechauns, but they did get lots of gold coins! Here are some pictures from this morning.

Here is our family room where the Leprechauns have tossed toys around and left footprints and gold coins.

Riley found some little green footprints!

Zach found gold!

Lily was not too sure about all of this. She hung out by Daddy until....

she found out there was chocolate in those little gold coins! =)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Spring Break!

Zach & Riley's Spring Break officially began Thursday afternoon. We started off their break with ice cream from DQ on the way home from school. On Saturday, we went to Chuck E. Cheese. I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any pictures, but that place is so crazy, I probably wouldn't have gotten any pictures anyway. Zach & Riley loved playing the games & Lily was actually old enough this time to play on the car rides. She loved them & when it would stop, she would point to the coin slot and say, "Pease! Pease!" (no, I did not misspell that, that's how she says it.) Today we went to Lunar Golf. There are black lights all over the ceiling and then there is glow in the dark tape all over the mini golf course. It is pretty cool and the boys love to go there. Here are some pictures:

These pictures aren't that good, but you can get a better idea of how the course looks.

After golfing, we had to ride the carousel since we were already there. The boys like to sit in the tea cup because you can make it spin around and around while the carousel is spinning. (Can you say nauseous?)

Lily rode on a horse. She thought it was a lot of fun!

I think this picture captures how much fun she was having. =)

When we came home, we played outside for a few hours. Since it was so nice & we were already outside, we decided to cook out & eat out on the patio.

Then we roasted marshmallows!

So, as you can imagine, the kids were all tired out by bedtime! (So were Jeff & I!)

Bike Riding

Jeff has been teaching Zach how to ride his "big bike" with no training wheels. He is getting really good at it now. He still needs help starting and he usually finds the closest yard to stop/land in, but at least today he was riding up and down the street by himself. Yeah Zach! Here are some pictures from today.

Here is Jeff helping Zach start off. (With Riley on his scooter.)

No hands from Jeff, but Zach still likes to have him beside him.

Yeah! All by himself!!!

Since Riley is too big for his tricycle, we gave Zach's old bike to him. He is working on pushing the petals, but he likes having the big boy bike with training wheels.

Here is a video of Zach riding his bike:

Setting a Trap

We like St. Patrick's Day around our house. Every year leprechauns come to our house and leave chocolate gold coins for the kids. (more on that on St. Pat's day.) We also have a lot of books about leprechauns and St. Pat's day. We got a new one this year; The Night Before St. Patrick's Day. In this book, two children set traps to catch leprechauns. Riley loves this book. We have read it several times. So, it wasn't that surprising when he was making a leprechaun trap out of mega blocks the other day. In the book they talked about how leprechauns love shiny things so he told me that he needed something shiny for his trap. The shiny thing he wanted? A pair of my earrings. So, I helped him find a shiny toy, which ended up being a bike bell. He told me he wanted to be "doubly sneaky" and build his trap tall enough so the leprechaun couldn't get out. Here are pictures of him building his trap ad then his trap with the bell in it.

When Zach got home from school that day, Riley told him all about his leprechaun trap and how he was going to get rich with all of the gold. So of course Zach had to build one too. Zach built his out of plastic cups. Riley informed him that he needed something shiny, so Zach got a dime out of his piggy bank. Here are pictures of Zach with his trap and then the inside of his trap.

After they were done building their traps, Riley put starburst candy in them because "they get hungry after they find shiny things." So I thought that it was sweet of him to think of the little guys, even if he was trying to trap them. =)

Both boys are excited to try out their traps on St. Patrick's Day.