Fun at the Zoo

I think most people know how important it is for mommy and daddy to spend time with their kids, right? Well, I hope so. However, I feel like I have been reminded this week of just how important it is for mommy and daddy to spend quality time with the kids at the SAME time...together as a family.

We had kind of a rough week in terms of behavior with Libby and Keira. There were a few times that I really wanted to rip my hair out. Let's face it...without the grace of God, I might not have survived.

With Tom and I both taking classes and him working full time, we really need to be intentional about our time with the kids. Yes, I am with them all day, every day and he is home at night...but it is hard to not just let them play so we can get our own "stuff" done around the house.

Well, today, we decided to take them to the zoo. It was awesome. We had well behaved, wonderful kids and had FUN as a family. We laughed, we played, we saw the animals, we talked, we taught, we learned and both Tom and I didn't want to go home in fear that the kids would start to act out again...we we took them out for lunch and ice cream. What a treat it was for them. When we got home, no one fought us on rest time, and everyone is still having a good day. We needed this. They needed this.

Here are some pictures of our fun outing. I obviously like to take more pictures of my kids than the animals!

Keira Excited to go see the animals!

Mommy...look at me!

Me too..Me too  (Libby's favorite term)

Daddy is a good sport!

Janessa was not pleased...but eventually she calmed down and took a nap!

Sisters

Taking a Ride! "Up High Daddy?"

We love the Elephants!

Silly Baboons.

She LOVES to pose for the camera

We found our cousin Carter at the zoo!!! yay!! He didn't want to stand still long enough for a picture so this is the best we could do! 

Playing in the creek...the bottom of her dress was soaked
but it was a hot sunny day!

Apparently we are now into making silly faces for the camera!

And finally...the Lions! Our zoo just added lions and made a whole new part of the zoo that  has the african animals. It is pretty cool. You can pretty much be guaranteed to see the Lions up close from one spot or another. We were very happy with the new addition to the zoo!

Enjoy the Rain

Tonight we were supposed to go to Tom's first Softball game of the season. (He plays on our church team). Last year was the 1st year that our church had a team, and although they didn't do so well, they had fun and the families/friends had a BLAST watching the games! Let's just say that our church REALLY likes to socialize and is very much a family. Well...the girls and I spent the day at home doing puzzles and playing games. I even got Keira to take a nap by telling her that she needed to rest up for the game tonight.

Then it rained.

We were all packed in the car with rain boots and rain coats (because we hadn't heard that the game was cancelled yet). I guess when you have a 6 week old and 2 pre-schoolers, you will just about do anything to get out of the house. Halfway there, we got the phone call...no game.

We had a VERY disappointed Keira.

When we got home, we told them that they could play in the puddles outside for a few minutes

Yes, we had 2 extremely wet, cold little girls, but they had so much fun. It reminded me once again how important it is to just let our kids be kids. We live in a time where they could so easily be consumed by other things in the world, but tonight, our kids enjoyed the rain.