Autumn's Preschool Trip to The Oakland Zoo

Autumn's Preschool class took a day trip to the Oakland Zoo today. We arrived around 10am and the kids lined up to get their Lion stamp showing they were all payed for.Then we entered the zoo taking a group picture with all of her preschool classmates. The weather was perfect and the animals were very active. Every animal was out doing something. The Giraffes were eating, The Tigers were out sleeping, The Elephants were walking around giving themselves dirt baths, The Meerkats were on alert(and Aubrey too)when they heard the Lions roaring.and the Fruit bats were enjoying their lunch of cantaloupe, tomatoes, banana, and apples.It was fun to see the animals doing so much. Here are some of our Favorite animals: The Purple Headed Meerkat(we have no idea why it's purple, but we thought it was cool), The White Handed Gibbons(who were howling and swinging), The river otters who were not even near the water, but out on the grass sunbathing, and a turtle who was sunbathing, but on the back of an alligator. Crazy! I have never seen so many animals so busy at one time. I really like this Zoo because it is just the right size and they have play areas set up all around. The girls had fun playing on all the animal play areas. The climbed in, on, and around the pretend animals. We had a GREAT time at the zoo and can't wait to go again. Autumn said she wants to go with the whole family next time.

Uncle Kurt's 30th Bithday Party

Yesterday we attended our Brother-in-Law Kurt's 30th Birthday party. We arrived a little early to help Noah's sister decorate and finish setting things up for the party. We had a great time visiting with friends, eating yummy food, and sharing this special day with Kurt. Towards the end of the party we played Guitar Hero and enjoyed playing with baby Kelsie. We are glad that they live close enough so that we can enjoy these special occasions with them.

Ashlyn's 1st Mother/Daughter Activity

Today we had a Mother/Daughter Stake 50's Activity Day. The Stake Primary President had each ward make a 50's style centerpiece. So one night for Activity Day Girls we put together these two center pieces. We came dressed up in 50's attire and met as a group. Then we broke up in two 3 large groups with 3 different classes. The 1st class we had was making cards for siblings who have a sick siblings in the hospital. Ashlyn and I made 8 cards to cheer up and make them happy. The 2nd class was Being a Princess. This was a fun class! They told the girls that they were princesses in training and that someday they would become Queens like their moms. We played a Jeopardy style manners game. Ashlyn learned a lot,receiving a crown, and a lollipop staff. The 3rd class had to do with the strength of the youth packet. It was a great class. I took a lot from it and I hope Ashlyn did too. Then we got back to our group and watched a short skit tying all the elements together. We were served lunch and Ashlyn made a delicious sundae for me and herself. Each girl received balloons on their way out. We had a great time together. I only took a picture of Ashlyn, but I wish I would have thought to get one with both of us.

The Facts about Aubrey:

Fact: Aubrey also goes by the name Secret Agent Strawberry Aubrey or as she says Secret Agent Starwbelly Aubwee. However we can't pronounce it like that or she gets very upset. Her sisters are Secret Agent Autumn Apple and Secret Agent Orange Ashlyn. We have no idea how this name thing became so popular in our home, but it is creative.

Fact: She hated to go near a swing let alone get on a swing, One day a friend of mine put her on the swing and I was prepared for her to scream(like she always did). I was Shocked to see she Loved it! Now we can't get her off the swing. She wants to swing every chance she gets.Fact: Aubrey is getting good at coloring and being artistic especially at using her body as the canvas. She recently learned how to draw circles and will draw them on everything including the steamed up shower doors. Fact: She is fully potty trained, but still needs our help with wiping. She told Noah "I didn't touch my butt, I only touched the toilet." If she does have an accident she exclaims "I didn't pee!" Then I ask, "Then why are you naked?"

Fact: Aubrey is getting to be a big girl, but still needs mommy and daddy's help with various things, which makes us feel so loved. She really wanted to take off her sweater by herself and refused to let us help her. Finally after a few minutes she gave up decided it was ok to let me help her. Growing up is a hard job!

Our 1st Easter at Home

We have been in our house for almost 3 years and this is the first year that we have been home for Easter. We were very excited, so excited the girls were up at 6am. They wanted to find their baskets and their colorful eggs. An hour later we finally let them run through the backyard searching for their Easter basket surprizes. After they found all the eggs and their basket the Easter bunny left we got ourselves ready for church. After church I had to get some pictures of my girls in their Easter Dresses. And with a mouthful of chocolate candy. Around 4pm our good friends from down the street came over for one last egg hunt. The girls got really fast and Aubrey go the hang of what an egg hunt is all about. Happy Easter Everyone!

Early Easter Fun

Saturday morning we drove to Cameron Park to enjoy some Pre-Easter celebration with family. First we helped Noah's mom with some stuff around her yard and house. Then we went to Noah's sisters home and let the kids ride bikes, jump on the trampoline and play for awhile. At 3:00 we headed over to the elementary school for an Easter egg hunt that was being put on by one of the local churches. They started off the event by having a puppet show on the true meaning of Easter. Then it was time to turn the children loose in their designated age appropriate areas and hunt for those eggs. Aubrey was not sure about the whole egg hunt. She didn't want to have anything to do with it, but once grandma showed her what was inside her eggs she wanted more. And then she would pick one egg at a time opening it up and would proceed to eat whatever was inside. Needless to say she only got about 10 egss. Ashlyn and Autumn got a lot of eggs. There wasn't a lot of people and they hide 4,000 eggs so we pretty much we were set. In fact Autumn filled her bucket to the top and sat down in the grass even though there were eggs all around her. She said "I'm all done!" and that was that. I really loved her Rambo look too.Once we got back to Noah's sisters house we had our family Easter egg hunt. This is when we give to them a little Easter basket and they give to us one as well. It is always a real treat to do this, because we have a lot of fun hiding each others Easter bags and watching each other look for them. The rule is you must find your baskets first(they got one from Hunter Family and one from Grandma)then you can hunt for eggs. As the evening approached we had a lovely Pre-Easter dinner with all the fixins. We had Kylee our niece open up her birthday present a few days early. We had a wonderful time. Our girls did not want to go home as usually, but we wanted to be home for Easter and share with them why Easter is so important.

Dying Easter Eggs

After Noah got home from work tonight we got our eggs, egg dying kit, table and our girls all ready to dye Easter Eggs. I don't like stains on my clothes so I made my little girls take their nice shirts off to color eggs. I told them to get old ones and well they did not listen to well. They still had a great time drawing, coloring, dying, and putting stickers on their eggs.

Learning to Ride Bikes

Ashlyn has always done things in her own time. Well we have been wanting her to ride her bike without training wheels for a couple of years now. We know that she has the balance to do it. She is just so stubborn and wouldn't do it. So this afternoon Noah took the training wheels off and we took her to the high school parking lot to teach her. You should have seen her you would have thought that we were trying to pull all her teeth out. She was so upset with us. After she calmed down she tried to ride and kept getting better. Then she Did It! She rode across the entire lot and then exclaimed "All I had to do was Trust in myself!" It was getting late so we headed home. The next day she begged us to take her again. We took her out front for a little bit and she continued to gain more and more confidence. Everyday she asks if we can go bike riding. Noah and I are glad that she is doing so well. Now we need to get her to start on her own.

We also took Autumn. She did pretty good without her training wheels on too. Her problem is she just stops peddling. We decided she needs to be a little bit older, but know she will do it soon.

Girls they Want to Have Fun

Today was a beautiful spring day and while Noah went to mutual I decided to play outside with my girls. They wanted their mommy to play on the trampoline. We played crack the egg, tag, and the how high can you jump game. We had a blast! The best part of the afternoon was trying to make our hair out of control with Static. Aubrey and Autumn tied the award for the best hairdo. It made us all laugh!