Colin's 5th Birthday

We celebrated Colin's 5th birthday yesterday!

I can't seem to express in words how grateful I am that God placed Colin in our arms 5 years ago and trusted us to be your parents.  How lucky we are!!

Colin continues to amaze me everyday.

He continues to look at this world with a caring and wonderous eye.

He loves his sister more than I could ever imagine!

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Colin throughout the years,

 

We love you so much, Colin!

Here's to many more years of fun!

Staycation Day 3

We decided to finish our Staycation with a trip to Smithville lake so the kids could experience a little 'beach' action.  Colin thought it was awesome, Maggie, not so much.

She is such a little princess sometimes, she actually refused to get sand on her flip flops (translation: she insisted on being carried everywhere in the sand).

Colin jumped right in and started working on a sandcastle

Maggie stayed on a sand-free towel

Brian got Maggie out in the lake for only a moment before she decided she wanted to retreat to the towel again

Princess Maggie

Meanwhile the boys

had a wonderful time having a 'squishy mud fight'

I'm not sure who won, but they both had tons of fun!

Ewww...look at Colin's back

And a muddy hug right before they rinsed off (just to do it again about 15 minutes later)

After our fun morning, we once again headed home for lunch and a rest.

We found out that Colin's t-ball practice had been canceled that evening because the fields were too swampy to play, so we decided to take advantage of the time and hit up the Parkville mini-golf

Before the first hole

Waiting on Daddy to finish the hole

Getting some putting lessons from the pro

The 3 of us champions holding up our fingers announcing our 'hole in one' status.

Yes, even Maggie got a hole in one (but not Brian!)

He did get one on the last hole though, which he claimed was better than our hole. :)

It was sad to get back to work on Thursday, but we really did have a wonderful time gallivanting around Parkville and north Kansas City.

There was minimal fighting, I was able to keep up on laundry, they all took naps daily and slept in (sordof), all were happy!

Ice cream selfies

The boys were away one night and that left just us girls to do something fun.

So, we went out for some frozen yogurt for dessert.

I pulled my phone out to snap a picture to send to Brian.

After that, Maggie was hooked on taking pictures.

She insisted on doing the following poses:

 Fishy face

 Kissing fishy face

 Tongue out

 Puffy cheek face

and finally, another kissy face

 But thankfully, I got a couple normal pictures too!

 I love this one of her and I

And of course this sweet one!

Staycation Day 2

Staycation Day 2 wasn't nearly as warm (still in the 80's though), so we decided to hit up the Parkville conservatory nature trail in the morning.  We hadn't been there before, but a neighbor told us how great it was, so we wanted to check it out. 

There are a few different trails you can take, but we chose the 0.9 mile loop and it was perfect for our little hikers.

All ready to go!

A picture with the really awesome spider web in the background.  The sun hit it just perfectly and even though you can't really tell in the picture, it's a huge spider web.  

Taking a little break!  There was this beautiful little waterfall that you hit about halfway through the loop.

We, of course, climbed to the top and slid around in the mud on the way down.  

We didn't see much in terms of wildlife, although we did see 2 deer that were super close to us.

They had lots of neat bridges that we got to cross, plus a separate area with benches for a lookout point.

The kids had so much fun, and were really worn out afterwards.

We headed home and ate some lunch/took naps.

We got up in the afternoon and made our way to our next stop...

The Tiffany Springs Aquatic Park.

Colin deemed this "the best day EVER...in the world"

Sounds good to me!

We took some snacks to munch on while we were there, and went out to dinner that night at a fun little pizza shop down the street.

Came home, changed into pajamas, and watched a little 'Sandlot' movie while snacking on popcorn!

Perfect day spent with the family.

Staycation Day 1

Staycation Day 1 was a hot one!

We decided to go to Deanna Rose Farmstead as soon as it opened to try and beat the heat.

It worked for a bit, and there was a lot of shaded areas, which is also nice.

The hit of the trip was watching the cow get milked (Olive, she's a feisty cow, and peed all over during the milking!) and feeding the goats.  I didn't get any pictures of either of them though.

Relaxing on the swing

The kids had a blast feeding the ducks, and thought it was hilarious when the fish would zip up to the surface and sneak the food away from the ducks.  Man, those fish are quick!

Hitting the playground

Petting all the animals

And one last slide pic...

After the farm, we headed home to rest and eat some lunch.

We ran a few errands to get some treats for Colin's birthday next weekend and then just relaxed until Colin's t-ball practice later that evening.  It was just too hot out to spend time out there if you didn't need to.

More fun for Staycation day #2 yet to come