Good luck leads to seeing chickens…

So the best thing EVER happened on Thursday.  The kids and I were going to go to the library for Baby Time and Toddler Time (which starts at 9:30).  And as I needed to get some new books, I decided we would go early to the library and give me some time to find books and then let the kids play before the story times started.  Well, Austin didn’t have class until 9:00, so I said, “We’ll just drive you!”  So we showed up at the library at 8:45… and they do not open until 9:00 (I thought they opened at 8:00).  So we stand there until they open the doors and there is immediately a line that forms by a librarian holding some cards.  We wonder over and find out she has Culture Passes AND we were able to get a Culture Pass to the Zoo!  That is like the most in demand Culture Pass out there and WE got it!  Woo hoo!  Lucky, lucky!  (For those of you who don’t know, Glendale has a program where you can check out these Culture Passes at the library and get in to museums, the zoo, etc. for free.  As you can imagine, those are in high demand and very hard to get!).

As today was supposed to be perfect weather (mid 70s) AND Austin didn’t have class, I said, “Let’s go to the zoo!”  And we did : )

The zoo is so much more fun now that Makenna is older and will actually pay attention to things.  And although Max was so over the zoo after about an hour, we still had a great time!

Max and Makenna were ready to get going:

We have gone to the zoo a couple of times now, but we never quite get to see everything before the kids get too tired.  So today we started on the opposite end and saw things we had never seen before!

First off was the elephant.  Makenna has a couple of books with elephants in them, so she was excited to see one up close and in real life:       We next headed down a Children’s Trail (which we had never gone down before).  There we found a little Monkey Island!  I LOVED this!  There was a little island with two monkeys swinging around on ropes.  It was so amazingly fun to watch them!  Seriously I could have stayed there all day!   

Makenna liked them too : )

 

While we were standing there, Austin tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned to see a duck who had waddled right up to Makenna and Max! 

I’m sorry; I hate ducks!  I think they are way scary and I’m always afraid one is going to attack me!  So we left very quickly!

We next passed by a little water area.  How pretty is this?

And we went through a little tunnel.  Makenna thought this was SO much fun!  She wanted to just keep going through the tunnel!

Okay, next they had a little like Old McDonald’s farm (I know, I know—I always go into so much detail!  But I like to share, and I plan on putting these together in a book someday to document our lives!).  This was probably Makenna’s favorite part of the whole zoo.  She hasn’t really been around farm animals before, but of course we talk about them a lot (and have been reading and singing Old McDonald’s Farm a lot lately).  So she was pretty excited to see everything!

First we went to a petting farm where you could pet and brush goats.  Makenna is pretty petrified of animals that are not behind a fence, so she didn’t like this part of the farm.  Max, however, was brave enough to pet one!

This is how Makenna prefers her animals (behind a fence!):

Look how sweet my big kids are:

Makenna also got to “ride” on some old tractors:

  

Next they “rode” some saw horses:

By this time, the kids started getting really hungry and cranky (and Makenna DID NOT want to leave the little kid play area), so we headed over to the food area to get some lunch.  After lunch, Max decided he was DONE, so we had to quickly look at the must-sees (giraffes, lion, tigers, baboons…) and cut our trip short.  But first, Makenna just HAD to ride the carousal:

Then it was to the car we went.  Both kids quickly fell asleep… which meant no nap at home!  Ergh!  But it was still SO much fun!  I love days when Daddy is home! (Oh, and guess which animal was Makenna’s favorite?  The chickens!  Only our daughter would go to the zoo and leave thinking chickens are the coolest animal there!)

Okay, and to round out this post, here are some absolutely adorable pictures of our gorgeous Mr. Max that Austin took while Makenna and I were on the carousal:

 

We love that kid, 20 chins, dimples, cute little teeth and all : )

Weekend Trip to Vegas

On Friday, we were able to travel to Las Vegas to see Austin’s brothers who were there vacationing. 

Our drive down really wasn’t too bad (it’s about a 4 1/2 hour trip).  Makenna mostly watched her movies and ate snacks and Mr. Max played with toys and even slept for a few (VERY few) seconds.

As soon as we got to the hotel, Austin had to just drop us off to make it to his dinner reservations.  Austin, Cody, and Trevor were able to go eat at a German Restaurant and then go and see The Blue Man Group (which Austin says is a great show!). 

Back at the hotel, I just fed the kids and got them ready for bed.  Makenna was so good; she just climbed into her bed and went to sleep!  The hotel didn’t have a crib available for Max (even though we had requested one when we made the reservations!), so I had to get him to sleep on my bed.  Such a pain!  Finally he went to sleep.  BUT he woke me up about every two hours during the night by standing up in bed and then jumping on top of me!  Needless to say, we did not sleep well that night AND I have bruises on my ribs!

On Saturday, we ate breakfast and then headed to the outlets to walk around a bit.  They had a carousel and Makenna just HAD to ride on it a million times!  She loves those things!

Then we headed back to the Strip to walk around for a while.  Max enjoyed people watching while Makenna loved watching the airplanes fly over head.  I told Austin that next vacation we should just visit an airport since that’s all Makenna is really interested in!

We then went to Gameworks to join Cody and Trevor for lunch.  By that point the kids were tired and hungry and cranky so it wasn’t a really fun lunch.  But afterwards, we got to play in the arcade which they both LOVED!  Max really was mesmerized by the bright lights and Makenna had a blast playing the games!

Austin and Cody played a firefighter game.  Ha ha, look at Austin’s face!  So funny!

Afterwards we loaded the kids up and headed back home!  This was NOT as good of a car ride because we had two overly tired, overly stimulated children!  They mostly cried forever and ever!  We stopped half way home at Cracker Barrel to eat dinner and afterwards Makenna finally fell asleep.  But poor little Max cried on and off until we got home at 10 pm! They were both so glad to be home and in their own beds! 

But all-in-all it was still a fun trip and nice to get away a bit before we had to face this week and Austin’s THREE tests!

Makenna’s Birthday Party

On Thursday, Makenna had a few friends over and had her birthday party!  We decided to do an Airline/Airplane theme because Makenna is OBSESSED with airplanes lately!  I am putting a TON of pictures on here for you Grandmas and family!

Before the party we sent Makenna and Max outside to play on the swing so we could get some things done inside.  It’s very hard to be on a ladder with little munchkins crawling/walking around under you!  Thank goodness for outside!

Poor little Makenna fell last Sunday and cut her eye.  Then she fell off the swing (she was trying to swing on her tummy) before the party and skinned her nose, cheek, and face.  Poor little girl looked like she had been beat up before her party!      I made some signs and put them up around the house to make it look like an airport:     

These were little ID badges I made for each of the kids to wear as “crew members”:

 

I painted some airplanes and ordered a few more airplanes and we hung those from the ceiling and the ceiling fan (along with white balloons for clouds).  I have to admit, I think it looked pretty adorable!  Makenna loved just sitting there and watching the airplanes on the ceiling fan “fly.”

I had an airplane cake made for Makenna.  “MJMAirlines” was the name of her airline!

 

The first activity was to color these little airplane coloring books I made.  Then the kids used paint, markers, buttons, etc. to decorate little airplanes.

Afterwards we went outside where I had these packing peanuts in a little swimming pool.  Also hidden in the pool were 144 mini airplanes.  The kids got to “Search the Clouds” and find the airplanes. They mostly just liked playing in the packing peanuts. ; )

The little girls had a BLAST playing on the swingset after the games!  They were like the three amigos and were so, so cute playing together!

The little boys mostly just played in the packing peanuts, rode Makenna’s bike, or played with the airplanes.  Isn’t it funny how different boys and girls are, even this young?

 

Then we went inside for cake and treats.  Makenna loved it when we sang “Happy Birthday” to her!  She was just dancing around!  And then, of course, she loved blowing out the candles!

 

The birthday guests: Eliza, Natalie, Makenna, Carter, and Zachary (the funny thing was that, except for Carter, the kids all sat up there by themselves and started posing for pictures!  Carter DID NOT want to join them!)

We have tons of pictures of Makenna opening presents, but I just decided to put up one.  Makenna, Natalie, and Eliza had fun opening them and playing with them while the boys were playing with toys and airplanes! 

Thanks to all of our friends for the fun gifts and for coming to help celebrate Makenna’s Birthday with us!  We are so lucky to have such great friends!