Trip to the zoo

Last Saturday morning, we went to the zoo for the first time since the weather got nice. The girls were so excited and mapped out all the animals they wanted to see and what they wanted to do while we were there. Of course, the carousel is a must on our list every time! And face-painting! We also brought along some lunch for a picnic. Though we had a uninvited guest on our picnic (a very persistent goose!) and Avery was very unhappy about that!

Trip to the store for picnic essentials before our zoo trip

The girls found Dory!

A butterfly landed on Avery's head!

Morgan posed on the lion at the end of the day...

But Avery was too exhausted!

Major accomplishment

So, this girl graduated to the next level in swimming lessons!!! If you recall, she's been on the slower track compared to Morgan and Grayson... and probably most other kids. :) She had a big fear of the water and it took her quite a long time to even put her face under water. But, she's made big strides in the past couple of months. She is SO proud of herself! And we are definitely proud of her as well. She is very competitive and I think being in the lower level really bothered her. She wanted so badly to move up, so that was a major motivator in getting her to go under water and swim. She's so excited to go to the next swimming lesson, because she will be in class with Morgan again. :)

Pajama walks

Now that it stays light outside later, we've been taking short walks around the neighborhood after bath time in our PJ's. The girls get such a kick out of wearing PJ's outside! :)

I loved this... they were just walking along talking and holding hands.

Avery was doing a lot of the talking! :)

Sometimes we make a stop off at the park by our house for a little drum duet.

And other times, we just make a stop to give our best poses. Avery will stop and pose and say "take my picture". Sometimes she even tells Morgan to move out of the way so that it can just be Avery in the picture. That girl!

Peter Piper... and lots of giggles

Such silliness after bath time!

School pictures

The girls recently had pictures taken at school. The company that does the pictures always has some sort of cute outfit for the kiddos. This time, they had super heroes and baseball. The girls got to choose between Cubs and White Sox. I had actually forgotten it was picture day, so I'm glad the photographer had them wearing hats and the headband. Their hair was probably a mess!

Catch-up

Here's a bunch of photos from the past few weeks...

Enjoying ice cream cones at Aunt Erin's

It's a twin thing!

At the fountain in downtown DG

Morgan loves to "babysit" Beckett - he loves it less and less all the time - ha!

Climbing to the top of the spider web

Avery's turn

Drawing with chalk

Told me she looks like a rockstar

Peace out!

Reading to her students

Giving me their best poses

Can't leave them alone for a second

Who said only boys wrestle?!

Morgan's one of a kind when it comes to fashion

Memorial Day Weekend

Such a fun weekend spent with family and friends! We really lucked out with the weather, as the forecast was looking pretty dreary for most of the week leading up to weekend. By Monday night, the girls were SO exhausted!

My parents were in town to help out with new baby Calvin, so they stopped over at Erin's house on Saturday for a playdate. Papa always has the best ideas. Ha!

We also broke out the sprinkler. It was still a little chilly, but 4 year olds don't mind!

They picked out these new chairs on a trip to Target. I asked Avery what they were doing here and she told me "drying off and enjoying the sunshine". Yep!

We made a few trips to a new park near us. It is at an elementary school and massive! It's hard to keep track of the kids when we go.

On Sunday, we hosted a BBQ. Matt smoked some meat overnight for the BBQ. Here he is prepping it... his head is included so you get a feel for the massive amount of meat he made.

The girls getting ready for their guests to arrive. We were definitely lucky that the weather was nice. Otherwise we would have had a lot of kiddos in our house! I didn't take many pictures at the BBQ, but it was chaos! I think there were 12 kids age 6 and under running around. Luckily, the adults (barely) outnumbered the kids, so we were able to keep them under control. My sister said it was a parenting win because there were no major injuries! :)

What's the best way to wear out two 4.5 year olds? Make them run bases! That new park we've been going to also has a couple of baseball diamonds. Matt timed the girls rounding the bases and they both have a little competitive streak in them! Especially Avery!

Back at our house, we finished off the weekend with a little more water play in the backyard. The Wilken crew came over to help us eat the leftovers from the BBQ. Definitely love these long weekends we get to spend relaxing at home with the fam!

I keep forgetting to get pictures of all the kiddos together! This is the best I had on my phone... all of them in one picture.