Crazy Animals!

One of our favorite things about spring is that the Lincoln's Children Zoo opens back up! We splurge on a dual Zoo/Children's Museum family membership each year....they are hot spots for our family, two favorite places that we like to burn a couple hours on Saturday mornings.

Although there are many construction projects still underway at the Zoo due to the harsh winter, the kids and I had a great time saying hello to the animals we missed all winter long. And we had the perfect spring day to do it. We visited on opening weekend and the parking lot was FULL! We actually had to park across 27th St (one of the busiest streets in Lincoln) and walk a couple blocks to get there. Once inside it wasn't as crazy as I feared though.

Feeding the goats was their favorite part of this particular trip

My crazy animals

Monkeys!

It was an egg-cellent trip!

We're not in Kansas anymore...

I was blessed with some free tickets to one of my favorite musicals a few weeks ago at the Lied Center, The Wizard of Oz! Being from Kansas, I have seen it many times but this was the first time I saw it performed live. Corbin had been invited to a birthday party that afternoon so Casey and I decided to part ways and split up the kids. I figured Kyndal is the only one that would sit through the whole thing without getting antsy so he took the other two and we had a girls outing. I had three tickets so Kyndal got to invite her friend, Kaysia.

It was so sweet seeing them out of their sports shirts which is usually where we meet up with Kaysia and in their cute dresses! They both did really good and we all enjoyed the entire show.

Spring Sports

I think this spring is just a glimpse into what our future is going to hold full of activities with our kids. We typically only have the kids in one activity at a time, but with 4 kiddos, that's going to be a lot to juggle!Kyndal and Corbin, ready for their first volleyball and soccer games this spring.

Casey is co-coaching Corbin's soccer team (Corbin's 1st year!) and I am co-coaching Kyndal's 1st grade volleyball team. We are heading into our 3rd week and I'm finally getting pics from the first week posted!

Kyndal's volleyball team has 6 girls and we play 4 on 4. I have to admit the practices are much more effective than the games (25 minutes each). If the serve goes over the net, that's pretty much the end of the volley! But they've got to start somewhere....and week 2 was a little better than the 1st week. The great thing is that she is really good friends with 4 of the girls on her team so even though she doesn't seem to be crazy about the sports scene she does love to be with her friends.

Kyndal, ready position, upper right

Kyndal, center

Kyndal, right, serving

Like I mentioned, this is Corbin's 1st year and 1st experience with sports and he was really excited to get started. I thought he played really well, boys are so much more aggressive than the girls, at least at this age. All week long after the 1st game he complained that the other boys "kept kicking him". He was not impressed about the physical side of it. But it must not have gotten him down too much, Casey said he got right in there and played hard week 2 and even scored 2 goals! I will only get to see 2 games since Kyndal's are almost all at the exact same time as his.

Casey, left and Corbin, kicking the ball in

Little peanut, trying to fill Kyndal's kneepads!

Corbin, center, waiting his turn on the sideline

Happy (Belated) Easter!

Yes, I'm behind on my posts, but I'm getting caught up! I couldn't choose between these two photos of all 3 kids to share so I'm posting both. This is right before we headed to church Easter morning and they were all 3 in a good, loving mood (we're usually lucky to have one in a good mood on Sunday morning!)While we were at church, the Easter Bunny delivered the goods like he does every year. This was the first year that Kyndal remembered on the way home that something would be waiting for her. We're realizing more and more every day how quickly she's growing up. Before we know it she'll be too old for the buckets, egg-dyeing and hunts.

The kids always get new sand buckets with their goodies in them. Perfect for our sand volleyball nights and camping trips! I didn't get a good picture here, but as I mentioned after Valentine's Day, the kids got big lollipops again. Kyndal was extremely careful with hers this time!

We hosted a big Easter lunch with my sister's family and Casey's sister's family and my MIL. Here are the two bugs, Lizzie and Anna in their bumbos....aren't they the sweetest?!

All the kiddos preparing for the huge hunt! I spent over an hour stuffing eggs with candy. The guys spent 20 minutes hiding them all over the front and back yards. And it took the kids about that long to find what they could. We're still finding eggs though!

Casey shut the garage door and said when he opened it they could take off for the hunt!

Kennedy and Corbin found their Halloween pumpkin/basket and chose to use them over their new baskets LOL!

Kyndal needed a little help with this one

Casey always hides a little money in a couple eggs. Unfortunately Corbin found the one with all the pennies in it! Cousin Tyler helped him pick up every last one!

Grandma helps Kennedy and Ryder fill their baskets.

Checking out all their loot. Three hours later, after spending the whole afternoon/evening outdoors in the amazing sunshine, the kids were worn out, the candy was all devoured, and I was ready to call it a night. I still can't believe it...we never did dye the eggs that I had ready!

Happy Birthday, Kennedy!

After (barely) recovering from Kyndal's party the day before, we set up to ring in Kennedy's 3rd birthday on Sunday, March 28th. We invited family to celebrate with both girls and a couple friends from Kennedy's daycare and her provider, Lora. We were pleased that it worked out for everyone to come, she was so excited!

Unlike our "princess" Kyndal, Kennedy tends towards bright colors, yellow and orange, so I had fun putting together this cute butterfly themed party! I already had a plan for the cake but decided the night before to throw in some ladybug cupcakes with gummy worms on grass. Thanks to Jodee at Follow the Leaders for letting us borrow her cupcake stand. They were a hit!

The butterfly cakes I made, super easy and colorful, matching Kennedy's spirit!

My sweet birthday girls in their sundresses...it turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day!

Her cute little daycare friends, Ali and Molly.....showing off her room.

The kids enjoyed decorating painted flower pots and sun visors
with stick on butterflys and other decorations.

Singing "Happy Birthday".....she refused to blow out the candles without some help.

Sharing a seat with Ali

Holding sweet cousin Lizzie-bug!

A new bicycle helmet from us!

And a new big-girl bike to match!

Trying out her new bathtime baby doll. Can't get her out of the bath now :o)

Checking out their new bedding sets that I splurged on.
Kennedy will soon be "moving in" with Kyndal and giving up her room for the new baby.

Happy Birthday, Kyndal!

My sweet girl is seven years old! It seems like yesterday that it was just Casey and I, preparing for our worlds to change. Putting the new crib together and decorating the baby's new room in the home we had recently finished building. Wondering how our lives would change, would we have a boy or girl, what we would name he/she?

And then the day came. I went to work as normal on Tuesday. Our doctor was going out of town for the weekend so we had reluctantly agreed to induce on Wednesday morning before he left. But Kyndal didn't wait that long. Around noon I began having some light contractions, though I wasn't sure about them....so I continued with my day, even my normal afternoon workout! It was a beautiful day so I went out for a power walk. 15 minutes away I realized it wasn't the smartest thing to be out in the middle of downtown having contractions, so I headed back.

I left at 5, and when I got to my car the contractions were beginning to get a little stronger. I actually stopped to sign the contract with our future daycare provider, Lora, who we had interviewed with the day before. Around 9 I realized this was the real deal and it was going to be the night!

We loaded up at 10:30 and headed to the hospital. It was 11:30 before I got all checked in and "settled"...by the time the nurse checked me it was too late for any pain relief....I was just relieved our doctor made it in time. Kyndal Noelle was born at 12:30 am, our first Wednesday baby.

We love celebrating her birth each year...and this year was no exception. Happy Birthday, Kyndal!

A new art set that she has put to good use!

Hooked up for summer swimming at the YMCA, goggles, a suit and new towel.

A new bike helmet. We love spring!!

Her first party outside of our home....pool party at the Cooper Y!

Corbin leaps in!

Kyndal and Casey

Kennedy and Casey

The troop

Her m&m rainbow cake that I made. You can't see them well, but there are marshmallow clouds!

Blowing out the candles

The party was a hit, and it was soooo nice to not have major clean-up, especially since Kennedy's party was the next day at our house. Yes, their birthdays are only 2 days apart, that's another blog entry, stay tuned!