Horseback Riding

 Nana & Pa bought the girls a horseback riding lesson for their birthdays. They got to do it today and had the best time!

 All geared up and ready to go. 

 The boys had fun watching and even got to help a little. 

 They started out by brushing their horses. 

Hadley with her horse Piper. 

 Lauren with Thunder. 

 This wild animal is Carson and he never stopped talking or running the entire hour! 

 Ben felt pretty cool getting to help brush Thunder. 

 All saddled up! 

 They got to walk their houses out to the arena. 

 Almost riding time!

 The girls were pretty cute, both very serious about their riding. 

 They learned to trot and how to direct their horse in different directions. 

 "Auntie Val come look, me and Benny are sleepy so we're sleeping"...this lasted a whole 3 seconds. 

 Taking the horses back for their final brush and good-bye. 

They had the best time, Lauren is already asking when she can do it again and now Ben wants a turn! 

Sunday Morning Bike Ride

 Ben came in my room all dressed and ready to go at 8AM and said, "Lets ride our bikes to Starbucks." So we did! 

 The kids LOVED riding around in this empty parking lot- so fun to have so much flat space to ride. 

 We made it! 

Weekend Fun

 We've had a fun weekend of meeting up with friends. Last night we had a picnic with friends at Farrell McWhirter park and the kids all had so much fun playing together. 

 This morning the kids had their first Chuck E Cheese experience! 

 It was a big hit, they had a great time!

 We even got to meet Chuck E. 

 He did a little dance with the kids then threw tickets everywhere. They LOVED it!

 Sporting their really awesome prizes. 

 After the Chuck E Cheese extravaganza we had a picnic at the beach in Edmonds. The day ended up being so beautiful! Loving all these sunny days we are having. 

As if that wasn't enough fun for one day... 

 The kids and I decided to go see Bears this afternoon. It was so cute, we all loved it. 

 Then when we got home we did a little bug/frog catching. 

Phew...I'm tired and it's only Saturday! 

Mother's Day

We started Mother's Day off with lunch up in Mt. Vernon at The Trumpeter with Matt & Sheila, but we didn't get any pictures. After lunch we headed to the boat. 

 We lucked out and had awesome weather, it was so pretty!

Pa got a new little boat to putz around in. Ben loved it!

We went over to Jetty Island, my favorite. 

Someone left this old playground slide there- kind of fun! 

Lauren felt like we were going to fast but then she got to drive and everything was better. 

We had steamers and Lauren was in heaven!

Lobster and crab legs! Yum!! 

Chocolate covered strawberries for dessert! 

These were everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE on the plants around the marina! It was nuts. 

Such a fun Mother's Day- I felt like one lucky mama to get to see my mom, my mother in law, and spend the day with my kids. 

The week

 Lauren made this for me the other night. Thought it was cute. 

 I was a running buddy for the "Girls on the Run" run in Seattle. My school had a team and I was partnered with a 3rd grader- it was so fun to help her accomplish her first 5k! I'm not supposed to post any pics with her but I wanted to post this one with my awesome cheer squad! 

 Miss Lauren actually baked with me! I think she liked the dough the best:) 

 Lauren has been really into Diary of a Wimpy Kid lately. Not my favorite books but she read 3 of them in 3 days, which was pretty awesome to see. 

We got to watch Hadley in her school's production of Pinnochio. We're going to be watching closely come Emmy season:) 

This Week

 We had some AMAZING weather this week- high 80's! 

 We got a new blow up pool and had lots of fun hanging out in the backyard. 

 And catching up on our reading.

 The kids had a blast playing soccer at Lizzie & Will's house on Friday. Will is in 4th grade and Ben was feeling like pretty hot stuff playing soccer with a "big kid". Will also gave him pointers on playing Minecraft, so he is pretty much the coolest person on the planet now. 

 Hadley & Ben helped me bake some brownies and of course had to lick the bowl. 

 These two crazies had lots of fun playing legos together. 

And Lauren made her birthday wish list...not sure what I'm going to get her, just so many great choices! I'm thinking the "big version beenie boo" is screaming her name!