Saturday, May 26, 2012

Member's Night at the Zoo

Last night was Member's Night at the Blank Park Zoo, so we decided to make the trip.  It was all about monkeys...so Curious George made an appearance!  Camille and Allison LOVE "Monkey George", but Camille was not sure what to think of a HUGE monkey! It was kind of a rainy night, but we still had a great time with daddy and the animals to celebrate Hannah's first day of summer!






Hannah's last day of kindergarten

May 24 was Hannah's last day of kindergarten! Where did the year go!?!? Here are a few pictures we took of our new 1st grader right after she got off the bus. And then for fun a picture from Hannah's 1st day of kindergarten at the end to compare!



So excited to see big sister!
Last day of school
First day of school

Kansas City again

Last weekend we ended up making a trip to Kansas City for Nate's cousin Lauren's high school graduation party.  We decided to make the trip because we planned to go to the Kansas City temple now that it has been dedicated. The plan was to drive down Friday afternoon and Nate's sister Sara would meet us at the temple to take the girls and we could make the last session of the evening. Well...on the way Camille got carsick and threw up all over the place and she cried and cried and cried some more.  She is also "potty training" herself these days, so she thought she needed to "pee-pee" every 10 minutes.  What are you supposed to say to an almost 2 year old?  Thanks for wanting to use the potty, but right now it is just not convenient? So we did not actually make it to the temple on time. We still stopped and walked around the temple, which is beautiful.  Luckily Nate and I still were able to get to the temple Saturday morning, it just added a bunch of driving to our already lots of driving weekend. 
Kansas City Temple (crooked photo courtesy of Nate the Great)
I'm not sure the drive home was much better.  Camille kept up on her potty excuse to get out of her seat and we were done stopping, which left us with one screaming/tantrum throwing child for a good hour of the drive home. We'll just say she is not our best-travelling child ever! Overall the trip didn't work quite as well as we had hoped, but it was nice to see some of Nate's extended family and get to the temple one more time before baby comes!

Hannah's Kindergarten Concert

May 17 was Hannah's Kindergarten Concert.  All of the Kindergarten classes from Gilbert Elementary School held a performance to show the parents what they had learned in their music class over the year. Hannah had two "solos" she told us.  The first one she danced out in front with Dennis from her class to the song Yankee Doodle with a few other pairs of students.  The second one really was a solo.  In the song "Down By the Bay" she sang "Have you ever seen a pig wearing a wig..." but she was the first one on that song and somehow the microphone got turned off! So we couldn't hear her, but then her music teacher stopped everybody and started them over so that Hannah could re-do her part.  She did a great job X2! Hannah was pretty excited about the whole event!

So excited!
Mrs. Brown is telling everybody about the program, and Hannah is standing next to her friend Adi.

And this was our view for most of the program...Hannah with the sun directly in her eyes!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Step into Storybooks

We went to the "Step into Storybooks" even last weekend and the girls had a blast! There were all sorts of activities and games based on children's books inside and more activities outside (including the fire truck, ambulance, police car, and bookmobile!). Here is some of our fun:







Hannah's trying to escape from the police car!
Alli's turn!
Posing with Smyles (from the library) and our neighbor Kate.
Firefighter Hannah!

VEISHEA 2012

Nate's whole first week on the new job Camille was super sick.  This lovely Primary HSV1 infection that makes my kiddos not eat, sleep, etc for a week and a half because their mouths, gums, tongues, lips become full of sores.  It wasn't the most enjoyable week ever.  At least it is just the first time the virus appears and after that it is just cold sores.  BUT if anybody has a cold sore, or might be getting one, you are NOT invited to hold  or be near the new baby when she comes (my other children included!!!) Camille made it to almost 2 years before getting it and it was awful...Alli had it at about the same age and it was also unpleasant...I can't imagine with it in a newborn! SCARY!
Anyhow...because I spent all week at home or at the Dr. I needed to get out of the house!  So even though the weather was a little yucky and Camille was not feeling quite 100%, we headed out to the VEISHEA parade on campus. The older girls loved the parade and the candy.  Camille eventually fell asleep and then I could enjoy it, too!




Nate's new job!

Nate started a new job on April 16!  He is now the "Director of Financial Reporting and Budgeting" for the Iowa State University Foundation.  The Foundation is the organization that does all of the fundraising for the University for things like scholarships, buildings, etc. So far he is really enjoying his new work...especially the fact that he is using his degrees and certification in ways that are actually appealing to him! We also can't complain about having ISU benefits :) Finally a job with real benefits!!! In between jobs Nate ended up with 2 whole weeks off of work.  Don't you worry, he still found plenty to do!  He got a few rounds of golf in, worked some for the retirement community behind us, PLAYED, and I made sure to put him to work around the house and in the yard! I had ordered tons of plants for our yard and they just so happened to arrive during his time off.  So now we have a bunch of lilacs, blueberries, blackberries, an apricot bush, sunflowers and some grasses growing...they are all teeny tiny for now, but we  look forward to watching them grow! While we were at it we created this little landscaping area out front.  It was kind of a mess from putting in the egress windows last fall and it is now much nicer to look at!  Thanks, Nate!!!



Kansas City

April 13 we headed to Kansas City to attend the new Kansas City Temple open house. Nate's mom made the trip with us and the girls were (mostly) well-behaved! Before we made it to the Temple we stopped at the Liberty Jail Visitor's Center:


We made it to the Temple!!! It is beautiful! It was such a neat experience for the girls to go inside the temple.  I'm sure Allison and Camille will remember none of it in the years to come, but I think Hannah might  remember bit and pieces of her first time in the Temple.










Afterwards we headed to Crown Center in downtown.  It is a huge shopping mall/entertainment center.  They have an aquarium, legoland, etc, but also standard mall stuff like stores and food.  We had heard about this "train restaurant" called Fritz's and had to try it out. You order your food on a phone at the table, and then there is a train on a track up in the air that delivers the food to your table.  The girls thought it was great...and mom and dad enjoyed their butterscotch milkshake! :)





They also had a fun little play center inside the mall...


...and a splash park outside!







Our last stop on the way home was at Adam-ondi-ahman.  We got there just before sunset and it was beautiful as well!