April Little Things

I am kind of in denial that it is already May. And May 9th at that. I mean where did April even go?? I blinked and it was over.  Here is a look at what we were up to during the first 13 days of April since we spent the rest of April in Australia (more on that soon!). This could have also otherwise been known as the month where we went on bike rides every.single.evening. Spring weather is the best! 

^ wrote more about Easter back here. ^

^ April 2nd scooter ride. ^

^ loved seeing that sun set behind them. ^

^ April 3rd bike/scooter ride ;). ^

^ there was a China holiday in April (tomb sweeping day) but I had to work so Wes and the girls enjoyed a couple of fun, chill days at home. Everly created this "game" all by herself! love seeing her little imagination at work. ^

^ our playground reopened (it had been closed for repairs since we got back from Christmas holiday). they added some new equipment and the girls were pretty pumped. ^ 

^ this night, roller blades for Emma and scooter for Ev's. ^

^ Bobbob, this one is for you! the girls draw too much artwork to capture every single drawing, but when I got home from work Everly had made this and I thought it was too cute not to take a picture :). ^

^ Emma made me a few surprises for the door! ^

^ more playground time! ^

^ we took Emma to the dentist, to say she was nervous was an understatement. ^ 

^ after that semi-traumatic experience (just joking), we met some friends at one of our favorite playgrounds for a get together. ^

^ and somehow the girls convinced me to bury them in sand! ^

^ I couldn't get the pictures to flip! ^

^ I downloaded the pictures from my real camera from the day we spent at the flower place (you can see more pictures in the previous post) - I might have to do a whole other post, the pictures are too cute! ^ 

^ another evening bike ride but instead of taking a picture of them riding their bikes, I snuck in a picture of me and them! ^

^ we have been talking with the girls about taking their training wheels off so one night, Wes raised up the training wheels - maybe we will take that leap in May? ^

^ my girls! ^

^ another day, another bike/scooter ride - I told you, we could not get enough of the weather -it was too good to be inside (we also ate nearly every dinner outside too!). ^

^ we finished that night picking cherries from our neighbors cherry tree (they told us it was ok!). ^

^ completed the puzzle all by herself! ^

^ I hope my sisters remember doing cats cradle when we were little, this picture is for them! look at that tongue in concentration. ^

^ Friday the 13th bus stop drop off! the girls were pumped about our vacation!! ^

^ we had a dumpling lunch date before picking the girls up from school to head to the airport. we were completely oblivious to what was about to happen once we got to the airport... ^

^ when we picked up Emma from school, she was sooooo excited to tell us that she had won an award in assembly - the Be Ambitious award for being a principled people! she was the only one to win an award in her class and we were sooo proud of her! that is her sweet teacher!! she has had the best kindergarten school year :). and with that, we were headed to the airport. ^

A Picture Everly Hour(ish)

I love love love Day in the Life posts - and it has been more than a year since I have written one. To be honest, they are just so daunting to write. so many details, so many pictures and only so many hours in a day to get it all written ;). Anyways, I saw this idea on another blog and it seemed definitely doable - so here it is, a picture every hour(ish) because there were a few hours in there that I just plain forgot. p.s. I had intended to get this up before we went to Australia, but then life got in the way.  This was Sunday, April 8th. We found out gymnastics was cancelled and a Sunday that was suddenly completely free of plans! Our friends had texted us the day prior and we decided to meet up at a Flower place mid-morning :).

7:47am. When I remembered to take the first picture, I had just put the laundry in.  I only do about one load of laundry a week, Wes does all of our laundry and most of the girls uniforms and I do one load of the girls (always on Sunday) since I am very particular about what gets dried in the dryer versus hung to dry ;).

The sun was just starting to come up.

8:08am. The girls begged and begged and begged for me to paint their nails. Against my better judgement, I obliged.

8:39am. Went upstairs and grabbed a handful of summer dresses to start the Australia packing process.

9:19am. This is how far I got when I needed to stop and get ready for the day.  Not too shabby.

9:53am. Found these two cuties coloring as I rounded up last minute stuff to leave at 10am.

10:05am. Out the door and couldn't resist snapping a picture of the girls. Nonni, we need french braiding lessons ASAP, Emma even said that mine are not as good as yours!).

11:09am. We arrived at the flower place, met our friends, bought our tickets and entered. And this picture instantly took me back to summers where we would spend a week in Beaver Creek.

11:47am. Found a pond and could not resist sticking her hand in.

12:08pm. Tiny little adventurers. I love places like this where there is plenty of space to roam and for kids to just be kids.

12:48pm. The place we went to had train rides for 20rmb up the mountain or the option to walk. We chose to walk (hence the adventure); by the time we got to the top with six kiddos, we may have been wishing we would have paid to take the train ;). The view was pretty spectacular.  Once we got to the top, we took a well deserved snack break.

1:51pm. The girl gang on my paddle boat.

2:10pm. The prettiest tulips and the prettiest girl.

2:23pm. There was a spot where you walked inside and, bonus!, it was temperature controlled!! Which meant air conditioning. I would leap for that too!

2:31pm. With so many pictures of the girls, we remembered to take a picture of us too!

Me and my girl!

3:09pm. The kiddos were exhausted - us too ;). Wes carried Emma and I carried Everly a long, long way. We definitely paid the 20rmb for the train back down the mountain. After we made it back down, we bid farewell to our friends and it took us about an hour to get back to town - the girls both fell asleep in the car (I cannot remember the last time that happened!) and Wes and I enjoyed some quiet time. I forgot to take a picture, but we ate dinner at a Mexican food restaurant, Peters and had a well deserved margarita!

6:30pm. I finally remembered to take a picture! We were headed home.

6:53pm. Walking into our house (the girls both had toys because we had promised a toy for brave behavior at the dentist the day before - we picked the toy up after dinner on our way home). We were stopping to look at the cherries growing on our neighbors cherry tree.

7:18pm. Wes and Emma ran to the store to get some things for Everly's lunch the following day so this girl and I played "pretend" together. When it comes to parenting, I feel like I excel at planning and participating in thoughtful activities with the girls, but I realized recently that I don't "play" with the girls when we are at home together so I am trying to make a more concerted effort to do this.

8:38pm. I snuck back into the girls room to take a picture - is there anything more peaceful than sleeping babies. And, yes, I am going to pretend that my ginormous four and six year olds are still babies for as long as possible.

I am sure that Wes and I headed to bed very shortly after this :). What a fun day!!

We Are Back!!

From an amazing vacation to Australia!!! This was our most time intensive trip to plan (and we made one huge mistake), but it paid off dividends and we had the best time :). Can't wait to share more with you soon!