What a week of Fun!

On Saturday April 20th Alexis left for a week long cruise to the Bahamas! This started the fun and adventure for her and also for Chloe, Hazel and myself. I don't get to spend as much time with our little ladies as I would like and was really looking forward to this extra time with them.  I really connected with Hazel and Chloe had sooooo much fun playing with these little bundles of joy and going places with them.  We had quite the busy week fishing, exploring, going to the children's museum, going to the park, going swimming, playing with their cousins.... hmmm was there anything we didn't do :)?

Saturday night was a little different trying to get them both to sleep without the much appreciated help from Momma.  They were both little angels though and went right to sleep (at midnight...). They seemed to really enjoy being close to each other when they were sleeping.  We all slept in the same bed together all week.

Sunday started it all out, we got up and had our ritualistic pancakes.  Chloe kept asking when Momma was coming home because she didn't see her come back with Maw-Maw yet.  She thought it took a very long time for them to go to Wal-Mart for a few things.  It was a very beautiful day outside so lots of playing on the trampoline and working in the yard.  We also made our weekly batch of bread together.  They both love helping mix the dough and taste testing to be sure it's perfect.  One thing Chloe said after having breakfast which is too funny not to share, she clapped her hands together and said "Pappa, let's get this party started!!!"

Monday was the first big adventure day. I've been itching to take them fishing now that it is starting to warm up. I didn't tell them we were going fishing, only that we were going to the park to take a walk. I didn't realize it was still so muddy from the massive downpour we had the week prior, so the water was too muddy to see through and really fish.  But that didn't stop us from trying and having a nice picnic!  Funny thing is Chloe had more fun playing with the worms and acting like they were pets than fishing.  Hazel really enjoyed the Bee Moths and playing with them too.

After we went fishing we headed over to Mitch's house to play with their cousins.  Mitch thought we should grill out since it was nice out and we both needed things from the store.  So we packed up all of our kids and took a trip to the local wally world.  That was an adventure in itself.  After we got back the kids had a great time playing on the swing set and drawing all over everything with chalk.  To top it all off Mitch started a fire and had s'mores for desert.  Good thinking Mitch!

Tuesday was more adventure for these little ladies.  A trip to the Children's Museum got them all excited.  We knew they had the gecko exhibit but didn't know they also had a super hero exhibit and a nat geo archeological expedition to dig up the Chinese Manchurian soldiers. It's amazing to me how fast they are growing and understanding how to do things. They both climbed up the tree house ladder by themselves and have so much fun together.

They spent quite a bit of time playing with these super hero magnets.  They also had some cool capes the girls really enjoyed playing with.

They both really liked the hot wheels exhibit.

This statue was actually a big puzzle we put together.

 Tuesday night we watched a movie together and ate popcorn.  Hazel fell asleep first while I was holding her watching the movie.  She really loves to be held and cuddled, I couldn't get enough of it. Once the movie was over Chloe informed me we have to go to bed now so we can be ready for a new day tomorrow.  She is such a sweetheart.

Wednesday was --Cold-- and rainy so we didn't do much outside that day.  We had a guy come out and fix our garage door and the girls thought we were having a party or something. They were both so excited to see someone new they were running around and screaming and playing. Chloe thought it was awesome he had a small ladder and thought he was very cool.  Pa came over after work and again the girls got very excited and ran around everywhere screaming and having fun.  We rounded out the day drawing like crazy.  We picked up some new colored pencils and markers and we drew for at least two hours. It's really neat they are both old enough to sit and do something creative for such a long time.

Thursday was another adventure at the library.  We first played around putting puzzles together for quite some time.  Then it was on to get some new books for night time.  We picked out some good ones including Dr. Seuss about baby animals.  Chloe knew each animal in the book, pretty amazing.  We then took a trip to Orange Leaf for some yummy frozen yogurt.  Hazel fell asleep on the way and Chloe had enough excitement about it for both of them.  We had to go back to Danville to spend some time at the park. 

Can you tell Chloe is excited to be at Orange Leaf?

Friday's adventure was hunting for Morel mushrooms with Pa and finding a nice hoard of them under the apple tree.  Chloe freaks out about finding them and was pretty excited we found so many.  She has a great eye for it.  After hunting for mushrooms and playing with Pa we took a trip to the Aquatic Center in Plainfield for an evening session of swimming with their cousins.  Shyla, Marra, Kai, and Mitch all met us for the swim and wore these kids out.  Nothing like swimming to take the energy out of ya. Of course the week wouldn't be complete without a healthy dose of spaghetti.  Hazel actually fell asleep on the way home but woke up as soon as she heard me say spaghetti was ready.  She practically fell asleep while eating but was able to pack away a healthy portion first.

Chloe happy showing her stash of mushrooms

Hazel had to get her picture taken too :)

 Saturday was here and we were getting close to Momma coming home.  That didn't mean we couldn't have one last fun adventure before she came home though.  It was Lilly's 4th birthday party and after finally getting the ladies in the car to go, we headed down for the long journey.  They were both pretty happy to see lots of other kids to play with and all the fun things to do at their house.  Hazel is a swing-a-holic now a days.  She had a really good with with baby Greta and they both really enjoyed swinging together.  One of the many cool things to do at the party was eat all the amazing food they cooked up.  Hazel had at least 1 full sandwich of the smoked pork shoulder Cory put together and couldn't stop eating fresh strawberries.  We headed home after spending most of the day at their house and both ladies finally fell asleep.

Chloe enjoyed running with purple egg

Life is always more fun with lots of friends to play with

Hazel had a blast playing with Greta and seeing the animals

Momma came home around 4am on Sunday morning.  She woke the girls up to say hello and they were very happy to see their momma!  We had a really fun and adventurous week together and I'm glad we got to spend so much time together.  The ladies were having tons of fun and get to keep this adventure going since Momma is here to share it with us now.

We'll finish off the long blogpost with a sweet little video we put together on Thursday evening for Momma.