Ayres Natural Bridge

Kay, so we went to the Ayres Natural Bridge, and I am looking through my pictures, and I realized I took tons of the kids and James, and none of the actual attraction itself! For the record, it was a neat bridge, but the actual park and surrounding area was beautiful. they had a place for the kids to play, plenty of greenness (is that a word?), and a river with benches nearby, so you can watch your kids. It was way fun, and one of the fun last things that we did in Casper. It would have been the perfect place to take our parents, had we of had the idea sooner, but oh well. We had fun as a family.



















James volunteered to spin the merry-go-round, and later admitted that it had made him a little dizzy. Don't think he will be taking on the job any time again soon.




Speaking of being dizzy, I think Grant got a little woozy after being on this as well. He never expressed desire to ride it again.




Throwing rocks and sticks in the river was a big hit. We had to keep offering them to the kids and we couldn't do it fast enough.







I think Grant preferred this old fashioned model instead. I think I would too.











Cute kids. We had so much fun our last Sunday in Casper!

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Froot Loop Fun

Since I have found Pinterest, it is fun just being able to print off fun activities to do with my kids. This is one of them:

My kids were excited to do this activity, just not very patient in the colors. (This would be Grant.) He was quite pround of himself for filling in all the Os, but could not sit still long enough to sort them. Funny kid. Also, most kids love Froot Loops. Not mine. When Audrey eats cereal, she eats Cinnamon Life or Crunchy Nut. She is not a fan of those traditional kids favorite, sugar-coated cereals, which I guess is a good thing. Grant won't even eat cereal, period.







Audrey did okay with hers as well. with her I am looking for the fine motor movement in her hands to place the little O onto the square, however sorting them is our next move.


Fun activity, and the kids loved it...




...while it lasted! Then

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Backyard Fun

Early this spring, we found some warm days, and it was really fun to be in our backyard. especially with the impending move, I really began to feel sentimental about leaving our yard. the kids really enjoyed playing on the swing set, drawing on the cement pad, and just playing in the dirt, since we hadn't completely finished it.

















This was our last family time together in our backyard, and I will miss it, even though we are moving on to better things.
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Play Parks

A favorite thing to do of Grant's these days is to go to "play parks." This is what he calls them, thanks to watching an episode of Dora. This child loves to play outside, and loves to climb on things. He is quite the climber. He will struggle through something the first time through, but one thing I really admire about Grant is that even though something is hard, he will try again and again until he can do it all by himself! I hope he never loses this ability!




Audrey, of course, has to do whatever her brother is doing. She will take on the task, no matter how difficult, but the mom in me sees her take these on, and I have to be right there to spot her. She is still so small to me.




Since we, of course, moved to Cedar, and found ourselves out of a house, with only a hotel to return to, we went to play parks everyday. This park is on McKinley Street, and it has three areas for the kids to play, but they are all spread out, so if someone wants to play at a different area, we need to round up the other one to go. It still is a fun park though!











Our most favorite to play at was PV Park ch stands for Paradise Valley Park. It was very close to our old house, no one really went there, and the playgrounds for little little kids, was really close to the playground to the playground for big kids, and it has swings in the same area too.
We went just about everyday, weather permitting, and the kids played HARD!













Doesn't Grant look so grown up in this picture? I have to add that this was the park where I took Grant for the very first time when he was small.

Time goes so fast! I can't believe that I have a FOUR year old!
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The Only Way to Make to Dinner

Since my kids are a little more grown up, but at a stage where they need to be constantly entertained, I found myself back in the challenging situation of how to entertain them while I get dinner going. One day my eyes fell up on the old spice rack that we never use. some of the spices in that rack had never been touched since we bought it back in 2004ish, and since I was cooking dinner, my little ones are interested in whatever I am doing. So I grabbed some pans and some of my old spices, and let them "cook." It worked like magic!

This was taken on a Sunday, thus the reason for their church outfits.
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Friends

These two are good friends. They love to play together, and they are constantly doing nice things for each other. Grant will hold Audrey's hand as she climbs up or down the stairs (and count with her the steps, as is the fashion at our house :)), and Audrey will give Grant a favorite toy if he is unhappy. Two cute kids if you ask me!





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Audrey Turns Two!

One thing that happens right after Christmas, is that my Audrey has a birthday. So excited that this little being has come into our home. I do feel for her though. With Christmas being so close to her birthday, it's hard to not to feel like that for her, it is Christmas part two. I hope it will feel less like this as she grows up, but for now, we will savor this little girl for as long as we can!
Her special day started with pancakes shaped like number twos.
I also like to help my kids feel like their day is special from the get go, so we also have a tradition that they get a new shirt to wear on their birthdays. I got this one for Audrey on clearance at Target. She looked so grown up in it!



We had a family party with just us. I am liking these close family parties. The kids are not so overwhelmed by lots of people, and they can just be themselves.
Audrey loved her new tea set:






So much so, that we couldn't get her to open anything else.



Grant was just as interested in Audrey's presents even more than Audrey was:


This alphabet train is such a cute toy for them. It teaches them their letters and sings, all the while they can even ride on it. They are having soooo much fun with this toy.




Notice Audrey's shoes. She loves her pretty shiny church shoes, and got these new black ones for her birthday. She had to put them on right away. This girl loves her shoes...she also loves to take them off!
We had a funfetti cake for Audrey. It looks like is partly on fire in the picture, but it really wasn't!


I love this thoughtful expression on Audrey. She looks like she doesn't quite know where to begin on eating her giant piece of cake.






So she just shoved a bite in. That's my girl!








The kids are way into Mickey Mouse so we had some Mickey Mouse party things for Audrey. I love these Mickey Mouse ears, and James was a good sport to wear them! We couldn't get Audrey to want to wear hers, which is funny, because on Halloween, that's all she wanted to do was put on the ears. She wouldn't put on either:






This lasted for a few seconds. Oh well!










I think the kids had a great time at our little family party. We love you, Audrey!

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