Another Day… Another Splash Pad

We go to the splash pads a lot.
We like swimming pools too, but when its just me with two non-swimmers I am much more confident in my abilities to keep them alive at the splash pad.
Today we ventured to the Gilbert Water Tower Plaza. I’ve heard about this one from several people but haven’t ever gone.
But you best believe we will be here more often…its closer than most of the other parks we go to and smaller (smaller in this case is good…less areas for the littles to wander, making it easier to watch both at the same time!)

Riker loved it, which is good.
On our drive over, he asked if it would have a playground and when I answered no he seemed disappointed.
The other splash pads have a playground right next to them, so the kids can go from water play to jungle gym play.
Luckily, once we got there Riker didn’t seem to miss the playground!

Olivia probably would have enjoyed it more if she had a nap first.
But since she’s decided that she only needs one nap a day, her mornings are usually a bit cranky and whiny.
She would have been happier had I let her carry her Cheerios around, but since I didn’t feel like cleaning up soggy Cheerios she had to learn to cope.
And she liked it just fine…until the fountains would pop up in her face and freak her out. Then she would run to me, sit on the towel for a bit whining for a snack, and eventually waddle back out to the water.

All in all, another fun day playing in the water.
And if you are in AZ and ever need a buddy to play at the splash pad, we are in!

Life Lately…

I just realized it has been almost month since I blogged.
Oops.
I clicked through all my pictures to try to remember what we’ve been up to lately and realized that we haven’t been doing much.
Well, we’ve kept busy but we’ve done a whole lot of little things and not many big “blog-able” moments.

Swimming

Diamondbacks games

Splash Pads

Sending silly pictures to daddy

Getting stuck in the McDonalds play place

Playing at the mall

Its getting hotter and hotter so our activities are limited to the pool/splash pad or indoors.
We have a couple fun trips planned for this summer
(Washington and Lake Powell!)
so that’s definitely something to look forward too!

Father/Son Campout

This weekend was our church’s annual Father/Son camp out.
All the men gather together their camping supplies and take the young boys up a mountain to learn how to be a man
(or something like that…I was never allowed to go on the boys only camp out so I can only imagine!)

Unfortunately, a busy day of meetings prevented TJ from getting off work in time to head up north.
Not wanting to deprive Riker of a camping experience, TJ set the tent up in the backyard and held a mini camp out instead!

Riker was beyond excited.
All he wanted to do was hang out in the tent.
Once the sun went down, Riker had the best time shining his little flashlight all over.

Of course, TJ made a rookie mistake of making some spooky ghost noises…
so Riker came inside to find his mom.
Since Olivia was snug in her bed, I joined the boys in the tent for some bedtime snuggles, just long enough for Riker to fall asleep.

And speaking of Olivia, she was not very pleased to be left out of the camping experience.
But the moment she woke up this morning, she was out the back door to explore every square inch of that tent.

PS…yes, that is a mattress inside that tent. Our air mattress is trash and the ground is hard, so TJ hauled Riker’s full size mattress outside to make the night a bit more comfortable.
PPS…yes, Riker was awake at 5:45 this morning (but that was TJ’s problem this morning…I was sound asleep!)

A Day At The Zoo

Way back in March, we were lucky enough to have some of TJ’s family come out to AZ to visit from Washington!
The first day they were here, we all met up at the Phoenix Zoo.
Other than Zoo Lights, I hadn’t taken the kids to the zoo yet (unlike the weekly trips we made to the Columbus Zoo!).
It was such a great day!

(riker was smitten with anna and loved being around her!)

(Emolie was Olivia’s favorite!)

(so excited to spend time with Grandma Dorothy!)

(riker, adam, and jake were inseparable!)

(clearly she’s saying “Duck!”…the ducks might have been her favorite)

(completely fearless, Olivia walked up to every single goat and stuck her face right in front of them!)

The car ride home was quiet…both kids passed out before we even left the parking lot!
(of course, they both woke up the minute we got home and refused to nap the rest of the day…)
It was definitely a fun adventure and one we hope to do again soon!

Easter Extravaganza!

For the last three years, our Easter has been spent in Ohio.
And while we loved spending Easter with all of our friends there, we missed being with family.
So I was so looking forward to spending Easter with all my family this year…
and I was not disappointed!

Our Easter weekend kicked off on Saturday with some egg coloring fun!
5 dozen eggs ended up bright and beautiful!

And then it was time for the egg hunt!
Riker was off running, trying to find as many eggs as he could before his cousins got all of them!

This was the first egg hunt that Olivia has ever participated in and she did great!
She needed help spotting the eggs, but she knew that she needed to pick them up and drop them in her basket!

The fun continued with a sack race.
We needed these kids to burn off some of the energy they had from consuming so much candy!

And of course, SWIMMING!
My parent’s pool has warmed up a bit so the kids could jump right in!

Easter Sunday we woke up bright and early for our 8am church.
We’ve talked a lot with Riker about the true meaning of Easter and he knew that church was extra special on Easter Sunday!

Olivia’s dress was the prettiest thing ever and she knew just how adorable she was!

And Riker was pretty much sick of all the pictures I was taking of him…
but look at that handsome face!
How can I NOT take a million pictures of him!

It was a busy weekend and we loved every minute of it.
Holidays are always so much more special when you are surrounded by the ones you love!

Saturdays Are A Special Day

As a stay at home mom, it is easy to take Saturdays for granted.
When you spend every day of the week going to parks and story times and play groups, Saturday can quickly become just another day to play.
But after surviving the Election Season, in which my husband worked almost every single Saturday, and enduring the endless hours of Bar review, which occupied every single Saturday, I am learning just how special Saturdays can be.

There is nothing sweeter than being able to tell my children that their daddy gets to stay home and play with them all day long.
Riker is always quick to ask if we can do something special on Saturdays…usually requesting a trip to “Old McDonalds” or Jamba Juice.

TJ and I try our best to make Saturdays extra special for our kids.
Less screen time, more play time.
This past weekend, the weather was warm and we knew we wanted to be outside.
While my kids love walking down to our neighborhood park, it just didn’t seem special enough…
so we piled into the car and made a trip to the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale.

Trains and carousels and climbing walls and slides galore!
There was never a dull moment and the kids were happy to run from one area of the park to the next.
Smiles were present on every face from beginning to end.

Days later, Riker still talks about the “far away park” (a 30-minute drive does make it pretty far away).
While it isn’t a park that we can play at all the time, it definitely made for a pretty special Saturday.

Keeping Cool

Arizona really only has 2 temperature settings…
Really hot and not so hot.
Sure, we have some chilly days in the winter. But people who live in actual cold places laugh at us.
Now that our “winter” is over, the thermostat is beginning its ascent.
And since my children want to spend every waking moment outside, we have to keep cool!

Riker usually wakes up in the mornings asking me to put his swimsuit on so he can splash in the water.
And Olivia eventually warmed up to it, though she still isn’t a fan of getting her face wet.

The swimming pools are still too cold to jump in, but splashing in the water in our backyard keeps us cool enough (for now!)

The best part of our water play is Olivia’s swimming suits.
Sure, Riker’s suit is super awesome and all, but Olivia’s has a tutu.
A TUTU!

And this one is pink…with a ruffle…and a flower!
I literally had to limit myself with just buying two swimming suits…little girl swim suits are adorable and I just wanted to buy them all!
(of course, a trip to Lake Powell this summer may require a few more suits…)

Happy St. Patty’s Day!

It’s Saint Patrick’s Day!
We all made sure to wear green to church today to avoid getting pinched!

I hadn’t talked to Riker about St. Patrick’s Day very much, he’s been much more interested in Easter…but he learned at preschool that if you don’t wear green, you get pinched!
Unfortunately, Riker doesn’t own any green Sunday appropriate clothing so I had to whip up a little bow tie for him to wear to church.

Of course, now that I’ve seen Riker in a bow tie I may just have to make him a dozen or so more to wear!

Stuff Riker Says

I used to call this “Conversations with a two year old”
but Riker is three now…and that’s a really long title…so I changed it.
Deal.

As we are driving to a restaurant for dinner:
”Don’t worry Mom, I have the directions on my phone. It’s a pretend phone but it has the directions on it. Go right then left, up down up down, and we’ll be at the restaurant!”

Pretty much every time we tell Riker “no” he starts to argue with us and his arguments always start with:
”Well, here’s the thing…”

Sometime Riker plays too rough with Olivia and as soon as she starts to cry he shouts “Its ok, Mom! I will calm her down!”

“I’m not cute, I’m handsome!”

“I just had a bath…now I smell like a man!”

Winter in Arizona

Winter in Arizona is pretty much the only reason people put up with summertime.
February is always the best month ever…most days the weather is in the 70s and positively gorgeous.

We love having a space of our own in the backyard.
We spent afternoons drawing masterpieces with chalk and blowing bubbles to the sky.

The warm sunshine just draws us out and we want to spend every moment possible outside.
I even caught TJ napping outside one day.

Olivia and Riker can just wander around the backyard all day.
Olivia is obsessed with rocks and just carries handfuls around with her.
Riker plays baseball and fights off the monsters that live in the bushes.
I sit in the sunshine, reading books, and apparently getting sunburned.

We were even able to go swimming at grandma’s house.
Of course, we stayed in the jacuzzi (with the heater turned on), but it was still a warm enough day to go swimming without freezing when you got out!
February is always the best month…when we lived in Ohio and it was still snowing in February, I would dream of the warm sunny days of Arizona.
It is totally worth the excessive heat in the summer to have a beautiful winter like this!