North Carolina Zoo

After realizing that the zoo is only a couple hours from us, we planned a quick day trip out there.  Mike was still busy writing papers and taking finals, so our neighbor and I packed the kids up and drove out there ourselves.

Excited to finally be there!

We didn't realize how brave it was to hit this zoo with four kids and two double strollers with no muscle along with us until we started walking....

The WHOLE zoo is like one giant hill.  And it's all up.  It was crazy!

We stopped after 20 minutes and let the kids watch the geyser while we caught our breath.

I'm pretty sure this attraction was their favorite one and we could have ended the tour here and would have had happy kids.  Maybe we would have considered that knowing how much walking around hills we'd be doing!  ;)

Then we made our way to some animal exhibits.  The kids enjoyed watching the grizzly bear.

And they enjoyed learning about honey bees at the bee station.  (...some also enjoyed taunting each other, as you can tell.)

Favorite attraction #2 was the carousel.  (are we noticing the non-animal trend with their favorites?)

They did, however, really enjoy seeing the gorillas and baby gorillas!  

The elephant exhibit had a big helicopter for the kids to play in.  

We had a lot of fun, despite all of the walking!  Next time we'll take daddy, though.  :)

Strawberry Picking

Today we went strawberry picking with our MOPS group.  Normally this annual event is a moms and dads event so that there are two parents to wrangle each set of kids, but in the past the turnout hasn't been stellar.  So, we decided to brave it this year with just the moms!  The turnout was great!!  I think we had close to 20 mommies and 50(ish) kids!

We've been picking before, but hadn't been out to this particular farm.  I'm so glad we got the chance to, though.  It's a little bit of a hike to get out there, but the atmosphere and quality of service were 100% worth it.

The kids all enjoyed playtime while everyone was arriving.  They had an old Cessna plane set up and the kids had a great time taking turns in it.

Logan was so excited to see Julianna when we got there.  These girls have been friends since they were about a year old.  We've lived about a block away from them the whole time we've been here but her dad recently accepted a church position and they live in the parsonage there, now.  It's only a 10 minute drive away, but certainly not as convenient!

Brody was excited to be on the playground and wanted nothing to do with pictures. 

After playtime, we headed out with the group to pick strawberries!  Logan was in heaven.  Her favorite food is strawberries and she got to pick all of her own out.

Brody was happy for a few minutes until he spotted a giant tractor.  Then it was a mission to keep him in the strawberry fields.

Sweet little siblings:

Pick, pick, pick.

Logan's basket filled up very quickly.  She was thrilled that she picked more than B and I did.

Here is Logan with her picking buddy, Eliza.  They stood on opposite ends of a patch for almost the whole time and chatted away.

I finally got Brody over to the tractor and he was in heaven. 

After picking, we went back to the playground and had lunch and wore the kids out.

Brody wasn't sure about going too high until he let me try it...

...then he was thrilled!

More with Julianna (and Adalyn!)

I love that I get to be home with the kids so we can do things like this!  It's such a joy to be their mom.

We ended up bringing home about 6lbs of strawberries.  We've got all kinds of plans for them!

And now I'm off to enjoy the chocolate covered strawberry cheesecake I picked up in their general store...

Grandaddy's Visit!

Grandaddy came to visit this week!  He needed a little getaway and we were happy to provide entertainment when he needed it.  He flew in Monday afternoon and keeping the kids busy until we had to go pick him up was no easy task.  We blew bubbles outside, we played games, we sang songs, but the hours could not pass quickly enough for the kids.

Logan even changed outfits four times in anticipation.  Actually, this is a pretty normal occurrence, she just used his pending arrival as her excuse this time.

Grandaddy came bearing gifts!  Outfits for Logan and books to complete her Molly set and a basketball and hoop for Brody.  I took this as my opportunity to clear out the junk from the patio and do a little spring makeover.  We got new mats for it and purged several items so that there's a nice giant space for picnicking and playing this spring/summer.

Brody was excited one night, after Logan went to sleep, to sneak out and find Grandaddy watching basketball.  He was happy to provide some snuggles in exchange for a little extra time up to watch the game.

Both kids had so much fun exploring new apps on a different ipad.

Then we caught a few pictures outside before he left, yesterday.

When we got home from the airport, Logan asked if we could go take some "head shots" outside.  Oh boy.  This girl is a handful.  But I can't say no when she ASKS for pictures!

We had so much fun this week and look forward to spending some time with Grandaddy AND Mimi in Miami this summer!