Botanical Gardens Picnic

I love taking my girls on picnics. They love that they can have a little freedom, and I love being outside.

See those new shoes Audrey is wearing? Well, there is a story behind them. We don't wear shoes inside our house. Almost all of our shoes are in our basement on a shoe rack and the girls' shoes are in a tub beside the rack. I got almost all the way to the Botanical Gardens (20 minute drive from my house) before I realized that I had not gotten any shoes for Audrey to wear. I literally HAD to buy these shoes for my girl. She totally picked them out all by herself and is quite proud of them!

 Shelby Claire got her first taste of chocolate chip cookie and thinks she likes it! Ha! That baby will eat anything you put in front of her so I knew she would love the cookie.

 Exploring the rose garden and spreading her wings a little. She's growing up so quickly- I rejoice at each new stage she enters but oh, how I miss my little baby.

 A bee buzzed a little too close to Audrey. She's not scared of bugs (normally) but she said that this particular bee looked at her "stern". I asked her to show me his face and this is what she did...

 ... yep. Looks pretty stern to me too!

Of all the days I have at home with my girls, my favorite are the days that we do nothing. When I say "nothing", I mean when it's just me and them. When we spend our day doing whatever we feel led to do... waking up and not getting out of our PJ's until lunch, eating breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner on the deck, playing in the basement, or playroom, going to the grocery store, going to McDonald's for breakfast, going to the library and pulling every book on the shelf off, going to the post office, etc. For some reason, I've been thinking a lot lately about my Audrey going to Kindergarten. She has two whole years before she will start but I am already mourning my time with her. I will no longer have her all to myself. She will be at school and then on the weekends Clay will be home. I know as I type this that it seems silly but I am going to miss our days of just doing whatever we wish. Weekends are hurry, scurry around here and I'm sure that won't change when she goes to school.

Back to the carnival!

After last fall's successful trip to the carnival, we decided to have another go at it when it came back for spring. Audrey once again loved all of it but her favorite was the bouncy houses!

 This face cracks me up. It looks like she is a tad bit worried, but oh-no, not our Audrey!!

 Shelby Claire did not care much for her little car during this trip. She wanted to be DOWN so she could run all over the place! I'm sure she would have loved it if I had put her in that dragon ride but that was not about to happen!

After me braving two trips to the carnival, we still have not eaten any of the food served there. I am sure it will be when the girls are about 15 or so before we do! Ha!

Deck

Our deck is now finished and we have eaten many meals and snacks out there-- picnic style! We have deck furniture but the girls enjoy just running around out there that I hate to take up the space with the furniture. So, for now, we just sit on the floor. They love it!

Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

Audrey has never really cared all that much for the animals at the zoo. She's always just loved going and picking up random rocks, twigs, etc. I always took her and pointed out the giraffes, tigers, elephants, etc but she mainly just focused on finding the coolest rock she could that she could take home and add to her "collection".  Our membership to the zoo lapsed before Christmas and I just never renewed it because it was in the middle of the winter. My parents gave Shelby Claire a membership for her first birthday so I took the girls the first chance I got.

Audrey was all about the animals. She loved seeing every.single.one. I loved it! I loved when she would just go on a rock hunt while we were there, too, but I especially liked that I had taken my girl to the zoo and she had a GREAT time!

Shelby Claire came also. She is in the middle of dropping her morning nap so she was barely hanging in there at this point!

 Lyric came with us and Addie met us there. These three girls had the best time!

Shelby Claire's One Year Portraits

We had SC's one year pics taken at The Botanical Gardens. After much drama getting her to the appointment on time, we ended up having some really good shots of her. I was so thankful to even have one!

 This one will be mounted on a canvas and join her sister's one year picture on the wall!

Neighborhood Snooping and other March Madness

There has been a lot of action going on in our neighborhood. The boy scouts have been here almost every Saturday picking up debris from the tornado. I am so thankful for them. A lot of the homeowners who lost their houses are not rebuilding and their lots are abandoned. Some have cleaned up but some have not. One neighbor had a car that looked like it was bombed sitting in the front yard for weeks. It was an older model car that they had bought for their teenager and only had liability insurance on it. The boy scouts pushed it into the basement of the house (or where there used to be a house) and it made our street look SO MUCH BETTER. It's strange to walk through my own neighborhood and see military vehicles and such. It's much better than the cops that were here for weeks to prevent looters though!

This March weather has been very unpredictable. Cold one day, hot the next. We are taking advantage of any opportunity we can to get outside and get fresh air.

These Tiny Toms were given to Audrey (Aunt Lesa) for her birthday this year. She loves them so much. She's outgrown them now but wears them ALL THE TIME. 

 Audrey is also loves puppies and anything else "dog". She pretended for about a year or so that she was my niece, Gracie. We had to call her Gracie and everything. She told her teachers at school that her name was Gracie and anyone else we met. It got to be so bad that I had to ask her pediatrician to see if I should be concerned about it. He assured me it was totally normal. She's moved past "Gracie" and onto "puppies". Now, any chance she gets, she barks, crawls on all fours, begs to be fed in bowls on the floor, etc. This picture is of her friend that she loves to carry around with us. On this day, we were at the park. *Notice her toe-walking-- still doing this at 3 1/2.*

 Shelby Claire is beginning to be able to climb and play at the park these days also. The bruise she has on her forehead was from running into our kitchen cabinets. She and Audrey were playing and SC is not too stable when she runs. It was an awful bang!

 Her favorite activity at the park is still the swings. She would let me push her on them all day if I would!

 She was ready to move on to something else on this particular day though. Ha!

 The last three pics are just of random adorableness of my littlest one. I adore every little thing about her and so does her big sister!

Accessorizing at an early age!