Ella turns 6!

Our little girl turned 6 on June 8th.  The night before her birthday I was tucking her in and she said, "Mom, for some reason I feel like a grown up now." She says the cutest things and really does sound so grown up a lot of the time! She really wanted to go to Sand Hollow for her birthday this year so that's what we did.  She got to invite all of her friends and they had a great time.  She is such a little leader and most of the time I would see a group of her friends following her around in the water.  

She awoke to the traditional balloon-covered room.

 

 Blowing out her birthday doughnut.

 

 Kash, Halle, and Ella about to jump in the pool.

 

 Halle, Ella, Ava, Kenlee, Lexie

 

 Megan, Halle, and Kenlee waiting to get on the lily pads.

 

 Ava and Ella

 Gina, Emily, Adam

Kash was going down the slide almost the entire time.  Frontwards, backwards, upside down, you name it.  He never got sick of it!

 The lifeguard finally had to help him once because every time he came off the slide he would try to cut across the current. By the end of the day he was getting too tired to make it! The lifeguard explained to him that he needed to swim straight ahead, and after that he was fine.

Matt got the best workout of his life the last hour we were there.  All of the girls would jump on his back and hang on to him while he went around and around the whirlpool.  The jets weren't working so he didn't have any help!

Every time he went around another kid or two would jump on!

His legs were sore the next day.

Taking a break in the middle.

We got out of the pool and all the kids got a snack and a drink.

Opening up presents.

Ella and Megan

Ella and Kenlee

About to blow out her candles.

The whole group! From top: Ava, Kenlee, Halle H, Emily, Halle L, Ella, Addison, Megan, Ella Kate, Ellie, Adam, Lexie, Kash. 13 kids at the pool is a little crazy but it was really a lot of fun.

When we got home she had a package from Nana waiting for her!

And the celebration continued all through the weekend...

Peek a Boo

I was sitting at the computer and Evie started playing peek a boo with me from the next room.  It was pretty cute!

 

 Ella wanted to join in.

 What cute girls!

Tadpoles for frogs

After family night we promised the kids we would go catch some frogs.  We went to our usual pond near our house and found that they had chlorinated it! The kids were devastated so we walked a little further to the creek.  We could not find a single frog but there were hundreds of tadpoles.  At first the kids were disappointed but now that they are in our fish tank they are in love.  They feed them and check on them everyday to see if they have changed into frogs.  Most of them now have little legs.  This is probably the closest they are going to get to a pet so I think its a pretty good deal.

Here they are staring at the pond in disbelief!

Matt took the older two down to catch the tadpoles and Corinne and I had the difficult task of keeping Evie on the bridge.

As you can see she was doing most of the work, pregnant and all.

This girl is such a trouble maker!

Checking out their new pets!

Bike Rides

Our fun friends Cody, Makay, and Leah stopped by one Sunday afternoon to give us all a ride on there super fun bikes. They got quite the workout pulling us around the neighborhood!

Evie all dressed up

I wouldn't exactly call Evie a "girly" girl but she does love to dress up.  She is constantly putting on anyone's shoes she can find, necklaces, scarves, etc.  She especially likes to get into Kash's closet and get his easy-to-reach underwear that is on the bottom shelf.  Maybe she will start a new trend?

Part 3

On Memorial Day we went to the LA County Zoo.  Our kids had never been to the zoo before so they loved every second of it. This zoo is the perfect size because you can see everything in a few hours.  We were able to walk through the whole thing before we had any major melt downs! It was VERY hot but we survived. 

Kash and Ella were in the stroller more than Evie was!

Papa was the best help with the babies.

Evie says, "Papa" so cute.

The gorillas were the best.  They would come right up close and stare at you.

Trying to get a good view.

Liddy, Nana, Evie, Matt

Taking a much needed break.

This poor girl was guzzling the water.

Ella had a great seat.

Of course we had to get ice cream cones.

Evie loved swinging on the railing.

You have to really watch these two...they are constantly stealing each others toys and Evie is quite a bit bigger...one might even call her a bully.

Love these three cuties.

Thanks Aunt Whitney for the oreo.

Nana and Evie spotted a helicopter.

I'm so grateful I had Nikki and Mandy on this trip! They helped out so much!

The whole group!