Oliver turns 4!

Oliver turned FOUR last week! We had fun celebrating his special day. He requested a birthday lunch at Chick-fil-A and then played at the new play place in the mall. It was freezing that day and too cold for an outdoor activity but both the boys had a great time at the play place. As soon as the girls got home from school, we all headed to a bounce house. Oliver talks about bounce houses all the time so it was the perfect celebration for him. He LOVED it (all the kids did) and never stopped running and bouncing (which explains all the blurry pictures). Ben and I had fun jumping and sliding too. We finished off the day with cake and presents. He was spoiled with some fun gifts from grandparents and Aunt Steph. 

I was feeling bad that I didn't have time to make him a fun cake. But he was so distracted with all of his new presents that he didn't even eat any of his cake anyway.

bond park

Amelia was still in a lot of pain the day after Veterans Day so she stayed home from school. Normally she would have been okay with that, but she had to miss a field trip to the Capitol and was so disappointed. She mostly spent the day reading. It was a gorgeous, warm fall day so we ventured out for a lunch picnic at Bond Park. Amelia continued to read a book while the boys played on the playground. It was about one year ago that we were hanging out at Bond Park for the first time, taking a break from a completely miserable house hunting trip. So much has happened (and changed) since that trip.

 

Just wanted to document Elsa's awesome purple outfit that day.

marbles + hot dogs

The kids didn't have school on Veterans Day. Oliver had a sleepover in the girls' room the night before. They put all of their mattresses on the floor and thought it was pretty fun. Unfortunately Amelia pulled a muscle in her neck when she got out of bed in the morning and was pretty immobile the rest of the day. We did venture out to Marbles (the children's museum) later in the afternoon but she still couldn't do much and wasn't very happy about it. Ben got back from a work trip in time to join us at the museum. (His work schedule has been crazy lately. He headed out of town again early the next morning.) We walked over to Tasty 8's for dinner after the museum. Yummy hot dogs and fries with fun dipping sauces. The pumpkin milkshake was excellent too.

Dancing while waiting for food. Hooray for warm fall evenings! (Which we are no longer having.)

arboretum + park

Every so often I let the girls skip school, spend the morning playing at home in their pajamas, and then head out for an afternoon adventure. On this particular day we walked around the Arboretum (the girls brought their sketchbooks again and drew their favorite plants) and played tag in the open field. Then we found a new park that we loved. The fall colors have been stunning. I love seeing all of the color mixed with the tall pine trees.

Prairie Ridge

The girls had an early release day from school so we spent the afternoon at the Prairie Ridge Ecostation.