Charlotte the Basketball Star

When we were down in Utah a couple of weeks ago for Brandie's wedding (I took no pictures, can you believe it?) Charlotte was given this little basketball hoop as a birthday present.  I thought that it might take her a while to figure it out, but nope, she's already a pro.

She gets the ball...

finds the hoop...

drops the ball though...

and CHEERS!

Warm Weather

The last few days it has been warm and beautiful out and we have been outside enjoying the beautiful weather.  At the beginning of the week I noticed that my first crocus had bloomed.  I love these little flowers, they are always that first bit of color that lets us know that warmer weather is on the way

 Thursday afternoon the girls and I went to the zoo.  It was our best trip yet for two reasons; first, Lily has become really interesting in the animals and could identify a lot of them without me telling her what they were.  And second, because there were probably only a dozen other families there.  We got to enjoy most of the exhibits on our own and I could let Lily have more freedom to run around and explore.

 The really enjoyed the giraffes.

 There is a little play area at the Boise Zoo that we took a break at.  The girls climbed on the animals, went down the slide, and had a little snack, then we were off to see the rest of the animals.

Charlotte was fascinated by this tiny monkey, she just stood there and stared and stared, it was hard to pull her away.

 "Look mom!"

 We spent Friday and Saturday outside in the yard.  The girls are really having a lot of fun with Charlotte's birthday present.

They even manage to share sometimes. 

 Tyson spent a lot of time reworking the garden beds and getting things ready for planting.

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

 Yesterday was Charlotte's birthday party.  I know that she won't remember it, but I enjoyed getting everything ready and having our friends and family over. We had pizza and visited while the children played. It was a simple little celebration, but we had fun.

 I made another cake for Charlotte, this is her little smash cake (that really was way too big)!

Then we made cupcakes for our guests.  I decided on pink lemonade cake with a lemon cream frosting with little candy rosettes.

 And just for fun, I made a pinata for the kids.

 They seemed to have fun beating the pulp out of it, and of course, picking up the candy.  My camera was on the wrong setting though so everything turned out blurry.

 Charlotte opened several presents from her family and friends, she received some fun toys,

 some very cute clothes, 

 but I think that the pinwheel was her favorite, she has been carrying it around all day.

 She also got some fun sand toys to use in her new sand box.

 Charlotte was very excited to see her cake, and wanted the candle, she wasn't too happy with me when I took that away.

 She forgave me quickly enough though because the cake was yummy!