4.26.14 in Pictures

Zoo with the fam...(Grandpa John, Grandma Lori, Matt, John, Carrie, & us)!

The kids fed the giraffes.

We were able to see section 1 (out of 3) of the updated Australian Adventure section of the Zoo. It's going to be really nice! Even the bathrooms were immaculately clean (for now) & have kiddie (lower) sinks...score!

These goats crack me up!

And to finish out my day, I got a call from Von Maur telling me that I WON the Tapestry drawing for a $100 Von Maur Gift Card! Woo hoo!! 

Blessed day! 

Catching up

 

Today was a great day of catching up with some good friends! I started out the day with a T-N-T (tighten & time, aka Body Fit) class at the Jorgensen YMCA with Angie Jurczak & Allison Labrie. 

After getting drenched in sweat from that hard yet incredible class, I met a friend, Susan Reynolds and her girls at Mocha Lounge. The kids enjoyed playing together. If you haven't been to the Mocha Lounge Little Friends Room, I'd highly recommend it! 

Then I dropped Olivia off at preschool and met Dan for lunch at Yen Ching. Gabe enjoys getting his extra special daddy time :)

After lunch I came back home to try and clean up the house before our friends, Nikki Riemer and her kids came over. 

I picked up Olivia from school and then the Riemer's showed up. We played and enjoyed catching up, for it had been far too long since we last saw them. 

I truly appreciate the friends in our life and thank God for each and every one of you!!

Peace

Egged

Today as the kids and I rolled into our driveway, we noticed that our house was EGGED!! No, not the bad type of egging with actual chicken eggs, but some nice neighbor anonymously "hid" a dozen plastic eggs in our front yard, left a basket full of treats (including a cute no bake birds nest cookie), and they put up a sign on our door stating that we were egged. There were some small rocks in an egg carton and one of them said, 'He is risen.' How awesome! 

This isn't like the You've been Boo'd type of chain things, people just do it to show others kindness around Easter. 

Olivia deliberately got a ziplock bag and put a few loose Cheese-It's and 1 piece of candy in the ziplock, then headed straight to Audrey Spitler's house because she wanted to EGG her. I tried explaining that we needed to make a nice gift for whomever she wanted to egg, but she was already out the door. So, Sara (Audrey's mom), I'm sorry, but loose random cheese-it's is as good as it gets for the Spitler's. ;) Enjoy ;)

So go EGG someone's house (the good kind of egging)! It's so fun and brings joy to the little ones!

Peace~

Good Samaritans

As we walk along this Holy Week, I'd like to give a shout out to the good Samaritans out there. You know, the people who do kind deeds without wanting any recognition. People who touch lives just by being themselves and letting their heart shine upon others. 

Thank you to those good samitaritans in my life! I appreciate you more than you know!!

P.S. Here's a pic of my kids with the Easter Bunny & then pics with the masks they gave to us. Enjoy!

Weekend Get-Away

This weekend Dan took us on a last minute surprise get-away to Chicago. We had such a nice time! 

We stayed at the Marriott on the Magnificient Mile and the fav things per our kids were visiting the American Girl Place store, Lego Store, and checking out the "bean" aka Cloud Gate!

Our children (thankfully) haven't really been exposed to poverty, so this trip was a real eye opener for Olivia (5 year old). She told us repeatedly that she's really worried about the homeless people and doesn't want to live in Chicago because there are lots of homeless people there and it's so sad. Dan and I are trying to explain this to her and decided to pray for them tonight before bed with her. 

It's neat to see such compassion at such a young age. Hopefully through HIM, we can instill hardworking ethics along with love and compassion in her!

Peace & Blessings,

Amy