We will, we will ROCK you

Since it was a holiday from work, we decided to have an extra special adventure today. Ever since we found a piece of a geode int he rocks int he front yard, Hadley has been searching for crystals. She manages to find quite a few in the yards of our neighborhood, but in an effort to help reduce the local rock hounding we went to Payson for some real top notch stuff.

There are three separate areas to search for rocks and we visited each one in the same day (unfortunately we only took pictures at the first stop).

We started looking for fossils at the paleo site off the side of the freeway.

We found a lot of cool fossils, and here we even found some cute kids.

Hadley loved the entire day. Rocks are kind of her thing right now.

The happy hunting group. 

We looked for fossils for about an hour then headed to the diamond fields! They have crystals that are found loose in the dirt and we searched for some of those too. We found a few really small ones in the search area, but had greater luck along the side of the road (apparently some people on take the really big ones). Finally we went to find geodes. There is a hillside just covered in them. We picked up as many as we could carry and brought al our treasures home to look at latter. We found some cool things throughout the adventure and everyone had something they really liked. The girls enjoyed the fossils, Hadley loved all the specimens we found, and Miles liked just hitting rocks with a hammer all day!

School's Out For Summer!

We made it!  We had our last day of school this week and boy was it fun!  

Hadley got to have a water party and has loved playing at Shining Star Preschool.  So long, she is off to Discovery Club!

Allie got to dress up for her last day of school Hawaiian Style!  She requested pigtails for crazy hair day, but I think it looks cute!  So long Kindergarten!

If you build it...

We got a free dresser from one of our neighbors a while back and have been trying to figure out what to do with it. We finally decided to give the girls a dresser so they don't throw all their clothes on the floor of their closet. So we had to decide what colors to paint the dresser (which was a difficult decision for two little girls at the paint store... so many options). We settled on a conservative color palate and went to town. The girls wanted to help with every step of the process, so they got to help sand the old  varnish off, prep for painting, and apply the first coat of paint (then the magic finishing fairies completed the rest while they slept). Last step was to add the new hardware for the drawer pulls (We got to flash a little bling for everyone - giant "crystal" knobs on the top drawers).

The girls were so proud of the final product, and it looks great! 

Now if we can just get them to keep the clothes int he drawers!!

Bedtime Shenanigans

Miles and his Gator..... a match made in heaven!  He LOVES his gator(s he has 3 so we are never without one) and tonight while getting ready for bed decided that Gator needs to brush his teeth.  I had to run and grab the camera because Mike has a picture of him brushing his bear's teeth probably around the same age.  Like father like son!

Hadley wanted to show me her teeth that are coming in.

 Allie's teeth are sometimes here, sometimes not.  She has lost 5 teeth already!

Oh how I love this picture, this is exactly how miles falls asleep, sucking his thumb while rubbing Gator's tail right by his nose.  So sweet!

Hadley always has a bed full - either full of stuffed friends or blankets.  It would drive me insane, but she loves it!

Allie loves to read at night and will use her night light to read until I come and turn off her light.  

Kindergarten Program

The much-awaited day finally came... The Kindergarten Program!  Allie was super excited to finally sing all her songs for us and show us what she has practiced these past few months.  They even got matching shirts for the occasion!

 There were lots of movements which made for poor pictures, but we got some great video of this exuberant singer!

 Allie had her own part about what she wants to be when she grows up.... a cheerleader!  

 Afterward we headed over to her classroom where she showed us all the projects she had made and were able to watch a little show about the past year.  

 It is not a party without snacks and these cute kiddos sure had a lot!  

 Allie and Patrick - maybe this will be repeated every year!  

 We LOVED Mrs. Schreiber and now Allie LOVES school and has done so well.  Look out 1st Grade, Allie is coming for you!

Hadley is 4!

How can this cute face be 4 already?  She was so excited to finally have her birthday (she is the last in succession) and boy did she have plans!  

It was a Saturday birthday and a bit rainy, so we headed out to Build a Bear first thing in the morning to pick out her Twilight Sparkle that she picked out in preparation since Allie got her my little pony back in March.  Bonus was we had the store to ourselves, so we got lots of attention.

Allie brought her pony to have a good cleaning and to make friends with Twilight Sparkle.

Later we had cake and ice cream and opened presents.  Hadley designed her own cake which was full of color!  Pink and green camo in the middle with pink and yellow frosting and LOTS of sprinkles.  

Presents!  She finally got those Elsa shoes she has been asking for since... forever!  We love our Hadley Girl!