BFF Lunch

After our Santa-visit, we did a little window shopping with our friends before heading to lunch! These are friends whom the kids have had nearly all their lives, and we are really more like family! Now that all our kids our busy with school & activities, we rarely have the chance to get all of our friends together. The kids were very excited to spend this special time with their friends and they talked, laughed & played! It did our hearts good and made the day extra-special!

Zoo Crew

We got the summer off to a great start with a trip to the zoo with some of our playgroup friends! It was a short, but fun visit. We have been meeting at the zoo with our kiddos since they were itty-bitties! It has been a wonderful journey watching them grow up together! We are looking forward to a fun summer with our friends!

Friends

Seven years ago, we joined our first playgroup when Kyrie was just a few months old. We are blessed to still have close friends from that original group. Time & circumstance led us to a large playgroup, and fate finally landed us in the hearts of a small group of families who have been our playgroup & friends for nearly 5 years. We have been through a lot of firsts and joys and changes together, and I am so proud to say that we remain friends. Here are a few pics of some of our playgroup friends! We are grateful for all of you!

Swim Party

We were delighted to head to the pool to celebrate one of our playgroup friend's birthdays! We rarely (to never) make it to the pool and have had far too few opportunities to see our friends this summer, so this was the perfect afternoon! The kids had a blast swimming, splashing and roughhousing with the daddies in the water. The mommies kept our feet cool and enjoyed the shade & conversation! It is hard to believe that most of our friends will be starting school in the next few weeks. We are wrapping up our summer activities and getting ready for fall... Labor Day is just around the corner!

Kyrie with her BFF Isabelle

My handsome husband!

Degen who covered himself up in the sun and fell asleep while everyone else finished swimming!

Jungle Jack's Landing

These are pictures from the ride portion of our morning at Jungle Jack's Landing. We had a super-duper fun time, and I wish that I had more pictures to share, but I think that we were just having too much fun getting the kids from ride to ride and enjoying the day. (It is also a little harder to get really good ride pictures, too.) We spent almost the entire day riding rides. We went with our playgroup friends and it was perfect because all of the moms could take turns on rides (while others recovered from recent rides) and we could split up to watch the kids on different rides. 

Degen waiting for the "Frog Jump" ride to start. This was one of my favorite rides, too!

We had a perfect day with hardly any crowds, but the sun was bright & hot. Most of the kids could go on most of the rides, and there were 4 kid-sized rides that everyone could do. Kyrie and her friend Isabelle liked the bumper cars the best and rode them at least a half dozen times. Degen liked the swings and the "frog jump" ride and rode both of those more than a handful of times. I just about fainted after taking Kyrie on a fast-spinning car ride and took the longest ride of my life on the tilt-a-whirl with Degen. Even with dramamine, I struggled! But we all survived and didn't go home until we were completely "rided" out! We all agreed that we would have to go back... next time with some daddies to go on the rides!

I couldn't believe how brave Degen was to go on these swings, but he loved them and went on them several times, mostly by himself.

Zoo Encounters

We enjoyed a fabulous day at Jungle Jack's Landing at the Columbus Zoo! Though we go to the zoo often, we had never spent time at JJL and were surprised by all the animals that they had available for the kids to see & pet. We showed up just in time for a baby animal show and later in the day caught a wild cat show. The kids loved seeing so many of the animals up close!

Kyrie learns about the legless lizard.

The kids petting an iguana.

Degen petting a baby alligator.

Kyrie petting an oposssum. Its fur was very soft!

This baby opossum was just too cute!

Degen petting an armadillo.

Kyrie & the penguin share a moment!