Life Lately!

Woohoo, I've kept up with my {GOAL} of clearing pictures off my phone for "Life Lately" blog posts for two weeks in a row now! :) 

One of the highlights of our week was my friend Angela's birthday on Tuesday. I had planned on dropping off donuts & flowers for her early that morning on our way to storytime at the library. Even though I love our kids, it doesn't feel very birthday-ish to have a weekday birthday as a stay-at-home mama. Something about mothering little ones all day with minimal adult interaction doesn't really say birthday to me...so I thought this would be a nice way to brighten Angela's special day! Of course, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some donuts for ourselves, too. ;)  This was our first time eating our donuts inside Dunkin Donuts..both girls loved their little donut tables! :)

That evening we went over to the Goins' house to celebrate Angela's birthday with dinner & cake. The kids had a great time playing together, and we were so thankful to get to celebrate another birthday with this family that is so special to us!

On Wednesday, Hadley and I were out running a few errands while Shelby was at school. I always feel bad for Hadley on school days b/c we have to whisk her out of her crib and jump in the car to get to school on time when all she ever wants to do is sit and read books. As soon as we got home from our errands, she asked for me to read her a story...so that's just we did! Here we are snuggled up on the coach for a reading marathon before picking up Big Sister! :)

Love my one-on-one time with this crazy girl!

This week we had a little impromptu conference with the director of Shelby's preschool who also happens to be one of her teachers about her pencil grasp. Despite the fact that Shelby has fantastic penmanship and can write all day long, she still grasps writing instruments with her entire fist. We're still hopeful this will correct itself on its own in due time, but in the mean time we're going to try to amp up the fine motor activities at home to help her gain more strength in her hands. One of the activities we did that was a big hit with both girls was painting with pom-poms!

 

We were all pretty pumped for a three day weekend with gorgeous weather! We spent our Saturday morning at the zoo.

After the zoo, we stopped off for a quick lunch at Panera on our way home.

Both girls are a huge fan of the squeeze yogurts at Panera b/c that's something they
don't get at home. :)

Hadley was thrilled to have her own cup of broccoli cheddar soup!

We stayed home Saturday evening and had leftovers for dinner, but the girls enjoyed doing {THIS} rain cloud activity again. We hadn't done this in a really long time, but it occurred to me that this would be another great fine motor activity for both girls.

Love Hadley's look of concentration here ;)

  

I didn't take any pictures of the rest of our weekend, but it's been wonderfully relaxing! Aside from church and a trip to OP Schnabel park, we've just been at home enjoying the extra time with Daddy! Then we wrapped up the weekend perfectly--we got the girls bathed & in bed by 7:30, so we could enjoy some Outback To Go just the two of us! Such a nice treat for us! Now we're curled up on the couch watching TV & looking forward to a short 4 day week with warmer temps!