One of Jacob's good friends had his 5th birthday party at a bowling alley. Jacob had a great time bowling. I think he has some natural bowling skills. He bowled several spares and a strike or two, too. Yes, the gutter guards were up, but he was still trilled about it. I think every time it was his turn to bowl, he'd fall to his knees after throwing the ball. It was a fun day!! 
Gotta LOVE the midwest. Warm and Sunny one day, and three days later SNOW!! The kids enjoyed it at least. We decided to go to Grandma's house to build a snowman with Megan. Well, we at least tried. The snow was not wet enough to make it stick. But the kids (and Megan) had fun anyways. They also made snow angels. Jacob did a good job with his; Ashlyn layed on her tummy to do hers. Before we went in for the day, everyone had a snowball fight. Even Grandma joined in that one. She had the advantage using the snow shovel and dumps tons of snow on the kids!! We all had a good time!! .JPG)
These pictures were taken Feb. 25th when we were having spring-like weather in the middle of winter. The kids and I spent that whole day outside. Went to two different parks (Antioch Park and a park in Raytown) and played with our friends. They enjoyed running, playing and riding their bikes. These are the days that I crave after all the cold and snowy winter weather.
Ashlyn is patiently waiting to go back in the operating room. She did really well getting all checked in. Children's Mercy did a good job making them feel at ease. She got to pick out a toy to play with while she waited - she picked a musical Dora toy.
Cuddling with daddy before the surgery. She sure loves her daddy, and her daddy loves his little princess. 
This face expression is priceless. This was the look on her face when they were wheeling her to the operating room and we were going back to the waiting room for her. She got to take her kitty and blanket with her to make her feel comfortable. She is such a sweet little girl, I hate to see her innocent, scared & pouty look!!
This is Ashlyn when we got back in recovery. She wasn't in pain, she was just really irritated with her IV. They wouldn't take it out until right before we left (which wasn't too long - Thank God). She got to drink some apple juice and ate a few goldfish, then we got to take her home. I was thinking she would be tired and staying quiet when she got home...boy was I wrong! She decided she wanted to watch Wall-E twice and drink 4 cups of apple juice!! After her HUGE lunch, she did take an almost 3 hour nap...so thankfully she got some rest today.
How often can you get a picture of 5 kids sitting together, looking at the camera and smiling? I'm quite proud of these little ones, but this was one of the first pictures of the day, so they weren't annoyed by me taking a million pictures!! YET
This is the "green slide" inside the barn at the zoo. This slide drove me crazy up until 9 months ago. I tried and tried and tried to get Jacob to go down it - I knew he'd like it if he would just try. Well, he finally did in May last year (when he was 4) and he LOVED IT!! He requests it all the time. You see Ashlyn in this picture going down the slide for the first time at age 2! This just shows all kids are different and that Ashlyn IS my little daredevil (again)!! She absolutely loved this slide too!!
We had a good time at the zoo again this winter! Last Friday it was about 70 degrees. I couldn't pass those temperatures up. So we headed to the zoo. We made this outing, pretty much, the whole day and had a picnic lunch out there. This time the kids didn't seem as interested in seeing the animals as they were in just playing with their friends. We made time for SOME animals, but I think most of the day was spent running around and playing at the park inside the zoo. Oh well, it was still a beautiful day and the kids still got to play outside.
We had a playgroup at Toddler Town. This is an indoor play place for the kids to run around and have fun. Jacob and Ashlyn LOVED it!! They had a lot to do - playgrounds, ball pit, bikes/riding toys, building blocks, play houses, ect... We will most definately come back here. 
Poor baby girl. Ashlyn woke up to sickness the morning of ELMO. I was a little bummed I couldn't take her, since we were going mainly for her. She had the stomach bug and a pretty high fever. This was a picture of her right before we left. I was hoping she would be feeling better by that evening, but I was wrong. We still had a good time, and we brought Ashlyn home a little surprise and lots of pictures and videos to look at.
We really enjoyed the ELMO show. We got to go with 3 other mommies and their kids, so it was a good time. It was also nice having some special time with just Jacob. The show was cute and seemed to entertain all the kids. I hope next time Ashlyn can come too!!
