Latta Planation

Now that I have finally figured out what was wrong with blogger, I can catch up a little.

 The kids loved hiking last year and so far this year we have had very busy weekends and haven't done any hiking.So, we decided to go somewhere local for our first hike of the year. We went to Latta Plantaion. They have easy walking trails and it was a good "warm up" for the rest of the summer. :) I just love these family times, all out enjoying nature together.

checking out a lizard

watching the boats and jet skies and dreaming what it would be like to have one :) 

checking out an ant hill

yep, that's my Connor being himself :)

of course since daddy climbed the big rock, all the kids wanted to.

Date with Zander

Tim and I are trying to be more purposeful about taking turns to take the kids out for some one on one time. My first date was with Zander. To say he was excited is a HUGE understatement. He loved it! The smile on his face was priceless! I took him to the raptor center at Latta Plantation. In the car, before he knew where we were going, he said "thank you mommy. I love you." AWWWEEE...melt my heart. :) He wanted to hold my hand the whole time. He kept saying lets see more birds. They gave us a map and he said he wanted to keep it forever and not let his brother and sisters have it. Afterwards I took him for ice cream. He didn't want the date to end and he asked me if we could go somewhere else. :) He can be so sweet!

Zander wanted me to take a picture of this little squirrel.

a little Harry Potter castle in the owl section :)

NC Zoo

We decided to take the kids to the North Carolina Zoo. They were having a dinosaur exhibit with a 4-D dinosaur movie and we knew the kids would love that.

The kids loved the dinosaur exhibit. Some of the dinosaurs moved and made sounds

all the kids were a little scared of this one

except Connor. He wanted to get closer and have a better look but that really upset Zander. He didn't like Connor getting that close. He yelled Connor's name and ran up and grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him away.

pulling Connor away :)

love Madison's expression

This one randomly spit water

of course they all love the carousel

from the time we got there they kept asking to see the lions. It was a really cold day so thankfully there was one out.

This is what happens after a full day of fun

Mommy wars

I just love this post below (the link below) about the "mommy wars". I do believe there is a war that moms should be fighting TOGETHER!! Please read this woman's blog post and get involved in what is the most important "mommy war" and let go of the other parent bashing and start loving and supporting each other.

http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2012/05/where-is-mommy-war-for-motherless-child.html

Jump, jump, jump....

We were finally able to buy a trampoline for my little jumping beans. Madison is always jumping. She jumps everywhere she goes. You ask her to do something and she jumps the whole way. So, I really wanted to get this and I knew they would all  love it. They are all having SO much fun jumping on it. (and so is mommy and daddy. :) ) They love it when we jump on it with them because it causes them to be able to jump even higher. I think they jump on it almost everyday, rain or shine. :)

She can jump so high!