parks, parties and lots and lots of elmo smiles

hello there....no i haven't forgotten you my sweet, little blog and no i haven't forgotten about you out there either! these past two weeks just took over me with things to do and finishing house projects and collapsing at 8:30 without an ounce of energy left to upload my pictures. so here i am, back with a balance and a few, very few, minutes to myself. whew.....

a few weeks ago we finalized our yard with new sod and tyler took some serious before and after pics. cant believe that we lived with our brown yard for so long and how beautiful and green it is now. cole and samantha LOVE playing in our yard and we've had lots of picnics, hammock naps and ball playing to prove it. now if only it didn't have to get so hot so soon. ha!

next up we've had a few trips to the park recently...here is a picture from last week's afternoon in the park. notice johnathan in the background pushing the girls and baby ross being held in the back too. the week before we met baylee, lainey and the darwish and clissold kids at livingston park for an early morning park date. thanks again AR for the yummy bagels and donuts!

yesterday morning we went to sammy's weekly MY GYM class....it is a full hour of samantha smiling and running and shrieking with excitement. oh and the way she watches the teacher when she's teaching them a new song or exercise...its unreal. she did the stairs obstacle course like a pro and used all "big muscles" to climb up the ladders and walk ways, climb through the tunnels and dance around to the music. we finished our outing with a big lunch at chickfila..which was bumping with kids and balloons and happy families. sammy ate her first big kids meal..fruit cup, chicken nuggets and milk, complete with an ice cream cone too.









dont you love sleeping babies after a big adventure...

next up...yesterday afternoon we celebrated a very special friend's 2nd birthday, happy birthday Sofia! we had a blast at her ladybug party. i was sweating buckets and seriously worn out but watching samantha's happy, party face kept me there with a huge smile of my own. plus it was fun seeing our friends and catching up...well...you know, between preventing red snow cone accidents, bounce house exits, running on top of the parachute instead of under it and all the other kid fun all around us. hehehe. sammy bounced in the bounce house for FOREVER and couldn't get enough of it! thanks sofia for having us and for all the special birthday fun!



loving the parachute games

birthday girl sofia, sammy and adriana

now it wouldn't be a party if samantha wasn't swiping juice boxes from other kids right? hehehe. here she is on her second capri sun and even passing up her snow cone for more apple juice. hehehee

speaking of birthdays....we are in full swing of birthday mode over here at the manring household. our dining room table has been taken over by ELMO and my latest trips to party city, joanns and target have been packed FULL of party goods. my giant tubs of special red icing arrived in the mail, my parents tracked down giant orange gumballs from fresh market(picture them picking out just the orange ones from the candy bins, ha ha) and last night we stayed up late sorting beads, decorating the favor buckets and making a big mess. soo.....let the countdown begin, 1 week from today we'll be celebrating at the park...all things pink and red and elmo.

here's wishing everyone a happy, relaxing sunday at home....