Mid-Late May: Shenanigans

After our trip to Holland, MI, we kept it pretty low key.  We had another big trip coming up at the end of the month, so we did our normal!

Here are our shenanigans in pictures:

Just a normal ride around on the plasma car!

Learning to swing while standing!

My silly kitty.

I love this photo of Kate.

That hair though.  That beauty!  I am one lucky Mama.

We headed to the zoo!

And sat on a big bronze moose!

We also got to meet Nora, the new baby polar bear!

She was playful and cute and had since become a celebrity in our house.

We said hello to the beautiful cheetah that was just relaxing right
by the fence.

We also fed the giraffes!

Successful time feeding by herself!

Maya really enjoyed the train ride!

We headed to the park.
Maya Bear - all smiles, as usual!

Kate shows me she can do the fireman's pole
by herself.

So proud!

Practiced our grumpy faces...

And our genuine smiles!

And had our first tastes of watermelon which
was a huge hit!

We all had baths after dinner too.

She definitely didn't like the rind.

Kate organized a family people train at Brian's Aunt's and
Uncle's cookout.

It collected people along the way.

And Maya explored the play food in the kitchen
when sister bear was napping.

We played with dishes in the dishwasher.

And Kate and I had a super silly night one night where she
was being a complete goofball and we just laughed at
everything!  This was the photo I got to commemorate that
night.

On that same night, I found 200+ naked photos of
myself while I was getting dressed (thank you,
iPhone bursts) and this random one where Kate
asked me to mimic what she was doing.
Some sort of 'roar' evidently.

Kate slid down this super fun slide at gymnastics:

And we shared an ice cream cone in the car!

We worked on painting our lower case letters.

Maya joined the fun when she got up from nap.

We were having so much fun that we stripped down and got messy.

We promptly included baths.

And house cleaning...

We had a really silly dancer in our living room:

And we went to an awesome Touch-A-Truck event where we touched and sat in all sorts of trucks and other cool vehicles!

In the cab of an 18-wheeler.

In the back of a school bus.

In line for a helicopter.

In said helicopter.

Once again, Maya is super excited to be on a
moving train!

Big sis pushed little sis around in the shopping cart.

And I celebrated my 34th birthday with the family I love:

Brian, Me, Kate + Maya.

The big 3-4.

I usually do a birthday post, a little recap of where I am and how I am.  I'm skipping it this year and recapping with a 34 years old feels a little older than normal statement.  I'm not entirely sure why.  I don't physically feel 34.  I don't think I look 34.  I know I don't act 34, but for some reason this birthday just felt a bit older than normal.  That's the best way I can put it.

I'm 34.  I'm still young.  I still have a lot of living to do.  I'm still grateful to be celebrating birthdays, but 34?  Man, nearly 35.  And that means, nearly 40.  How is that possible?

Last day of gymnastics.  I love how intently Kate
is listening to her teacher.

I've said this before but I'm saying it again: the thing with being so far behind on our blog is I forget a lot of the little things.  Most of these groups of photos would have otherwise had their own blog posts, but for now the photos are being honored together in one post.  Perhaps that is a good thing.  I can and do get a bit winded sometimes.

Don't worry.  Once I'm all caught  up, normal posts will resume.  [Cue applause now.]