Movie Night on the Lawn

This morning we had fun at the park:

And when a lady walked by the playset with her dog, Alegria asked, "Hey!  May I pet your dog, please?"  I was so happy that she asked politely...we just need to work on the addressing part, though!  Haha!  :)

A man came by with his two dogs...well, actually, the white one is a wolf.  He raises them for Yellowstone Park and then they are released into the park.  Interesting.  I didn't know they raised the wolves first, before introducing them back into the wild...

On our way home from the park, the children wanted to walk/run the rest of the way to Ethan and Ryan's house:

When we got to their house, the kids wanted to keep playing, so the girls and I stayed for a little bit.  Heather and I visited and the kids had a fun time playing together:

That evening, we went to the church house to help clean it.  Cameron vacuumed, I rearranged chairs after he'd vacuumed, and the girls, as much as I tried to keep them reverent in the building, climbed and danced around as usual:

After we were done, we had dinner at a nearby Burger King:

On our way home, we decided to find the Movie on the Lawn location so that when we came back to it, we wouldn't have trouble finding it.  Well, when we got there, it was already packed, so we just stayed so we wouldn't lose our parking spot or lose out on a good viewing spot, either.  We laid down a few blankets we had brought.  The girls were a little confused as to what we were doing and what was going on:

What's on his mind...?

Cameron was getting bored waiting for the movie to start, since they wouldn't start it until it got dark, so he took Alegria to the petting zoo and to get some popcorn.  
In the meantime, there was music playing and so Odette and I took pictures, jammed out, and tickled each other:

Cameron and Alegria reurned quickly.  Apparently, when they got to the petting zoo, they had just closed shop, so they got some popcorn and came back.  Picture time!

Finally it got dark and the movie started...

...but the girls were not sitting still.  Odette was extremely tired, I could tell, but she was overstimulated and would not just lay in my arms and fall asleep...there was too much commotion for that plan to work!  And Alegria was also too excited about the whole situation that even though she was half watching the movie, she still wouldn't sit still.  Cameron and I were not enjoying the movie very much, not only because of the girls' constant movement, but also because the movie, "Alvin and the Chipmunks 3: Chipwrecked" was just not as good as the first two, in our opinion.  So about half-way through, we decided we were leaving.  Alegria protested and said she WAS watching the movie, but we'd made up our minds and we left...much to her chagrin.  Oh well.  
We got home, got the girls ready for bed, and now Cameron and I finally have peace and quiet.

It was another fun, busy day!

Good night everyone!!!  :)

Wildlife Wonders

This morning, Heather and her boys came over and we all piled into their minivan to go to a free event on post called "Wildlife Wonders."  When we first arrived, the children were drawn to the colorful bounce houses:

Alegria, of course, wanted to bounce in the blue one, so she quickly got in:

When she realized that it was enclosed the whole way through, she decided that she didn't want to be in it after all...and since there were so many children bouncing on the regular bounce house, we veered the kids over to the petting zoo.  That proved to be Alegria's favorite thing!

We almost had to pry Alegria away from the petting zoo in order to go watch a live exotic animal show, but she and the other children seemed excited to be able to learn about other animals, especially when they were given the chance to pet some of them!

A super cute hedgehog:

An armadillo:

An owl:

A crocodile:

The lady's explanations of the animals started to be too much for the children and they began to get restless, so before the show was over, we decided to head over to the snack area before there was a crowd.  The kids had no problem with getting their free snacks!

Then we went back over to the petting zoo one more time before heading home.  Alegria was sooooo sad to leave!

That afternoon, Alegria and Odette received some mail from Grandma and Grandpa Marlow!  Here's Daddy reading the letter to them:

Later, Alegria and Odette had fun jumping on the trampoline:

When it got too hot and the girls were beyond too sweaty, they came in and cooled off, and played in the playroom.  Fancy that, Odette loves safari animals too and has picked up on a few playing habits of Alegria's...organizing all of the animals in a row, stacking animals on top of each other and "feeding" them out of any container she finds!

  

Alegria was too busy playing with Mrs. Potatohead to notice that Odette was playing with her safari animals...thank goodness!!!  :)

Then it was time to make dinner:

While I made our real dinner, Odette caught up on her reading...shoe shopping!  She truly is a girl after my own heart:

Because Daddy was so busy preparing for his op-order yesterday, we left my birthday cake-cutting until today after dinner:

It was DELICIOUS!!!  Thanks again, Heather!!!  :)

Then Odette made a few phone calls before practicing her drum riffs for a gig her band's got coming up:

At the end of the night, as we were cleaning up all of the toys, I noticed this:

When asked what this was, Alegria replied that her animals were in their cages, just like at the petting zoo today!  Notice the baby beanie hat on one of the containers...the lady at the live exotic animal show actually had covers on all of the cages!  What an observant and creative little girl!!!  :)

It was a busy and fun-filled day!  Can't wait for tomorrow with my precious little family!!!  :)

Good night everyone!!!  :)