Our Valentine’s Day was a beautiful, sunny and breezy day. It was still cool enough that you wanted to be in the sun, but warm enough you wanted to be outside! For all the snow and cold we had this winter, an early spring was really wonderful to enjoy. We spent the morning at the Knoxville Botanical Garden in our special “Secret Garden”. The kids drank up the sun and loved moving around.

There is nothing better than going out to play in unexpected places on beautiful days. Fall is a perfect time to find hidden corners of gardens to play in. The girls played with their friends Elena and Maeve at the Knoxville Botanical Garden for a morning play date. There were trails to follow, stone buildings to discover, bushes to hide between, and sweet faces to be photographed. I think Ashley and my favorite thing about the gardens were the stone walls that gave our girls a safe and fun place to run around in. The garden volunteers were planting bulbs for the spring flower beds and they offered for the girls to help them with the planting. Emily and Elena both volunteered to help. Next spring we will have to go back and see the Narcissa that they helped plant. We will return for more play dates on warm days. There are so many more places I want to go and see in the garden.

This is a classic pose for Julia these days. While she doesn’t have many words she choose to share with us, she does say our names. She loves to put her hands to the side of her mouth and yell a persons name to have them come and play. This time she was yelling for “Eeeeee” to come her way.

The girls and I had a playdate playing in a fountain and eating snacks on a HOT day. We took advantage of some coupons to get fun free snacks. The girls enjoyed eating Italian ice and a cupcake. Emily fed Julia some of the Italian ice which was funny to watch. She was good to take a spoonful herself and then share the next one with Julia. The fountain was very refreshing. We met Elena, Maeve, and baby Lincoln to play. The big girls did funny things like trying to ‘sit’ on the water. Emily enjoyed having me swing her feet through the water. Julia liked running the length of the fountain. They played so hard that Julia was asleep in her carseat before we even left the parking garage. Emily gave in to sleep not long after.

We had a play date with our friends at a bounce play house. I loved playing with the kids in the bouncy equiptment. Emily and Elena were busy playing on everything. Julia liked playing, but needed a lot of help. Her favorite was sliding. Aiden went through with Julia and I on one adventure and wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue or go back when we reached the mid-point. He finished it out, honestly I wasn’t sure that I could get out going backwards. All the kids enjoyed checking on baby Natalie.

We celebrated a little summer at a local splash pad and playground. Despite the heat, Emily and Julia seemed more interested in playing at the playground than getting wet. Emily did figure out how to make her pinwheel spin fast by putting it a stream of water. Julia liked climbing the stairs and sliding. The kids served a lot of food out of their little deli. During snack time Elena gave me an awesome smile.

Who doesn’t love the zoo? We were kindly invited by our good friends to play at the zoo and we took them up on the invite. The girls just enjoy each other so much and the mama’s enjoy each other company too. It is a win-win.

We converted our double stroller to a sit-and-stand stroller and this was our first outing with it. Emily loved the new sitting arrangement. She could get out easily and she loved being able to face me. We had a lot more conversations because of the sitting arrangement.

We wandered the zoo checking out a bear, feeding camels, watching zebras eat, trying to climb a fence to see the elephant better, watching the chimps get their room cleaned, eating lunch, playing in the sand, riding a carousel, and generally having a lot of fun. Emily tripped and got her first bloody nose which was a non-event. It stopped quickly and she was distracted from it after a short crying spell. Both of my girls were unimpressed with dip-n-dots which I thought odd, but happily ate theirs. The only girl who was interested in looking at the camera to have her photo taken was Maeve, so I don’t have any great posed shots. That is just going to be the case for a while longer I guess.

We discuss monkeys a lot at our house. There is a book the girls like with monkeys and Emily picks out which is Mommy, Daddy, Emily and Julia. The girls like to immitate monkeys with sound and motions. And Emily has dubbed our family as a “monkey family” with a “monkey mommy”, “monkey daddy”, “monkey girl”, and “monkey baby”. So when we got to the monkey area at the zoo, I was excited for the girls to see some monkeys. To my disappointment, while we were able to see them, we did so only through a gated wall where they were waiting for the monkey house to be cleaned. Then I noticed the special sign the zoo keeper had put out and Julia’s interest in hanging out by the sign. If you take the word “in” out of the statement you can truly appreciate the “monkey baby” outside the exhibit.