"LOOK, I'M SO BIG!"

Maleah was so excited tonight when she saw her shadow on the grass that she started yelling, "MOM LOOK, I'm so big!". She thought it was really cool to be so big that she even told our neighbors about it when they came over. She explained to our 3-year old neighbor girl how she can climb the rock wall on the big-toy because she saw herself tonight and she grew BIG! I don't think the other 3-year old had any idea what Maleah was talking about.....and I don't think she really cared! But Maleah sure was excited to have grown so big!

BACKYARD FUN

We spent most of our afternoon today in the backyard playing in water. We set-up the pool and the slip-n-slide.

Everyone loves the pool.....




Almost everyone loves the slip-n-slide.....

Maleah is just not quite sure about the whole slip-n-slide thing. To really have fun on it you'd have to get your face wet and that creates a problem for Maleah. After a couple of hours of trying it off-and-on she decided that it was a really fun thing to do as long as she ran ALL the way to the end and then after she got through the squirting water she would slide (really fall) to her knees. Then she'd jump up and say "Yeah, I did it! That was so much fun!". And then she'd do it again!

Here's Rena ready to swim........in our little blow-up pool in the backyard. Do you think she'll really need that floaty??? She thinks so!!!

A LOOK BACK AT MALEAH'S 3 YEARS

When the kids have a birthday I love to look back at each years pictures. I haven't had Maleah's 3-year pictures taken yet (those will be posted as soon as I do) but here are some of her professional pictures that have been taken over the past 3 years. I posted her "at-home" pictures last year (Maleah is 2) so it's time to look at some professional ones.....

Maleah is 2!

Maleah turned 1!

Maleah is 9 months old!

Maleah is 3 months old!

Maleah is just 1 month old!

AND this is my favorite picture of Maleah......

taken when she was 18 months old!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY MALEAH!

Hard to believe, but Maleah turned 3 today! We had a busy, fun day celebrating!

The day started off with Maleah opening presents from Cameron and Rena. Rena picked out a blue magna-doodle for her -- so that there wouldn't be anymore fighting over the 2 that we already had in the van. She chose blue because it's Maleah's favorite color.

Cameron picked out a blue light saber for Maleah. I'm not really sure that Maleah actually wanted a light saber, but at least he chose blue -- again, her favorite color.

After breakfast (and a few pointers from Cameron on the light saber) we headed out to a local water park. It was a beautiful day with great temps -- not too hot and not too cold!

Cameron had a great time -- here he is in the kids area headed toward the little water slide.

Here's Cameron and I going down the bigger water slide.

Here's Cameron playing in some water!

And here's all of the kids (including Jeff) playing with one of the many water toys that was there. The girls needed a little extra help from daddy on their side!

Maleah's favorite part of the whole park was the swimming pool. She got to hang on to daddy the whole time and didn't have to get her face wet. She wasn't a big fan of any of the water toys that got her wet.......why, then, did we go to a water park for Maleah's birthday??? I don't know! :)

After the water park we headed out for a drive exploring (while all 3 kids napped) then we stopped for dinner and then we headed back home for cupcakes and more presents.

Thanks Stacy, Mike, Megan and Alex for the cute hat, dress and swimsuit!

We then finished up the day outside trying out Maleah's new scooter (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Keyes)!

Maleah is now ready to join the outside scooter fun with her brother and sister!

A DAY AT THE PEORIA ZOO

It definitely was NOT the Seattle Woodland Park Zoo and it was definitely different to be going to the zoo without any friends to meet up with, BUT it was fun! It's a small zoo, but still has some interesting stuff to see. And it was fun to get out and do something new outside. Cameron was at the Zoo last week for a camp so he thought he was an expert and was our tour guide. He knew exactly where to go and what everything was.

This is Rena ready to go and ready to help with the backpack........for about 2 minutes until she decided she wanted to ride in the wagon.

SMILE! (Have you ever tried to get 3 kids to all look at the camera and smile at the same time??? Impossible!!)

Rena had so much fun with these little Meerkat's. There were about 5 of them in the cage and they loved to run back and forth in front of the window.........and Rena loved to run with them!

Maleah with her "shades" on! We don't go anywhere around here without Maleah's sunglasses!

I'm tired......is it time to go home yet???

CAMERON IS A ZOO KID!

Cameron participated in a week-long camp this last week at the Peoria Zoo. It was just for kids who would be entering kindergarten this coming year and ran from 9am to noon. He said he had a good time and met some new friends!

READY TO PLAY

The big toy is put back together and ready for some climbing, sliding and swinging! We ended up putting it somewhere different than originally planned and also decided to put it right on the sod instead of on play chips and I think it turned out great.....and the kids agree!


I think we will have many hours of fun in our backyard this summer.....I just hope the backyard neighbors don't hate us!!

OUR WEEKEND

Our weekend was full of fun! We started off on Saturday morning by heading to the bike store to buy new bikes for Jeff & I. We walked out of the store with my new bike (and Maleah's attached), but had to order one for Jeff. I don't think I've ridden a bike in probably at least 15 years, but it was really fun to get on it and go around the neighborhood. I took a nice long ride by myself before I put Maleah on the back. It's a little hard to get use to her being back there, but I feel pretty confident now........and she thinks it's great!

After some bike riding we headed to an indoor pool area in downtown Peoria. It has this great play area for the kids, a big water slide for the adults and a little lazy river area for everyone.

After swimming we went down to The RiverFront for some pizza and a little walk. Cameron found a tree to climb (ok, he didn't actually climb it -- he got a lift from Jeff) and the girls had fun running along the river walk.

Sunday wasn't nearly as fun as Saturday (for everyone except me). We did take a bike ride around the neighborhood (Jeff took a scooter ride since he doesn't have his bike yet), but then I drug everyone out shopping. We have a nice outdoor mall near us so we went over there to kick around. The best part for the kids was the outdoor CAT playground.....

And that was our weekend! :)

TIME TO MOW

Jeff started up the new mower last night. He traded-in (actually sold to his dad) his riding lawn mower for a good 'ole walk behind mower. The exercise will do him good!! :)

Maleah decided to help and pulled her mower out of the garage also!

While we were outdoors the kids had fun on their scooters and bikes. They ride down the sidewalk until they get to the end then they turn around and come back.........and they do it over and over and over again!

SOME NEIGHBORHOOD FUN

We've been spending a lot of time outside enjoying our new neighborhood and meeting some of our new neighbors. Jeff and Cameron were having races around the neighborhood on Cameron's bike and scooter last night. Looks like Cameron is in the lead!


We've met a couple of different families with kids in the neighborhood. This is Kylee from across the street. She really likes Cameron (if you can't tell). When they were leaving tonight she told her mom, "Mommy I love Cameron". Unfortunately Kylee and her family just put their house up for sale and will be moving sometime this summer. Our first friends in Peoria and they are already leaving!! :(