3.31.2016

Parks!

We received our spring 2016 Tustin catalogue a few weeks ago.  It has a list of city classes and special events and little city news.  On the back was this map:
It had all the parks mapped out with addresses.
Eden and I are going to try to see as many as we can and find out favorites.  I can be such a creature of habit and we had the best time discovering new places!
First up: 
Victory Park
It's on the site near the old Marine Corps Air Station, so there was a space/plane theme throughout the park.
 She wanted me to go down a big slide right after her and I had to laugh because I felt like a kid again because it was so high and went so fast!
 There were all sorts of stations around that practiced making different sounds.
Very fun, but it is possible that I can still hear the pitch of this xylophone as I write this...❤︎
  Next up:
Heritage Park:
It was tucked back under these beautiful trees and had a pirate theme. 
 There was even buried treasure... 
but we couldn't open it because the pirates must have had the only key! ❤︎
The flowers were is full bloom everywhere:
She wanted to stop and smell all the flowers!
This was the park that we decided to have our lunch.  It was so peaceful!
We were going to head home, but Eden remembered a park that was close that she had gone to with her grandparents! 
(Thank you Eric and Diane! It was AMAZING!)
So the last for the day was Pioneer Road Park:
She new exactly what she wanted to show me and exactly where she wanted to play and finish her lunch:



 The sky was beautiful and it felt like EVERYTHING was in bloom.  Spring is here!
Eden and I had the best time together!  She kept saying, "I love these girl days , mama!"  To be honest, we are together all the time that I think it took doing something out of our normal routine to realize how special it is that we get to be together so much!  We can't wait to check out many more parks and to find more favorites!
Here is to many more "girl days"...❤︎

3.30.2016

Our little girl's bedroom changes

Eden has been feeling very old to me recently.  From signing her up for preschool and looking ahead to the school years with her, to her making her own friends and being so incredibly independent, I think when it all gets added up, I feel like we have a little girl who is growing up fast.  I know, she is only four, but something about this time of life with her feels like she is really growing!
All that said, we have slowing been talking about changing her room from something that we had chosen for her as an infant, to letting her speak into her little space.  Here is what her room has looked like before:
She has been really wanting more pink so with getting a big kid bed on the horizon, we have decided to slowly start making little changes to her room.  The whole thing started with finding this quilt at Target.  She fell in love with it...
So this inspired the whole rest of the little room changes.
We headed to Ikea for a pillow form and made a little date out of it:
 We didn't find the pillow form size that we wanted but this little girl just loved this pink lantern:
 So I had lichen from the cabin and this bird from our Easter decorations:
 We turned the lantern into a bird house:
 And it has proudly made itself at home on her book shelf
Here is this little side of her room:
 The pink throw has become a new favorite reading blanket:
Then we had this shirt that she had worn when she was two that she and I LOVED:
 So after cutting off extra pieces and making a few stitches...
After sewing the edges closed, 
We had a pillow cover:
We stuffed it with batting and it now lives on her bed:
She is absolutely loving her room!  
It feels like its her and she has such ownership of it all!
The next step will be to upgrade her bed to a twin.
I just can't believe she is 4 and growing so fast!

3.29.2016

Easter 2016

Easter weekend is such an exciting time for us and the Church.  How thankful for the Story of a RISEN Savior who LOVES us so intensely...
Here are a few snapshots of our Easter weekend!
Before all the festivities, we were able to catch one of Ryder's games on Saturday.  Having some of his favorite people there was such a highlight!
This was the first Easter that was held at our home church, and not off site and it was so sweet to experience something so new.
We attended church on Saturday night as a family.  Grandi and Papa were there to make it so we could do all that we needed to to!
We are so thankful for them!
The kids in their Sunday best:
Then on Sunday morning, we went to church for the 4 services.
We then came home early afternoon for some Easter festivities.
We died Easter eggs:
 The kids decided to use their hands to get the eggs...
Her hands are still this color:
The eggs turned out SO much better than I thought they would.  We were letting the kids just go for it...
Eden picked flowers for our table because she is really good at it!
We ate an amazing Easter feast:
The kids had a little scavenger hunt to find some treats. 
Here they were getting the instructions from their Papa:
We decorated our bags for our egg hunt:
(This is my second year doing it and it has been a hit each time!)
 
The egg hunt and sorting their treats...
 It was such a sweet weekend.  It was full of joy, celebrations and family time...
It really doesn't get any better than that...❤︎
Plus, Kit took Monday off, so we were able to recalibrate back to our normal life.
 ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎