The Rest of Winter

Winter in AZ is seriously the best. The weather is amazing and we get to spend the majority of our time outdoors. Because of this, winter always FLIES by. Seriously, how is it almost May? And whyyyy? Haha. Anyway, here are some of our winter highlights that I haven't mentioned yet:

Family outings outdoors! We call them "hikes" but really they're just nature walks.... I think I prefer that anyway. ;-)

Picnics:

Valentine's Day! Our tradition is for me to take Matthew out on a date and for Michael to take Kate. Next year I'll probably start also taking Joshua on a date! Anyway, me and Matthew got a McDonald's ice cream cone and Michael and Kate went to Bosa for a donut. I love this tradition.

Park days galore! We live it up while we can before it gets impossibly hot.

Kate continued doing ballet, which she loved as much as always-

This really cute place that does haircuts for kids is pretty cheap if it's your first time so I took Joshua shortly before his birthday so that he'd look extra handsome for his birthday. Now it's probably time that I figure out how to cut his hair myself. Yikes. (Matthew and Michael both have the type of hair where I just use clippers. With Joshua, I need to learn to use the actual scissors. I see some bad haircuts in the poor kid's future while I figure it out.)

Volcano Day at preschool, a tea party, and lunch at LoLo's Chicken and Waffles. (yummier than it sounds!)

Some days are even nice enough for the pool! (Though I try to save the pool days for when there's nothing else to do in the summer.)

And t-ball!!! I am so, so glad that we had the option of doing t-ball in the winter. We spent all our Saturday mornings in January and February (and part of March) at the baseball fields, cheering on our new little t-ball player. Since he was on a team with such little guys, most of the dads helped out and would stand out on the field during the games to help direct the players. It was so fun to see how much Matthew improved. Towards the end of the season he even hit a ball that was thrown by the coach! (As opposed to hitting it off the tee.) Seriously so fun. Go Black Pirates! :-)

Matthew got to be on the same team as two of his best friends - Caleb and Zach Ferguson. (Matthew is #17)

This was the week he got MVP.

Watchin the game. 

And the Chandler Ostrich Festival.... These things are way too expensive but for some reason we love them. Maybe it's the funnel cakes. I'm such a sucker for funnel cakes. We also paid too much for me and Matthew to ride a camel. Kate originally said she didn't want to go. After watching me and Matthew ride she changed her mind but it was too late. Next year I guess!

Good, good times. I am so lucky to get to spend so many amazing days with these amazing people.

Legoland

January was a pretty adventurous month for us. Towards the end of the month we went to Legoland! I had never been before but I'd heard that it was good for smaller kids so I was excited for my kids to check it out. (It also doesn't hurt that Matthew and Kate love legos.)

We left early on a Friday morning, and I decided that I definitely prefer road trips during that time of day. Usually we leave in the late afternoon and pick up Michael from work on our way out of town. I really don't like it because I end up having to pack up the car and get everyone ready by myself and then we are all tired and the kids start out the trip exhausted because we get to our destination late at night and they DON'T sleep in the car. Eek. Anyway, this trip was relatively fast and everyone was well behaved. We made it to LA that afternoon and had time to hang out with Grandma and Papa! The kids were in heaven - especially when we went back to the beach for more sand sledding. Boy oh boy, they REALLY prefer the sand to the snow. :-)

The next morning we drove a couple hours south for LEGOLAND! Well, 4 out of the 5 of us did - Joshua got to hang out with Grandma and Papa for the day. ;-) We met Kathy and Don at their hotel, which was just down the road from the theme park. Matthew and Kate were so so excited!

All the cool Lego creations were so much fun to look at!

It is way crazy cool when you first walk in and see everything that they have made out of Legos, and then you become almost immune to it by the end of the day. Haha. But it really is amazing.

The kids did so well and absolutely LOVED the rides. Most of them were kiddie rides so it was pretty perfect. Their absolute favorite ride was this one that shot them up and down -

SO MUCH JOY on their faces as they rode it. They also loved the carousel and anything they felt like they could drive. (They actually did drive a little bumper car ride and did way better than I thought they would, haha.)

They also loved the roller coaster!! I was excited when they both agreed to go on it but got nervous that they'd completely flip out once they were on it. Nope! They loved it - especially Kate!

Legoland is known for their apple fries and ice cream so I made sure to get each of those. They lived up to the hype - especially those apple fries! Mmmmm! Better than apple pie!

Joshua was more than happy to be spoiled by Grandma and Papa all day. And it made the rest of our lives much easier. :-)

It was such a fun day and trip. Thanks Kathy and Don for introducing us all to Legoland and thanks mom and dad for hosting us! We were sad to go. (Matthew didn't even try to hide that fact- this picture was taken as soon as he realized we really were headed back to AZ.)

Hopefully we can go back again soon!