our Hippo

As Evan likes to tell everyone he sees, our Hippo went to go play at the playground with Jesus and God yesterday.  Evan also thinks Grandma Connie is taking care of her and he says she doesn't bite now that she is in Heaven ;) {I wouldn't say Hippo was aggressive, she was just turning into an old lady and wanted to be left alone so when Evan wanted to try to carry her around like a baby she would often nip at him}.  Poor little Evan is our pet lover and after her incident with a car yesterday and the veterinarian telling us that there was nothing they could do, he took it the hardest.  He asked me 101 different questions about Hippo, Heaven, and people dying.  Evan is better now after settling on the fact that we will get a new puppy soon and knowing he will see Hippo later in Heaven.  Ellie still doesn't quite understand and is still asking where Hippo is.  Avery keeps his emotions bottled up inside, but he is not really our "pet" lover...he LOVES animals, just not so much normal pets like dogs and cats.  However, my kiddos don't know a life without Hippo and it will take some getting used to.  I am glad that she got to live and long and healthy life with us and that we were all able to say good-bye to her yesterday.  Here's a little look at our life with Hippo:

Baby Hippo {everyone asked why we would name such a little, girl dog Hippo...don't ask me Ryan came up with that one ;)}

Life with Ryan ;) before there was a Mr. and Mrs.

With Grandma Connie

Fun times swimming

Her glamour shots :)

As our ring bearer in our wedding

Our first family Christmas card

The first day we brought home Avery

Two little Santas

When we brought home Evan

Our last Christmas with her

The last picture of Hippo taken a couple of weeks ago...she still had it in her even as an "old" lady

We will miss you our dear Hippo!

the best zoo!

On Saturday we actually didn't have any soccer games and baseball season hasn't yet started so we decided to use our only "free" Saturday we will have for awhile to take a trip to the best zoo ever!

What zoo is this you ask?  The Omaha Zoo!  Now we love our Kansas City Zoo and have annual membership passes to visit it as much as we want, but nothing can really compare to the Omaha Zoo {well nothing as in KC Zoo or St. Louis Zoo because that's the only zoos I have been too ;)}.  They really have so much packed into one little area and the aquarium is like nothing else we have in the Midwest.  Last year we made our first trip there and decided it needs to be a yearly or at least bi-yearly trip.  Since we only live about 3 hours away it's not that bad of a day trip.  So we loaded up the van and headed off at 6 Saturday morning.  We arrived soon after the zoo opened and stayed until our little Evan couldn't keep his eyes open anymore {yes, Evan and not Ellie...she was still fairing pretty good because she had a little nap on the way up}, and headed back home around 3:30.  Just enough time to make it through all the major attractions at the zoo.  Favorite parts?  The aquarium {of course} and the desert dome!  Here's a little look at our day in pictures:

Then on Sunday at church Avery recreated the whole zoo :)...

one 6 year old boy

Oh to be a six year old boy...

life is pretty good for our oldest superhero.  Here's some things that have been happening lately with our buddy.

A little playtime with his brother and sister...

A little field trip with his kindergarten class...

{I CANNOT believe there is only a month left of kindergarten...I am NOT ready for all day 1st grade!!!}

A little rock star soccer action:

{His stats so far this season game 1:  2 goals, game 2:  3 goals, game 3:  1 goal, game 4:  3 goals!!!}

A little preparation for baseball season and his first ever coach pitch:

{Yes, we do have two different sports overlapping...it's getting a little interesting around here!}

 A little fun with Ryan at Take your Child to Work Day! 

{Avery spent a few hours at work with Ryan and he loved it!}

{Yes, that's a bike in Ryan's office...where else would you park your bike you take to work ;)?}

And a little bit of holes in almost every pants he owns!??  What's the deal here...and they are all in his left knee...I do not understand boys!  What I do know it needs to be shorts weather like now or else he will be sporting the only pants he doesn't have holes in the knees...sweat pants...to everything including church!

a trip to Legoland & some of my current favs

Last Friday, BHM {Before Half Marathon...because that thing really consumed my life before ;)}, the superheroes and princess along with their friends spent the morning at Legoland.  It was our first trip there since they moved into the area almost a year ago now.  We were holding out on going because that place really makes you fork over some dough just to get in...but we finally decided it was time to check it out on Avery's day off of school.  I think they all really loved it!  It is no Disney World and it's on a pretty small scale, but the kiddos had a lot of fun!  I was expecting more actual building with Legos, but they spent more of their time shooting the "bad guys" on an adventure ride, pedaling a bike on an amusement park style ride, playing in a jungle gym, watching a 3D movie, sitting on some Lego animals, and there was a little bit of building a race car in there too. I don't think we will go back frequently because of the cost, but it is a good "special" playdate place to spend the day. 

On to some randomness...here are some of my favorite things lately :)...

My medal hanger my sister got me for my birthday.  Two things here (1) I really need to enter more races that give out medals! {I had to include Ryan's half marathon medal too to make it look like more ;)} (2) My 10k race medal is LARGER then my half marathon one... {And if you are curious that little baby one is from my very first race the Mother's Day 5k!}

I now own a sewing machine!  My parent's got me this for my birthday!  It is very exciting {does this make me seem old?}!  However, I guess now I have to actually fix my own things instead of taking them to my mom to fix... I haven't really sewn anything since ninth grade home economics...it's like riding a bike, right...once you learn you never forget :).  But if you see Ryan or my kids wearing something funky in the near future it might just mean I used my mad sewing skills...haha!  Seriously, Avery did tell me he wants me to make all of his clothes from now on!

I have talked about this a little before, but besides from pretending to be a runner I also pretend to be a scrapbooker!  Seriously, it is pretending because I am all about speed and getting things accomplished so I don't spend all the creative time making my pages beautiful as a real scrapbooker would.  The one thing I have LOVED this year is my new Project Life scrapbook.  I believe this style of scrapbooking was created for all the pretenders like myself.  I love it!  It comes with a whole kit of cards that you just slip into the page protectors in their designated whole and slip in your pictures...write a few journaling words and you are done!  It is so simple!  I set out to take a picture a day this year to scrapbook and so far it has been easy and not hard to keep caught up with this style.  I haven't missed a day of picture taking yet either...but if you see a few pictures of kiddos sleeping in the scrapbook it might just be that I almost forgot to take a picture that day until the last second ;).

Last but not least, I just bought this cereal yesterday and I will have to say it is my new favorite!  I love it!  I ate it as cereal and on top of yogurt.  I will give you one guess where I bought it............that's right Aldi.  I think I have already told you my love for that place!