Desert Botanical Gardens

 This striped butterfly was our favorite!

For one of our playdates this month, we got passes to the Botanical Garden at the library.  They were having their butterfly exhibit.  The exhibit did not disappoint!  There were butterflies everywhere.  Some kids even got them to land on their fingers.  It was a pretty warm day, so we didn't look around the rest of the gardens for too long, but the butterflies made it all worth it. 

Easter

Saturday night the girls decorated a few eggs.  Brooklyn mostly watched Maylee dye the eggs.  Nothing fancy, but they still thought it was cool.

The Easter Bunny made it to our house Easter morning!  The girls found the eggs and their baskets pretty quick.  Brooklyn knew just what to do this year!  And it didn't take her long at all to bust an egg open and dig in!

For breakfast, I made cinnamon rolls from scratch.  I don't do this often, hmmmm... actually I think I have only done it once before.  They were so yummy!  It is a good thing I don't make them more often because I ate most of them myself!  I had some strawberries with them so that makes a healthy breakfast, right? :)

A sweet day

(Maylee took this picture of me and Brooklyn!  I love it!)

We had to meet Jeff out in Mesa to sign some papers, and made a day out of it.  It really was the perfect little day.  After the signing, we went straight to the temple.  The weather was perfect so it gave us time to wander around the gardens for a bit and then we went inside the visitors center to see the statue of Christ.  I love the sweet spirits of children- they were so reverant as we listened to the short clip.  I really felt the spirit sitting with my two sweet girls.

Then we walked around downtown Mesa for a bit and grabbed some lunch.  We went to a place called Urban Picnic, which Maylee was disappointed with because she thought it would really be a "picnic" type place where you grab your food and sit on the grass (I might have been confused as well) but the food ended up being fantastic and the big purple chair on the sidewalk made it better as well.

Disney on Ice

On April 12, daddy stayed home with Brooklyn so Maylee and I could go out on a "Mommy-Daugther" Date with all the other girls in my family.  We went to Disney on Ice.  We met downtown, grabbed some pizza for dinner, and went to the show.  The show was good, but the last show we saw was Princess on Ice... and with a group full of girls only it is hard to compete with that.  Maylee kept waiting for Rapunzel to come on the ice, which she did not. :(  Darn.  We still had fun and I'm sure you can guess that I had one sweet, little girl fast asleep by the time we got home. :)

Playdate Valentines Party

Of course we had to have a Valentine's Party for one of our playdates.  We did the regular party thing... BINGO, sugar cookies, and hanging out.  Thanks Grandma for having it all cute for us!

The girls got Valentine shirts from Grandma.  Here they are sporting them.

Best friends

Brooklyn L.O.V.E.S her cousin Lily.  She loves Lily just like she loves all babies!  Poor Lily is a trooper and puts up with all the love (smothering) Brooklyn gives.

This is what Brooklyn was doing pretty much the whole time- frosting her cookie, then licking it, frosting it, then licking it!  Yum!  The candies would only be on her cookie for a minute before she put them into her mouth as well! :)

On the other hand, Maylee takes sugar cookie decorating very seriously!

Yes, more hiking pictures...

My strong Maylee holding up the boulders.

My whole family (minus Kelsie and Kyle) got together on a Saturday and hiked South Moutain at 24th Street.  I love that trail.  Perfect for kids.  Fun with rocks and boulders.  

January Playdates

Here are a few pics from the playdates we had.  

Halle came up with the idea of going hiking and having a picnic!  How perfect!  Getting exercise and playing together.  Maylee wanted to bring along the camera she got for Christmas.  She loves taking pictures of other people, I just wish I could get her to like getting her own picture taken. :)

We also scored some passes to the Children's Museum of Phoenix at the library!  With my membership and the passes we only had to pay for one person.  Maylee always loves it when someone else joins us at the museum.