We usually spend the holiday there and take in a local parade. This year, due to the extreme heat, we decided to skip the parade and just stay and play at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.

What is the 4th of July without a little water fight??

The kids had the best time getting each other all wet…they were even begging for us to throw buckets of water at them…who am I to say no to that??

And afterwards…popsicles.

Now, just about every time we go there, my kids ask if we brought the squirt guns and swimsuits. It’s definitely a memory they’ll have for a long, long time!

This year for Mother’s Day…we decided to take in the Blank Park Zoo.

We love this zoo! It is small, yes…but that is what makes it so doable with small kids in one day! Even part of a day!

We had stayed at Nathan’s mom’s house the night before, and gotten up early to make the short trek to Des Moines from Ogden. It was a nice way to spend the day as a family, and include Nathan’s mom in our Mother’s Day plans as well.

It was the perfect temperature that day…I wore a sweatshirt for the first half of the day – ideal weather for the zoo! It also wasn’t super busy, since we had opted not to do the mother’s day brunch at the zoo – but the line to get in when we left (around 1) was crazy long. Good planning on our part!

We took a break from following the Wallabys and sat outside of the Australian section of the zoo for a bit. Evan kept telling me he wanted me to get in the egg with him…but then when it actually came down to it, he didn’t want to share his egg. At least my girl did.

One of our favorite parts of the zoo is feeding the fish…but these monkey bars were calling to Ellie on the way there, so we had to stop and play for a bit. She’s been very into the monkey bars since last year at Kindergarten, and this summer she took every opportunity to practice them! Look at that tongue sticking out – the concentration is intense!

Finally made it to the fish.

What mama couldn’t love those two faces? Loved my day at the zoo with my babies. What a perfect mother’s day! (The fact that we followed it with lunch at Applebee’s and frozen yogurt from Lemon Tree didn’t hurt either!)

The kids loved helping!

Especially Ev…he wanted to pack it all in. I feel kind-of sorry for the person who got this one…hope there was some whole popcorn pieces left in there by the time he was done.

Making the trek up the hill…

and my favorite…running back down the hill. You should have seen their faces when they burst through the back door. They were so excited!

And then they got to do it to two more houses!

We took in the fireworks in Waterloo on Friday night of the weekend…mainly so we didn’t have to worry about seeing them on Monday night and then getting the kids to bed late when we’d have to get up for Ellie’s t-ball the next morning.

Sunday, we headed to my parents house, and then onward to feed the ducks in Charles City. It had been awhile since we’d done this – I think Evan was just born…

yep…there he is…at two months and one day old, “feeding” the ducks.

and there is Ellie…(such a little girl!)

So, it was time to make a return trip – one perhaps Evan will remember.

He loved it! He really got into the throwing part!

And all Ellie wanted was for a goose to take the bread out of her hand. One eventually did…and then she went back to throwing too…I think it may have scared her a little more than she’ll admit.

The next day was the 4th…and we spent the morning at the parade with my parents and grandparents.

Waiting for the parade when it’s 95+ degrees outside is one hot affair! Thank goodness for grandma and her 4 umbrellas!

You can see how the sharing of one was going…

But each with our own, mom and i were staying “nice and cool”. Well, it was better anyway.

By the time the parade started, the kids didn’t care anyway…they were up, in the street, getting candy, and greeting…Elmo? How hot would this guy have been? Woah.

And here is my favorite series of pictures from the morning…she sees Ronald…she calls out “hey, Ronald”. He waves like they’ve been friends forever…and then comes over. I love this guy. Something about him gets me thinking about french fries and strawberry lemonade (which, sadly, I’m addicted to!)

AND he brings his own picture frame!

Not to be left out of course!

What a great morning! Hot and all…I’ll still take it. We celebrated after the parade with lunch at my grandma and grandpa’s house. Followed by a nap. Now there is a holiday tradition I never miss…and one that never gives me stress in planning!

And i can’t just allow myself to gloss over it because the pictures are just too cute.

Evan’s birthday falls around father’s day every year, and since we were having his party (more on that in the next post) ON father’s day this year…we had to celebrate the holiday a little early.

I had driven to Dunkerton to pick up race packets for that weekend’s 5K and on the way back called Nathan and told him to meet us in Cedar Falls at his favorite restaurant…Pablos. He had to make a quick stop at one store, so while we were waiting, the kids and I swung down to Scratch Cupcakery and picked up some Father’s Day treats. Yum Yum.

We decided to wait until we got home to eat them, so we could all share all of the flavors.

Ellie picked out a chocolate chip cupcake, Evan, a lemon one with raspberry frosting, Mom picked red velvet and we got a white one with mint frosting for Daddy.