Yellow River Game Ranch

I'm a little behind lately...so sue me! Blame it on the poor internet connection! Anyways over Easter weekend we made a trip to Atlanta to visit family. Our first stop was the Yellow River Game Ranch. This is a place where you can feed animals like deer, sheep, squirrels(don't get me started on that one), pigs, bears, rabbits etc. The girls had a blast! This was Olivia's first visit and she quite enjoyed feeding and chasing the animals. No fear there! When she wasn't busy feeding them she was helping herself to the crackers as well. She's such a sneak. Another great visit to the game ranch!

Here's Ava posing with some irises while we wait for the ranch to open.

 Grandma Boo and her girls!

 Ava trying on a coon skin hat!

 Olivia meeting and feeding deer for the first time.

 The girls!

 Feeding the burro...Ava chose to get a stuffed animal burro at the end of the trip...she named him Buck.

 Daddy and the girls feeding animals.

 Olivia...feeding the animals her arm.

 Chasing chickens!

 Feeding sheep.

 Cute! Baby goat and rooster!

 Sneaking some crackers for herself!

 She knows she's been caught!

 Harper and I.

 Olivia wouldn't share her crackers with Auntie Megan!

Petting rabbits with Daddy.

more outdoor fun

we love spending time outside. the possibilities are endless! its even better now that we have a fence! yea! its so nice to let everyone out and not worry they might run into the neighbors yard our fall off a four foot ledge! here are some pics from our backyard adventures!

 Pre-fence...Charlie spraying the girls with the hose!

 Nipples! Haha!

 aren't they the cutest!

 waiting for the water spray!

 Olivia loves being thrown in the air!

 Camping in the backyard! Ava helping set up the tent!

 Olivia "helping" with the tent.  Really she was just wandering around and getting in Ava's way which made her mad!

 The fam assembling the tent.

 We didn't actually camp in it, thankfully because it ended up pouring ran that night! Ava and I did roast some s'mores in the outdoor fireplace though!

 Olivia playing in a tupperware filled with water!

 An extra spoon, a tin can and tupperware...who needs to buy toys?

 Fun!

 Charlie working in the new fenced in yard!

 Jetta and the fence! Of course the first day she managed to get out...we have since remedied that problem area!

 The fence going in.

Gate into the fence...and said 4 foot drop off to right.

and a hiking we will go

ok. so this is really behind but i wanted to put the pictures up anyways! 2 Sundays ago we loaded the family up into the 'burb and drove to Mistletoe State Park for a picnic lunch and hike. It was such a beautiful day we wanted to be outside, unplugged from our electronics. Everyone walked(except Harper, I carried her) the whole way this time. Olivia had to be carried last time. We weren't able to let Jetta run around like previous visits because there were more people around and, well, she loves people. Either way, we all had a great time hiking and having our picnic lunch in the woods.

After we got home the kids played in the yard and Charlie and I relaxed on the patio. Charlie had a great idea to eat dinner outside so twice in one day we enjoyed eating outside. Ava even got lucky and scored ice cream from the ice cream man from her chore money! What more could we ask for?

 Walking in the woods!

 the best family picture I could manage!

 Olivia being a he-man and picking up big sticks!

 Harper and I!

 so happy!

 oh Ava...

 Enjoying her pasta dinner outside!

 My little ham!

 Ice cream from the ice cream man!

 Harper enjoying the outdoors.

Can you tell Charlie likes having his picture taken? Hehe!

Growing a garden

So with the warm weather we have been doing a lot of work outdoors. This year we decided to grow our own garden! All of us are very excited about it, especially Ava. She helped my plant the seeds for our garden and has been diligent with taking care of them! Our little garden will have carrots, broccoli, green beans, watermelon, tomatoes, basil, and blueberries. I believe my sister will be coming and bringing us some more plants...peppers maybe, sorry Melissa I don't remember that conversation that well! Anyways, we are hoping to build a raised garden bed to put our plants in once they have sprouted. I have to bring out the woodworking side of me to do this though, we'll see how that goes! I can't wait to see how our garden will turn out!

 getting ready to plant!

 our blueberry bush!

 after planting

 olivia at the playground today...she has recovered from her bad week!

marigolds and petunias for our front porch.

Bad week for Olivia

Poor Olivia. As some of you may have seen and heard...little Olivia had a bad week last week. She's 1 going on 10 it seems and she is just into everything. Well that includes fire ant beds. I was inside feeding the baby when she found the first bed and got bit on her hands and feet. Of course it didn't bother her. Well, she apparently thought it was a fun place to play and went back for more. Ouch. She was covered in ant bites on her hands, under her arms, lower back, upper back...I even found some ants in her diaper. Thankfully she is doing better, I can still see many of the marks and where she was scratching herself. Maybe she's learned her lesson now...probably not but the ants are gone. :)

The other part of her bad week included her falling out of her crib and getting a black eye/cheek. Now she has been sleeping in a big girl bed but sometimes I will put her in her crib if she is playing at nap time. Well that day she was playing and after several attempts to make her go to sleep I finally put her in her crib. Not more than 2 minutes later I hear a loud boom from upstairs and I knew what she had done. Thankfully it was just a little bump on her cheek because it could have been so much worse!

Has she learned any lessons from the past week? Only time will tell...

 On a walk the morning of the second, brutal ant attack. :) What a cool cat!

 The morning after the ant attack.

 At Target buying benadryl and children's itching cream.

 Vicious fire ants...I didn't get pictures of the other areas...they didn't look as bad...they were definitely welted up though. This was a more concentrated area of bites...the others were spread out.

Shortly after her attempt at breaking out of her crib. Notice the bruise on her left cheek/eye area.

Easter Bunny

Easter is almost here and what would it be without an Easter Bunny?

:)