Village Green's Big Backyard

A couple weeks ago we went to the Lauritzen Gardens for the first time. We never knew what we were missing out on all these years! We didn't realize how BIG the gardens were. I guess it's over 100 acres. There was a really cool miniature train track village and there was a fun kid area. Riley and Ryan had a great time!

just a small part of the garden

Riley and daddy by the waterfall





Riley mingling with the wildlife

At the miniature train exhibit

only part of the kid's area

Riley and Ryan loved this part of the kid's area!

Snake Update : )

I stole this picture from Janel's blog....these are the neighborhood boys who caught one of the snakes from the front of my house. I'm pretty sure that big snake that Jansten is holding is the same one from my front porch!
I haven't seen any more snakes in front of my house : )

Thanks boys, keep up the good work!

SNAKES!! And Cute Kids : )

We found two snakes this morning as Casey was going to work. One of them slithered into a crack on our steps and the other one just kind of froze in our flower garden area. Before today we thought there was just ONE snake that lived under our steps, but who knows how many there are now! The snakes that we saw were big too! I hope they don't have little baby snakes living under our step!
The neighborhood boys were out early trying to catch snakes and so I told them I had two big snakes in front of my house. I left to go and run some errands, and when I got back the boys told me that they had caught one of the snakes....I'm just not sure what they did with it! At least it's gone...for now!

Yesterday the boys were outside in our backyard area catching snakes...I went over to watch them and they had already caught 3 and as I walked over to where they were I saw two big ones slither away into the forest. Who knows how many live in our backyard! I just hope they don't get into our house....I've heard of that happening in Village Green.





Well, that's enough about snakes. Here are some cute pictures I took of the kids early this morning. Riley woke up in an amazingly good mood, and Ryan got an early start on his daily explorations, trying to open my make up bag.

Zoo with Daddy

The zoo is always more fun with Daddy!

This is the new face that Ryan makes when he's worried or scared about something:








Ryan didn't really know what to think about the goats at first...





But it didn't take him too long to decide that he liked them!







Both kids had a great time petting the goats and following the chickens around!

Ryan vs. the Sticky Bush

♥Cute Girls

I think the hardest thing about moving into the new house for Riley was that we are no longer next door neighbors with the Rasmussen's. Luckily, we're really not that far away and so her and Sadie can still have pizza parties often!

Aren't they just the cutest little friends ever?!

Fun at Grandma's House!

We spent last week at Grandma and Grandpa's house and had a lot of fun! Here are some of the things we did:



Played in the awesome club house that Grandma and Grandpa got for the Grandkids










We had fun with great-grandma and all the cousins

Riley had fun getting into Grandma's candy jars

Poor Ryan did a face plant into Grandma's cedar chest and got a pretty good black eye

Ryan mowed the lawn for Grandpa

I had fun spending time with my brother and sisters

Graduation!

Here is our family just a couple of months before starting Law School at Creighton:








And here is our family now, three years later and finally done!






Thanks mom and dad for coming for Casey's graduation! It's always fun to have you guys here!

○Buggy Buddies○

Ryan and Parker absolutely love their new little buggies! Yesterday they had fun pushing each other around:



Ryan's thinking that he needs someone to push him around!



Sweet! Good thing Parker is here!

Now it's Ryan's turn to push!

Buddies!