Kylee is 4!!!

Kylee is officially 4 years old! 

(Yes, there are other things that need to be posted but I thought this was the most important) : )

Kylee's birthday fell on a Monday which worked out great for Pete since he was easily able to take the afternoon off (and the night of tutoring!)  Kylee, Ryland, Kenzie, and I just hung out at the house during the day.  Pete got home and it was time for presents!

Kylee was very excited about all of her gifts.  She got a book, a travel drawing kit, and paints from Ryland and Kenzie.  (I think the paints are already half way gone!?)  From us she got a book and a camera!  She was VERY excited about the camera (yay!) and has already taken quite a few pictures on it.  We are hoping to get them downloaded and onto the computer soon.

Kylee decided that she didn't want cake of any kind for her birthday.  What did she want?  ICE CREAM, specifically the "Froggy Place" (aka Sweet Frog!)  She's definitely got those Snyder genes in her ... ha! : )  Needless to say there weren't any objections from us to take her there and she even ventured out of her normal flavors and tried some new kinds this time.  We took her "4" candle with us and I taped a flame to it so we could sing Happy Birthday before we ate. : )

Kylee in her birthday shirt!  Now she can walk around in it without tripping. : )

All during the day Kylee got to be serenaded by "Happy Birthday."  She loved getting phone calls just for her on her special day!  (Thanks Nana, Grandad, Aunt Amy, Jack, Bubba, and Aunt Laura!)  Then at night she got her special birthday video and she loved it!  (Jack made her a video too but for some reason it wouldn't load. : (  Thanks for the thought Buddy!)

Our Growing Girl!

Kenzie is 4 months!  We just took her for her well visit and she is doing great.  The doctor and nurses kept commenting on how strong she was!  She weighs 13 pounds 4 ounces which is right around the 50th percentile.  I don't remember her head circumference (44ish?) but it is around the 75th percentile which is definitely a drop from her brother and sister who were always in the 90s!?  Her length was the surprising one ... she grew 3 inches and is at 26 1/2 inches long which puts her in the 97th percentile!  The doctor even had the nurse measure her again to make sure it was accurate.

During this last month, Kenzie has definitely been trying some new things out.  We pulled out the excersaucer for her in the beginning of April and she loved it.  She plays with the toys she can reach and bounces around a bit while she is in there too.

She has also started eating rice cereal.  As you can see, she wasn't too sure about it at first but then she ended up loving it!  She opens her mouth really wide as soon as she sees the spoon coming close.  We are ready to start her on some of the "good" stuff now too ... just need to get to the store to buy some. : )

Adventure Playground

 We (well our friend Julie) found a great looking wooden playground in Maryland that we just had to check out.  We decided to go on a Saturday so the husbands could join us.  We went with our Brayden and Taylor (and their parents!)  We packed a picnic lunch and headed out.  The park was over an hour away so we were really hoping it was worth it.  Turns out that it was a great find!  We stayed there for 5 hours and Kylee kept asking why we had to leave when we started to pack up!

There were two huge climbing structures, a castle and a pirate ship.  They had so many different things to climb on and different levels to go to with slides ranging in size and shape too.  The kids had a blast running around and finding new things to climb on.  At first it was hard to keep them together (thank goodness the daddies were there to help chase them around!) but once they got comfortable with the place they started to play together.

(Note: Kylee decided to try and go down the slide sideways!?!)

Parked in the parking lot at the entrance to the park was an ice cream truck so after playing around for a bit we decided to take a break and have a nice cold treat.

 The swings that they had were awesome!  They were hug flying disks and you could definitely get some good height from them.

There were also a bunch of animals that the kids could climb on.  As you can see, some of them were easier to climb than others. : )

Another big hit at the park was the teeter-totter that was shaped like a boat.  Kylee and Brayden both had a blast riding on it while I bounced them on the other side.  We went on this more than once and were bouncing for quite a while each time.

There seems to be even more to explore in this park and we only hit the Adventure Playground section so I think we will probably have to make a return visit sometime soon ... I know the kids will be up for it. : )

Easter Egg Hunt

We were all excited about going to the farm again this year for an Easter Egg Hunt.  Unfortunately, the farm cancelled the hunt due to weather. : (  We were, however, able to get tickets to the Cox Easter Egg Hunt so we ventured out there for some Easter fun!

As you can see, Kylee was very excited to start the egg hunt but Ryland was in a bit of a mood and didn't enjoy standing in line to wait our turn.  After the hunt, we were able to spend some time on the different slides and play some games.  The kids seemed to like the frog slide the best (which was nice because it was the easiest one to keep track of them on!)

We did run into one problem at the egg hunt ... the "big kids" (and their parents!)  There were a bunch of kids that rushed the field and pretty much grabbed every single egg, even if the smaller kids were reaching for them. To top it off the parents were cheering them on and talking about how many eggs they found!?!  We were literally picking up egg halves to try and fill our bucket.  So, when we got home Pete got out all the eggs and made up a big egg hunt for the kids in the backyard.  They had a blast looking for (and actually finding!) the eggs. : )

Port Discovery

Kylee has been asking to go back to the "window washing" museum, aka Port Discovery, for quite a while now so when our other plans fell through we decided to head out to Baltimore for the day.

Last time we went, we didn't get to spend much time in the diner because there weren't any open seats but this time was different. There was an open seat at the counter so Pete sat down and the kids had a great time bringing him food. I think Ryland brought him the same steak at least 15 times!?

The post office set up in the Clifford exhibit was a big hit again. The kids got to wear mail bags and deliver the mail all around to the different mailboxes by matching the picture on the envelope to the correct mailbox. Kylee successfully delivered all of her mail! Ryland on the other hand decided to put the mail back in the main mailbox and move onto something else : )

The water room was pretty packed when we got there but we still got to try out everything we wanted to. Kylee and Ryland spent a good deal of time building Lego boats. Ryland was just trying to build a tower on his boat but Kylee was working hard to see if she could make a boat that would float instead of topple over. (I thought this was an appropriate place to put the picture of Kenzie since she looked like she had been playing in the water too!?) : )

Kylee also made sure to stop at the gas station and fill up the tank.

Kylee, Ryland, and Pete spent some time playing in the climbing structure in the middle of the museum too. They loved the tunnels that you could climb through (well the kids did ... not so sure about Pete.) : )

Ryland is 2!!

It's official ... Ryland is 2!!!!

His birthday fell during Pete's (and Kylee's) Spring Break so we were all home and ready to celebrate with him. Every time I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday he said "go to farm." We decided to head up to the Reston Zoo to see all the animals and let him feed some too! He was very excited to see the animals and was even feeding most of them himself! We left the barn (due to an incident which will be discussed later!?) and headed out to see what else we could find. The kangaroos were very active and the kids really liked watching them jump around. Then we went on the wagon ride to see the "big" animals. Kylee wanted to sit in the middle of the wagon - she hadn't quite warmed up to feeding the animals yet - but Ryland sat on the outside with Pete where he could help feed some of the animals including the bison and watusi!

So, the incident I mentioned before happened in the barn. Ryland was having a grand ole time feeding the goats and walking around with Pete. The girls and I were over near one of the "calmer" goats trying to get Kylee to feed him. Then we heard Ryland start to wail. : ( Apparently, one of the chickens heard it was Ryland's birthday and decided to get up close and personal to tell him Happy Birthday! Yep, one of the chickens flew at Ryland and got him right in the face!?!? When Pete went over to get Ryland the chicken flew at him too!? (Needless to say Pete gave said chicken a swift kick!) Luckily, after Ryland recovered from the shock of the "chicken attack" he was just fine and went on to feed the big animals without even blinking an eye! He did end up with a nice little mark on his face though . : ( (Don't worry we stopped and got Chicken McNuggets on the way home just to get revenge.) : )

We stopped at a cupcake place on the way home to let the kids pick out their own cupcake. Ryland picked out an Oreo cupcake and was very excited for us to sing Happy Birthday to him!

Kylee was very excited to give Ryland his presents so that was next up. Once he saw the presents and started opening them he was pretty excited too. : )

We still needed to take a picture of Ryland in his birthday shirt so after putting on his Lightning McQueen pajamas (his new obsession!?) we took a few pics in his big ole birthday shirt!

Ryland loved being serenaded by "Happy Birthday" throughout the day (thanks Nana, Grandad, Aunt Amy, Jack, Bubba, and Aunt Laura!) Then he got a great surprise ... a birthday video!!! (I couldn't upload it in one shot because of it's size so it is broken into two halves.) Thanks ... he still loves watching it! : )

March Fun

Between all the March birthday videos and our computer acting up a bit, we haven't been able to post some pictures in a while. Here is a quick March update. : )

The weather in March was unbelievably nice (even nicer than April has been!?!) so we got to spend a lot of time outside playing.

We tried a new place called Rebounderz and it was awesome! It is a building with two HUGE trampolines. Everyone had a great time and the kids jumped for about an hour straight! The pictures are a bit grainy because I had to take them from outside the trampoline but you get the idea. We are definitely looking forward to going back there again (hopefully with you Jack!) : ) Kenzie was content sitting in her stroller and watching everything that was going on.

We were also able to go on a lot of "adventures" with some of our friends. The kids have a great time exploring new (and old) places and using all of their "adventure equipment" ... magnifying glasses, binoculars, and more!

We also took another trip down to Richmond to visit the Children's museum.
We had a very specific reason for going this time ... we went to see SID!!!!!

March also meant that Kenzie turned 3 months! She is definitely entering the "awake more than asleep during the day" phase. She loves watching Kylee and Ryland and lights up whenever she hears her big sister's voice! We are betting that she will be up and playing with them in no time!?!

Puppet shows are a new thing in our house right now too .... the kids are still working on the concept of the curtain. ha! : )