We have had an excellent 4th of July three day weekend: a beyond great Independence Day, a relaxing Saturday, and topped off with on of our best Sunday Family Fun Day. We got to sleep in a bit again, thanks to our super fun 4th celebrations (read more here), have a delicious family breakfast, get some exercise and exploring in, yard work, and ice cream. The best part of the day were the not too fussy and cute minis who accompanied us. We couldn't have asked for a better day.
Homemade strawberry french toast (made by yours truly) was delicious!
The kids wanted to go to the spillway again to see the all of the water and get splashed on.
Then we headed on the bike trail for a little 1 1/2 mile walk. Along the way Max found a toad. First he tried to squeeze it (we had to remind him not to several times), then he stuck it in Elizabeth's face so she could get a good look, he and Harrison decided they were going to keep the toad and started talking details, until he got a little too rough with Mr. Toad and dropped him from above his head. "Oh look, the frog is playing dead.....I think we'll get a new frog. Not that one....because that one is playing dead." We went along with his version of Mr. Toad's ending.
RIP Mr. Toad.....I'm sorry Mr. Max got a hold of you.
After our walk, we went to McHenry Park to cool down in the spray pad. This was our first time here and the kids LOVED it! Elizabeth usually hates spray pads/parks and wading pools, but this one we had issues tearing her away from. One of the best parts: we pretty much had the entire park to ourselves.
While the kids played in the water (for a much longer time than we anticipated), Matt and I enjoyed the pretty views of downtown Des Moines.
This was Elizabeth's favorite fountain that she tried to get drinks of water from.
Every time the water went off (there's a button you have to press that makes the water come on for 10 minutes straight), the kids would stop running around and look into the holes. A few times they got sprayed in the face.
The climbing rock was really cool.
One of the views from McHenry Park.
After our morning/afternoon in nature, showers were required. The baby wash nozzle was stuck so I stupidly opened up the top of the bottle. I must have left it part way open because when I went to get the kids out of the shower, I was greeted with a bath tub FULL of bubbles. I asked how all of the bubbles got in the tub (we are out of bubble bath so I knew it wasn't that) and Harrison informed me "I wanted bubbles so I used the baby soap." A full 28 oz. of bath wash gone in under 5 minutes.
A late lunch of tamales from the Tamale Industry in Merle Hay Mall. They are delicious! I highly recommend these (call ahead to order in large batches....because you'll want them in large batches!). My favorites are the beef tamales and the strawberry and pineapple dessert tamales.
A little yard work for the boys.
When Elizabeth woke up from her nap, she insisted on joining the boys for yard work. Unfortunately her yard work was picking petals off of the flowers.
Just a boy building his Ninja Turtles Lego's sets.
We ate an early dinner and treated ourselves to Cherry Berry. I tried their new orange sherbet ice cream (with pineapple on top).
Elizabeth really goes for it.
The boys were in bed semi-early, but little Miss E refused to go to bed. Instead, she stayed up and played airplane, jumped on daddy, and fed daddy popcorn....which was really popcorn kernels and he almost choked several times.
It was a busy, fun, and exhausting Sunday Family Fun Day! Apparently the cat, who had slept all day, felt the same way.
