Fabulous Fun Fridays

One of the things that I love about my job is my schedule.  I work full time Sunday-Thursday.  That means Friday's are special mommy time.  We look forward to them all week.  We say how many more days to mommy time?  And then on Thursday afternoons when I pick them up for school they get so excited that tomorrow is "all day with mommy!"  

Sometimes we do things with friends, and sometimes we just have lots of fun together.   One Friday, we went to the aquarium.  This is probably one of the biggest adventures at the time that I committed to by myself.  See..  we are finally reaching the age where we don't run off in opposite directions all the time!  They walk with me and want to be with me.  They listen and don't try and scare me to death in public crowds.  In other words, it is entirely possible to brave most places alone which is a new chapter in our lives.  

they were both too scared to stand in front of the white tiger

It is also fun that because I'm working most days, when we do finally get a day together it's an extra special treat and we can totally blow it out because I haven't been trying to nickel and dime playdates together all week.  And we definitely blew it out at the aquarium.  Anything they wanted, we did.  

Cotton candy on the ferris wheel.. you got it!

Carousel rides? No problem.

Shark train (ugh. Why does this cost extra??) but they loved it.

Feeding the sting rays?  Now we need daddy! Why I thought it would be like fish food flakes, I don't know.  But it was tiny little stinky fish and the sting rays felt like they were sucking your hand off.  Both boys did actually try it and run screaming.  Then they wanted me to do it instead the whole time.  That my friends, is true love.  Yuck.  Boy mom is not a glamorous job.  No photos of that, I was too busy trying to keep us dry.  I smelled it for days!

More recently we took a trip to Old McDonald's farm.  We went in October of last year for a birthday party right before they turned 3. It took both Justin and I to manage the madness and feed animals and "haul" around all our gear.  This year, no problem.  We had a BLAST together.  

my sweet chicks

How can they be so big?  Eli insisted Lightening McQueen be in the photo

Teepee fun in Indian Village

Hilarious that there are roaming very tame deer all over the farm.  They are crafty, naughty creatures trying to steal your bag of animal feed at every turn.  I love how protective Eli is of Beckett. When the deers would try and get us or get close, he took care of his brother.

And when we got off the ponies, look what we found!

naughty deer took our bag of corn out of our wagon!

The boys took about an hour to finally warm up and feed the animals.  I had to feed them first .. again.  This is why God created Daddy's :-)  But true love prevails and I fed them.  After a while they warmed up and began loving the animals.

bunnies

little bit scared of the huge pig

leaving him a pile of corn

precious baby goats

so proud of himself for feeding sheep

getting brave around the deer

trying to talk the turkeys aka peacocks out of hiding

The train was the biggest hit.  There was no one there so we were able to ride over and over. 

watching for the train

They have always loved picnics and we had such a sweet one under a beautiful tree. By the baby pig that they loved. 

Going back to work has truly made me feel like they are growing up in fast forward.  God has walked us through many seasons in our lives.  Now that my time as stay at home mom has passed, I feel blessed for every single day of the 18 months I was home.  On these Friday's I feel the nostalgia for those days and know that every single minute has to count.  I am grateful for these fun, fabulous, and now sacred days with my boys. 

Love,

The Riley's