Lizzie's Birthday Day - part 3...

After exploring the abandoned zoo we went back down the stairs to play at Shane's Playground, as promised earlier while we were having our picnic lunch. The girls ran around like crazy and played until almost dark.

And then at dusk we went up to the Griffith Observatory. It was beautiful way up there on top of the hill. I didn't want to leave.

The girls had fun, but at this point they were getting a little sleepy. The most amazing part of the observatory was being able to look through their giant telescope and see Saturn and its rings with your own eyes. It was so neat to see the real thing instead of just a photograph. That place brought back tons of memories of my grandfather and his little observatory he built on top of his roof at their old place. So many fond memories of being invited up there and listening to his stories as he showed us the stars. I miss you Grandpa!

Lizzie's Birthday Day - part 2...

After our picnic lunch we headed up the stairs to go explore the old abandoned L.A. Zoo. There's quite a bit of it still there from the 1930's and even after all of these years it still smelled of zoo animals. There were so many nooks and crannies to explore I think it was unanimously our favorite part of the day... I definitely see a return visit in our future!

The spaces for the bears and elephants (really everything) were super tiny.

Going up the back walkways in between the cages. There was graffiti everywhere, but it was actually surprisingly clean.

Lizzie's Birthday Day...

These are the day's events of how the birthday girl wanted to spend her day!

It all started here!

Then went IMMEDIATELY to this followed by hours of playing!

After playing and packing a few things for our adventure we headed on down to Griffith Park. First stop, the pony rides! She had been talking all week about how this was the ONLY thing she wanted to do for her birthday.

Lucky for Abby she has a sister that likes ponies.

They loved it. The horses actually trotted, which they thought was so awesome, awesome enough to do it three whole times and each time was twice around a pretty good sized track.

After the pony rides right next door is the little old steam train, so we went on a little trip around part of the park.

Then it was lunch time, nothing beats a picnic outside in the sunshine... even if there are wild coyotes around.

Mini Golf...

This is what we did on the actual day of our anniversary... mini golf. Well, really it a birthday party for Marcus, Lizzie's "boy"friend from school. It was the first time we played mini golf with the girls. Lizzie liked it, but Abby... let's just say she likes things a little more wilder than golf. :)

Abby was so into it in the beginning...

This is what she really, really wanted to do!

Just look at that form! :)

And now Abby's done and I think we're only on hole 4.

Tangled Obsessed...

My girls are a little Tangled obsessed as of lately... and for good reasons. It was an amazing Disney movie and I think one of my favorite redemption stories in the character of Flynn Ryder. So, to fuel the fire we made our own versions of Rapunzel's tower. We just painted $1 wooden bird houses from Joann's. The girls didn't want them to actually be high towers... apparently littlest petshop pets can't climb that high since they don't have long hair. That made it a little easier for me, but they did want to bury them in glitter glue! Do they sell glitter glue in massive bulk packages?! They are seriously crazy with that stuff.

Student of the Month...

Lizzie was honored as April's student of the month,  we're so proud of her and she loved all the added attention... I wish I would have recorded it instead of just taking pictures. She was jumping up and down and doing the Lizzie face the whole time... she was so excited!

I have no idea what the teacher is doing behind her, pretty funny though. Lizzie's teacher is the one on the left.

Yay, Lizzie!

Just Like Daddy...

There is absolutely NOTHING in this world that makes me happier than this...

Seeing Ben be artistic (it's amazing to witness the communication between his head and his heart), watching them together... painting side by side. It turns me into mush everytime. I LOVE it!