What a busy weekend!

This weekend was crazy busy for us. Our weekends start on Fridays since Jimmy works 4/10's. On Friday morning Ryen and I were literally in the car for 3 hours straight! We had to leave the house by 8:30am to take Jimmy to his Lasik surgery. Then back in the car to take Ella to preschool at 9:30. Then we made couple stops, and headed back to pick up Daddy and then back to pick up Ella. Ryen never cried once. Such a sweet heart!! When we came home though all I wanted to do was nap, but couldn't cause Jimmy had to recover and nap from his surgery. So Daddy and Ryen napped while Ella and I hung out. Then it was pizza night for dinner, ice skating lessons *see previous post* and then off to bed... for the kiddos that is! I headed off to Happy Hour with my girls at Kona. I have not laughed that hard in a long time. We even managed to grab a photo op!

Michella, Sue, Jill, Lisa, Susan, Brooke, & Kim:

Saturday the girls and I woke up early to head to the zoo for a charity walk benefiting Helping Hands in Africa (click here for more info).

Here are the girls getting in the car excited for our adventure:
And during the walk:

We were at the zoo by 8am. I walked for awhile with my friend Christa who told me about the walk. And then we met up with some friends!

We finished the 2.5k and headed over to the finish line/celebration area for some complimentary milk, munchkins, and fruit from Dunkin Donuts. There was a band playing and the kids ran around and played. They went and saw the Elephants and then headed over to the play area. And then to the petting zoo.

Here are some collages of our day:

And we happened to be right next to Ella's favorite thing... the face painting station. She actually gave up a ride on the carousel to get her face painted instead. Here is her getting her face painted and the finished product. She picked the butterfly and she was thrilled all day with it... till bathtime. :(

On Sunday we woke up early (again) to get all dressed up for Breakfast with the DISNEY PRINCESSES! Skateland in Mesa was hosting the breakfast. So Ella and Ryen got "Princess-ified" and off we went. This was a great way to spend the morning. Everything was slow (line to get in, line to get food) and the food was cold. But no one really cared cause the girls were SO excited and thrilled to be dressed up and to see their favorite princesses. It was a great time. Here are some of my favorite photos!

Ryen, Ella and The Princesses

Ella with each of the Princesses

The best part of the morning was when all the kids got on the roller skating floor and started dancing to top 40 pop tunes. They were twirling and running around in their dresses. I did find it strange that they were not playing Disney music, and that for a less than 2 hour event, the Princesses all sat down (with each other) and had breakfast for about 30 min while the kids all entertained themselves. The event started at 9:30 you would think the Princesses could have eaten before hand so they could mingle and take photos the whole time.

But either way my two girls had the an incredible time, Ella couldn't wait to tell her best friends about it (so she told us on the way home) and I love that Jimmy was one of 6 Dads willing to endure it for the sake of his girls. That is what it is all about.