A Riley Rose by any other name...

Today we decided it must have been Riley Day at the Arboretum. The Riley's tour bus was in the parking lot when we arrived and the bumper sticker was on a car as we were leaving. My mom, Riley and I went for an "adventure" to see the pretty flowers and we had a BEAUTIFUL time...literally! The rose gardens are looking stunning right now and some of the peony and iris are still hanging in there! Riley liked the coy ponds too (didn't take pics of the fish...darn it!)! I will have a few more posts on our fun day...stay tuned!

Quick Green Read

I was listening to the radio a few days ago and I heard about a web site called LiveGreenTwinCities.com and they mentioned an article about all-natural, environmentally safe sunscreen. I have tried some in the past (Burt's Bees is not good for sunscreen, love the chapstick!) and not liked them. This article ranks some of the top performers based on UVA/UVB blocking and other criteria. Thought it was an interesting read for those of you looking for a safer sunscreen for you or your kids!

(in case it doesn't appear "clickable" click on "safe sunscreen" to be directed to the article.)

Last of the Zoo

Here's the rest of the aquarium shots. Riley thought the "ginormous" fish were the best:)

Zoo Part 2

The kids love the tank where you can pet the fish down by the dolphin exhibit, but Riley would only put one hand in quickly and that was it. Noah loved splashing! Besides all the water exhibits (fish, dolphins, sharks, etc.) I think the Kimodo Dragon was also one of Riley's faves! Riley was a little concerned about the sharks because she knows sharks bite. But she thought they were cool anyway!

Minnesota Zoo in Review

This is going to take more than one post. As always, when we go to the zoo I took a lot of pictures:) Today we went to the MN Zoo with my teacher friend Jess (college roomie, senior year) and her son Noah and Meg and Adrienne (Meg roomed with Jess junior year). The only reason it's relevant that Jess is a teacher is that she's now free to play this summer!! (And it's funny going to the zoo with a teacher because everything is a lesson!) We had a great time and I got to try out my "aquarium" setting on my camera! (Sorry for all the exclamation points today...I love zoos!!!)

At the MN Zoo you can now get really close to the giraffes, you can even pay to feed them. We didn't do that, but it was really cool to see them so close. However the kids got just as much of a kick out of the chipmunk!

Even More Dirty!

So, I thought Riley got pretty darn dirty on Saturday night, but she proved ever more capable on Sunday night at Josh's softball games. There's nothing like taking mommy's empty juice bottle and filling it with softball dirt to make a girl happy (and messy) for hours! Here are the before and after shots...and the before is even kinda messy because my kid knows how to make oreo cookie drool!

The worst part about this is we had to go to a restaurant after the games! Thank God someone had lots of paper towel and the drinking fountain was working so we could wipe her down before we left!

Now that we're all caught up...

Now these are pictures that actually happened this weekend. Josh and I host Father's Day every year (since we bought the house, not in the townhouse) so we started trying to make the back yard up to standard for hosting the event next weekend. We worked most of the morning and afternoon and decided not to go grocery shopping, but invite some people over to sit by the bonfire we had already started to burn off some of the sticks our yard accumulates. Long story short, Riley and Ashley played and Riley got DIRTY! It was a nice relaxing evening with friends. Thanks guys!