Look what Tabitha picked up from her sisters....

Last night the girls wanted to play with the neighbors and Tabitha was right behind them asking to ride on the Dora scooter. I got it out for her and she ran off to get a helmet! Now she is ready to go!Here is Maddy trying out some roller blades. She did pretty good!

7/15

Painting?

Instead of eating her applesauce, Tabitha decided to paint with it.

Beautiful T.T!

Baby Shower for Tessa

My friend Mary Kay and I gave a shower for our friend Diane. It was such a nice time.

Mary Kay's sister in law made the delicious and beautiful cake.

Fun Stop Goodbye.

There is a neat playplace in town that had to close their doors due to landloard troubles. We went with our friends, Jennifer, Paden, and Josie to play one last time.

Vacation burn out!

Our last day in Iowa.

We took the girls out to Uncle Randy's to see the garden and they found a special treat, wild mulberries, wild raspberries, and blueberries from his garden. Oh the girls were in heaven! YUM!

After our little snack we took the girls to Story City to ride the carousel. This same carousel has been ridden by 5 generations in my family. This trip to the carousel was Tabitha's first ride.

Tabitha liked it at first then it started to go around. She wanted off the horse very fast. When we stopped we rode again this time I sat on the horse with her and she was much happier. Maddy and Abby were not shy at all getting on to the carousel. They each rode 3 times.

Happy 4th

We started our day with the parade in Ames. It was a nice parade. The girls loved all the candy they got.
My favorite restaurant, Hickory Park, was passing out popcicles to everyone. Maddy, Abby, Tabitha, and A.j sure had a tasty treat!

Who ya gonna call....GHOSTBUSTERS!

More popcicles! Its a good thing I brought 2 4th of July outfits for Tabitha becasue she needed the second one!

One thing I love about Iowa is the smell of clover in the summer. Ohhhh it is such a wonderful smell!

Maddy and Abby (and Vinod) loved the sparklers before the fireworks. It was a nice preshow!




Happy 4th of July!!!

Hard Rock

After our adventure it was time to head over to Hard Rock to meet Jonnelle, Alex, and Hailey for lunch. We had fun in the gift shop, eating lunch and looking around. Lots of neat things to look at. Oh and while we were eating they were playing some great 80's music videos. Yea!

There is a little room upstairs dedicated to Prince. He has a couple of guitars, some clothes, and these lovely shoes on display. Vinod asked our waitress where Princes purple castle was in Minnesota. She told us when he moved to Los Angeles he decided he didn't want anyone to live in his castle so he BURNED IT DOWN!!!! Yep....that will do it!

These pictures were taken on the side of a bar. All of the stars have names of bands on them. We think these are all bands that have preformed at this bar! Maddy's favorite band, the Smashing Pumpkins was on there!

After lunch it was time time to say goodbye to Jonnelle, Alex, and Hailey. Thank you guys for a great time. We will miss you.

Downtown take 2...In search for the tallest building.

This isn't the tallest but it sure is pretty.
We were downtown several times and we we all wondered which building was the tallest. Vinod got the idea to go into the one he and Abby thought was the tallest and see if we could take the girls to the top. I didn't think we would be able to but we got onto the elevator and pressed 50. This floor was a restaurant and was not open so we went up to the 51st floor and it was an office with a very nice receptionist and she let us go into the conference room and we looked out the building.

By 17 feet the building we were in was the tallest. The building above was the second tallest.

The girls 51 floors up.
This is our building!

I think we were straight up at this window, third row from the right.

Holy Mall of America!

We came in from the back of the mall so we never got to see the outside of the mall close up but wow! That mall is HUGE! We started off with a stop at the gift shop and than we went to the rides. Hailey, Maddy and Abby started on the Fairly Odd Coaster. Maddy loved it...Abby didn't really like it. The next stop was the swings. The girls sure did love those.


Lego Land was right by the rides so we stopped in. Oh my. Lego lovers, this is your place. Every kind of Lego you could dream of is here and in every color. They have different Lego creations all around the store. My favorite was this clock. WOW!
Off to ride a few more rides. Everyone loved the log ride, but they didn't get wet. Darn!

I even rode a few rides. This one is like a giant skate board that goes up one side and down and up to the next while your carriage is twirling you around. COOL!
I think Abby's highlight was getting to see Dora!
OK another funny moment to share. Hailey and everyone around me must of thought I was a nutty uncaring mom. Nope...I just know Maddy. Haley and I wanted to ride this coaster and Maddy was interested but while standing in line she notices the straight ride up and then straight down. She flips out a little. We get her on the ride and she is in tears saying she doesn't want to do this and to get her OFF! The ride operator was going to let her off but I said no. They kept looking at us and wondering if she needed off. It was too late the ride was about to go. I remember straight up and strait down and the rest was a blur. As soon as the ride was done, Maddy said....can I go again...I LOVED IT!!!!! The ride operator was clapping for her. She is just like. I love the thrill the ride gives!
This was Abby's favorite ride. She went on it 2 times! A giant Dora ferris wheel. FUN.

After the rides it was time for lunch. Very interesting place. Pretty too.
This was a huge highlight for me. I finally got to go to a Archiver's scrapbook store! It was fun to shop and look at everything. Really a great store.

Tabitha only got to ride one thing... the choo choo's. That is what she calls anything big that goes. She went 2 times and had so much fun!