Mimi visits!

My Mom came to visit in June for a long weekend. It was SO much fun to have her here, and the kids absolutely love her.

Maren trying on her new gardening gloves...the fingers were about two inches past the end of her finger, but she still wanted to wear them all around!

Joel got new gardening gloves, too (they double as biking gloves!) and they both got these buckets. Here are some creative ways to use them!

We had a little family celebration for Joels Birthday while my mom was here (she left the day before his actual birthday).

We got him a real soccer ball, as well as a baseball mit and balls. My mom and Carolyn both got him TONS of art stuff! Carolyn put together a whole rubbermaid box that slides under his bed and it is full of paints and paper and different things to use for collage. Mimi got him a small rubbermaid box with three drawers in it and filled them with glue and scissors and a hole punch and tape and string and little papers...he is totally set up for a LONG time! (The pictures with these things in them were not blog-worthy! I was in all of them making strange faces!)

Maren and Joel also both got watering cans and aprons! Thanks Mimi!

Carolyn and Amit (above and below) hosted the birthday bash and helped us celebrate the birthday! It wouldn't be a party without them!!

Happy Birthday to you! We had strawberry shortcake for dessert and Joel got to blow out his 4 candles!

One of the highlights of the weekend was going to the Saturday market. They have free art workshops for the kids every week and my Mom and Joel did this one together.

Maren's favorite thing at the market was the fountain, and the live music!

And of course who can resist balloons?! Mimi and Joel - enjoying doing art together!
On Sunday, we all went for a hike in the morning. It was a beautiful hike and so fun to be together as a family!
Sunday was also Father's Day, so Greg, even though he had worked 6 nights in a row, including the previous night, came with us on the hike. By the time we got home after the hike, he had been up for 22 hours! That just goes to show what a wonderful dad he is! Joel and Maren have the best daddy I could hope for...Happy Father's Day!

Well there are a TON more pictures, but these are the highlights. Thank you for coming to visit, Mom! We loved having you here and we miss you!!