What makes our summers so sweet

This summer has been super fun so far. I mean truly enjoyable. A lot of it has to do with Isla's age. She is just such a great adventurer. Everything she sees or does for the first time is so magical to her. It's so amazing to sit back and watch her reactions to strange new animals or fun activities. Her birthday fell on Sunday this year. {She was born on a Friday}. We thought Sunday would be a perfect day to take her to Brookfield zoo. She has never been to a big zoo. She's only been to a small little petting zoo with more farm like animals. This made Justin and I so excited to see what she was going to think of all these big strange exotic animals.

We got to the zoo about 11 o'clock in the morning. Some kind stranger gave us two free passes into the zoo, so Justin and I did not have to pay for anything but parking! It was so incredibly kind of her and we were so thankful since it saved us close to $45! We got into the zoo and walked around a little bit. To our dismay most of the animals were no where to be seen. I was definitely glad that we did not have to pay to see absolutely no animals! We saw a couple big cats and then we checked out the Dolphins underwater. We decided to go ahead and eat some lunch and continue the day since we knew it would not last long. It was very hot & the stroller was not the most comfortable for the girls. Especially Estelle who is still so little yet.

Isla loves giraffes so we made sure she got to see those.  She definitely was infatuated. We were saddened to hear there were no elephants at the zoo at all. We checked out a couple more things and then started to get ready to go home. Of course we went into the gift shop. Justin and I just can't help ourselves when she's interested in something in the store. We didn't overdo it too much, we spent $50 on a few things. This was our present to her. We hadn't gotten her anything the day of her birthday party so we figured this would be it. We want to give her the gift of a memory instead of the gift of toys that she will forget about. And it is possible that she may not remember this day, but at least she will remember this stuffed animal giraffe that we got her at her very first zoo trip. Below are pictures of the fun day we had together as our little family of four.

After we got home and the girls took their nap, we headed over to my parents house. My mom wanted to have just a special little birthday dinner for Isla. It was nothing extravagant. She just grilled some hamburgers and got a simple little cake.

This is Isla yelling "stop" as we were singing haha.

All she wanted was the frosting!

After our sweet little meal we just hung out outside. We open some of her new gifts and she played out in the front yard at my parents "farm".

It was another beautiful day. The rest of the week would be kind of a whirlwind because of the holiday coming up. On Monday I did take them to the library. I needed to renew my card and it was a great chance for Isla to see what it was all about. Aside from an obnoxious little boy who kept taking all of the toys away from each child, she had a blast. I had to tell this little boy to give back her toy multiple times. And of course the mother was nowhere to be found! I was almost about to lose it until she scurried in, scooped him up, and finally left the library. I try so hard not to judge other parents, but this is clearly leaving your son alone to do what he wants without any reprimanding! Thanks lady, for creating a monster that we will have to deal with in society when he becomes an adult. Ugh so very frustrating!

On a side note, doesn't she look so grown up?!

Just some other tidbits from our summer so far -
We have just started potty training Isla today. Literally TODAY as in July 5th. We have had several accidents so far. I am following the advice from the 3 Day Potty training guide that so many of my other friends have followed with lots of success. Baby girl definitely doesn't seem to "get it", but I'm going to hang in there because according to this woman who has helped potty train 3000 kids, by day 3 it should just click.