Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Fun and Busy (busy busy) Friday!

We had a super fun and busy Friday in Tennessee! It started out with the girls helping Grammy make blueberry muffins for breakfast.
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Cracking eggs
Adding milk and oil
Mixing

Reagan dumped blueberries while Kennedy added them one at a time
Licking those yummy wooden spoons :)
Grammy got out some special little plates for our special mini blueberry muffins

Friday morning we headed over to the Kelly home and had a wonderful time playing outside and checking out all the Kelly produce. We're sure hoping to get some more of that famous Kelly Jelly this Christmas! :)
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Aunt Nancy giving Reagan some fantastic fresh raspberries to try out
We kept Aunt Nancy and Grammy busy picking those wonderful raspberries for us! :)
Beth showing Reagan some veggies growing in the garden
Kennedy checking out a variety of beautiful flowers
Back to the yummy rasberries :)
On to some delicious blueberries

Checking out some super cool tire swings - Kennedy was a little nervous about her dinosaur
Reagan loved the horse, especially with some swinging help from Aunt Nancy
Then Reagan decided it was time to relax on the hammock with assistance from Beth
Kennedy decided to check out the hammock too, but wasn't quite so sure about it and didn't relax quite as much as Reagan
I guess hanging from rings is more Missy K's style
Swinging together
Love this picture of Missy K in the hammock swing with those sweet little hands folded
After we left the Kellys we met Aunt MaryAnn at El Tapatio for lunch. Wish I had gotten a picture but we had a nice visit and enjoyed spending time seeing her.
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After naps Aunt Marta, Haley and Matthew came over for a visit. We had a great time catching up and the girls loved being wild and crazy before they left! :)




Reagan thought they would like to help her touch the ceiling. She also told them they could keep practicing when they got back to their house. What a little goof ball! lol :)
Reagan and Kennedy made the Sligers stop in order to give them a few "last" hugs. Once they were finally able to leave Reagan told me "I love them so much!"
Thank you everyone for such a fun day! We sure enjoy being able to visit with so many great friends when we're in Tennessee! :)

Visiting TTU

After playing at Cane Creek Park we went to see Pop-A-Lops and his secretary, Ms. Candace. She always likes us to come by when we're in town and have time so she can see the girls. Both girls were extremely excited to see Pop-A-Lops! They went through the lobby calling (yelling) his name looking for him. Besides seeing Pop-A-Lops they always enjoy a few elevator rides and of course Pop-A-Lops always accomodates them. :)
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Poor Pop-A-Lops has been working so hard at getting Kennedy to call him Grandpa. He has been pretty successful too as she has been saying a form of Grandpa or PopPop. While visiting him at school, however, she started saying what sounded like Pop-A-Lop-A-Lop-A-Lops. Poor Grandpa! :) At least you can see she loves him regardless of what she calls him! lol :)
Normally Ms. Candace has M&M's for the girls but she had a whole box of JellyBelly popcicles for them and as you can imagine the change in treat didn't bother the girls one bit! :) They loved them and it was a perfect snack after being outside in all that heat and humidity! Thank you Ms. Candace! :)

Monday, June 28, 2010

Cane Creek Park

Last Tuesday, June 22, Grammy drove up from Knoxville where she was attending an in-service for school at UT. She watched Kennedy for us Wednesday morning while I took Reagan to her violin lesson and then drove us back to Tennessee with her. It is so much easier for me to travel with help and I don't think I could have gone for any extra days without Grammy driving out of her way for us. Thank you so much Grammy, it was nice to have the extra time with you and visiting friends!
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On Thursday morning Grammy suggested going to a park before it got too warm. While we did go out early it was still so hot and humid! We had fun at Cane Creek Park while we were there but I don't think we lasted much more than an hour in the heat.
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Grammy and the girls sliding down a big slide together
Cane Creek has lots of different play areas and we played at three of them. This one is close to the lake and both girls enjoyed the climbing wall.
The girls enjoying swinging together with help from Grammy (when I was a kid these were actual tire swings)
There are always lots of ducks at Cane Creek. The ducks are obviously used to being fed because they always come right up to you. We forgot to bring bread to feed them but the girls still got a big kick out of how close the ducks came. I guess because we were so close to the water Kennedy kept looking at the ducks and then pointing to the lake saying "water." I guess she thought the ducks were confused about where they were supposed to be and she was doing her best to straighten them out. lol :)
After watching the ducks for a while we drove up to the largest playground area. Reagan enjoyed this bridge while making me pretend to be the troll who lives under the bridge from Dora the Explorer.
Kennedy enjoyed walking across the bridge with help from Grammy
Kennedy loved sliding down the tube slide with Grammy
Reagan decided it looked like Kennedy and Grammy were having fun and needed to join them too :)
Taking a break to get a drink - it was so hot! I love those sweet big eyes!
When we were ready to go Kennedy was so sweet (and cracked us up) by waving good-bye to the playground and saying "bye." What a little honey bear! lol:)

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Father's Day 2010

Grammy and Pop-A-Lops came up to see us Father's Day weekend. We didn't do anything terribly exciting (i.e. we didn't put them to work last weekend with tons of projects around our house) but it's always nice and lots of fun to have Grammy and Pop-A-Lops visit! They were super nice and let us go out to dinner Saturday night too while they watched the girls! :)
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We had a leisurely and enjoyable Father's Day. I thought this was so sweet of the girls sitting with Pop-A-Lops while he located a variety of Seaseme Street videos. I think the favorite of the morning may have been the "Ladybug Picnic."
Kennedy having a great time playing piano with Grammy
Kennedy "helping" Grammy play piano
Kennedy and Daddy coloring together
Reagan enjoying a rootbeer float which we made especially for Pop-A-Lops
Kennedy sharing a rootbeer float with Pop-A-Lops
One of the super precious things Kennedy has been doing for a while is folding her hands with us when we pray and saying Amen as we finish. About a month or so ago she began doing a protracted Amen which is adorable. After praying she also frequently tells us "Again!" so she can say her part "AaaaaaaaaaaaMmmmmmmmmmen!"

Play Day with Aunt Dorothy and Heidi

On Friday, June 18, Aunt Dorothy suggested we check out a gym that has open gym time during the day for kids since the heat and humidity made playing outside so hard. The girls had a fabulous time and we'll definitely be taking advantage of this place some more this summer!
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Reagan and Kennedy enjoyed jumping/sliding off this big blue thing into a large area filled with foam blocks. Neither of them ever got brave enough to jump into the blocks from the trampoline you see in the background, however.


Reagan wasn't so sure about bouncing into the foam blocks but she wanted to try hanging from everything and eventually she decided she loved dropping into the blocks.
Heidi doing some fancy trampoline bouncing
Aunt Dorothy helping Reagan demonstrate her skills on the rings
An upside down Reagan :)
Heidi demonstrating her upside down skills and abilities
The amazing Kennedy on rings too! :)

Kennedy is such a climber and the opportunities this gym provided were certainly no exception!
Time to go down the slide! :)
Or maybe just sit at the top and look super cute! :)
Ready
Set
Go!!!
Kennedy loves her pockets!!! :)
Heidi strutting her stuff on the balance beam (with a little help from Mom)
What a dismount!
Hot stuff Kennedy headed back into the foam blocks
The little misses climbing together
And the smallest (or biggest) climber not to be left behind or out done for a minute!
Way to go Heidi and what an awesome smile!
After the gym Aunt Dorothy had more fun in store for us. She suggested we have lunch at Chick-Fil-A where the girls could continue to play in the playland. After that Aunt Dorothy suggested we go to Grater's for some yummy ice cream. What a fun and super busy day! Aunt Dorothy is definitely the coolest aunt with the best ideas around! :)