Summer Fun, Part 4

Well I'm really on a roll these days with blog posts. Now that my summer course is over and my conference paper has been submitted, I'm giving myself permission to catch up on all the things I've wanted to do over the past 2 months! But I guess I'm going to have to come up with a more interesting title for my posts--Summer Fun, Part 15 just doesn't have a very catchy ring to it!

Okay, on to our adventures...

Last week, Kaitlyn went to VBS at Brentwood Baptist. I'd heard great things about this program from other Otter Creekers, and there were lots of OCers there--probably because we don't have our own VBS anymore and this is the next best thing! BB sure does know how to put on a VBS. There were over 1400 kids there! Yep, you read that right, 1400+ kids. There were 9 classes just for 4 year olds! So even though there were lots of folks from our church, Kaitlyn only wound up with one OC kid in her class. But she didn't seem to care. I wasn't sure how she would handle being dropped off in a strange building with strange people, so I told her that we would try it one day and if she didn't like it, then we didn't have to go back. When I picked her up at the end of Day 1, the first words out of her mouth were, "Mommy! I had so much fun today! Can we pleeeeeeeease come back tomorrow?" Trying to hide a smile, I said, "Sure, no problem."

The theme this year was Big Apple Adventure: Where Faith and Life Connect, so the decor included typical NYC stuff. I had to document the experience with a cheesy picture in front of the cardboard cab.

While Ethan was too young to go (you have to be 4), he still had lots of fun roaming the halls and stairwells of the building each day. When the heat index is 100+, an enormous, air-conditioned church building with lots of nooks and crannies to explore is the PERFECT place to let an active 2-year-old work off some energy. It made it much easier to run errands with him for the rest of the morning :)

One of the highlights of VBS for Kaitlyn was the music time each day. They had fun, energetic songs for them to sing and dance to, and BB conveniently provided a CD of music that you could listen to at home. And so we listened to those songs all week, over and over and over again. They liked to play the CD at home, get up on their "stage" and sing the songs. Ethan is just too cool for words in this picture.

Earlier this week, we went to the Browns for fun water play in kiddie pools and sprinklers. I didn't take my camera, but my friend Kristen captured these pictures of Kaitlyn and Ethan.

Notice that band-aid that Ethan is sporting on his forehead? Right before we left for the party, Ethan slipped in the bathroom and hit his head on the corner of a wall. It left a little gash in his head. Not deep enough for stitches, but deep enough to make it hard to stop the bleeding. And getting hot, sweaty and wet at a pool party didn't help matters! But they (esp. Kaitlyn) were so excited about going to this party, so I couldn't let a little gash stand in our way!

Last night, we made our annual pilgrimage to downtown Nashville to watch the late summer sunset over our city. We were a little later than normal this year because June was such a busy month. And we were thwarted last weekend by a sudden rain storm. But better late than never. You can read about last year's trek here (as well as see some pics from previous years). And unlike last year, they actually (mostly) cooperated for pictures--no tears shed!

And, TODAY (woohoo! I'm finally caught up with the blog!!) we tried to beat the heat a bit with a wading pool and sprinklers in our backyard. I love the sheer joy pictured on their faces.

Well, that's all for now. It feels good to finally be caught up with something! Thanks for catching up with us!

Summer Fun, Part 3

More random things from July...

We're in the throes of the dog days of summer, and we don't get to spend much time in the backyard these days. So they spend lots of time coloring, writing (Kaitlyn) cutting and gluing. Kaitlyn really wanted to make a special picture for Daddy one day, so I modified an idea that I had seen in a magazine. It kept them occupied for a while!

We had a full house for the 4th of July. Mimi and Papa stayed with us for a week, and Jess, Adam, Noah and Eli came to visit too. Can you tell that they're happy to have all four grandkids together??

We went to the end of Summer Celebration at Lipscomb to play on the inflatable stuff, eat dinner, listen to music and watch fireworks. The kids had a blast on the super-slide. Normally, Kaitlyn would not have touched a large inflatable with a 10-foot pole. BUT we had just been to Monkey Joe's with some friends a few days earlier, so she had managed to conquer some of her fear there. So when she saw the slide, she didn't hesitate at all to climb up it. And, of course, her shadow was right there with her :)

Everyone was all smiles at the bottom, begging to do it again! Hooray!

And I think Ethan may have inherited some of his dad's (and granddad's) geographic/map prowess. He loves this map puzzle and can easily put all the states in the correct spot. If you ask him where a certain state it, he points it out. And he can say the names for lots of them. His favorite one is Idaho. In fact, he even made up a song about Idaho that I hear him singing from time to time when he's supposed to be sleeping.

Summer Fun, Part 2

In early June, I enrolled the kids in swim lessons. The instructors were three sisters, one of whom went to our church. Kaitlyn was thrilled with the idea of swim lessons, but the picture above shows how she felt about them once we got there. Notice her clinging to the fence :)

The main goal of the week was to get the swimmers used to the water and teach some basic pre-swimming lessons. She absolutely hated going under the water and getting water in her eyes, and she had a few crying episodes because of those experiences. But most of the other tasks were more enjoyable to her.

She learned to kick her feet...

...and "swim" with the instructor only, no flotation devices.

And her favorite was doing the "starfish" where she floated on her back.

And she loved swimming with the noodle. Swim lessons were made more bearable since Hannah was there too. The two of them had the same fear of going underwater, but at least they were able to be miserable together--although you would never know it from those big smiles in the picture below!

And just for fun, I decided to enroll Ethan in the lessons too. There was a sibling discount, and I figured it couldn't hurt to give him some water experiences at an early age. So while Kaitlyn and a couple of the bigger preschoolers did their lessons on one end of the pool, Ethan and a few of his toddler buddies hung out at the shallow end and played pool games.

I think Ethan is enjoying "swimming" more than his sister!

Lots of fun kicking and splashing in the pool.

Playing Ring Around the Rosy...we all blow bubbles in the water!

Not a fan, though, of floating on his back :)

Kaitlyn (and obviously Ethan) are still a long way from swimming independently, but maybe they're just a little less afraid of the water now and will be able to advance a little more next summer--at least that's what I'm telling myself after paying for a week's worth of lessons :)

Summer Fun, Part 1

After our fun vacation at the beach, we zoomed back to Nashville so that Kaitlyn could be at her last day of preschool. They had their traditional popsicle party, along with lots of hugs and goodbyes for the summer. Kaitlyn loved Ms. Betsy's class, and she is going to miss her BFF's terribly next year since Halle and Meredith are both moving to the MWF class :( But we're super-pumped about her pre-K class for the fall and already know several of the kids in the class.

Here's a picture of her class on the last day of school. Sniff, sniff!

By mid-May, the cicada invasion was in full force! Fortunately, we didn't have a very high concentration of the creepy creatures, so the kids were still able to enjoy our backyard while temps were still reasonably mild. Kaitlyn actually loved the cicadas--well, more specifically, she loved finding the cicada shells that were left behind by the emerging adults. True to her "collecting" nature, she reveled in trolling around the yard looking for cicada treasures to put in her cup.

Ethan was happy to tag along, although his cup contained his own treasures--rocks (pronounced "gocks").

(Speaking of cicadas, Kaitlyn and I went to Vanderbilt's campus one day which was literally crawling with the red-eyed things. Once the live ones started clumsily flying and bumping into her, she wasn't so enamored with them anymore. And she may have picked up a bit of her new fear from her momma, who may or may not have screamed a time or two when dive-bombed by the evil-looking creatures!)

Long summer days cry out for play-dates with friends to pass the time. It's always a treat when Hannah and Elanor come over. And this time, Hannah brought her dress up clothes, so there was more than enough princess attire for everyone!

And Ethan was not about to be left out :) Oh, buddy, please don't hate me when you're 16! You understandably wanted to be like your playmates and were so pleased to be included. There are plenty of years for rough-and-tough stuff, but for now, I'm treasuring your 2-year-old innocence and open heart.

And of course, we wouldn't be good parents if we didn't let the kids engage in some good ol' backyard water fun!

I love summer!

Beach Pictures

Here are some pictures that Jess took of our family on the beach. It was quite windy, as you can see...and Ethan was still having his issues with sand so he wasn't exactly the most cooperative kid in the world. But other than those two complicating factors, I think they turned out quite nicely!

Sibling shots are still tough to pull off at this age...sigh.

These next two pictures are Jess' creative ways to spice up the traditional family photo.

If you'd like to see more of her work, check her out at www.jessicarisingerphotography.com

Beach Trip to the Carolinas

In May, we went to North and South Carolina for a wedding/vacation. We started out in Wilmington, NC to attend the wedding of Jeff's cousin, Jarrie. All of Jeff's extended family (parents, grandparents, siblings + families) stayed in a (large) beach house at Carolina Beach for a few days. It was a lot of fun all being together under one roof!

All of the cousins in their pajamas one morning...except Ethan. Notice that Ethan is trying to swipe the bulldozer that Eli is holding!

Jarrie's wedding was on the beach, and all four cousins played a small role in the ceremony. They "raked" the sand in the aisle right before the bride walked down. The kids practiced during the rehearsal the night before. Kaitlyn did a great job. Ethan, on the other hand, decided that he hated the feel of sand on his feet and wanted no part of anything that required him to walk on it. Not exactly the most convenient timing, but try explaining that to a 2-year-old! So I spent most of the rehearsal trying to convince Ethan that sand could be fun, while Kaitlyn took the opportunity to dig in the sand.

Kaitlyn at the rehearsal

We forgot our camera for the actual wedding, so we didn't get any pictures of the beautiful bride. But here's a couple of pictures that Jess took before the wedding got started. And I'm happy to report that Ethan got over his annoyance with the sand long enough to rake with the other kids during the ceremony...as long as he could keep his shoes on the entire time!

When not attending various wedding functions, we took advantage of our beachfront accommodations. As I mentioned earlier, Ethan was not crazy about the sand. He eventually learned to tolerate it, but I wouldn't say that he ever liked it. The picture below sums up his wary attitude about the beach in general. Grainy sand, intimidating ocean waves, wet clothes--to a toddler, these are not fun things!

But he did like the idea of digging in the sand. So he relented for a while and played with the toys we had brought. Notice that he's not actually sitting in the sand--that would have been too much :)

We finally figured out that he was much happier with his shoes on walking on the packed sand. We tried to coax him to the water--we were not successful.

He was much happier hanging out with Aunt Lindsey who so graciously entertained him for a long time by building sand castles with him. He didn't move from that spot for quite some time. I love how he is sitting right next to her on the towel, as far away as possible from the evil sand.

Kaitlyn, on the other hand, was able to appreciate the joys of the sand. She played and played and played in the sand, finding endless joy in all the fun things that the beach had to offer.

And of course, playing is much more fun with a friend. She and Noah were best buds for the whole trip.

While Kaitlyn loved the sand, she wasn't quite so sure about the water. She liked running in the surf, but she hated the unpredictable waves. So she usually stayed a safe distance away from them. I like this time-lapsed sequence...

Oh no, here comes a wave! Run!

Didn't quite make it...notice the shocked expression on her face!

Whew! Everything's fine now!

And while Aunt Lindsey was building dry sand castles with Ethan, Uncle Andrew was showing Kaitlyn the power of mixing water and sand together to build things.

After the wedding, we headed down to Myrtle Beach, SC to continue the second part of our vacation. The weather turned a little cooler there, so we didn't spend as much time on the beach. We did spend a good amount of time at the pool, but apparently I forgot to take any pictures. On one of the cooler days, we explored the non-beach areas of Myrtle Beach and found this interesting airplane exhibit featuring old warplanes.

And we found a place where the kids could ride things. Apparently all four cousins really love each other because they all insisted on riding in the same car.

Other highlights included riding a ferryboat across the Cape Fear River, celebrating Papa's birthday with cake and ice cream, seeing dolphins at the rehearsal dinner and dancing at the wedding reception. What fun times to spend with family!