Road trip!

We just got back from our first big road trip with the kids. And when I say "big," I'm talking 2200+ miles! Take a look at the map to see where our travels took us!

We started out in Nashville (of course). First, we drove to Parkersburg, WV to spend the night with some dear friends and to break up a long leg of our journey. Then we drove to upstate NY to spend some time with Grandma and Bob (Gigi and Bobby to the kids) at their house on Canandaigua Lake. From there, we went to visit Jeff's parents in NJ. Then we trekked home, with an overnight stop with Jeff's aunt and uncle in Columbus, OH. Whew! We were SO glad to see the "Welcome to TN" sign and even more excited when we rounded the corner and saw our beloved home. We didn't get back in the van for three days!!

I was a little anxious about how the kids would do on such a long trip. But I have to say that they far exceeded my expectations. Sure, there were bouts of whining, bickering, and fatigue on our long driving days, but overall they did really well. We learned a few things from our medium-sized road trip to NC/SC last year. This time, we scheduled a stop every 2 - 3 hours at a playground to let them burn off some energy. Jeff, our intrepid tour guide, had researched where all the fast-food restaurant play areas were along the way. [Fun Fact: did you know that the Chick-Fil-A website actually has a "plan your trip" service that locates all the nearby CFA's along the way? Yet another reason to love that company!!] In addition to the play areas, I was armed with an arsenal of arts and crafts activities, portable games, new books from the library and a lot of CDs and DVDs. I also packed a cooler full of fresh fruit and healthy snacks so that we wouldn't have to eat junk all day while we were driving. But I think all of those things helped to make the long hours in the car bearable. And I'd even like to do it again someday :)

Warning: this blog post may win an award for "longest post ever." But we did a lot of things and spent time with special people, so I want to remember all of these details!

Our first stop was in Parkersburg, WV to visit Jeff's long-time friend Dave and his family. Not only did we have a blast visiting with Dave and Stacie, but our kids fell in love with their kids. Specifically, Kaitlyn simply adored Meredith and tagged along right behind her the entire time we were there. And Alexis is quite the little mommy, and Ethan loved it when she doted on him.  

We didn't have much time in WV, but we did manage to get in one outing while we were there. We all went up to Fort Boreman, which is a scenic overlook of Parkersburg, Ohio and the river. There's also a neat playground there too. (Thanks to Stacie for taking these pictures!)

Mullers and Krinks at Ft. Boreman

 

 

The kids at Ft. Boreman (minus Hayden who was at home)

As I mentioned, Kaitlyn thought Meredith was the coolest thing ever, so she was SO excited when she found out that she was going to get to sleep by her BFF!! It was the kids' first slumber party and they loved every second of it. And they actually slept too!

 

The next morning, the kids got to eat breakfast while watching cartoons with their new favorite friends. For a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old, it doesn't get much better than that! I think they would've been happy to stay there all week!!

 

On Day 2, we sadly said goodbye to WV and set off for Gigi and Bobby's house in Canandaigua, NY! Jeff spent much time there as a kid and has fond memories of his time at the lake. So he was excited to get to share some of these experiences with his kids now that they're a little bit older (they were 3 and 1.5 the last time we were there). 

Jeff and the kids on the row boat

Ethan couldn't resist testing the water.

Ethan trying his hand at rowing. As if on cue, he started singing, "Row, Row, Row your Boat."

Sweet times with Kaitlyn and Gigi. She couldn't wait for Gigi to help her find "treasures" on the lake beach.

Sunset at the lake

Day 3 was a day of boating and playing in the water. The kids were quite content to play around on the shore of the lake. It's amazing how much fun kids can have with a few plastic toys and a large body of water.

It started off as "rinsing their feet," and then it turned into wading into waist-deep water.

The kids on the boat

Gigi and Bobby on the boat

Kaitlyn "driving" the boat

Like father, like son (and like grandfather!)

Building a fire for s'mores

Waiting patiently for s'mores

Ethan wasn't fond of going fast in the boat. He insisted on sitting in my lap and covering his ears whenever we went moderately fast.

Of course, I was more than happy to snuggle with my sweet boy on the boat!!

Hunting for treasures on the beach

Lowering the TN flag before we leave

After spending a few days at the lake, we drove to Mimi and Papa's house in NJ. Unfortunately, we hit Philly right at rush hour at the start of Memorial Day weekend when half the city was heading east to the shore. It took us over an hour to get across the city. Ugh. But nevertheless, we went back to Philadelphia the next day to get in some sight-seeing with the kids.

Historical section of Philly--cobblestone streets

Ethan "in jail"

Kaitlyn was fascinated with Ben Franklin's grave. She asked a million questions about how he died, what his body looked like now, if she could open his grave and look. You know, all those questions that have easy answers! Ha! She settled for tossing pennies onto his grave to commemorate "A penny saved is a penny earned."

Race St. Pier under the Ben Franklin bridge

Center City in the background

 

And we couldn't come to NJ without going "down the shore." We went to Ocean City on Tuesday (after the holiday crowds had left!!). We had pizza and frozen custard on the boardwalk...quintessential Jersey shore (minus Snooki)! 

Kailtyn loved this dog statue for some reason

And she loved the water!

Ethan, on the other hand, wasn't fond of the water. At least he didn't mind the sand this year!!

The joy of a child is infectious

No clue what he's doing here, but he's loving life at this moment.

Sweet picture of daddy and daughter. Holding Daddy's hand always makes things a little less scary.

Ethan was quite happy to dig in his big sand hole--until a large wave surprised him and turned his hole into a wading pool!

Kids with Mimi and Papa

Air Show

The annual air show was in town a couple of weeks ago, and the Blue Angels were there this year! Jeff took the kids for the first time, and they had a wonderful aviation-filled day.

Notice the bright pink earplugs? With fighter jets (and other stunt planes) zooming overhead at random times and creating high decibel levels, the kids wore earplugs the whole day. Needless to say, they were happy to get rid of them at the end of the day!

Aww, sweet siblings holding hands :)

Hail storm!

A couple of weeks ago, storms were in the area, and the kids and I headed to Target to run a quick errand. When we came home, this is what we found. Apparently, we had missed a major hail storm! I've never seen hail pile up in such large quantities before. It was very localized to our cul-de-sac and a couple of neighboring streets. Our grass was covered with tiny ice pellets, and much of our foliage was shredded.  It was quite surreal to walk around and survey the damage. Fortunately, most of it was just cosmetic, and I'm happy to say that my tomato plants and basil have bounced back nicely. I'm just thankful that my van was safely at Target when it happened!!

Kids at Work

I love this age where they think manual labor is fun!

Kaitlyn's 5th Birthday Party

I'm not quite sure how 5 years have passed since my sweet little Kaitlyn entered this world. But here we are--proud parents of a 5-year-old! She was SO excited about this birthday. Being 5 is a big deal to a small child. It marks the transition from a "little" kid to a "big" kid who is now old enough to go to "big" school. Sigh. And being 5 has brought on a thirst for more independence too. I've lost count of the times that she's started a sentence like this lately: "Now that I'm 5, can I ____?" 

Several months ago, she decided that she wanted a Rapunzel/Tangled party. So we invited a few girls over for her party on Saturday. Mom and Jim came up early to start the festivities.

Opening her Rapunzel doll

A princess doll house

I didn't want to go overboard on this party (money-wise or time-wise), but I couldn't resist a few ideas that I stole from the internet.  In the movie, Rapunzel spends quite a bit of time painting, so the party favors were water colors, Rapunzel pictures to paint and some stickers and tattoos.

Party favors--water colors and Rapunzel pictures to paint

And when I saw this on Pinterest, I knew I had to do this. In honor of Rapunzel's hair, I made a 15-foot braid out of yarn! The whole thing cost less than $3 and Kaitlyn enjoyed helping me make it. I hot-glued some cheap flowers to barrettes and clipped them to the braid for decoration. Each girl got to take home one of these flower clips too. 
 

The only other decoration I made was the flag banner that is hanging on the wall. In the movie, there are flags hanging all over the kingdom with the sun emblem on it. I used some old purple file folders to cut out the triangles. Then I cut out a sun shape and stenciled the sun onto the flags using leftover paint. I used yarn left over from the braid to string the flags together into a banner. So it was basically a free (and cute!) decoration! Hooray!

And here are the obligatory cake and paper goods picture. I have to say that Kroger makes a yummy cake! :)

 

Since it was a girl-only (+ Ethan) party, I knew I could get away with some crafty activities. So the girls happily colored Rapunzel pictures...

...and made necklaces and bracelets with beads...

 

 

...and painted a mural on the wall. This last activity was a bit risky because it involved real paint in close proximity to my furniture. But I trusted Crayola's slogan of "Washability you can trust." I armed each kid with a smock, put a drop cloth down, and hoped for the best! I think they had a blast! And there were only a few minor mishaps that all easily cleaned up with water. Go Crayola!!

 

The birthday girl blowing out her candles.

 

The opening of the presents. Kaitlyn had lots of "helpers" for this part!

 

Kaitlyn and Mommy

Happy Birthday, my precious little girl! I can't wait to see what this year holds for you!

Spring Program and Easter

In March, the kids had their spring program. I love their annual Christmas program, but I really love the spring program because it's longer and you get to see the individual classes perform (Christmas is just one big group on stage). Since Ethan's class was the youngest, they went first. They did the cutest little song called "Turn Around" that had lots of hand motions. They all looked so little compared with all the big kids in the other classes! Ethan surprised us all by being quite the ham on stage. Unlike his sister at this age, he enthusiastically did every single hand motion and sang the songs with gusto. No stage fright whatsoever in him!

Pretending to "go to sleep"

Kaitlyn's come a long way in her stage performance. I wouldn't say that she was completely comfortable on stage like Ethan was, but she did all the hand motions and sang...and she didn't look miserable! The teachers had really played up the fact that her class was the oldest class and so it was their responsibility to set a good example for the younger classes by fully participating in the program. It worked! She sang her heart out for the first time in three years of preschool programs!

 

After each class did their individual performance, they all came up on the stage to sing several songs as a group. Ethan cracked us up the whole time. Apparently, they had told everyone to sing loud, so he did was he was told--literally! In several songs, I could hear his voice over all the others. I think he was the only one in the 2 year old class that sang in the group ensemble. Like I said, there wasn't a bit of stage fright in this boy!

This is the only year where both of them will be in a program together at Otter Creek. Although Kaitlyn will be at OC next year for kindergarten, I think they stay pretty separated from the preschool activities. So here's the two siblings posing together for their joint program.

And then there were the Easter celebrations...

Both kids had Easter egg parties and hunts at their schools. I have lots more pictures, but they all have other kids in them (and I don't want to post pics of classmates on blogs), so you'll just have to come to my house and flip through my photo albums if you want to see all the party pictures :) Although their parties were on the same day, I was very thankful that they were scheduled for different times so that I could go to both.

Ethan going after some eggs

Kaitlyn's egg hunt

Sunday morning brought Easter baskets, Easter church services and Easter lunch with Jeff's parents, my mom and Jim. And then in the afternoon, we had another egg hunt at church. This egg hunt lasted about 60 seconds.  Both kids were in the 3-4 year old hunt, so I was fortunate to be able to watch both kids.

And they're off!

Ethan and Kaitlyn hunting eggs

Kaitlyn and her BFF Hannah.

Ethan finding an egg