Oktoberfest and Gentry's Farm

Today we decided to be ambitious and tackle TWO outdoor events. First we went to Oktoberfest in Germantown. Jeff and I used to go to this festival every year, but it became difficult to manage with little ones. So we took a hiatus for a few years until they got a bit older. This year, we decided to give it another try. First, we headed straight for the kids play area. And guess what we found there?!?! PONY RIDES!!  I can't describe to you how excited Kaitlyn was when she saw the ponies and realized that she was going to ride one. My little animal lover has been begging for quite some time to ride a horse or a pony, but we've never run across them until today. The joy on her face when she got on her beloved pony was priceless...a little girl's dream come true. Even though they just walked around in a circle, she was in heaven. And Ethan enjoyed it too :)  (I chose not to dwell on the fact that the poor ponies were tethered to a metal pole and forced to walk around and around in a circle for quite a while. It was good exercise for them, right?)

 

  

A couple of hours later after some polka music and some authentic German food (for Jeff), we headed down south to Gentry's Farm in Franklin. 

Posing on one of the many photo op wagons

Lost in the sorghum maze--Kaitlyn doing her ballet curtsy and Ethan doing some other kind of pose.

Getting ready for the hayride through the cow pasture--we saw a day-old calf!

Posing in front of old TN license plates

A morning full of pony rides, inflatables, and music, and an afternoon full of farm animals, hayrides, tire swings, and pumpkins--I don't think it gets much better than that for a 3 year old and a 5 year old. And we had lots of fun, too, experiencing these simple joys of life through the eyes of our children. To quote my daughter, "Thank you God for this beautiful day!"

Field Trip to the Farm

Kaitlyn's class at Walden Farm

The silly picture :)

These 2-week-old piglets were pretty cute!

Coming off the slide at the hay maze

Sweet friends!

Picking out her pumpkin

End-of-Summer Fun

I'll let the pictures do the talking on this post...

Fountains at the new Cumberland Park downtown

Fountains at the new Cumberland Park downtown

"My Big Backyard" in Memphis with Noah and Eli

Koi Pond at Memphis Botanic Garden

Cousin silliness

The awesome tire swing in the cousins' back yard

Hours and hours of fun... :)

Popsicles after dinner--notice the superhero peeking out of the door!

"Driving" the gator...good thing she still has many years before real driving!

Facepainting from the Lincoln County Fair--and the only fair pictures this year because of a dead camera battery :(

They had SO much fun at the fair this year--can you tell?

Enjoying the last official day of summer at the zoo

We got to see the new baby giraffe

For some reason, Kaitlyn wanted to pose for pictures on this rock.

Ethan at the zoo--the hand on the hip was his idea

Kaitlyn at the zoo

 Goodbye summer, hello fall!

Nostalgia

Kaitlyn's 1st day of preschool--2 years old

Kaitlyn's 1st day of preschool--3 years old

Kaitlyn's 1st day of preK--4 years old

Kaitlyn's 1st day of kindergarten--5 years old

Ethan's 1st day of preschool--2 years old

 

Ethan's 1st day of preschool--3 years old

Back to School!

I'm not quite sure how this happened, but somehow my baby girl is now old enough to go to Kindergarten!! Kaitlyn was beside herself with excitement as this big day got closer and closer. Several weeks before, she started counting down the days. Which of course prompted Ethan to ask, "How many more days until I go to kindergarten, Mommy?" Too many to count, buddy!

We are so blessed to have Kaitlyn at Otter Creek for kindergarten this year. Words cannot express how wonderful this place is. And I think part of Kaitlyn's excitement came from the fact that she was finally going to be one of the "big kids" that she has been watching for 3 years now at preschool. Kaitlyn got her very last "Snoopy Letter" shortly before school started and found out that her teacher was going to be Miss Melissa.  On Snoopy Day, the kids get to go "snoop" around their classrooms while the parents go to orientation with the principal and the teacher.

Then came the big day--her very first day of kindergarten!!  Can you tell she's excited?

Once we got Kaitlyn all settled in kindergarten, it was time for Ethan's preschool to start. He was pretty happy to get his Snoopy Letter and find out that his teacher was Miss Dele. She has such a gift with three-year-olds, and we are thrilled to have her this year.

Here's Ethan on his first day of school.

He looks like such a big boy in these pictures. Sniff, sniff. He only goes to preschool 3 days a week, which means that he and I have two days alone together! I'm looking forward to spending some one-on-one time with my little boy.

Adventures in Kentucky

Before school started back up, we decided to take a day trip to Kentucky to visit Dinosaur World and Mammoth Cave. For an adult, Dinosaur World is pretty cheesy and the dinosaurs were (in my opinion) not very realistic. But I don't think the kids noticed at all. They were too busy running down the trail seeing the different dino statues. They got to dig for fossils, watch a dino movie and see real dino artifacts in a museum. Since this trip was mainly to do fun stuff with the kids, I guess we accomplished our mission. I'm just glad we had buy-one-get-one-free tickets :)

The kids had the requisite cheesy picture made inside the head of the T.Rex. Ethan's just barely tall enough to get in the picture.

Here they are digging for fossils.

They next leg of our trip was much more interesting (to me, anyway). We went to Mammoth Cave! One of their tours was specifically geared for old people and young kids, and it wound up being perfect for us. Short, easy and full of spectacular views. We even saw a bat on our way in!

The kids learned all about stalagtites and stalagmites.  And the guide turned off all the lights in the cave for a brief moment so that we could experience what total darkness looked like. Pretty spooky!

It was nice and cool in the cave! A welcome respite from the August heat!

When the kids get a little older and are more capable of walking longer distances, we'd love to come back and explore more of this natural wonder! But maybe we'll skip a repeat visit to Dinosaur World :)

Let's Go Fly a Kite

Before this brutal heat wave hit, we had a few pleasant days with a light breeze. We took advantage of one of those days and took the kids out for an evening of kite-flying. They got the hang of it fairly quickly. 

I promise those power lines are farther away than they look in the pictures! Let's hope this heat wave breaks soon so that we can enjoy more outdoor fun!