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!

More Summer Fun

We tested out Nashville's newest park the other day. Cumberland Park is built on the banks of the river downtown and has playground equipment, sandboxes and fountains for the kids to play in. Unfortunately the fountains had already been turned off for the day when we went in the evening. But I'm quite certain we'll be visiting this park again soon. 

Fun hills for the kids to climb on.

Seesaw fun.

Big slides.

The kids and I visited mom for a few days last week. Kaitlyn desperately wanted to go to a new state when we were down there (guess she's gotten the travel bug since our NY/NJ road trip!). Since mom lives so close to the Alabama border, we made a quick jaunt to the Welcome Center to see the iconic Saturn rocket on display. The kids were pretty amazed at the sheer size of it. Guess a trip to the Space and Rocket Center is in our future.

Summer Sunset

Here's our annual pictures from our downtown excursion to watch the sunset during one of the longest days of the year.

The kids couldn't resist the lure of running down the big hill! Daddy went so they wouldn't break anything :)

Rolling down the bottom part of the hill.

 Just for fun, here are pictures from the same event/place in years past...

2007--Kaitlyn was about 6 weeks old here.

2008--Miss Independent at 13 months.

2009A--Daddy and Kaitlyn (2 years old) watching trains

2009B--Ethan at 3 months

2010--two crying children (K at 3 years and E at 15 months)

2011--More cooperative this time (K at 4 years and E at 2 years)

2012--Where have my babies gone? And who are these big kids? Sigh...