Family Birthday Party

Since my family is so big, we basically have seasonal birthday dinners. My mom, my brother Christopher and I have birthdays in August, July and September, respectively, so our birthdays usually get lumped together. Both of my sisters and both of their husbands (coincidentally, both of my sisters married guys named Jim, from Mississippi, who are huge Auburn fans. Weird, huh?) have birthdays in March and April, so they have their birthdays together. Then my sister-in-law, Kajsa, my step-dad, Benton, and Grant all have May birthdays, so their birthdays are together. Strangely enough, there are no winter or fall birthdays among the adults in my family. Anyway, over Memorial Day weekend we celebrated the May birthdays and because my mom and step-dad are always looking to add a little fun, they rented a large, inflatable water slide.
The water slide was a surprise (even for the adult children) but we were told there would be something involving water and at least one grown up per family needed to wear a swim suit. I'll admit, I somewhat grumpily decided I would take one for the Howard team and be prepared to get wet, but once we got there, I was so glad that I was the one. I went down the slide so many times (sometimes I even helped my children) and had a blast.
Jim (Erin's Jim!) and I had a good time "helping" the kids down the slide.

 

Finn refused to go down the slide but he loved standing in the pool at the bottom of the slide.

I liked standing in the pool part, too.

Besides the slide there was also a tunnel of water.

 

That was a big hit with Finn and Carolina.

Carolina stood here, squealing with delight, for about 30-45 minutes. (Check out that dimple. She points to it and says, "Mama, I have a dimple.")

She had so much fun, and so did cousin Lily Kate.

Then some mad genius (ahem, my husband) figured it would be fun to throw the kids down the tunnel, like a slip 'n slide on steroids. I'm pretty sure he got a good arm workout that day. Here's Grant throwing Jack down the tunnel. (Sidenote: I have the best husband ever.)

Then, another mad genius (that would be my brother, Chris) decided he would essentially do the same thing, but by himself, running and jumping into the tunnel to shoot down it. You know you want the action shot. Here you go!

 Afterward everyone got dried off and we ate lunch on the deck. I'm not sure what Poppy and Finn were discussing here but it must have been important.

I adore this guy.

Maggie helped Grant open his birthday cards. We used to get PG-13 rated cards for each others birthdays and crack up as we passed them around. Now that Maggie can read, the cards have generally been toned down to a boring G rating. Ah, the sacrifices we make for our kids.

I must leave you with a final bit of cuteness. This was the first time the older cousins got to sit together at their own table. Here are six of my mom and Benton's grandchildren, looking awfully adorable if I do say so myself. I love those kids.

 

Muddin'

Today we completed another activity on our summer bucket list. We met some friends at the dirt (MUD!) park at Shelby Bottoms Greenway. It's an area in a nature preserve with big dirt piles, trails, a water pump to make mud, and a big sand box. We strategically planned to get there as early as possible (7:30 AM) to beat the heat and I'm glad we did. By the time we left, around 9:30, it was getting pretty hot, probably around 95 degrees. As soon as we got there, Carolina got the front of her bubble suit completely soaked. She doesn't look thrilled here but she was actually pretty happy about it.

 Seeing Maggie climb a tree made me feel like I'm doing a good job as a mom, whether I actually am or not! (Two side notes - my mom was an infamous tree climber as a child, breaking at least one arm while climbing a tree, and I'm pretty sure there was a second limb broken. Secondly, some time ago we were hanging out with someone from Grant's childhood who brought up a story from when Grant was a kid. The friend said, "Hey! Remember that time we were climbing that fence and you fell off of it and broke your wrist?" Grant said, "Yeah, I remember. Except I didn't fall. I jumped."
That's right. My husband is tough.)

Maggie got some climbing lessons from her buddy Liam, who is practically a professional tree climber.

 On one of the little trails there was a cool structure made out of twigs, which was almost shaped like an igloo. Carolina thought it was pretty great.

My friend Jenna (Liam's mom) and I were talking while the kids were playing and suddenly she said, "Oh! Those are blackberries growing wild right there!" So we spent some time picking blackberries.

 Carolina had a big time picking blueberries. She didn't let the thorns stop her. As Grant and I often say about Carolina, "honey badger don't care." (If you aren't familiar with that reference, you might not want to google it while there are kids around.)

When we went blueberry picking over the weekend (blog post to come soon), she had a hard time distinguishing between ripe and unripe blueberries, but this time she was expertly picking the black ones and leaving the unripe red ones, as you can see by the black one she is enjoying below.

 It's possible Finn got a tart blackberry here, or he might have been crying because he wanted Callum's Mystery Machine.

  I thought this photo showed off my pretty redhead. That hair! Those eyelashes! That profile!

 And then, about an hour later, she looked like this:

 And then, ten minutes, a good hosing off, and a change of clothes later, they were all clean again, and holding hands. Does it get any sweeter than that? I dread the day when they decide they are too cool for holding hands with friends.

It was a fun morning, well worth the mess. I'm so thankful there are so many fun things to do in Nashville.

Up a Tree

One day last week during Maggie's VBS I took Finn and Carolina to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, where we have a membership, to see to their new tree house exhibit. There are seven life-size tree houses inspired by classic works of literature and it looked like something we would all enjoy.  On Tuesdays in the autumn, winter and fall Cheekwood offers wonderful, free craft projects for preschool kids and parents. I thought they did them during the summer, too, so I made sure to go on a Tuesday morning. We confidently marched into the Learning building once we got there and took seats at a table with a few other moms and kids and I asked the woman in charge, "So, what project are we going to make today?" To which she replied, "Oh. And what are your children's names?" I didn't get the feeling she was just trying to make conversation so it quickly dawned on me that this was some sort of class. I asked and she told me that it was a Mommy and Me art summer camp. Doh! I hightailed it out of there and actually convinced myself not to be embarrassed by my mistake. What a revelation for this neurotic lady!
We went on to see the tree houses.
The first one we saw was a giant conch shell inspired by The Lord of the Flies. For some reason there were African animal masks for the kids to put their faces up to. I don't remember that from the Lord of the Flies but seeing as I was in seventh grade when I read it, it's entirely possible that there is a crucial African animal mask scene that I don't remember. But who cares? Look how cute Carolina looks in the zebra mask.

Finn had a big time climbing in the conch. (Side note- do you say "conk" or "conch"? I say conk. Just curious.)

 

This tree house was based on The Giver, which I'd never heard of. They loved running up a ramp into the tree house and going down the slide. And at one point, while I was helping Carolina down the slide, Finn ran off and I completely lost him for about five minutes. I did run around shouting his name like a crazy person. My kids have basically turned me into a total spazz. He turned up after I suffered 98 heart attacks from fear.

We all really liked the pirate ship tree house, inspired by Peter Pan.

 

The fish tree house was inspired by a book called The Rainbow Fish. It was really cool but you can't really tell from my close up. They used old CD's for the scales. My favorite part was the fact that it had only one way in or out so I could trap my kids in there and know they couldn't escape!

 

This tree house was probably my favorite. It was inspired by The Hobbit and it had a living wall completely covered with plants, a long slide, and a round doorway. For some reason it reminded me of Seaside, Florida.

 Last was a giant rubber band ball tree house. It was suspended over a pond which was unique but terrifying with my two little daredevils. It was inspired by Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories. 

This activity was on our summer bucket list but I can't cross it off yet because technically the bucket list says "Coal Train Railroad @ Cheekwood" and that event doesn't occur until next Thursday. It should be hot but fun! We DO have a guest pass so if anyone wants to go with us, I'd love to get you in for free. Let me know.  When we go next week I'll have to take better photos of the tree houses themselves so you can see what they look like.

More Summer Fun

We've done a lot of fun things this summer that weren't on our summer bucket list. They're all small things, really, but I think we're making lots of sweet memories.

We've had frozen yogurt with Poppy and Carolina got so drippy that I had to strip her down to a diaper! Redneck much?

One day I covered the kitchen table in white paper, stripped the kids down, and gave them a pile of magic markers. They only got a little bit of ink on themselves and made a great masterpiece.

We've gone swimming with Grandaddy (my dad)

 and Nonna (my dad's lovely wife, Elizabeth). Notice the unplanned matching swimsuits!

We rode up 26 floors in a glass elevator looking out at the city (we went up and down 15 or 20 times).

 Finn was there, too, but for some reason isn't in any photos.

We've protected our eyes from UV rays.

And experimented with headbands, which unfortunately didn't last long.

 We've had play dates with cousins, and held their hand.

Maggie's worked on her babysitting skills by "putting the little kids to bed." Sorry it's sideways. Yes, they're all naked and yes, that's the living room floor.

And we did the somewhat too-realistic DinoTrek exhibit at the Nashville Zoo. The dinosaurs moved and growled. It was really interesting but the scene where one dinosaur is shown standing on top of bloody carcass and the smell of rotting meat is pumped in was a little much. No, I'm not kidding.

At the end there were sandboxes with pretend dinosaur bones and the kids could help excavate them with shovels and brushes. That was my kids' favorite part.

Like I said the other day...best summer ever!

Best Summer Ever!

We are having so much fun this summer. The last few weeks of school were such a flurry of activity; I had no idea how busy it would be. The last day of school was a half day and by the time we got home, Maggie was in a bit of a funk about missing her friends and her teacher. It was more than a funk - it was a big, foul mood. She got out of the car and stomped up the sidewalk to the porch. As soon as she saw the front door her face broke into a huge grin and she started giggling like crazy. It was pretty much exactly the reaction I hoped for.



Metro Nashville School District shortened the summer and school starts back on August 1 this year, so our summer is very short. I really wanted to be intentional about this summer and not just fritter the time away. In the span of three days in April, every week in June got booked up with activities - church camps and art camp and Cousin Camp (that deserves its own post). Maggie is going to Texas with Grant's parents and we'll spend some time there, so that left us with only a few "free" weeks. I actually saw the idea for a "summer bucket list" several years ago from a blog I read, but this year was our first year with a child having a real summer break (Maggie's preschool went through the summer). Our "summer bucket list" is a list of activities we want to do this summer. Here's our list:
 
In case you can't read it it says

• Buy ice cream from the ice cream truck
• Have a lemonade stand
• Blueberry picking
• Paint rocks for the garden
• Monkey's Treehouse (an indoor play place)
• Coal Train Railroad and picnic at Cheekwood (a kid's jazz band, playing at the botanical gardens
• Cumberland Park (a new splash park right on the river downtown)
• Swim picnic for dinner
• Bounce U (inflatable play place)
• Little House on the Prairie Week (we kinda love LHOTP around here. The "LHOTP week" idea came from the first book where Laura describes how each day had its own work, like wash on Monday, mend on Tuesday, bake on Wednesday, churn on Thursday, etc)
• Judson VBS/Redeemer VBS (a local church's VBS and our church's VBS)
• Art camp (at The Covenant School)
• Cousin Camp (a long weekend of fun activities with my Mimi and Poppy - right now it's only theoretically cousin camp as you must be 6 to attend Cousin Camp and none of the other cousins are old enough)
• TX trip
• Downtown library story time
• Downtown library puppet show with a snack at Provence, the French cafe/bakery located at the library
• Mud Park at Shelby Bottoms (a part of a city park intended for kids to get muddy in)
• write letters (something to help prevent brain drain, and fun!)
• Make s'mores
• Get a book of science experiments from the library and do one
• HAVE A FUN SUMMER!

Each time we do an activity Maggie gets to cross it off the list. I'm pretty sure we can do them all. We've been having a blast so far. I hope to write a few posts soon about all the fun things we've been doing so far, with lots of photos.

And now for some extra cuteness, here is Maggie's first day of kindergarten:
 

And here's her last day of kindergarten: