Can You Believe I’m Still Not Done with June!

I think this will wrap it up though!  This will probably also wrap up my posts for this summer.  July may just have to wait.

First, we discovered the awesome-ness that is Safety City!  We went twice this summer to play there, once for a birthday party and once just to meet friends and play.  Safety City was only open on Mondays and Thursdays, but it was totally free! (See the genius of having a birthday party there!)  Of course, it’s also all outside, so you have to time your visits with nice weather!

If you’ve never been, you should pack up the bikes and scooters and take the kids!  (Well, take them next summer.  I think they’re closed for the summer now.  Sorry.)  Basically it’s a miniature town where kids can ride around to their hearts' content.  Just make sure you follow the traffic rules, or the police may give you a ticket!

Never fear! Thomas had a helmet, but he took it off to rest and I made him pose for a picture before he put it back on.  Helmets are required at Safety City!

 

Here is Reagan riding a horse at Food City’s Kids Day.  None of the boys would ride one!



Cokesbury United Methodist hosted a stunt riders night, and Jes and Lily invited us to go, so we went to watch bike riders, skateboarders, and skaters do there tricks.  It was a lot of fun, and Reagan and Lily got to be part of the show!

 

One afternoon I played Children’s Bible Trivia with the kids.  Reagan and Jonathan beat me.  I couldn't believe it.

 

 

Another day, we saw this incredible rainbow!

 

We were all just sitting at the dinner table eating when Zachary looked out the window and drew our attention to the rainbow.  It was huge, and the colors were so vibrant!


And on a final sad note, we said good-bye to our sweet neighbors, Zoe and Sloan.  They moved to another city and will be missed, especially by Reagan who gets pretty girl-time-deprived!

Alright!  That’s it for June!  And that’s it for me and posting today!  Go ahead and place your bets on whether or not I post again before next June!

More Cousins! More Fun!

Didn’t I tell you that June was busy!  We went out of town three times…and then had company!  But we had so much fun doing all of it!  I wouldn’t take any of it away, even if it did make the month go by entirely too quickly!

We arrived home from our Memphis trip really late on a Friday night.  Two days later, we went to Jasper for a family reunion and saw many of Jim’s relatives.  So fun!

Uncle Millard, Clay, and Tyler

 

Grandparents, brothers, and cousins galore!

 

Jim with Aunt Jayne, Cousin Josh, and little Cousin Brantley

 

PawPaw and Eddie

 

Ainsleigh with Cousin Caleb, her new best friend

 

Shooting off rockets for a grand finale!

 

After the reunion, Clay and his family headed to Knoxville to spend a few days with us.  What better way to have fun with the cousins than to all go to Dollywood!

 

Now, Jim and I are bad parents who had never taken our kids to Dollywood before, despite living so close, so we didn’t really know how this was going to go, especially with Ainsleigh along for the ride!  We figured by dinnertime we would all be DONE and ready to go home!

 

Boy, were we wrong!  We closed the place down!  We had so much fun!  The kids rode nearly everything they were tall enough to ride (except Zachary, he’s Mr. I’ll Pass on the Rollercoaster, Thank You!)  Maybe next year, we’ll get season passes!

 

 

The kids were also really sweet about spending some time on the baby rides so Ainsleigh could have some fun too.  Look how happy she is!

 

This picture CRACKS ME UP!  No, Jonathan is not ducking for cover or hiding in fear.  He’s literally hiding from the camera because he doesn’t want his picture taken on the baby ride!  Notice all the other boys are having a blast!  Not Jonathan.  This ride was so beneath him!

So yes, we watched the closing fireworks, didn’t get home until nearly midnight, and can’t wait to go again!  I hope every day in Disney will be as much fun!

“Hey, let’s talk our parents into taking us back to Dollywood!”

Oh, For Crying Out Loud! Missed pictures from Memphis

I knew I felt like there should be more pictures from that trip!  Sorry!


If you have Pokémon-crazy boys like I do, then this is the present for you!  Aunt Jojo got each of the boys a Pokémon binder filled with card holders.  They LOVERD it and had the most fun organizing all their cards!


Realization of the Disney trip is just sinking in.  I love the looks on Jonathan, Kinley, and Reagan’s faces!

Making Memories in Memphis

Two days after returning home from our big birthday weekend, the kids and I packed up and headed for Memphis.

This trip was a big deal because we were making a big announcement to all the kids that first night.

WE’RE ALL GOING TO DISNEY!!!

 

Each of the kids got a Disney shirt and a personalized ticket like the above to announce the trip.  They all opened their tickets and read them at the same time.  It was really fun to watch their faces as they read the tickets and realized what it meant!

Of course, the grown-ups have been planning this trip for a long time, so it was great to finally let the kids in on the secret!

The next day we met up for lunch at Steak n’ Shake.  Yum! Then we took the six big kids to see Maleficent.

Everybody say, “Milkshake!”

 

Slumber party!

 

We also got to go to kallen’s birthday party at Jump n’ Jamz.  (I think that’s how it was spelled) This was a big bounce house place, and the kids had a blast!  The party room was huge!  And I loved the big, cushy throne for the birthday kid to sit on while opening presents!

 

The trip home was less than fun.  We got stuck in some really terrible traffic on I-40, due to an traffic accident. And poor Jim was waiting on us the whole time at Opry Mills mall in Nashville.  (He had been in Nashville that week for work)

What do you do in a car with four kids when you’re moving so slowly that it takes you an hour to go 5 miles?  Watch movies, of course!

Yes, that is my laptop.

 

Yes, it is attached to the passenger seat headrest with a luggage strap and an old bib.

 

Yes, I am incredibly resourceful in the face of a broken portable DVD player and a long car trip with four kids.