BB Guns and Tornadoes--July 2014

I'm a year behind on the blog again, (not that you would expect anything else!) and have had a lot of trouble with Live Writer, my long-time trusty blogging program, and have finally given up on trying to get it to work.  So I am back to creating my posts actually in the Blogger program.  I don't like it as much, but that is where I am.  So let's get this party started!

Last July, Jim finally got a chance to give the kids (well, the boys...Reagan wasn't interested) some shooting lessons with their BB gun.  It was a fun time, one that should be repeated more often than it is!

We also had a tornado warning which sent us to our safe place.  It's a rather small space, so we were quite cozy, especially after adding pillows and blankets.  I can't remember if the electricity had also gone out or we had just turned the light off to keep down the heat, but we took a few pictures and we are clearly lit up by a lantern and not the ceiling light.

Don't worry, Thomas was not as scared as he appears in the picture!  Don't we look prepared?  Even Jim has a helmet to protect his head from falling debris!  If only we had thought to make Thomas put on a shirt!

The last pictures from last July will give you a shot of our summer garden harvest, and Zachary in his second favorite socks.  Second favorite?  Yes.  He has identical yellow ones and THOSE are his favorite!  He picked them out on a birthday shopping trip in Memphis with Bud and KayKay.  Never have you seen kids so excited about new socks!

Birthdays and Borsts

JonZReaTom turned EIGHT this year!  I can’t believe it!  And we were super busy for their birthday weekend!

Birthday morning—8-shaped pancakes!  Thanks Dad!

 

Birthday lunch at Newk’s and the weather was nice enough to eat outside!

 

Then we hit the road for “Borst Mountain” to visit with some great longtime friends!

 

Within minutes of arrival, the boys and Andy had started a RISK game!

 

Minions!

 

Matt and Luanne with all the kids!

 

Watching the Civil War re-enactment slideshow

 

The best I can do…Michele, Luanne, Matt, John, Big Jim. Sue. Michelle, Judah, Baby D, Me, Matthew, Jim, Abby, Reagan, Andy, Zachary, Thomas, Jonathan, Katie, and Jack

What a crew!

 

And Jes and Lily weren’t even there yet!

 

BHS reunion!  Go Panthers!

 

I’m not sure what John is doing , but the kids seem to like it!

 

 

And one of the funniest moments of the weekend was when I told two of my boys that the swim trunks they were wearing were too small and this would be the last time they could wear them.  They were not happy about this decision because they LOVE those swim trunks, but to support my decision, I looked at the tags so I could tell them the sizes were too small for 8-year-olds. 

 

IT WAS WORSE THAN I THOUGHT!!

 

Don’t judge me! 

Good Grief—The Rest of Last Summer--Part 1--7th Birthday

Okay, it’s July of 2014, but I’m blogging about last summer.  It’s kind of ridiculous.

Last year, we had the kids’ birthday party at Tataru’s.  It was a big hit, but a little stressful on mom and dad.  It’s a very large area where all the kids can run amuck and have the best time ever, while you as the host pray no one breaks any bones.



In addition to trampolines, there are giant foam pits, balance beams, uneven bars, etc.  All the typical gymnastics equipment.  These are just the best pictures I have.

I wish I had gotten a nice group picture!

 

After the party, it was home to play with the awesome toys!

 

This science kit was a big hit with ALL of the kids.  It had chunks of “rock” that you could break open to find the gemstones inside.

 

 

Happy 7th birthday, JonZReaTom!

Birthday Surprises

The kids’ party was the weekend before their actual birthday, but that was not the end of the festivities!  We had more surprise up our sleeves!
We went to VBS that morning (at Farragut where my amazing friend Michelle was in charge this year.  Every year I am blown away by what they do for VBS there!  It is quite an impressive production!)  So we had a big fun morning there, where I’m certain they told everyone they met that it was their birthday and they were FIVE!
Then Happy Meals for lunch!
Then a NAP to rest up for the BIG AFTERNOON SURPRISE!
Someone’s coming to see you for your birthday!  Who could it be? 

BUD AND KAYKAY

AND

KINLEY AND KALLEN!!!

The kids guessed that it might be Bud and KayKay, but the cousins were totally unexpected!

It was a short visit.  They arrived Monday afternoon and left Wednesday morning, but it was a blast!

The girls, playing with mermaids

The boys, building with Legos

A story worth noting: Tuesday night after dinner, we all settled into the living room to watch the kids’ birthday slideshow.  While we were watching, it began to rain outside and got quite windy.  I happened to look out the front door just in time to watch the tree in our front yard bend almost over to the ground!
I yelled to Jim in the playroom that maybe we should check the weather, about the same time that he yelled something very similar to us in the living room because he had noticed the trees in the back yard.  About that time the electricity went off and Jim sent us all to take cover in the bathroom.
Now, our guest bathroom is not that big, in case you’re wondering.  At least, not when you cram in six small children and two-four adults, depending on whether the menfolk are in there or not!

Luckily, there were enough flashlights for every child to have one!

Also, luckily, the tornadic activity that occurred in Knoxville that evening did not happen near enough to our house to cause us any problems AND the loads and loads of trees that went down all over the neighborhood also did no damage to our house.  So we were safe!

We all waited around for awhile for the power to come back on so we could finish the slideshow, but it never did.  Eventually, Bud and company went ahead and left to go back to their hotel (our guest room is now a kids’ room.  One more change that happened this summer).  They had a terrible time getting to it though!  The downed trees blocked their way!

That was June 21, by the way! If you live in Knoxville, you probably lost your power that night too!

Oh, well!  It gave us a little unusual excitement!  And it was a great visit!  We wish they could have stayed longer!

The Big Five! Finally!

Woohoo!  I’m finally blogging about the kids’ birthday!  (Thank you, David, for the yummy birthday cookies!)
THEY ARE FIVE!!!!!!
Really, it doesn’t seem possible.  They’re still my babies!  They shouldn’t be about to start KINDERGARTEN!!  They don’t let babies into kindergarten, do they?
But, alas.  They aren’t babies anymore.  They are five.  They pick out their own clothes and dress themselves and brush their own teeth and buckle their own seatbelts. 
They are great big five-year-old kids.
And THAT, my friends, is worth celebrating!
We had big plans this year for the kids’ birthday party, involving lots of outdoor water fun and an overnight campout with the Indy cousins…but it didn’t quite work out the way we’d hoped.
Because it rained.  And rained.  And rained.
Oh, well.  We made the best of it!  Luckily little kids are perfectly content to just play with toys when there are extra kids around, so JonZReaTom and guests basically just ran around the house and played, and occasionally stopped for presents or cake!
The day started out well, with sunshine and pancakes!

Then it was time to make a camping cake!  After picking bits and pieces from several other camping cake examples from Coolest Birthday Cakes and Family Fun, I came up with this:

It’s no professional job, but I was pretty proud of it!  I loved the idea to use the candles for the campfire, and I LOVED the way the pine trees turned out.  (The recipe is on the above-mentioned Family Fun site).  The Bronco was Jim's addition along with its rock wall.  No campout is complete without the Bronco!

Putting the kids on the cake was all my idea.  I’m pretty proud of that too!

We are now well-armed with both Nerf guns and Star Wars light sabers.  Luckily, the light sabers got a better reception from Reagan than the guns did.  Perhaps because there were no other little girls opening up princess dolls at the same time!

Reagan enjoying a tea party with Kennedy and Cousin Avery

I wish I had taken better pictures.  It was hard because the kids were constantly changing activities, and our house is not that big, so it was a little crowded with so many people in out of the rain!  Oh, well!
It did eventually stop raining, and we were able to move to the backyard to grill out and pretend we couldn’t see how muddy the kids were getting.

Mud puddles!

And even though it was wet outside, we decided to pitch the tents and camp anyway!  The kids just really had their hearts set on it! 

In our pajamas with Cousin Avery, waiting for bedtime and enjoying some of our presents

(We won’t discuss the lightning storm that flared up in the middle of the night and sent us all inside)

So even though the day didn’t turn out the way we hoped, it was still a great day!  We got to hang out with friends (our friends AND the kids’) and family (We’re especially grateful to PawPaw and NeNe and Clay and family for coming in from out-of-town to spend this special day!), enjoy some great food, and have a lot of fun!

Happy birthday to my little superheroes!