Summer 2016: June festivities

New splash pad at McFee! I love that both boys are still interested in playing in it; I will be a little sad when Anderson outgrows things like this. Well... unless that means he will sleep past 6am and then I might be ok with it. 

One of the BEST things that we did all summer was going to Dollywood Splash Country. One of my friends had 2 free tickets so Bug and I went from open to close with them and had SO much fun! Max went to school that day and I really enjoyed just hanging out with Anderson.

We will definitely be returning next year. 

Early morning activities.

Even though there are many hours in the day, I really enjoy not having to rush everyone out the door by 6:50.

National Doughnut Day!

Clare! And Me! Together! In a picture!

Poor Max had about a week of not feeling well (sinus infection, 2 ear infections, fever, awake ALL night, etc.)...but we cannot just stay at home because my children are not sedentary even when they are sick. We spent a day downtown and went to McClung museum to see the new dino exhibit, World Fair Park & up in the sun sphere.

 Max was there to put out any fires that might arise, of course. 

And because we cannot settle for just one splash park visit a week, we also hit up The Wilderness in the Smokies with our Memphis cousins! We were so grateful that they shared their room wristbands with us! I did not get many pics because I had my phone in a locker, but it was a really fun time.

Shannon & Morgan, hanging out by the slides. 

In a wonderful twist, Jacob is amazing & let Anderson stalk him on the slides, through the lazy river, in life, etc. This is a screen shot front the video-I am too lazy to find the edited shot. 

We did all of the slides that Anderson was tall enough to do & they were so much fun. We also did one slide that he was not tall enough to do and that one was pretty awesome, too. 

I loved being able to spend so much time with everyone and am super bummed that I did not take more pictures. We are always grateful for a visit from the Memphis cousins. 

Love how quickly they all became friends. 

Brandon found this bird in our yard & Anderson immediately adopted it. They put it behind the fence the night they found it & Anderson had to check on it the second he woke up. He decided it was a member of the raptor family & was trying to convince me to bring it raw meat. 

Luckily, it flew away before that fun time.

A cute pic of Max from his splash day at school. 

At the mall-Anderson was SO happy. He kept talking about everything and even asked if his friend, Jack, can visit there with us one day. I mean, we have got to get out more. 

We got in the photo booth, but the pics are $5, which is pretty much not happening. So, instead we did 4 selfies & I just made a collage. For free. 

Ninja Turtle movie. I LOVE that half of our kids are able to do things like go to the movies with Dad. 

We are always on a quest for to accommodate Anderson's need for wildlife interaction. 

GG bought a new ring toss game to play with the boys in her awesome back yard!

Anderson was invited to a birthday party & Max was not supposed to go, but he sort of snuck with us and he had SO much fun. So many perks for that younger brother. 

We have done MANY activities, but there are lots of hours in the day, so we still find time to lay around & eat waffles in the bed, while watching the iPad. 

Since I do still have to work some, Max is still going to school in June. He does not love it. He DOES  actually love his school, but he has a hard time because I am off so much more & we are doing fun stuff, so it is hard to stay there. But, one day was his first Show & Tell and he brought a giant duck feather that he found at the park. His teachers said it was a big hit and he enjoyed telling everyone the story of how he found it. I love watching him become a person.

One of our FAVORITE June events is the Secret City festival and, like always, it did not disappoint!

Anderson spent most of the 1st day trying to catch things in the creek. 

There was an ENTIRE festival and all he wanted to do was wade in the creek and catch stuff. 

I did manage to snag a crawfish with a Kroger bag and I am now officially his favorite Mom. 

Also, he was able to hold a red tailed hawk!!! 

This was definitely one of the highlights of his summer so far. 

I am impressed with/terrified by his lack of fear. 

We hit up the Festival the 2nd day with the Brimers and, of course, returned to the creek. 

This time we were more prepared and brought nets. 

Yes. I think there is a need for a tornado warning when Max is around. 

I love when they can activity together. 

How MUCH do I LOVE this picture?? 

Because when it is 900 degrees outside, there is no family I would rather spend time with than the Brimers. 

And, because we cannot get enough, we tagged along to their house for a swim & backyard outing. 

We mostly did this so that we could visit with this guy!

Despite the 9 million pics, June was not all play for all of us. I did have to go to Nashville for work for a week & Brandon & the grandmas were amazing at raising these boys. 

Brandon even took Max to tour the fire station!

While I was gone, Anderson did an AWESOME basketball camp. He seriously loved it. 

And, while he was there, he lost his first tooth! It was loose, but it fell out when he got elbowed in the face during a basketball game. He said, "There was a little blood, but I spit it out and kept playing." 

If that does not sound like he is channeling his inner Teddy Roosevelt, I just don't know what does. 

Sad I missed it, but grateful to Brandon for being an awesome tooth fairy. 

Some other events in May.

Festivals: I have a special set of skills that involve always locating you.

 I will find you and we will visit you. 

Seriously, how does his guy manage to "drive" a fire truck every single weekend?

Also, bounce houses. 

We did get to spend some time with this precious Baby brother/toddler Levi. He is even cuter than this in person, if that is possible. As the baby of all the babies, he regularly gets extra attention & love, usually in the form of worms shoved in his face or someone not much bigger than him trying to pick him up.

Their childhood in NoniBop's backyard is one of my favorite things. 

Our neighborhood had an "End of School" pizza party at 1:30 on a Thursday afternoon, which is clearly the best time to accommodate all parents. Luckily for me, Nicole came into Knoxville and took Anderson and her girls. Anderson had fun & proved once again that his favorite thing about going to the pool is catching butterflies. 

Because it is possibly Anderson's FAVORITE place in the world, we made another visit to ijams. This one was a little impromptu & I texted Noni asking her if she wanted to go with us...in about 10 minutes. In a move that is no surprise to anyone, she said yes. 

We think she was our good luck charm because we found SO many fun creatures in our 4 hours there! We had a running count that included both adult & baby turtles, salamanders, tadpoles, froglets, frogs and a snake!

In a hilarious twist, we even crashed a wedding set up that was still there since it was a Sunday morning.

 It was a very festive place to have picnic. 

And, in a move that can NEVER be topped, I managed to snag a snake, which would be cool enough in itself, but it happened to be in the process of eating a frog!! Seriously, it was really pretty awesome. In the process of the snake frantically trying to figure out why it was in a net, the frog got out and Anderson was so proud that he rescued him. 

One of our favorite events in May was Jack's sleepover! The boys did a week long camp & Jack came home with us one night. Poor guy-I made him run errands with us!

But, then he got to chase my boys with a shovel, so I think it was a nice trade off. For about a week after this, every time I picked up Max, he asked if Jack was coming with us. He loves a visitor. 

Boys & fire. 

Another day, another festival. 

This one involved Bop doing balloons at a park and, as always, we got to see his celebrity status!

Also, there was a really cool bugs/spider tent and Max was so pumped to hold giant cockroaches & various other icky things. 

Lily even got in on the action with the tarantula!

But, let's be honest, who needs a bug tent when you can find your own roly poly with your cousin?

I looked up & had a little minute of realizing how grown up our kids are when I saw them taking turns pushing each other on the swing. I realize there are many other things that they do to make them have grown up status, but this seems to be exceptionally big to me. 

Overall, one of the BEST parts of May was when Anderson found his spirit animal at the bird exhibit.  He is obsessed with birds and has been for a few years. At the exhibit, he was answering all of the questions about red-tailed hawks and asking a few pretty good ones when the bird guy told us about this female red tailed hawk. Apparently, she was born with cataracts & had to have implant lenses made for her! 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

When I told them about Anderson, they were SO nice and asked a bunch of questions about his implant lens/eye and even let him climb under the tape and go into the exhibit to take pictures with her. He was literally over the moon and I was so grateful to this bird for taking one for the team because cataract perks are few & far between.

Our last day of May was spent with our favorite Watts' girls-swimming, playing and, of course, eating!