Make new friends, but keep the old.

My high school experience was amazing because of these people right here. 

I don't know if it was the fact that we went to an all girl school so we didn't have boys to distract us, or maybe it was because we were just plain AWESOME, but we had some fun times-in this case, we appear to be in a tent. In general, we usually wore 80's clothes in public, we alternated where we spent our time among (amongst?) each other's houses (our house was a frequent stop-thanks, Mom!), and we were ALWAYS eating. In many ways they shaped who I am as an adult and I am forever grateful for them!

Now, we are old and have these kids that expect to be raised. So, we decided to bring them all together and it was so much fun!

4 old best friends from 20 years ago+ 9 new best friends from this year = one helluva weekend!

Look at us! Grown ups!

Skye & Stine drove in town & stayed in a hotel* and we crammed as much fun as we could into the 4 days of the their visit. 

*When I say "they" stayed in a hotel, I, of course, mean that we also were frequent visitors to their room, their pool and their free breakfast.

Because they didn't get in until late, the first day was just a brief visit for ice cream. 

Max. Y'all. This kid is so indifferent to most things, but you put him near a hotel with some big kids (flashback to OEYEO) and he is in his element. Look at his face. God, I love him. 

In case you didn't know, I am an activity hoarder, so I had a slew of things for us to do. First up-Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge! There were so many things to do; I will just include a few pics.

We have only been one other time 2 years ago but it was just as much fun as I remember!

Hands down, his favorite part. 

Max is in the Rescue Vehicles stage, so anything that allows him to be a fire fighter is a win. 

How amazing are all of these people who volunteer their time for other people's kids?

We even did a little crafting. 

Anderson decided that this would be a perfect time to develop an interest in crafting and spent an hour coloring a frame, in detail. This would have been really sweet except it was at least 200 degrees outside and Max kept attacking the water cooler thing. 

Again, he thinks he is 7. 

The big boys in one of the moon bounces!

The entire event cost us $3 for a snow cone.

We made the evening kid friendly with pizza at "the hotel."

How great is it that these kids just immediately bonded? I mean, we kept taking them fun places and giving them food, so it was an amazing set up, but still. 

Day 3 was another fun/chaotic day that began with a Lowe's Avengers' craft thing. 

Anderson quickly became obsessed with "Germany" to the point where he had to ride in our car with us. I don't blame him-Jeremy is pretty awesome. 

Also, I got to hang out with Violet who is as cute in person as she is in her pics. I might be a borderline stalker of her family through Jeannie's blog, so when she first walked up and I immediately asked questions about her recent birthday party and talked about her favorite princess, Cinderella, she should have probably thought "Stranger Danger!"

Anderson kept "rescuing" her from the side of the pool. It was adorable. 

These two appeared to have some kind of conflict in a past life and kept arguing with each other....except for the 15 minutes that they bonded in the Kroger car cart. I am sure the cookies and fruit snacks that were distributed during the ride had nothing to do with that. 

Also, Jeannie and I got picnic food and, upon checking out, realized that we had 3 different kinds of cookies and only 1 package of lunch meat. Clearly, not much has changed since our high school days. 

Picnic at the park!

Jeannie was a master watermelon cutter upper. 

There was a splash pad, but there was also this giant puddle, which was clearly more fun. 

Again, I use this pic solely for Max's face. He was yelling, "Watermelon Time!"

So many attempts at group pics meant that our kids were basically done every time we tried to corral them. 

By the last day, they were truly besties. 

It was sad to end our weekend of fun, but we have already started planning next summer! 

The start of summer

Summer is getting real around here. 

Most of this has happened on the weekends, but I DO get most of June off, so get ready for lots of fun!

In an effort to get out some energy, we went for a "run" and Anderson did a pretty good job. Inspired by my friend Jeannie's son, Jeremy, we are going to sign him up for a race in the fall. I like promoting physical activity and hopefully I will get more in shape in the process. 

Mr Ferg started summer off by catching some kind of stomach bug/fever. He was so pitiful and when he wasn't puking in the Target parking lot*, he just laid around demanding "pri suns."

*Perhaps the greatest victory of my life was the fact the he threw up in the parking lot-not in my house, not in my car, not even IN Target. This kid continues to master perfection. 

Tron has continued to eat every thing that is in the backyard. The girl has no boundaries as to what she will eat/chew up/destroy. 

A little early morning t-ball practice for this guy. 

Car seat pics capture their true selves-

ferg with his resting angry face

and Bug as the crazy one. 

We have been frequent visitors to McFee park where the boys always manage to knock out the splash pad and playground. I looked up once and Max had climbed up this contraption. I was super impressed with his agility and speed, while also terrified that he was was going to face plant.  He was fine and, apparently, is genetically related to Anderson. 

Despite the fact that Max was sick, we drug him to ijams because we had promised Anderson for weeks that we would take him. These boys love being outside and ijams is the perfect fit for us; I think Anderson would go every day if we would take him. 

Of course when Brandon goes along for the ride, fun things happen....like the discovery of a quarry with canoes!

Brandon constantly reminds me of the reasons that I married him when he does stuff like this. He is always up for an adventure and is just really fun to spend time with-I am a lucky girl to have this one leading our pack.

For example, there is no scenario where I would have ever taken the boys in a canoe without him. First, despite our numerous previous visits to ijams, I never even knew this was an option. Second, my spaz +a rocking canoe+ my kids= a fiasco. 

Do not be deceived by the paddle in my lap; I did not contribute anything to the actual forward moving of the canoe. 

Also, Max was in there with me, but he was hidden by my paranoia and overprotection in the front seat. 

As it turns out, we are a pretty cute couple. 

Delay in the pic, but look at his calf muscle here!

Always on the hunt for some kind of bug, Anderson is usually victorious in his quests. And, he is so willing to share his treasures with Max. 

Please notice Monkey who had to tag along with us for the ijams outing. Max was definitely still sick and therefore a little* grumpy, but he was a trooper for the most part. 

*Little= throwing a huge fit on the trail because I brought him a juice box instead of a capri sun. I am sure the other hikers were very appreciative of the screaming 2 year old as they tried to enjoy the tranquility of nature. PRI SUN!! PRI SUN!!! really fits in well with bird whistling and animal scurrying. 

Max cannot understand that the water table is not actually a pool. Seriously, he kept tipping it over, so I just gave it to Nicole. 

Noni & Bop took them fishing one day (of course they did) and now Anderson thinks he is an expert. 

Fergus helped by catching the bait. 

When Daddy goes to the park with us, things like this happen. 

Boys.Mud. 

Love all 3 faces in this one. 

The boys were both invited to a party (the siblings are each of their classes) & it was so much fun-love a homemade slip & slide. 

You know we hit up the KK for "Free Doughnut Day" on their way to school.

Who needs to pay a lot of money for an exciting vacation when we have a garbage truck that visits our house every week??

Many, many hours have been spent at our neighborhood pool where, in addition to swimming, Anderson catches butterflies & dragonflies, much to the excitement of Max. 

I have so many memories of eating Baskin Robbins' pink bubblegum ice cream as a kid. My hoarding started early because I remember saving each piece of gum until I was done with the ice cream and then eating all of them at once. Nicole did the same thing and we even shared gum if one of us got more than the other one. (You know the marshmallow experiment? We are totally the kids who would  have waited to get the second one.) Anyway, I am not sure that Anderson has ever even been to 

B &R, so I was really excited to introduce him to a tradition!