Silly Bands!

As I am writing this, we are prepping for our first play date at Emma-Caroline's new school before the actual year begins on Wednesday. As the hours of vacation tick down, I thought I'd leave you all with an image of one of our favorite pass times this past summer.
Yes, trading Silly Bands is the new "IN" thing to do, and it not only occupies children's attention for long stretches of time, but it is also a favorite amongst both boys and girls and children of all ages. I have a feeling, we will be receiving a letter concerning Silly Bands in the the very near future from Emma-Caroline's school stating that Silly Bands are not allowed in school during school hours. Every generation has something like the Silly Band that becomes a cult phenomenon. Trading Silly Bands brings back great childhood memories when I use to trade friendship pins, and I'm glad my girls have their own generational trading item. One day, as they watch their own children trading the new "In" thing, they will have their own fond memories of trading Silly Bands with their friends.

Colorathons!

We have been having some much needed rain the last several days here in Knoxville. With the rain means a diversion of our usual outdoor activities to ones we are able to do indoors. While the rain turned to a sprinkle we darted into Target and bought some new coloring books and markers since ours are all in storage.
The girls have been non-stop coloring ever since only taking breaks to sleep for a few hours at night (hee, hee!) I even found Emma-Caroline cuddling up next to her coloring book and markers last night when I went in to check on her.

I have dubbed it the "Avery Colorathon".

It reminds me of when I was a little girl when I would go to week long family reunions in Eupora, Mississippi where it was was so sticky hot, and where there was nothing but the Dollar General and Sonic in "town" that all of us cousins would sit on the sofa for hours with our boxes of Crayola crayons and new Care Bear coloring books and color every last inch of each page of those books!

We took great pride in those coloring books and I have fond memories of us comparing our skills and complimenting one another.

I'm glad my girls are having as much fun as I did with their coloring books and having their own colorathons.

Summer Fun!

When we moved into the corporate apartment I imagined a wonderful reprieve from all things that had to do with packing, unpacking, setting up a house, etc. At the time it seemed we were actually going to have a "stay-cation" vacation in which we spent every day actually going to the pool and having loads of summer fun. Not so much! We do venture to the pool a few times a week, but our days are mostly filled with driving 2o mins. one way several times a day back and forth to our new home to check it's progress as well as attend to a large "hurdle" that was placed in the road. Let's just say the "hurdle" involves legal matters of which I will not go into detail. We have prevailed, but it has been an exhausting experience. All this to say, that my vision of a mini vacation has disappeared.

With the girls deserving to have Summer fun, I headed out with them to the Splash Park yesterday.

It was a great day for the Splash Park with cloudy skies so as not to scorch their delicate skin despite the loads of sunscreen slathered on it. It was also not so hot so we all didn't wilt in the blazing heat that has been the norm this summer.

Emma-Caroline has always loved playing in the water.

Sophie, on the other hand, likes to observe the fun from a safe distance.

She is such a prissy little thing!

We saw some of our friends, Sam and Charlie there who lived next door to us at our old house. It was great to see them and we had a really fun time together.

Since Emma-Caroline starts school in 4 weeks, we are going to dedicate our time to more summer fun. Stay-cation here we come!

Monograms, Bows, and Snakes???

June has been a busy month! Ironic, as we are supposed to be in the "lazy" days of summer time. But it seems that we are even more busy than the regular part of the year. That's not to say that we aren't happy with being busy or that we aren't enjoying it. This week we have been at VBS at our church enjoying the "High Seas Expedition." We have one more day and as a core leader and planner on the VBS committee, I am thankful for a great week and to also see the end in sight. Before adventuring into the "High Seas" at VBS, we had a different kind of adventure at the zoo at our little friend Davis Taylor's 4th birthday party. The girls had a fabulous time and we are planning on copying a zoo party for one or both of them for next year. I was truly surprised though that both of my girls LOVED the snake named Eddy. They petted him as if he were a cute little furry puppy. Ironic, doesn't even describe the picture of my matching-outfits-big-bowed-southern-princess girls cozying up to Mr. Eddy the snake. I guess he was charmed by their beauty or vice-versa! (Pics below)

Monograms, bows and snakes the perfect combo!
Sophie loved Eddy!

Emma-Caroline loved him too although she looks a bit more cautious!