Jay's Birthday at Arrington Vineyards

For Jay's birthday we went to Kix Brook's winery near Franklin with our fabulous friends Bart and Heather. This place not only had wine tastings and cheese, but also had live music and an abundance of tables for picnicking. There were people spread out everywhere. We had a really good time visiting with our friends and even met a new couple and shared a table with them. We ended the night watching the Boones perform at Martin's BBQ. It was a delightful evening.

The Fair

We went to the fair several times last week (Thanks to Crackerbarrel again for entertaining us.)..and we attended several events that were surprisingly interesting. The tractor-pull, demolition derby, and the off road course to name a few were the last events at the fair each night and all of us were very intrigued! I didn't take my camera the first day so I missed all the pic of the kids on the rides. Jake told my mother-in-law that the fair is just like Disney (won't he be surprised in October!) Anyway, these are some pics from the off road course. I also took a picture off a guy with a mullet if your wondering what that pic is! We will definitely we going back next year. The food alone is worth going for !

Killin' Time at the Parthenon

We had some time to kill before our dentist appointments so we decided to stop by the Parthenon. The kids thought is was really neat and big!!

Makin' sweets with my sweeties

We had fun today today making marshmallows from scratch. If you have never done this, it is neat to see how a marshmallow is made. The kids loved seeing it go from liquid to a thick, white mixture of gooey goodness. They're definitely more tasty too!

rehearsal dinner bribery flick?

Future Landscaper

Ok so Riggs has this little affinity for anything to do with yardwork. Somedays he will weedeat/mow the yard at least 4 times. Too bad this is just pretend. One thing he does help with is pulling weeds. He knows which ones are weeds and can pull them up by the root. You may wonder why I am posting these pics with this post. I thought it was so funny that Riggs watched this guy mowing and weedwacking for at least forty-five minutes! In this pic, the landscaper dude is behind the van across the street.

UPDATE!

"Spike the Frog" fish is now called William II. The children decided to change their fish's name during dinner. William I was our first fish. He was named after their famous cousin, William Jones.

Bakin' Bread

One of my friends from college had this on her blog and it looked good so we made it too! I had all of the ingredients and my kids love to make things, especially messy things, so this was right up their alley. As long as they think they're "helping" they are happy. It was fun and tasty too!

At home with Riggsy

One of the wonderful things I get to enjoy is spending time alone with only Riggs. I think the second child sometimes gets jipped when it comes to getting time alone with mom. Since I work part-time and Jake is at school, he can have my undivided attention at home. I have come to find out that it is so much easier to run errands with one less child and children also act differently when they are by themselves. This week Riggs has been sitting in my lap a lot and he also loves to help me with household chores. He is very good at unloading the dishes, vacuuming, and picking up. The other day he came in and he said, " Mom, I am tired of you making all this mess!"If only this will carry through to the teen years..NOT.. Anyway, I am cherishing the time spent with him. He always has something funny and often intelligent thing to say. Here some pics of what we did today. He doesn't ever, I mean ever watch TV, so he is always moving, never still!He has figured out the computer and loves to learn school stuff and play games. He finally learned how to click/double click and maneuver the mouse, so I don't have to sit with him the whole time. Sorry about the red eye;I used my red eye reducer and it wouldn't save. To view the video, click on the play button Dad.

My baby is in kindergarten!!

Yes, its sooooo hard to believe Jake is in "real" school. He started kindergarten at MCA; his teacher is Ms. Jennifer. We had a kindergarten pre-party last night-notice the whip cream pic. We had to sike him up somehow because he wasn't real excited. I wasn't ready for him to go everyday either. However, he was very comfortable today (maybe a little too comfortable) and enjoyed being with his friends. There are only 10 in his class, so I was real happy about that. Riggs started Pre-K today.His teacher is Ms. Ashley. He always seems to do really well; he's really laid back so I don't worry about him. They are right across the hall from each other so it's nice for them to see each other on the way to Bible, library, specials,etc... They are really happy and if that's the case, I am happy!

Spike the frog, fish

Our children are so deprived..we have no pets.I can't seem to find a dog that doesn't smell, lick or jump on you, so I have to allow a fish in the house every once n a while. They usually last a long time;the last one would have lived longer if Jake had not taken it to school for show-n-tell. I guess it didn't take traveling well. We have had many, first William, named after our famous cousin. Then, we had Mr. Eric,Molly, Aunt Kim ( she only lived a night) to name a few. They named them after real people of course. This one is named Spike the frog and I don't know why. It doesn't matter..it's easy to feed, clean, and you don't have to let it out to pee..so I 'm happy. I guess it's a win/win situation.