Zoo Day

So, being the animal lover that I am (ha!), I planned a family day at the zoo a couple of Sunday's ago (10.9.11).  I felt like I had been doing all of these fun fall activities with Sydney and her Daddy had been missing out so our only option was to "play" on a Sunday.  As bad as we hated to we missed church and started our mid-morning off with breakfast at Cracker Barrell.  Yum!  I always love that.  Then we headed to the zoo...

As you can see, Sydney was quite interested in the first few "attractions".  I think this might have been the elephants.  It was kinda hard to get her to "find the animals" that we want to see versus watching the many "freaks of nature" around us. lol! Corey says she's just like me...I say she's just like my Granny Carol.  Same difference I think. :)

I think we may have heard her most favorite phrase a few times.....ohhhhhh, cute!

Here we are with the Giraffe's in the background even though you can hardly see them.  I just thought we needed proof that I was actually at the zoo. 

After a while the little "cute chick" got a little tired of her wagon riding so we let her climb up and down on a bench. 

And then she got to walk around and hold Daddy's hand. 

I'm pretty sure her favorite pary of the day was this bouncy-play area.  It was really neat.  She bounced and fell and bounced and fell and we rested...yesss!  Pulling that wagon around was not the easiest thing to do all day.  At least I took over for Corey when we were going down hill.  hehe!!

Sydney was all played out by the end of our visit so she laid back and enjoyed the ride!  We think her favorite attactions of the day were the fish, so I'm seeing an aquariam play day in our future...

From the zoo we headed downtown to the Spaghetti Factory for an early supper.  I haven't been there in forever and it was yummy as usual.  We even got to sit in the train in the middle of the restaurant for Sydney's first visit! 

It was a perfect day with my two loves!  Our days like these are VERY few and far between so I loved every second of our "zoo day", minus all of the animals.  lol!

Homecoming, Baby!!

A few weeks ago we got all dressed up in our new outfit...and attended the Franklin Simpson Homecoming Parade.  Look at my little "CAT" all smiles!

Ok, so the Parade happened RIGHT about nap time so this was the look on our children's faces when we first got there.  Sleepy and gawking!  There was so much to look at.  We stopped them beside about a million preschool kids so they didn't quite know what to think.  Their faces just crack me up!

After they got up and moving around it was much better.  Sydney had a big time before it started visiting with Eric & "T" and Grandad & Grandma.

And then the sirens + the band came along and this was pretty much the look on her face for the rest of the parade! :(  Yeah, I had THAT kid....the one who cries at the Homecoming Parade. 

Of course she did brighten up for a few minutes when Jake & Connor passed by with their football teams!

Shew...that was an experience!  I'm hoping she'll grow out of that stage before long and be begging to go watch the parade by this time next year. 

That night, Natalie, Jackson, Sydney and I bundled up and headed to the Homecoming game JUST BECAUSE we thought it would be fun!  The kids were perfect and gawking once again.  We watched the game visited with friends until almost half time and then decided we had enough.  We didn't want to press our luck and risk either of the kids having a meltdown in a crowd. 

I mean seriously, I haven't been to a F-S game since high school so I sure didn't want to wear out my welcome this time! :)

Just Piddlin 2011

Sydney and I met our friends Abby & John Patrick Raines and Meghann, Carter & Grayson Bush at Just Piddlin for some afternoon fun on 9.29.11. 

We let the kids run around picking out pumpkins and then dumped them in the corn pit to play (this is where I got my corn box idea last year!!).  They have a much "fancier" version. :)

Then we went outside to the "race track" (where I had to push Sydney around because she couldn't reach the pedals..shew!).  Grayson was gonna driver her but she for her license! 

 They also had a slide that we all tried out. 

It ended up being a really WARM day so the girls had to take a drink break under the shade. 

What a wonderful way to spend a beautiful, fall afternoon.  We'll definitely be back! 

Grandma's Happy Day

We celebrated Grandma's 51st Birthday with not QUITE as much style and excitement as last year...BUT it was just as special (9.8.11)!

Grandma picked somewhere "different" that we didn't go to often.  Cheddars.  Can't say that we're looking forward to going back again anytime soon for the food....but we may stop and watch the fish in the giant tank.  That's ALL Sydney wanted to do the WHOLE time we were there (get my drift?)! 

Sydney really couldn't stand to let Grandma open her gifts all by herself!  In fact, she just wanted to do it for her!!

Sweet Jackson wallered Grandad for a while.  He LOVES to pull hair. Ouch! :)



And no Thurmond/Konow/Summers family outing is completel without dessert from Stakz.  Grandma wanted to pose with her babies...it's soooooo hard to get them to both look at the camera!!

We sure do LOVE Grandma and we LOVED celebrating her Birthday with her.  Even though we're 3 weeks late in blog-land...Happy Birthday Grandma!  We wish you many, many more!!

Little Stinker

I thought this was too cute not to share! 

All I have to say is she is SUCH A MESS!  I made her pose for me on the first "cool" day this fall before we headed out the door to Jazzercise.  You can bet my hands are full 24/7!  Love her!!!

Corn Box

Introducing one of our favorite fall activities...

Playing in the Corn Box!  Would this fall under, you might be a redneck if: You fill a swimming pool up with corn....invite friends over.....and put the kids in the corn?!?  ha! 

Well, this Mama doesn't care cause the kid-o's had a blast!  Sydney loves pouring sand from one container to another.  She had fun playing with Carter and Grayson too!  We just couldn't keep it out of Grayson's mouth! lol!

It's like our greatest invention ever.......come on out to the Konow's for some redneck entertainment!

After the corn box we moved on to other things, like the swing and slide.

And then Jackson came by and took a wagon ride with the babies!  Isn't this just a hoot?!?!

Not EvEn COOL!

Actually, it was more like 100 degrees. 

Yeah, on the day we decide to have a big group field trip and lug all of the kid-o's to Jackson's Orchard.  Big, big, mistake!  Me, Nat, Sydney, Jackson and Jake rode together and Meghann, Carter, Grayson and Ragen followed us. 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I love visiting Jackson's Orchard and the kids do too but last Friday (9.2.11) NONE of us enjoyed our visit because it was so stinkin hot! 

We started with the cider slider which was fun for about 20 seconds.  After packing Sydney up 3 flights of steps I did my best to distract her with something other than the slide. :)

Then we went under the tent (thought it would be cooler there, ha!) and took pictures of the babies whilethe big kids climbed around on the big straw bales until we thought we were gonna have to give them CPR because they were turning red and sweating profusely.  PLUS the babies got fussy....ahhhh!  So what in the world do we do now????

Go inside and get what we came for....PEACHES!  I've been dying for some peaches so we got a wagon full!  I got two boxes for myself and decided I was gonna get crafty making "peach stuff".  I made peach cobbler and cheesecake in a jar with peaches and then realized something really important...the peaches had NO flavor whatsoever.  Uggggggh!  These peaches just weren't meant to be!

Anyway, after 30 total minutes at Jackson's Orchard, 3 hot mama's and 6 hot, sweaty, whiney kids......we packed ourselves up and headed HOME!  As you can see, Sydney shed a little tear of joy when we left, lol!  Looks like we're gonna have to wait for some fall weather before we venture back to Jackson's Orchard.