A Picnic with Friends

This past Saturday we met some friends -- Jobey, Leslie, Landon, and Lyda -- at Aldridge Gardens for a playdate and then for a picnic. We had an awesome time, and I think the kids really enjoyed themselves. Best of all, everyone had a great nap afterwards!

Leslie brought these great big containers of bubbles, with wands so that each kid could blow their own bubbles, and those were a big hit. The kids played with those for a while. Then of course everyone had a great time just running around. I loved seeing our kids playing with other kids -- it's something we haven't had much opportunity to do so far. For some reason Rosemary took off for the lake everytime we let her out of our eyesight, but we didn't have any swimming . . . this time at least.

The most amazing thing was how my kids ate all of Leslie's food. Every time Leslie would open up their food basket -- my kids just swarmed around her. I kept saying that I really did feed them breakfast that morning! When we got home, Gary informed me that I underperformed in the food department for the picnic, but I prefer to think that anyone else's food is just better than mine. My mom tells me that when I was little that my dad would get so embarrassed because we would go to one of his friend's houses and I'd eat like I hadn't eaten in days. I guess I'm being paid back. Anyway -- thanks for feeding everyone, Leslie!!

Here are a few pics from our big outing:

Surprise Visit from Papa

We recently learned that Brooke will not be able to continue being our nanny. So, we've been looking for another nanny. So far we've had about 40 applications, and we are sorting through those applications and trying to make a lot of decisions. In the meantime, my mom returned to help us out. Auntie Ann and Lori (and Lori's husband, Harvey) are also helping us. I really don't know what we would have done without them these last few weeks!!

Anyway, Mom spent this past weekend with us. Papa decided to drive down and surprise everyone with a visit. So on Sunday when we got home from the zoo, Papa walked out to welcome us home. The babies were very, very excited to see Papa, and insisted that he hold them all!




Whenever Papa comes to visit the babies, he stops by Krispy Kreme. He comes to the house with doughnuts and official paper hats. These babies can recognize a Krispy Kreme box from a mile away. They will even wear the hats (at least for a little while) if it means getting a doughnut. . . .

Piper was cautiously happy to see her doughnut, and quickly remembered that she really likes doughnuts.






As expected, Henry tore into his doughnut.






Rosemary was very excited about her doughnut -- but not as much so about her hat.






Not surprisingly, Rosemary quickly started showing signs of the sugar. . . .




After we started seeing the other kids developing signs of a sugar high, we decided that everyone should go outside to run off some of that energy.






Papa decided to teach the babies how to roll down a hill. Piper was a little hesitant, but we think she liked it:





The Hammer thought it was great!





Then it was Rosemary's turn. . . .





All in all, everyone had a great day!!