Our Holiday Weekend

We had a fun filled fourth of July weekend. Busy, but fun!  First up was canoeing down the Elkhorn river. It was a birthday/fathers day gift to Tim and he and I were excited to share our love of canoeing with Kennedy for the first time. Not that you would have known it was her first time though - she acted as though it wasn't her first roday-o. She's such a turkey!

Now that she's had swiiming lessons, she thinks she's Michael Phelps and therefore wanted to spend the ENTIRE time swimming rather than canoeing. I kept trying to remind her that Avery would be waiting for us, so we needed to keep going but she couldn't be bothered with such nonsense...not with all the paddling and kicking and whatehaveyou to be done. I kindly obliged and let me tell you that is something because Momma...she doesn't like being in her bathing suit so much right now thank you very much.

Daddy showed her crawdads and water bugs and a snake (oh yeah...totally didn't deter her from wanting to swim) and she loved every.single.minute.of.it!

We had a really good time and we are so thankful that we have a little outdoors girlie - she fits right in!

Abby and Jonathan kindly kept Avery for us while we took Kennedy canoeing. According to them, she was a good girl. We were so grateful they were willing to keep her. Two babies is no joke but they handled it like pros, though I hear they got some strange glances when they took the pair out to Kroger. They had a little impromptu photo session with Avery and Adalyn in their matching outfits that I got them at the Bella Bliss Warehouse sale that was held here in Lexington recently. How cute are they?

Oh my holy sweetness - this one of them looking at each other. Sigh!

Once we returned home from canoeing we basically showered and headed straight back out to a 4th of July party at a friends house. For once, I got Avery to wear a bow and not cry her eyes out. I mean, let's just face it - despite LOVING bows there is really no reason to make your kid cry over it so I had basically given up. On Saturday I really wanted her to have some red, white, and blue on for the party so I thought "what the heck, I'll try one more time" and for whatever reason she totally didn't care. So..because of that fact, we've worn a bow every day since because Momma like's bows and as it turns out Momma's in charge. ;)

All dressed up for the partay!

Can we talk about the fact that both girls are looking and smiling in this picture. Amazing!

Oh yeah...snapped this one too.

He was totally "dancing" with her at the party. Sweet!

This next picture was taken before the fireworks started and we were sweating because it was SOOO hot. Much to my shock, Avery totally watched the entire fireworks show while laying in my lap, but Kennedy went inside because it was "too loud". Thanks to "Auntie Courtney" for sitting with Kennedy while Tim, Avery and I watched the show outside.

Speaking of Courtney.....so good to hang out with her and Tammy again so soon to our last outing together. Tammy hosted the party at her house and it had wonderful yummy food and an AMAZING fireworks show. Her husband pulled out all the fireworks stops.

Sunday was spent catching up on rest and running errands. Kennedy got a little hair cut too. The swimming lessons totally fried her hair so we were in need of a trim to get things back to normal.

On Monday we woke up and went berry picking at Reed Valley Orchard in Paris. A friend told me about the place and we LOVED it. It wasn't commercialized and crawling with people like some of the other local orchards. It was just good ole country people and a really big farm. Their prices were really reasonable too. Here are Tim and Kennedy picking blueberries.

Poor Avery couldn't hang on but I didn't want to miss out on the fruit picking action! She slept pretty much through the entire outing. Sweet baby.

We picked some serious fruit loot...get it? Ha ha...like fruit loop? It's late...

We had planned to only pick blueberries but they had raspberries and blackberries ready to be picked too, so while we were there we picked those too. None of us had picked those before so it was cool to get to do that together. Kennedy was a bit too rough with the raspberries and blackberries so Tim had to really help her be gentle with them.

Inside the little country store where (they sold everything canned you could imagine) we checked out they had a little cafe that made homemade no sugar added ice cream with their in season fruit. Kennedy decided she wanted to try the blueberry ice cream and she shared some with Tim and I - YUM!

It was a fun trip and cool experience. We will definitely go back there in the future. Thankfully the weather was overcast too so it wasn't too dreadfully hot.

Monday night we went over to Billie and Derek's for a little Independence Day celebration. Billie had set out the pool for the kids and had the deck all ready to just hang out, eat and socialize. We took a homemade blueberry pie (made from our pickin's) and banana pudding. In all my rush to get two kids and two desserts out the door, I totally forgot to grab Kennedy's bathing suit. Luckily, Eli was willing to share some of his clothes with her:

They seemed to have a big ole' time together. I can't believe how big Eli is getting.

I think this picture is funny. Here all the Mom's are bending over the pool while the Dad's sit around and drink beer and watch. Every now and then (with our prompting) one would snap a picture but other than that we were all sweating and getting wet while they relaxed. Hey, no one said parenting was always glamorous right? I just think this sums it up in a funny way:

Avery's first time in a swimsuit and first swim:

She was just chillaxin'

You know Adalyn would be rockin' something totally appropriate for the holiday. This girl is a doll!

And then there's my crazy almost 4 year old. Real lady-like, right? *Sigh* She's crazy!

...but she's real sweet too...

Tim had purchased some sparklers for her to play with when we got home that night and when I put her to bed and we were re-living the weekend in bedtime talk she told me that the sparklers were her FAVORITE thing from the weekend. It's the little things.....

It has been operation pack as much as you can as fast as you can around here tonight. We are prepping for our trip to Ocean Isle Beach, NC. I'm so tired I'm about to fall asleep on the keyboard, but I'm so excited to be going to see family! I'm sure to have lots of beachy goodness to share when I return so I wanted to get this posting finished. It was an awesome weekend...fun with family and fun with friends. The only downside was that it ended. ;)