Megan's Party

On Wednesday we went to Mom and Dad's to have a birthday party of Megan as well as Mom and Grace.  Within 10-15 minutes of being there, Noah fell off the balance beam portion of the obstacle course and cut his chin so we had to take a break from the party for at least half an hour if not more.  He is sporting a nice bandaid across his chin now but otherwise is quite fine.  He looks like a tough guy and gets quite a few questions when we are out!

We were able to do the obstacle course after a while (Noah skipped the balance beam).  Megan went first.  The kids had to ride the fire truck to the hula hoops and then jump from one hula hoop to another (Amelia just walked from one to another because she was tall enough to do so!), climb over the picnic table benches, walk the balance beam, climb the ladder, take a wheel barrow ride from Grandpa and then ride a cart back to the start.  I didn't get a lot of pictures as the kids didn't wait for one to be done before starting the obstacle course.  Too much going on!

 We took a break to watch the construction workers pour the sidewalks down at the corner.

Brian wanted to try out the cart and ride down the driveway.

 The kids also played with water balloons, had a scavenger hunt and enjoyed 3 desserts-4 layer chocolate cake (in honor of Megan's 4th birthday), Mom's cake and a cherry cobbler for Grace.

Beach Fun

On Tuesday, Marcie and her kids came up to our house to go to our beach (we live in an area that belongs to a beach association and recently they forced us to join the association so we've been trying to use the beach!)  It was a little breezy at the beach and felt a little cold but the kids had so much fun! They started by playing in the sand but quickly moved to the water.  They discovered a new pier and were able to jump into the water from the pier.  Our swimming area is pretty shallow.  I can go all the out to the buoys and only be at mid chest.  The lake was high because of all the rain we've gotten so it was higher than normal.  Amelia got pretty brave and jumped off the pier (although my pictures don't look like she jumped but she did)!  Megan was having a lot of fun in the water but didn't jump off the pier.

 

 

 

Nathaniel did not seem to like the water.  He was tired and cold so maybe it's not a good representation of his feelings toward water (the second picture was after Marcie lifted him out of the water).

 Here's Nathaniel at home-much happier!

More Memphis

 After the boat tour, we had to waste some time in downtown Memphis before going to dinner.  We thought we would go to the Peabody to see the duck parade but we were 45 minutes early and there was already no place to stand to see the ducks that we decided to just leave.  Then we thought we would go to Peabody Place but that is completely closed.  In fact, there is not much in downtown Memphis.  We ended up walking down Beale Street (which was a little too seedy for me with 5 year olds) and ended up in front of the arena downtown and the kids played with the big stone balls out front.  I had to take a picture of them sitting on every type of ball!

Then we went to dinner at Gus' for friend chicken.

The next day we went to the zoo.  It finally warmed up so that later in the day we could exchange winter coats for spring coats!  We went first to see the pandas as my kids have never seen real pandas.  We were almost the only people there looking at the pandas!  The male panda was very active and we got to see him play, eat and climb!

We also saw a zookeeper feed the penguins.  Noah was able to ask the zookeeper a question while she was feeding the penguin.

We went to the children's zoo and N2 loved to play around.

They really enjoyed the Memphis Zoo but it was time to get home as Noah had allergy problems and was coughing at night as was Natalie so none of us were getting a good night sleep.  Next time we had down that way, we'll have to stop at Mud Island because it isn't open until April 1st.

Memphis

I realized that I never shared our Memphis pictures with you.  The day we drove to Memphis was cold and snowy.  We decided to go on a boat tour on the Mississippi River.  Boy was it a cold and windy day for that!  Everyone spent most of their time inside the boat but N2 loved to go out on the deck so Brian would take them for a while.  Then they would come in a get warm but get bored so would go outside again!

Here's our boat and pictures that were taken while we were waiting for the boat to set sail (we were on the boat about 30 minute early-I had to stand on shore because the boat was rocking too much).

Once we got set sailing, the guide told us a lot about Memphis and what was on the river's edge.  He also told us about the Arkansas side.  It was really interesting information.  Unfortunately it wasn't that exciting for N2.  We killed time by letting them take pictures.  So I don't have great pictures of what we saw (plus Memphis isn't that picturesque of a city!) but I do have good funny face pictures!