To Tennessee with Auntie K: In which we explore many playgrounds

While Auntie K is here she wants to take each of the kids on an individual outing. She tried to give Rachel the gift of a mani-pedi when she was out here last time, but Rachel flat-out refused to entertain the thought of allowing a complete stranger to touch her feet. Miriam similarly declined the invitation this trip. But Zoë...is a horse of a different colour. She was quite excited at the prospect of having her nails done. She loved sitting in the massage chairs and being pampered—they even gave her an ice cream cone! 

She came home with lovely sparkly green nails...and a new outfit as well! Auntie K took her on a little shopping spree (and she had the time of her life). They also saw a cute little ghost dress while they were out and picked it up for Phoebe (who won't be going on an individual outing because she's...fussy...but who is very much picking up on the Halloween spirit (something Auntie K also appreciates)). 

Here are those three girls in their new outfits on Sunday (Auntie K found a dress for herself as well):

Zoë wanted a picture by herself because she felt like Phoebe was perhaps stealing her thunder (or at the very least was covering up a good portion of her outfit in many of the pictures, which is objectively true):

After church we finished packing up (or started packing up in my case) and loaded up the van to head to Tennessee to visit Rosie and her family. When Rosie originally said she was moving to Tennessee, I had it in my head that she was moving to Chattanooga—that's only an hour and a half away! But then I double checked and she was moving outside of Nashville...which is more like three hours away...so twice as far as I thought. When Kelli asked me how far away Rosie lived I said something like five hours...because in my head I was like, "It's about twice as far as I thought!" but now I was thinking that I had been thinking she was around 3 hours away, so therefore it must be more like 5 or 6 hours away... 

But, no! It's only a three hour drive, which felt like a nice surprise when I was thinking 5 or 6 hours. 

We did stop over the border in Chattanooga, however, so we could use the restrooms and get some dinner and play at a park. Here are the kids at the rest stop:

(Miriam came with us, too, but she didn't want to stand by the sign). 

And here they are inside the rest station checking to see if they still need to be in booster seats or car seats ((not) surprise—they do!):

Finding a park was tricky. Kelli found a place called "Triangle Park" that had decent reviews, so we drove there and found out that it was literally just a triangle green space (surrounded by three roads) with a few picnic tables in the middle. Odd.

So I found another playground that looked promising (Pioneer Frontier Park or something) but when we drove by the entire structure was covered in caution tape so we figured it was closed for some reason. We ended up at East Lake Park, which had a lovely pond full of geese and ducks and a couple of herons.

Here's Auntie K threatening to throw Phoebe into the pond (what a tease):

They also had a fun play structure at the park that the kids enjoyed. I didn't take any pictures of that, however, because Rachel wanted to video call, so my phone was busy with that task. But I think Miriam took a few pictures.

After we got all our wiggles out and finished talking to Rachel, we loaded up and headed towards Rosie's house, stopping soon before we got there to grab some dinner (so that Rosie didn't have to worry about feeding us that day). That meant we had to find another playground to play at while we ate. 

Here are Alexander, Zoë, and Phoebe finishing my drink for me (because I don't handle soda/pop very well):

And here are the kids running off into the sunset with Flynn (the dog) before bedtime:

We successfully got everyone all hyped up...and then quieted back down...before bedtime and I woke up to the sounds of happy children playing in the morning. When we went downstairs, Auntie K brought out the matching outfits she had found (with Zoë's help) for all the little girlies to wear. I don't remember what Alexander is doing in this picture, but it's kind of funny:

Zoë with Ireland and Oaklyn

Here is a picture of all the little girls (with Zoë, the big girl):

We spent the earlier morning hours playing board games (like Bluey Scavenger Hunt, which Phoebe was a huge fan of) until Austin got home from the gym. Here's a bird's-eye view of the kids playing:

Rosie and Austin just moved in, so there's nothing on the walls or anything yet (but it's a lovely place):

Zoë loves carting Oaklyn around!

Austin thought we should go to a park he'd wanted to try out, but then he accidentally took us to the wrong park (understandable because they're new here). It was still a good and shady park, though, so we decided to just stay once we got there.

If a park has a swing, Oaklyn wants to swing the whole time—and she very nearly stayed in this swing the entire time we were there! She stayed for hours as people rotated through, pushing her. Phoebe also was happy to swing for a rather long time (but not as long as Oaklyn).

Here's Zoë showing off the glasses that Auntie K got her to go with her new outfit(s):

And here's Oaklyn, so excited to be swinging some more:

Kelli was pulling her back and letting her swing down in one sudden burst, which Oaklyn thought was particularly fun and funny.

Here's Zoë and Ireland swinging on the big girl swings (Phoebe would have gone on the big girl swings, I'm sure, but earlier this summer I suggested that I should donate our bucket seat to the pool playground because the bucket seat there broke...and I had the audacity to note that Phoebe doesn't really need to use the baby swing anymore...so she's been stubbornly proving that she does still use the baby swing...and that's why she was in the baby swing next to Ireland even though she's fully ready for a big girl swing):

Here's Zoë pushing both girls at once:

And here's Ireland and Zoë pushing their baby sisters:

Zoë is able to get a lot more air with her pushes than Ireland:

When Phoebe got tired of the swing (Oaklyn would never), she wanted me to catch her on the slide and as she went down I spotted an interesting moth...or butterfly...on the slide with her. I was intrigued because it looked like a butterfly but seemed to be clinging to the side of the slide like a moth (butterflies typically close their wings and perch, while moths open their wings and "hug" their chosen resting place). Upon close inspection it was indeed a butterfly (note the knobs on the antenna, and the wings in the closed position) that had was trapped in the jaws of some sort of jumping (?) spider!

Pretty cool! There were quite a few of these butterflies flitting about. Phoebe saw one on the railing...

...and just grabbed it...

...and then it flew away when she opened her hands.

We did talk about how to gently handle butterflies (which mostly means to not to).

Austin brought a bocce ball set and played that with Benjamin and Miriam:

And here's Phoebe back in the swings with Oaklyn, being pushed by Alexander and Zoë this time!

And here's Auntie K helping Ireland across the monkey bars (she's such a fun grandma):

Back at home we had some Kraft Dinner for lunch (Andrew has pointed out to me that...Americans don't call it Kraft Dinner...so to translate, we had macaroni and cheese) and then Rosie's girls went down for their naps. And Rosie, who is pregnant, went down for a nap. All this napping got Phoebe nervous, but I assured her she wouldn't have to take a nap. Instead she got to watch 101 Dalmatians with Zoë. 

Speaking of dogs, here's Benjamin cuddling with Flynn:

Auntie K took Benjamin and Alexander to the Harley-Davidson store to check out a few things for Uncle Allen (and to look at all the motorcycles and things). Miriam started reading, but fell asleep for a nap. I started out doing some school work, but also took a nap. It's just so tempting to fall asleep in a quiet house where everyone else is napping!

Kelli and the boys got home around the time nap time was over and they brought home a big project for the kids to work on while supper was being prepared. Kelli has celiac disease, as I've mentioned, so Austin made a spaghetti squash chicken Alfredo, which was really good. Kelli and I coloured with the kids and then assembled together the store that all the various cardboard pieces came together to make.

After dinner we...went to another park! Still not the one Austin wanted to check out, but a familiar pre-bedtime park for their family. It's one without a swing set, which Rosie sometimes prefers so that she doesn't get stuck pushing Oaklyn for hours on end. Auntie K picked up some Spiderman popsicles at the store because yesterday when we were eating dinner in the park there was an ice cream truck that was driving around with its song blaring. The idea of ice cream was very attractive to certain children of mine, but they were told no because I had a container of cookies in the van for them. And because ice cream from the ice cream truck is expensive. 

There are families whose tradition it is to splurge at the ice cream truck—for the experience of getting ice cream from the ice cream truck. 

Our family is not one of those families. 

Auntie K shared a memory of Uncle Patrick when he was little. The ice cream truck used to drive around neighourhoods where we lived and kids would come out of their houses to buy ice cream (though not typically the children from our house). Anyway, the ice cream truck was driving by one day and Patrick ran to the window and said, "Here comes the Expensive Man!"

In our house the ice cream truck was expensive, that's what. 

So harnessing her ingrained frugality and innate desire to spoil, Auntie K bought a box of Spiderman popsicles at the store (for probably the price of a single Spiderman popsicle from the truck). The kids were all very excited to have them today. Phoebe said the red part was especially delicious—strawberry!

I was glad that Rosie had a diaper bag equipped with baby wipes with her because Phoebe and Oaklyn sure got messy with their popsicles! I haven't carried around a properly stocked diaper bag in ages (though I do have wipes in the car, which I specifically got out of the closet for this trip).

Here are the kids enjoying the playground after they'd finished their treats:

Phoebe was really thrown off by the rubber mats under the play structure. She wasn't sure she could trust it because it wasn't "flaky." I think all of the parks we go to in our area have wood chips (which is rather unfortunate because that's not my favourite ground cover for a playground, which is to say that I don't really like wood chips).

Here's Kelli showing Oaklyn and Ireland the catch-and-throw toys she brought:

And‚ oh, man! Here's poor Oaklyn going down the slide...

She had gone down once before and had come out the bottom smiling all beautifully so I thought I'd capture her smile the second time down, but she had a little mishap midway and tumbled down instead of sliding! She was a little shaken up, but soon recovered and was at the top of the slide again:

This time she made it down without any trouble (and then she did it over and over again—Rosie says she tends to get stuck on one activity at the playground, but she prefers the slide to the swing because it's easier to intercept her play and say, "One more slide and then we need to leave," whereas the swing is...a little tricker. I've been known to tell my kids, "Three more pushes...and then we need to leave..." but it's still tricky because...what if they know how to pump? Or how long do you let the momentum of the swing carry them before you go? Slides are certainly a more "countable" activity.

And here's Ireland and Zoë at the bottom of the slide:

I missed getting a picture of the climbing wall, which Benjamin scaled with one of Alexander's shoes, leaving it at the very top. When Alexander complained to me that "Benjamin is being the Absolute Worst!" I asked why and he pointed to the climbing structure and said, "He put my shoe up there!" and I just laughed and said, "Better go get it."

Alexander did not find this very fair. 

So I asked Benjamin to please not be "the Absolute Worst," if he could help it. And Miriam agreed to help him get his shoe...which fell...and then conked him on the head. 

Which he felt was doubly unfair. 

Anyway, shortly after this Phoebe climbed up to the tippy top of the climbing wall, which...made me feel a little nervous (and I'm not usually very nervous about playground play). I should have taken a picture of her up there...but didn't. To be fair, she used the ladder portion more than the rock climbing portion to get up there...but it was still a very high perch. 

And then we came home and got all the little people tucked into bed!