July 5th: McKinney, Texas Day

On this day, we got up from Ana & Charley's to head home, but first, we were going to spend the day in McKinney. Since I follow a bunch of mom bloggers who live in McKinney, I have fallen in love with their downtown area and always want to try out every place they play, eat, attend holiday events, etc. Of course, we couldn't do all of that, but we did decide to take the kids to Playstreet Museum and then have lunch and shop in Downtown McKinney. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

First, we left Ana and Charley, all dressed up in more 4th of July outfits, because I think they are my favorite to buy every year!

 

 Then, we stopped at Playstreet Museum and it was so impressive! By the time Vic and I left, we were pretty convinced that if we had the money and the time, we needed to open one in College Station. It would be a money maker and College Station needs kid things to do! So, there are more and more of these opening in DFW and they all have a theme. This one was a farm/home/small town kind of theme. I think Grace enjoyed it the most because it gave her so many ways to use her imagination! Everly was just starting to walk, so she had fun too. And, Atticus, even though he was older, loved the books and puzzles and drawing and still some of the play areas.

 And in these photos, please don't mind Grace. She was a very busy girl: she had to sweep the floors, iron the clothes, cook the dinner, milk the cows, put on her work clothes, take care of the kids...it was my favorite thing to watch and all I wanted was to move to McKinney so I could take her here all the time and watch her sweet little self pretend and play for hours and hours. She also had Everly's help of course. But, really - this little house area was so cute and had all of the details for a little home. 

 

 

 

 

After that, we headed to Downtown to eat lunch at a cute little place, whose name I don't remember. But, I can never pass up a delicious grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup. Yum! And then, we explored the shops and streets. We even found an old-time candy store! And of course, I took this opportunity to take some 4th of July pictures!

 

 

I just love these photos below!

 

We headed home, hot and tired, and having had great memories of our Camp Erwin Trip 2017!

July: Camp Erwin Post 3 - Saddleshop Pics, Adley, Swimming & 4th of July

On Monday morning, we woke up and finally took Saddle Shop pictures of Everly. Long ago, mom and dad would take baby pictures of us in the saddle shop laying on sheepskin. So, we continued the tradition with our kids. However, it is best to do it when they are little and lay on their tummies and don't move around a lot. Well...it took us over a year to get it done with Everly. So, she was squirmy wormy but we got a couple cute pictures! And you will have to look at the outtakes. They are all jumbled together. I love how to get her on her tummy, we had to hold her little feet to get her to stay still. Then, of course, usually, you can't see her little parts because she is on her tummy, but you kind of do in these. At least this is just a family blog. I need to learn photoshop to blur those out! She played, she sat, and as with our little Everly who does not show her smiles all the time, she stayed pretty stoic. But, it was a good memory! Oh and when you see these, don't you worry - Grandma was constantly a millimeter out of the shot so Everly wouldn't crash to the ground! :)

After taking photos, we headed to Stormy & Tabatha's house to visit and let the kids play with Adley. They had the best time and so did we! Even Shannon and Jenny came by to visit. All was good until Atticus fell off the bed and hit his head on the corner of a dresser. Eeks - it bled pretty good and had a little hole in his head. I stay pretty calm with things like that, but I was still really glad Jenny was there because she looked at it and assured us that while the head will bleed pretty good, it looked just fine and did not need a stitch. He perked up again soon and they played and played until we had to leave. Every time I'm visiting with them, it makes me wish we lived so much closer! Adley is just so cute too, and right between Atticus and Grace, age-wise so it is fun for them to be friends!

After we left the McCuistion's house, we were already packed and ready and headed straight to Ana & Charley's house in Lewisville. Since we were going to do the 4th of July celebrations with the Erwin's at their house the next day anyways, we made an extra night of it. We swam and swam in their pool all evening!

The next morning was the 4th of July! Ana was planning to attend a Zumba class so I went with her.  And the kids were ready to decorate and dress up for the day! They started in pajamas and everything red, white and blue!

 

 When we got back from Zumba, Grace wanted to bake cupcakes. She loves to bake and help in the kitchen. And she especially loves to taste the batter. Want to know a funny story? So, we needed vegetable oil for the cupcakes and Ana told us the oil was in the pantry. We looked and looked and finally Vic asked her for help and she pulled out olive oil. She and Charley used olive oil for everything and don't even buy vegetable oil. Well, poor Ana - Vic will never let her live that down! Now, Vic just teases and says that they are waayyy above us if they only use olive oil and probably even bathe in it! We laughed and laughed and still do about that! But, it made some delicious cupcakes!

 Oh and while Grace was baking, Atticus got to play lots of Mario Cart! Ana and Charley's house is just too fun!

 Grace's finished product is in the back! Also, below I was trying to take a picture of Grace's hair - I had been really working on her french braids and slowly getting better. But, isn't the second photo just so pretty of our little Grace?

After the rest of the Erwins trickled in at lunch, we spent the rest of the day in the pool. Pa's back had been hurting pretty bad around then, so he, Melbo and GG didn't swim that day. But, everyone else did. There was beer pong played (minus the beer-we just poured the cups of water out!), lots of swimming, eating and then at the end of the day, we celebrated Melbo and Pa's 70th wedding anniversary!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

70 years! We did big parties for them at 50 and 65, but they didn't want one this time. So, we had a mini celebration with a cake (and I did a terrible job of adding sprinkled icing to say 70 years, but oh well!) and GG planned a "not-so-newlywed game" for all of the married couples to play. It was pretty impressive how much couples knew about each other (or sometimes how little). We split the spouses and GG asked us each questions and then we gathered together to answer them and guess what the other person had to say!

And I can not believe I do not have a photo of Melbo and Pa, except for this one. I have searched everyone's phones and my camera but I know Pa's back was hurting that day and I bet I just didn't bother them to pose for a picture. But, here is one of them. Married since July 12, 1947!

Everyone headed home and we stayed one more night before we spent our last day of Camp Erwin vacation in DFW. The kids were exhausted!