Market Square Chalk Drawings

Market Square in downtown Knoxville recently had the Dogwood Arts Festival (which lasted several days) and during the event Kyle noticed (he was working downtown right next to Market Square) all these beautiful chalk drawings. Since it rains nearly every week here, we went one evening after work to check out all the beautiful drawings...

...there were more, but we didn't take a picture of every, single one. Only the ones that "spoke" to us. :)

"Insider" Zoo Trip

We became zoo members when we moved here because the admission price for the zoo here is expensive! With our membership comes the perks of "member only" events. We finally attended one that was for the kids section of the zoo.

There were two new things...something with Legos, which we did not do because of the long line, and the other with these birds. I don't remember what type of birds they were but they sure look like parakeets to me. Anyway, they had these little sticks with something sticky and bird seed on the end. We were supposed to hold our arms out and let the birds land on them and get a snack. Really? Well, apparently this was the first weekend the birds were exposed to people (with the exception of the zoo employees) so needless to say, very few of the birds actually landed on the tiny sticks.

I don't think her "wingspan" matches the Condor

We always have to check out the beavers...and talk about Duck Dynasty.

Yeah, those are the tiny sticks with "stuff" on them...

The Egg Hunt

Yes, I am still working on March. Blah. Luckily (or lucky for me) Easter this year is on the last day of March.

We made real Easter eggs, but didn't hide those. They weren't dry and I had to "hide" the eggs in the very public areas surrounding our apartment, so I really didn't want a dog to eat them or someone to step on them.

It was also rainy on Easter. And Taryne hunted eggs twice. I hid the eggs because it was about to rain and Hayden was still napping so Taryne hunted eggs and then helped me hide them again later for them both to find.

The problem with the bike...

...is that Kyle ruined it for Taryne. Not on purpose. But it happened. She was riding her bike with confidence and was doing really good about going up and down small hills and was sort of getting the hang of the brakes and then it happened. She insisted on riding it to the park. We were in the church (right next to our apartment complex) parking lot and there is a bit of a hill where we get into the parking lot and Kyle gave her a "nudge" and she started going a little too fast. Then she started to turn the handles a little and was about to fall. I said something to Kyle along the lines of "don't you let her fall" and he ran over an caught her and the bike as it was about to crash. So she never hit the ground and didn't get hurt and didn't skin a knee or anything. Just scared the confidence out of her. Now we can't get her to get on the bike and when we finally talk her into it, she creeps along and 1 inch every hour type speed and says she is going too fast. :( sigh.

Now she wants a scooter. Guess what? She is not getting a scooter until she can ride her bike and not be scared. This past week she finally said she wanted to ride her bike and practice again. Until we got it out. She went 2 feet and said she was done. Lovely. At least she got on the bike. Maybe we can make progress this summer.

These were pics from "before" when she would ride all over and wasn't scared.

We would love to get bikes...maybe after this summer she will be a pro.

Rainy Day Fun

On Good Friday, Kyle had to work and Taryne and Hayden's daycare was closed. And it was pouring down rain. So I knew the park was out and we needed to find something to do. So...we did a little of everything!

We had donuts for breakfast, went to the Bass Pro Shop, drove back to Knoxville and had lunch with Kyle, went to Oak Ridge to the Children's Museum and then finally we came back home. It was a busy day, but at least they got a nap and had some fun.

"Phil from Duck Dynasty's chair", Taryne

Checking out the fish

Oh my, these things are AWESOME!

And then we went back to the Bass Pro Shop that night to get a picture with the Easter Bunny. Yes. The Easter Bunny. Taryne insisted.

Surprisingly neither cried and both had fun. Weird. There were other kids screaming when they got close.

Busy Weekend

The weekend of Hayden's birthday, Kyle's parents and sister came to visit. I think we managed to drag them all over East Tennessee to see as much as we could in the few days they were here. Over the course of the weekend, watched some Fightin' Texas Aggie Softball (unfortunately we lost the series), went to Cade's Cove in the Smokies, the East TN History Museum and Mast General Store in downtown Knoxville, and a few of the shops in Sevierville. We had one day with a little drizzle and clouds, one day with a light rain and then the last day we had snow.

Head Coach Holly Warlick (Lady Vols Basketball) threw out the first pitch

Hayden got a pic with Smokey

  

The Family

 

Taryne thought she needed to eat the snow of someone's car...

East TN History Museum-Taryne was bored, so we checked out the gift shop

 It was a whirlwind of a weekend!