The Texas Rode's visit the Tennessee Rode's

This summer we had a few people come visit us from Texas. It was the talk of the house for weeks leading up to Reagan coming to visit. Josh, Janna and Reagan came for nearly a week to Tennessee to check out the Smoky Mountains, East Tennessee, visit us and lots more. The first weekend they were in town, we stayed with them in their cabin in Gatlinburg. We managed to get the kids through the Ripley's Aquarium in Gatlinburg, the Knoxville Zoo and a trip to Chuy's for some yummy Tex-Mex.

Super creepy looking shark above our heads

Trying to get 3 small children to take a picture together and all look and smile at the same time is nearly impossible.

Taryne must always get a map at the zoo.

Later in the week, we had them over for a "play date" and dinner. Taryne and Hayden were so excited to visit with their cousin.

BOO! At the Zoo 2013

This fall I had class late on Thursday nights. Unfortunately Halloween fell on a Thursday, so we planned to take Taryne and Hayden to as many Halloween activities as we could and hope they wouldn't notice if we didn't go trick or treating on the actual day.

We got to "ride" on a really big tractor

The Jedi and Arial

This year Taryne insisted on being Arial, but originally wanted to be dressed in the pink ball gown. Well I could not find a dress that was close enough (per Taryne) so she opted for the Mermaid version. The costume would not have been complete without the red wig and tiara! We decided Hayden would be a Jedi because some of the other cool costume ideas we had involved hats and at the time, he would not wear a hat. So, since we had the Yoda costume from last year, I modified it, added a belt and some brown pants and boom, we have a Jedi.

Water Fun at the Zoo

Our zoo has an amazing splash pad. It is one of the biggest in all of Knoxville. We have a zoo membership, so on the weekends, we often pack up and go to the splash pad to cool off (because it is soooo hot here compared to Texas, not really and we are thankful for that). Some days we take time and look at the animals and others, it is just a trip to the splash pad.

That paw is HUGE!

HUGE turtle!

The otters were finally out and swimming everywhere

"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...

Halloween 2012

I love Halloween!! It is just a fun holiday! This year, Taryne had planned to be Tinkerbell for Halloween. Awesome, I thought. I will make Hayden Peter Pan so they can coordinate. I had searched Pinterest and the web and had a pretty good idea of how I was going to make both costumes. Then Taryne decided she wanted to be Rosella (Ro) the Barbie Island Princess. Well, have you ever seen this character?

Well, as you can see, the costume is a bit more involved than I had wanted to deal with this fall. So I thought, if I can just find an inexpensive dress to start with, I think I can do the rest. Well, lucky me, I found the dress on ebay for just $7. A steal with cheap shipping.

I decided not to add all the glittery embellishments on the dress...then it would be difficult to clean if needed. She already had a pink tutu from the Target Dollar Spot section that was perfect for the little pink accent on the dress. I just cinched it up in the front and it was perfect. So the next major part was the peacock feathers. This posed a bit of a challenge. I decided I needed to make it with a wire form, I just wasn't sure if I should use coat hanger wire or something else. I also purchased some pink, blue and purple tulle to make the feathers. I had no idea how I was going to get it on the wire form.

Then I remembered the excellent site called Pinterest. I searched and watched videos on how to make butterfly and fairy wings. This gave me the idea for the final version: make the wire forms and use tights to cover the forms. I picked up three pairs of hot pink tights and some glitter in silver, blue and purple. After several hours of forming the hangers (had to use the heavier wire so the tights didn't collapse the wire form), stretching the tights, and adding the details, the peacock feathers were complete. Well, almost. We still had to assemble and figure out the best way to attach them to Taryne and her dress. We found some blue stretchy ribbon that matched her dress perfectly (how that happened I have no idea, but very thankful) and I made a little pocket (think holder like you would see for a flag bearer...sort of) to rest the feathers in since they were a bit heavy.

Okay, since Taryne was no longer going to be Tinkerbell, I felt no need for Hayden to be Peter Pan. So, we decided he would be Yoda. He was a super cute Yoda and best of all, I found his costume for a steal!

We managed to participate in 4 separate Halloween/Trick-or-Treating activities this Halloween season. We did Boo at the Zoo, a Halloween party by our apartment complex, a 4-H Trick-or-Treat on campus and then on Halloween, we went Trick-or-Treating in the mall.

Hayden's 1st Halloween!

And we can't forget our pumpkins! Taryne insisted that she have Hello Kitty on her pumpkin and she picked out Yoda for Hayden's pumpkin. I really like it when pumpkins are not completely cut out. I scraped the outer layer off and then scraped down the inside so the light will "glow" through. You really can't see the "glow" in the pictures, but they looked awesome! We won a free pizza for each pumpkin at our apartment pumpkin carving contest.

Happy Halloween 2012!!