Playcation

This was a couple weeks ago, but I still wanted to share a few pics from the girls' and my long weekend in Louisville. We had a pediatrician appointment on a Friday afternoon (Claire's 4-month and Kate's 3-year, one month late) and since the latest we could get was 1:30, I decided I'd take the afternoon off and then head out of town before rush hour. That was the day of all the deadly tornadoes in Indiana and Kentucky, so we ended up not going until Saturday morning, but I took Monday off, so it was a nice long weekend anyway. 

When we got to Louisville, we met my parents at a bouncy/fun place, where we could chat and pass Claire around while Kate played. Kate played mini golf with Popi for the first time, which mainly involved her having me take putts for her.

That evening, my parents had tickets to Jimmy Buffett, so while I was bummed neither of them said, "oh, you go in my place and I'll keep the kids!" we used that night on our own to get together with my best childhood friend Lindsay and her husband and kids. Kate and Jack are just under two years apart, and Claire and Emmalea are about 6-7 months apart. 

We met up for dinner at McDonald's so that the kids could play in a confined setting while we talked. We discussed restaurants and bouncy places, but determined McD's would be most conducive to the talk-and-play goal. Amazing how your standards for a good night out change with kids! Jack, who just turned five, and Kate have played together numerous times, and it's fun to watch them grow. (See their playtimes last summer, Labor Day 2010, and their first meeting when Kate was just a baby.)  

(It has been so unseasonably warm, I didn't pack coats for the girls, and then it ended up being cold in Louisville that weekend and even snowing, so I picked up that fleece heart jacket for Kate at Goodwill for $3!)

I called this post "Playcation" because we really didn't do anything major during our visit, but just laid low and played a lot, which was wonderfully relaxing! Kate loved hanging out with Nala and Popi, playing piano and a million games of Memory!

Popi does stretches everyday for his back, Kate likes to do "'nastics," and Claire is working on rolling over back-to-front, which involves lifting her legs in the air. I loved catching this pic of all three of them in that same position!

I've lived in Nashville long enough now to have the ridiculous thought "oh no, it snowed! How will we ever drive home?!" go through my head. Then I remembered that in most states, a little snow is no big deal. It didn't stick to the roads at all and we were able to drive home that Monday as planned. Matt was gone that night for his Board of Ordained Ministry Evaluating Committee (BOMEC) interviews, so we were on our own and had fun going to Open Gym at our gymnastics place. (Kate kept calling it "Opa's Gym," so I think she may actually think Matt's dad is in charge of it :0)

Matt got through BOMEC just fine, which means (drumroll, please) that after much ado jumping through the UMC's flaming hoops, he will be ordained as a full elder this summer at Annual Conference. Woo hoo!! Congratulations, Matt! Your girls are so proud of you!