YaYa Day

Leslie, Cindy and I used to get together every year for homecoming and sometimes we'd manage an additional get-together in between. This past year was the first year in a long time that we had to cancel the homecoming weekend. Homecoming and Halloween were the same weekend and with 4 kids between us - there was no way we could make it work. The last time we were together was July 2008 - a whole year ago. Cindy suggested that we do something this summer and offered to come over to NWA for a day. We managed to schedule last Thursday as our YaYa (and Petit YaYa) Day.

Cindy and Haven came to my house from Tulsa and we met the Lyons family for lunch at Slim Chickens. After lunch, Nick went to play golf. That left the 3 of us, plus 3 children in car seats and one child in a booster seat. We were like clowns getting in and out of my car, but that's why I got the car that seats eight! We took the kids to the Rogers Splash Park and let them play for a while. It took everyone but Haven a while to get used to the idea of the water, but once they did, they had a great time. Caleb was the most reserved of the group - preferring to play with the sprinkler that was the shortest and least likely to surprise him by blasting water in his face.

Here's Caleb playing in the little sprinkler:

And Haven having a blast:
And Jackson running and gunning:

After the kids wore themselves (and us) out, we came back over to the house and let them play while we visited sporadically between tantrums, drink requests, potty breaks and an endless string of other interruptions. They had a blast and we enjoyed each others' company. We did decide, however, that we definitely need a kid-free girls' weekend soon.

Here's Grace enjoying the shade:

And all 4 of them launching the air rocket. Jackson taught them how to jump hard on the pump so it would fly. Caleb was fully impressed with Jackson's mad skills.