Monday, June 25, 2012

Kidfest 2012!

Over Memorial Day weekend we went to Aunt Mandy’s house for the 4th annual Kidfest.  It was, as usual, such a blast!  This year the Hatch family joined us and we had a fantastic time together.  I have WAYYYYY too many pictures but since this is my blog I get to do whatever I want.  So, here goes!

Aunt Mandy bought a whole arsenal of water guns for the kids to play with.  As you can see Bear didn’t even wait for his swim suit to arm himself!
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Uncle Nick opted for the larger, battery powered version.

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Mandy and Jack wrestled.  Notice her amazing ability to wrestle an almost 5 year old and still not spill her beverage.

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Bear quickly realized his gun was far too small.

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When we arrived at Mandy’s Jackson could only swim with floaties.  I left for thirty minutes to pick up Jay from the airport and when I returned Nick and Mandy had taught Jack to swim sans floatation devices across the pool.  Yay Jackson and thanks so much to Aunt Mandy and Uncle Nick for saving us lots of swim lesson money!  I’ll post the swimming video separately.

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The Hatch’s arrived that night and the kids were thrilled to have their very first slumber party.  Can you believe they all went to sleep?!

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The pick-up-trike was very popular at 7 a.m. Saturday morning.

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Jack loved driving Bryn around.  Bear was not too thrilled with being replaced on the back seat.

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Next it was time for fishing!

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Bryn turned 4 in March and she and Jackson got along very well.

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Jack caught the first fish of the day.  Here’s Jay pulling it out.

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Bear’s hair was CRAZY the entire weekend!

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Aunt Mandy is the best with kids.  She loved fishing with Bear and teaching him what to do and he was in heaven having so much one on one time.

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Jay and little Jay.

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Bryan’s catch. . .

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Bear decided that water guns were more his speed.

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Jack and Mandy playing with the “stink bait.”

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Owen, who will be 7 in October, and Jackson were major buddies all weekend.

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Bear rocking the goggles.

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Bear and Bryn despite being 2 years apart were about the same size.

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Bryan and Bryn.

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I just love this little face.

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Mandy of course had the arts and crafts bins stocked to the brim and the kids of course loved creating art on the fence.

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Pretending to be scuba divers on a boat.

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Jack was flipping off backwards like a “real scuba diver.”

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Jack kept telling Bryn how beautiful she was and how he would always be her friend.

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Lots of water guns, basketball and football.

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As always the bounce houses were a hit.

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Mandy’s sister, nephews and cousins showed up for some kidfest fun.

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Several times during the weekend Bear was COVERED in tzatziki.

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Bradley got in on the water fight as well.

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Bryan was our grill master for lunch and Mandy had asked the bakery to make special slider buns for us to the burgers would be kid sized.

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Mandy’s sweet baby cousin.

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Kelsey is an awesome babysitter and especially loves newborns.

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Definitely no lack of food here!

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Fun in the hot tub.

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Once the dads got in on the water gun fight, mayhem broke out.

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The kids were happily working on their master pieces.

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I love this shot of Bear and Jay.

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Mandy, Bryn and Dacia.

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WILD man!

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I can’t believe this guy will be 5 in a few months!

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I always love the pictures of the kids eating and playing.  Mandy has such a great kitchen.

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It’s so cool after being friends with Dacia for my entire life to see our kids be buddies.

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Sweet Bryn may have been the only girl but she still ran the show.  The boys did whatever she wanted.

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This was one of the funniest moments of the weekend.  Jackson had recently learned the term “jewels” for a certain body part.  Anyway, I told him not to say that when he was talking to Nick and Mandy and he responded, “it’s ok mom, they’re my grandparents!”  We all died laughing and I let him know that they were not in fact his grandparents and he replied, “well then why do we love them so much?”  Funny guy!

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The two littles eating watermelon.

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Bryn tried driving Bear around and it was quite a task as they weigh pretty much the same.

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Jay was thrilled to drive around in Mandy’s classic corvette.

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Bear, who loves all things transportation, loved checking it out as well!

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I took this picture right after Bear yelled to me, “mom, I’m having SO much fun!”

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Bryn and Bear spent hours playing together.

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Happy kids.

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The kids all enjoyed playing with the gifts that Mandy had for Bear’s birthday.

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Jack caught a lizard.

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As with this being our 4th Kidfest we had our annual tour of the bakery.  The kids of course loved it. 

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Mandy is so great about explaining everything to the kids.

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At one point Jackson turned to Mandy and said, “this is like being inside the show, How It’s Made!”

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Yum!  Tasting the fresh baked goods always goes over very well!

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Sweet kiddos with their awesome Aunt Mandy!

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The Hatch family with their loot.

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Hard to think that soon we’ll have another sweet baby to add to this picture!

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And back to swimming:

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The kids finished art work.

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Can you tell that these boys love their daddy?!

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Me and my buddy.

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I had so much fun with these ladies.  Dacia and I have been friends literally forever.  Her parents were at the hospital when I was born and vice versa.  Our parents were in each other’s weddings.  Such a treat to not only be such great friends but see our kids play together.  And Mandy has been just like a member of our family since we met at Baylor.  Both women are such blessings in my life!

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Jackson was pretending that he was on the phone with Spiderman here.  Love that expression.

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Below are Aunt Mandy’s pictures of the weekend.  She not only has a much better camera than we do but is also a far superior photographer.

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Thanks so much to Aunt Mandy for the super awesome weekend!  The kids are already begging to come back. . .

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