We headed down to Austin for a long overdue trip to see Nanny. It was a great visit. Oma and Papa Dude met us there and Zadi drove with us from our hosue. Aunt Debbie flew in the same day and then later the Barney's got there too. It was a lot of people in Nanny's little house, but it was fun. Nanny watched the kids dance, run around, and play games. We watched some home videos I had never seen of Shandi and I as kids. We went swimming at the hotel pool. We really didn't do too much, but it was really good to see everyone.
Mackenzie played a fun game of throwing stuffed animals at Nanny. They both seemed to enjoy it.
Watch out Nanny!
Papa kept the kids pretty busy with a game of Simon Says; I have to admit it was very entertaining for all of us!
Nanny with all of my kids
Oma made a dress for Bentley with a matching mask. She was thrilled and super excited to add another accessory to her wardrobe!
COVID-19 has messed with everything, even hotel breakfast! This is all they had the first day and the second, there was nothing!
Matching lipstick for her dress, and yes she brought the lipstick all on her own!
They dressed up Papa Dude
Sitting on a bench Grandaddy made
Thankfully the hotel pool was open!
1, 2, 3, Jump!
I was there too!
Worn out after the swimming and slept on Nanny's lap.
Papa Dude on hair duty.
4 Generations of Girls!!
Aunt Debbie was there too! It was a lot of fun to see her. She played games with the kids and hungout with all of us.
We were totally mocking the masks!!
Nanny with sweet baby Henry
She's even dramatic in her sleep, heaven help me!
We got Mackenzie to interact with Nanny; all we had to do was get her to throw things at her!!
They both seemed to enjoy the game! The kids also had fun dancing to the 'disco' ball!
Radley is 7!!! I can't believe it. He is an awesome kid. He gets along with pretty much anyone and is so fun and easy to be around. When I asked him what he wanted to eat for his birthday dinner he said he wanted nachos, but Kyler let him use some of his Lego guys for his cake so he decided to have something Kyler likes too. I asked him later about something he wanted for his birthday, but he couldn't say anything without thinking about his brothers or someone else. He really is the sweetest kid!
I love this sweet kid!
He got a lot of Legos!
He was really excited to have everyone come over.
Radley really wanted a red cake. Red is not an easy color to make, but time makes it better. My fingers were pink for a couple of days!
After his party, Radley had his cousin Asher and best friend Ryker spend the night. He was so happy!
Kyler wanted to learn about and explore China because he looked it up and found out ice cream comes from China. Chinese ice cream is very very different, but we went with China and American ice cream! I ordered some chopsticks to play with and learn how to use for dinner. I knew chopsticks were going to be difficult for all of us so we started out by watching a YouTube video on how to use them. Then I had them race to see who could pick up the most items in a bowl. It was a lot of fun. They even made me do it! We made Chinese lanterns while dinner cooked. Papa Dude shared pictures and stories from his trip to China. The kids, especially Bentley, are now afraid to ever go to China because of the public restrooms there, haha!! He showed us the food he ate and places he saw. They really had a good time talking to him and learning about the Chinese culture. We choose to eat sweet and sour chicken (totally an American thing, but there was no way I even knew how to get ingredients, let along cook authentic Chinese cuisine). While we ate dinner using chopsticks, we listened to authentic Chinese music. For dessert we ate ice cream, obviously!
They were concentrating really hard picking up those raisins!
They didn't listen to the YouTube video and chose to use two hands instead of one.
They also made us use bowl for dinner because Papa Dude told them they used bowls in China.
"Mom look! I picked it up!"
Ready for our Chinese dinner.
"I got one too!"
It might not look super appealing, but it was really good!
Chinese Lanterns
She was so cute with her chopsticks and was a really good sport!
We started off with beans, I suggested using something different first, but they insisted on doing beans first. Bentley was frustrated at first, but she made the most of it.
We did cereal next which was a lot easier to hang on to than uncooked beans.
The raisins proved to be the easiest. I like Bentley's methods of shovling and poking!!
The kids all wanted me in on the action too!
She didn't just give up and say she couldn't do it, she found a way to be successful. It was really fun to watch!
Mackenzie's legs look like she's being abused, but they are always filled with bruises.
One day we save a baby bird from being eaten by Acey. When Kenney went to go save it, he found a second bird that was unscathed. We kept them around and fed them for 2 days before we put them back outside. Somehow the parents came back to the yard and started to feed them thankfully because we were not very successful. We tried to keep Acey away as much as possible to give them a chance to survive. We think they are still alive, but if not, we did our best. We even took them into Childress with us one day because we have to feed them every 2-4 hours.
I had to buy this 'offensive' syrup just in case. For posterity's sake, haha.
Kenney found this weed by the garden and turned it into a great lesson for church about sin being rooted in our hearts.
It was almost as long as Mackenzie is tall!
Serious movie watching (as long as it's Frozen II)
This is right after we found a box to put the birds in. Mackenzie tells you all about it in the video.
Radley found the filters on my phone.
The fun continues...
Damon found them too.
He spent quite a bit of time testing them out!
Told ya, a lot of time!
Serious movie watching.
Mackenzie loves Frozen II, but when she laughed at a funny part, I had to keep making her watch it just to hear it again.
Our next 'travel destination' was France. Damon picked this country. We started the day by learning about and building the Eiffel Tower. We used toothpicks and marshmallows, straws, and Legos. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, and Mackenzie just ate the marshmallows so she was happy too! We listened to Debussy and looked at some paintings by Monet. But the highlight of our French Day was definitely the food!!
Damon's prototype before it was glued down.
This one was a little tricky, but Kyler built his quick and easily.
Bentley and I did this one together.
Damon is quite the perfectionist, so he asked for some help.
Radley did this all on his own.
This one too.
Damon's finished tower
Mackenzie was way too distracted by the food to look at me for a picture.
I didn't think this would be such a big hit, but the kids loved the fondue!!
Damon was proud of his tower in the end.
Quiche Lorraine. I snuck in some spinach, but they all ate this too.
Radley's finished product
The hit of the night were the crepes! Mackenzie sure loved hers!
Busy working
We even built some out of dice!
So good!! Nutella and ice cream filled crepes topped with strawberries and a chocolate drizzle!! YUM!!
Damon making sure he had everyone's attention as he taught us about France!
