Discovery Park of America in Union City, TN

Discovery Park of America

 We went on a little trip with Paula's parents over Memorial Day Weekend.  We had all heard about a big museum that opened in West Tennessee.  It was financed by the family who own Kirklands' stores who are from Union City, and we heard that is was supposed to be a first-rate attraction that would attract travelers from all over the Mid-South.  So, we decided to go by the Discovery Park of America in Union City for a day to check it out, then on to St. Louis for a weekend vacation.

Abbie and a dinosaur

Fish Faces

 The Discovery Park could be compared to a "mini" Smithsonian.  Inside, they have dinosaurs, a classic car collection, and military vehicles.  The museum has a small aquarium, science exhibits, and a space exhibit. There was a separate building with a large farm tractor exhibit.

1970 Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird: Matt's dream car

Abbie is driving us somewhere

Punishment for whining

 Outside of the museum, there is a recreated Pioneer Village with farm houses, cabins, etc.  There was also a mill and a blacksmith shop.

Abbie at the Pioneer Village dentist's office

1910 Fire Truck

 There was also Victorian-era courthouse, chuch, fire station, and train depot.

Abbie loved the science exhibits

Paw Paw Pat helps Abbie and Sophie with building blocks.

We thought the Discovery Park was an excellent outing.  We spent about four hours there.  Sophie and Abbie loved the kid's science section, and they spent a long time playing with the water exhibit and building blocks.

We crossed the Mississippi River on a tiny ferry boat ride from Hickman, KY to Dorina, MO.

At the end of the day, we drove toward St. Louis by traveling up to the western edge of Kentucky to a little town called Hickman.  We rode a ferry across the Mississippi River.  The ferry operation was so small: passengers drive up to a post near the ferry landing, and press a button to send a signal to let the ferry boat crew know there are passengers waiting.  We had a great day at the Discovery Park and a good trip to St. Louis that evening.

Abbie's Kindergarten Program/End of School Year Fun

Abbie and her friend, Kassy

Paw-paw and Nana with Morgan, Abbie, Sophie and Monroe after the program.

Abbie and Sophie with their Lego Friends creations.  (Abbie's nose is kind of black because she performed her program for the whole school).

Sophie and her best buddy, Allie.

Abbie on the last full day of kindergarten.

The end of the school year is such a busy time!  The kindergarteners had a special program at school called EIEI Oops and Abbie's class dressed up as sheep.  They looked so cute because one of the moms had coordinated it so that almost all of the kids in two classes were dressed totally alike (they made the costumes).  One class dressed up as chicks and some of the kids dressed up as pigs and other animals.  Nana and Paw-paw, Uncle Phil and Aunt Martha, Uncle Matt and their boys came to watch besides our immediate family.  It's hard to believe that Abbie's kindergarten year is over and Sophie's finished with 3rd grade!  

The girls had field day at the end of the year and other fun events.  I was able to help with field day.  Sophie had her first sleepover at our house and her friend, Allie spent the night.  Abbie was able to spend the night at Nana and Paw-paw's house that night.  Her little cousins were over there with their parents, Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt, so she had fun being with all of them.  

Abbie won an award for Perfect Attendance and Sophie made the Principal's List which means that she made all A's on her report card.  We were proud of both of them!!  

2nd Annual Family Camping Trip (No Grumps Allowed)

Soph and Abbie riding bikes

Soph fishing

                                                 {Paula}My mom and {Matt} my dad.

Our  new tent

  We went on a camping trip on Mother's Day weekend (yes, our mom gets brownie points this year). we only went for one night because bad storms had been predicted for Friday night.  It turned out to be a great weekend for camping.  We had a great time bonding with our friends from church! The kids enjoyed going noodle fishing, regular fishing, playing foursquare, riding bikes, and playing kick-the-can. According to Sophie, the adults didn't have fun { No offense =) } but, they did enjoy chatting by the campfire. The kids partied by putting together glow bracelets,necklaces, lights for bikes [etc.]. We made s'mores on Sat. night and had a worship service on Sun. morning. We had so much fun with the White's, Staggs', Hicks', Moss family, Lassiter's and the Kelley's.  Even though we were only there for Saturday and half a day Sunday, the girls were worn out when we got home.
 P.S= Soph wrote this. She'd like to add a joke: What did the buffalo say to his son as he dropped him off at school? Bison =) LOL! Phil Waggoner is the official comedian in the family.

Sophie's 9th Birthday

Here's Sophie with her birthday balloons!

Sophie, Uncle Phil and Abbie

Nana, Phil and Sophie

Nagisa, Sophie and Allie

Daddy and Nana helped Abbie paint her pottery.

Sophie with her friends from church at her party.

Our family

the birthday girl

Sophie, Abbie, and Ashton

Frances, Nagisa and Allie

The girls showing off their pottery.

front: Abbie, Kate Grogan and Jenna Sansom.  Back: Allie Wells, Nagisa Amada, Frances Tanner, Ashton Lomicka, Abby Clark, Sophie and Carley Gray.

silly picture

It's hard to believe that Sophie turned 9 on May 1.  The next day, she had to start taking the TCAP test, their standardized test in Tennessee.  For her birthday, she requested that I make poppyseed bread.  She also wanted strawberry cake so I made it for the first time ever and we enjoyed eating it with family.  Nana's birthday is the day before Sophie's.  When I asked Sophie where she wanted to go eat for her birthday, she requested Red Lobster so Nana and Uncle Phil met us there on Thursday night for her birthday and it was so good!!  On Saturday evening, we celebrated Sophie and Nana's birthdays with a cookout at Nana and Paw-paw's house where Uncle Phil, Aunt Martha, Uncle Matt and their boys, were able to come and all have dinner with us.  Saturday, the girls had soccer games during the day and Matt needed to attend Lipscomb's graduation.

On Sunday afternoon, we had a friends' party for Sophie at Third Coast Clay where Sophie, Abbie and eight of Sophie's friends painted pottery and enjoyed cupcakes and ice cream.  The girls had a great time!!  Half of Sophie's friends were from church and half were from school.  Matt and Nana had a lot of patience with Abbie who used lots of paint on her pottery and then, wanted to totally redo it after it was almost competed.  =)  I tried to make it look like the cupcakes were on an artist's palette with lots of different colors.

Sophie received some new arts and crafts sets for her birthday, a couple of Amazon Kindle gift cards, matching dresses for her and her American Girl doll, and a Spa Science Kit among other things.  She also received a couple of other gift cards.  Sophie had asked her friends to donate to Latin American Missions (her Uncle Phil works for them) in lieu of giving gifts this year to help other kids but she still received several gifts.  She had a wonderful birthday!

Easter

A few of their favorite things from the Easter bunny.

Our family at Nana and Paw-paw's house.

Love this picture of the girls!

Nana with Sophie and Abbie

The girls with Nana and Paw-paw

Abbie, Sierra, Sophie and Summer

Abbie and Summer

Sophie-1st Easter egg hunt of the day at Nana's house.

cousin Annie over at Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda's house.

Harper, Grace, Sophie and Abbie after their egg hunt.

Abbie loves hanging out with babies!!

picture of all the little cousins including: Abbie, Annie, Sophie, Grace, Ty and Harper.

We had a very nice, busy Easter overall.  The weather was very warm.  Our family attended Brentwood Hills for church this year because Matt was teaching a Sunday school class.  After a wonderful service and Bible class, we had lunch at Nana's with Nana, Paw-paw, Uncle Mike, Aunt Shannon, Summer and Sierra.  Although we had fewer people this year, we still really enjoyed being together.  The only downside for our family was that Paula had developed a cold and was not feeling well.  Our girls hunted for Easter eggs after lunch at Nana and Paw-paw's house along with a little boy, Charlie, who lives across the street from them.  We visited for a while and then headed for home for a little bit.  We had so much good food for lunch.

Then, we went over to Uncle Jim and Aunt Linda's house to be with them as well as their kids and grandchildren who live in the area.  Uncle Walter and Katie were in town as well so it was great to see them for a short visit.  Katie works in Houston right now but she had gone to Ohio to visit her parents for a few days and then came down to Tennessee with her dad before heading back to Texas.   Nana and Paw-paw came for a little while too.  Sophie and Abbie loved seeing Grace, Harper, Ty and Annie who are first cousins with each other (the first three are siblings) but I guess second cousins with my girls.  We don't get to see them very often.  The kids hunted eggs over there.  Annie was so cute because she was content to sit in the grass and look at a plastic egg, etc while the other kids ran around hunting for eggs.  =)  After that, we ate dinner and visited some more with everyone.

Home Tweet Home

wreath on our front door (notice anything unusual)?

bird nest with four robin eggs

On the weekend before Easter, Matt's parents were here visiting.  One night, Matt and his parents were coming in and his mom noticed that there was a bird's nest right in the middle of our wreath!  It kind of blends in and it's up pretty tall so I wouldn't have been able to see down into it.  I don't know when I would have noticed if it Teresa hadn't found it.  I got the pictures by standing on a stepstool and being able to shoot some pictures from above.  We'll have to keep an eye on things.  My first instinct when it was pointed out to me was, "oh, well, I'm gonna move it" but then I was reminded that the Mama bird would abandon the eggs.  I hope we don't have birds flying around inside our house once these birds hatch but it should be interesting to watch them grow!  I love spring because of all the new life, pretty colors and growth.

Easter egg hunts

Here's Sophie's friend, Abby C., after she found some eggs.

Here's our Abbie with a big smile!

Abbie and her friend, Sophie C.

Sophie with her eggs and Abbie behind.

Brooke, Frances, Sophie and Abby C.

Abbie with the Easter bunny!

Abbie found some Easter eggs!

This past weekend, we had nice, warm weather.  The girls had soccer games on Saturday.  Matt's parents, Mimi and Papa Tom, came in from Virginia just in time to see part of Abbie's soccer game.  That evening, Abbie went to a gymnastics birthday party at Let it Shine while the rest of us went out to dinner.  The next day, Sunday, was very busy.  We attended early service, had lunch at Chuy's, came home and had a little downtime while getting ready to lead the Girl Scout meeting with Sophie's troop (it was my turn to lead a meeting), went to Girl Scout meetings, came home and got ready for the Easter egg hunts at church, picked up friends for the egg hunt and went to church, attended church service, dropped off our friends and returned home.  Whew!  What a day!  We were all so tired.

It's funny because we have gotten to be really good friends with a family in our neighborhood, the Clark's, who have girls the same ages and they have the same names as our girls but it's reversed.  Their Abby is the same age as our Sophie and they are in the same class at school. They are also in Girl Scouts together.   Their daughter, Sophie, is Abbie's age and they are in Girl Scouts together and they are on the same soccer team.  Anyway, we invited them to come to the Easter egg hunts with us at church and come to church with us.  All of the girls had a really good time!  It was about 80 degrees on Saturday and Sunday.  Our church has a big playground so they had fun playing on it in between the egg hunts.  They also had cotton candy, popcorn, and lemonade at the egg hunts.

On Saturday, our family went to Chick-Fil-A after the girls soccer games so that Matt's parents could enjoy a late lunch and we could have a little snack.  The Easter bunny was there and Abbie was somewhat scared.  She kept trying to hide behind Matt's mom.   Anyway, I told her that the Easter bunny would probably be at our church egg hunt on Sunday.  Saturday night before bed, she started acting nervous about seeing the Easter bunny again the next day but she said that she would go up and give him a high five.  She has always been very scared of the Easter bunny.  Well, we all laughed when it turned out the Easter bunny at our church (Andy Parker) did not have his face covered so Abbie didn't even have much to be scared of!! This may be the only picture that we have of Abbie with the Easter bunny because she usually always cries and we have to take her away from him!!