With summer approaching, I thought I would share about our experience at the Kiddie Carnival last summer. I have a more detailed post about all that the carnival has to offer from 2022. So this post is more about the pictures.
All tagged Family Fun
Hot Air Balloon Festival
Since the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival is coming up, I thought I would share our experience from last year. Unfortunately the weather doesn’t look great this year, but hopefully some of the activities will still happen!
Pumpkin Patch 2023
Brad was lucky enough to make it to our Pumpkin Patch visit this year! He has missed the last few years, and he literally left for two months a few weeks after this. We had a lot of fun this year. And each year does get easier since Melody is getting older and can do more things by herself and has the freedom to do so. We go to Lyons Pumpkin Patch, and they also seem to also add things every year. And the weather was perfect this year too! And peep the picture of Melody on her first visit to the pumpkin patch! She has grown SOOOOO much!
Disney World March 2023 Family Shirt
We have made many Disney family shirts over the years, and it does get hard to make up new ones. I hate to re-use themes from the past. And when you are with a larger group, it is harder to make it all unison but different. So when it came time to design a family shirt for us to all wear for our March 2023 Spring Break trip, I had a little bit of a difficult time. I didn’t want to do favorite rides, because I really don’t know that Bob and Vicki had a favorite ride prior to this trip. Brad mentioned everyone being a different park, but I wasn’t sure how we would narrow that down…and there are not five parks. So after some deliberation with Brad, we opted to try and make everyone a character or favorite “thing” and make it have Mickey ears.
2023 Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo
We attended the 2023 Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo back in April. We didn’t plan out things as much as we have in the past when it comes to our outfits. We also only attended Friday of the Expo vs the whole weekend or just Saturday. It was a lot of fun and much more calm on Friday night vs daytime on the weekend. All of the vendors were already setup too. The only major thing we missed was the mass crowd of cosplayers. There still was some cosplayers throughout the Expo though.
February 2023 Fun
February was a really fun month. We have been prepping a lot for our upcoming Disney trip and that means lots of countdowns! We also have just been busy in general. Check it out below!
January 2023 Fun
January was quite the month! The first month of the year is full of resolutions, goals and hopes. And while we have goals for sure, I don’t know that any of them “began” January 1st, ha. And January 3rd had different plans too. It was the first day back to school for the kiddos. We were supposed to have bad weather, so they were dismissed at 11 am. Well within Melody being home 30 minutes, we had what we think was a small tornado come through. I could see the trees spinning and a loud roar, so I grabbed Melody and ran to our foyer closet. No sooner than I got Melody inside, I could hear glass breaking. A tree branch broke through Melody’s bedroom window. Whew, not how we wanted to start the year!
November 2022 Fun
My lack of posting the last month should be an indication of how busy our November truly was. Our free time was super limited, so journaling and blogging were not high on the to do list. But I am getting back with it. With that said, let’s dig into all the fun we had in November!
Dollywood Family Trip May and June 2022
I am going to update this page as I blog about our trip to Dollywood in late May/early June of this year. I wanted to keep everything in one place to make it easier to find!
Pumpkin Patch 2022
This year we planned ahead a Saturday that was ideal for us and the Owen group to visit the Pumpkin Patch. I was a bit nervous with it being “peak” weekend, but to my surprise it was truly the best day. The weather was great, and the crowds were actually low. We didn’t have really any lines to wait in for food or “rides”, and we were able to accomplish most things.
September 2022 Fun
September was busy as we were back in full force with school and extracurriculars. Brad also traveled some for work, and Melody got to experience her first field trip at school. I am so happy at all the “normal” things coming back to this school year. She was even able to have her grandparents come eat lunch with her for grandparents day too. What I assume is due to COVID happening in 2020, they have also implemented several “e-learning” days. It was actually really nice, and I look forward to the next one. I hosted a bridal shower for my cousin, and Melody got to try on some flower girl dresses for the wedding coming up in November. We also got down most of our Halloween decor, so Melody is having a blast trying to scare us with fake spiders! October is setting up to also be a highly busy month. Stay tuned!
August 2022 Fun
August was a busy month and full of a lot of change! Melody started FIRST grade earlier this month. We tried to enjoy the time we had her at home outside of school, so we have enjoyed the library, pool, games, and cooking. Melody started cheer and started back at gymnastics. We celebrated both my dad’s and Brad’s birthdays, and we simply had fun!
Brad is 39!
This year Brad was able to celebrate his 39th birthday at home with us unlike last year! Melody picked out the theme for his birthday back in February. She picked G.I. Joe. Her love for G.I. Joe has really grown over the last year, so she had fun with the theme.
Summer 2022
We tried to fill the summer with as much fun as possible this year. We only had roughly 10 weeks to fit it all in, and boy did it fly by fast!
Dollywood Day Two
Our last day at Dollywood was predicted to be a rainy one. But it was literally the last day of our trip, so we decided to give it a go.
July 2022 Fun
July came and went, and we had a lot of fun soaking up what little summer was left. Melody finished swim lessons; we started getting out old Lego sets to put together; we celebrated the 4th of July; we finished gymnastics for the summer; we celebrated my mom’s birthday; we got shaved ice; Melody got her first planner; we saw Paw Patrol in theaters again; Melody rode the carousel; Melody had her first sleepover at my parents then with her cousins in Memphis; Brad went to his 20th high school reunion; we went to Let’s Play; we went to High Point; and we went to the Kiddie Carnival!
Forbidden Caverns
During our Dollywood trip, we had a break day from the parks and decided to spend time enjoying the cabin. My dad had noticed signs for a place called Forbidden Caverns not far from where our cabin was. He thought it would be neat to take Melody there. So we drove about 15 minutes from our cabin to get there.
Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo 2022
We attended the Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo back in April. It was fun, but we did not spend as much time there as we have in previous years. We opted to go just one day instead of the weekend. We used our Halloween costumes and dressed as character from Butterbean’s Cafe. Melody loved getting to take pictures with different cosplayers as well!
April 2022 Fun
April was a fun month full of a lot of activity.
Easter 2022
Life is currently so crazy, but I have lots to share over the next few months! First up is Easter. Yes, it is a few weeks late, but such is life right now. We celebrated Easter a few times to make sure we saw as much of our family this year as possible.