Aunt Katie comes to Visit

When my sister, Katie, first moved to Cincinnati in 2003, she would come home every weekend to visit. Now that several years have passed, she's settled into her life down there and we usually only see her once or twice a month. She came home today (to see the kids and do laundry!), so we headed to my parents' house to visit. I love going to my parents' house to eat. We decided to have a late breakfast there and Mom went all out: homemade buckwheat pancakes with homemade syrup, fresh fruit, bacon, and sausage...it was so yummy! I told Mom that the kids would get spoiled there because we only use sugar-free syrup and turkey bacon at our house.

Jacob and Ellie loved their pancakes and fresh blackberries

Emmaline puts her feet up

After breakfast, we walked to a neighborhood park (to work off some of those calories!). There was lots of fun stuff for the kids to do and the adults (Mom, Katie, and I) found things to play on as well.

A beautiful tree...I don't think it would have looked nearly as pretty with its leaves.

This thing was really cool. You turned the handle and it moved the platform along its track

Jacob and Aunt Katie on the see-saw

Mom and Gabrielle on the opposite side

Me on the monkey bars...this was the point when I realized how out of shape I am!

Katie brushes up on her kung-fu skills

On the tire swing...I was trying to take this picture so that the chain wasn't over anyone's face. Forgetting that 5-year-olds are very literal, I told Jacob to look through the chain. He did exactly that and was peeking through the links of the chain at the camera. Silly boy! This was taken after I clarified what I wanted him to do.

Emmaline loved the top and bottom of the slides.

She didn't like the middle so much!

A view of downtown from the park

Mommy and her kiddos...can you tell the wind picked up towards the end?

After we walked home, we enjoyed lunch and then watched "Princess Bride" while munching on popcorn. What a great day we had!

Curled up on the couch

Relaxing with Papaw