Visiting Special Friends

Last week the kids and I drove to Dallas to visit 2 of my dearest friends, Katherine and Dana. (We SO missed you, Amanda!!) We arrange these visits a couple times each year to let our kids play together and to let the Mommies have some much needed catch-up time. Dana already posted about this awesome visit and my post will be almost identical, so here goes.

Here's a picture of me with Katherine and Dana. So hard to believe we've been so close for so many years. I think it's been since Junior High but honestly I can't remember! Could be longer!

During our trip, the kids had such a blast playing at local malls, Pump It Up, swimming, and mostly tearing up the playrooms at Katherine and Dana's houses. That's one of the advantages of visiting at someone else's house, haha!

Every chance we had, we lined up all 7 kiddos in hopes of a great picture. They actually cooperated every time, although that might've had something to do with the fact that instead of saying "cheese" we asked them to say "poopie" and other funny potty words. Whatever works!

We were quite the sight going into the mall with all 7 kids and 3 double strollers.

One night while at Dana's house for dinner, we decided to go ahead and bathe the kids in hopes of them falling asleep on the drive back to Katherine's house for bedtime. We didn't have pajamas with us so we raided Jackson's closet to see what we could find. The biggest pjs he had for Connor were size 4T (he usually wears a size 6). We had the biggest laugh over Connor in these skin tight pjs!

And we also thought we'd try on one of Sarah's bows on Ryan. Bless his heart, this is as close to a girl as Dana will ever get, HA!

Here are the 3 sets of kiddos (Don't mind Jackson...he was making "back off!" eyes at Kaitlynn...).

Finally...I couldn't end this post without mentioning this. One of the things I'll always remember about this particular visit is how my daughter's true personality was revealed in full to my sweet friends. I try to convey in my stories on this blog how, um, spirited Kaitlynn can be and what diva-like behavior she sometimes exhibits, but only when you spend time with her do you really get it. Within the first few minutes of arriving at Katherine's house, Kaitlynn had shoved sweet baby Sarah to the floor and yelled "NO!" to ward off the boys from sharing the toys she was playing with. Sigh. That's my girl. Her redeeming quality is that she can be just as loving and affectionate as she is naughty.

So after this trip, I can safely assume that my parents aren't the only ones getting a big kick out of this child of mine. You know, the one I SO deserve. :-)