Last weekend, Anya and I went to Tennessee to visit our BFFs, Kimmie and Catie. They normally live far, far away over the sea, but every year or so they get to come back to the land of Chuck E. Cheese…where a kid can be a kid.

Can you believe that Kimmie and Catie were born in August?? It is true. I told you, August rocks for birthdays. We were lucky enough to be in TN for Kim’s birthday, and after a day at the mall buying Anya and Catie matching outfits and ransacking the clearance shelves at Gymboree and the Disney Store, we went to the restaurant where the dude in the tall hat waves around sharp knives and cooks things on the table. There were flames that tried to melt Cinderella and wooden clubs being tossed at little girls and a boy that slept through (almost) everything.

We spent a lot of time in the hotel pool. Catie worked on her jumping.

Kimmie worked on trying to keep the camera away…and failed.

I didn’t have a suit, so I hopped in with my clothes on. Anya sat on the edge and splashed with her feet. Every now and then, I’d race over, grab her, and carry her around in the pool. We played “keep away” with an invisible ball, learned how well crocs float, and ran away when the sun burned up all the shady spots in the water.

What trip to TN with K & C would be complete without a trip to Cracker Barrel? The last time I’d been was with Kimmie and Catie, and Catie was in a high chair. Anya ate two eggs, two pieces of bacon, and a bowl of grits, and the clouds parted and angels sang.

The last event of the weekend was to visit the Children’s Museum in the place where they made The Bomb. Alas, my camera batteries ran out part of the way through. I shoved Kimmie out of the way and stole her camera, but she said I can’t have any of the pictures until I remove the picture of her in the pool from the blog. I did manage to get a photo of Anya in some of the dress up clothes the museum had. They were mostly too big for her, and we picked a great mix of things….boy’s shirt…girl’s underskirt thingy….straw hat partially eaten by a goat.

It was a fabulous weekend, and when we got home we crashed and didn’t wake up for three days (no, I had work the next day). Too bad Kc wasn’t there. Next time!