Fun in Franklin

Little Sister has been busting my chops to get something on the blog about our actual time in Franklin last weekend. (This blogging business is kinda tough to keep up with) Soooo... here is the highlight reel: We FINALLY got to Franklin about 9:30ish EST after leaving Cookeville at 3:45ish CST. Looooooong trip. Once we got there we unloaded our things and made our way to our assigned sleeping quarters. (Thank you Nikki for housing 8 people for a weekend and smiling the whole time about it) We spent Friday night catching up a little and then quickly found ourselves in dream land. We were up bright and early Saturday morning for breakfast and to prepare for Grant's 8th Birthday Party. I left Cookeville without any "party" attire but lucky for me Shelby had a hat to borrow:

We were off to the Park after Breakfast to celebrate. Cookie cake, cupcakes and a heard of children PLUS extreme Heat= Counting down seconds til Pool Time. Unfortunately as we were all getting ready to dip our toes in the pool, *CRACK*.. Lightening..Thunder.. Downpour... Not cool.

We headed home, all children from the party in tow and waited it out.. The Big Kids sat around and played Apples to Apples.

This game is ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS!! We played again on Saturday night for about 2 1/2 -3 hours. Ridiculously good time. Also on Saturday night we headed for Pickin' on the Square. The music changes each week and this week was Bluegrass!! We were all waaaay excited. Even  more so that there  were Funnel Cakes and Blue Bell ice cream available. Sprinkle a little clogging on top and you've got yourself a dandy ole time!!

Making our way to the Square

Mom... Mom.. Mom...Mommy..Mommy...Mother...NIKKI

There's something special about this tower, I just don't know what it is. 

Ha Ha Ha Ha

Momma Bird and Mamaw Jude

Pickin' on the Square

Love the Rents

Picture crasher

Way to ruin the picture  Hubbery

The 3 Musketeers

Love me some "J"

I'm convinced of the 5 Grandchildren and 3 Great-Grandchildren that are related by blood no one compares to Hallie

And they were dancin'... Shaggin' on the Boulevard

Sweet Brother

The Babes

Shelby's First Attempt at clogging

I spy a CREEPER

No... you can't touch my ice cream.

She's a special child.

 Funny side story... We had taken up residence on the corner of Awesome and Bombdiggity the square, enjoying our ice cream, the music and the dancing. The kids were running around like monkeys on crack when Shelby accidently collides bumps into a man's leg who is standing by the lamp post. She looks up, crinkles her brow, points at him and yells "NO" !!! It was hilarious. He looked like Abe Lincoln and Creepy McCreepster had a kid. Except for that he was an OLDER gentleman. He stands there eerily close to our group trying to blend in for a while. He finally gives up and turns to walk through our group...  and as he passes by Hallie, he stares her down and says "Heeeeeeeeeeeyyyy" as he just barely squeezes by without touching her. She freaks...We laugh..and he gets into his (I kid you not, right now) Minivan and drives off. hahahahahaha We gave her a hard time about it the rest of the night and Seth told her at one point that that man was their neighbor. She was extremely uncomfortable when we returned home to the confines of our curtainless windowed basement accommodations. So here's to you Honest Abe. Thanks for the giggle.

 I couldn't leave this picture of Shelby out because as I was taking this she was singing Flo-Rida's "Right Round", immediately after she sang Livin' on a Prayer. A girl after my own heart. Rumor has it that since we left she's been making requests for Rocky Top and since her dad is a HUGE FSU fan we'll consider that a small victory in her raisin'.