Playing in the Fountains

One day last week I had to run a few errands for my husband in Knoxville. Since I had all of the kids with me, and they were being so sweet I decided to take them somewhere fun when we were finished with what we had to do. We took a picnic lunch and headed for the fountains at the World's Fair park in Downtown Knoxville. The day was hot and sunny, just perfect for playing in the water! Originally, I actually had wanted to take them to a nearby park with a big playground, but when we got there we discovered the park had been closed for repairs due to recent storm damage... oh well, contingency plan! Find water! The World's Fair Park and Fountains were near by, and even though we had not brought bathing suits to play in the water, I had enough extra stuff in the van to make do with what we had! A few towels, a few extra pairs of shorts for the little ones and Matthew and Ethan , and a  swim diaper/panties for Claire... and we where good to go!

It was a lot of fun and because the new school year has begun we had the water almost totally to ourselves.

Matthew made a point of running over each and every fountain in the park. He wasn't still long enough for me to get a good picture of his face! But take my word for it... he had a great time!

Logan helped me keep a close eye on all of the little ones... he is such a great help to me!

Ethan telling B. (one of our foster sons) how to run between the fountains. 

H. (our foster daughter) running around the outside of the water. She kept getting close to the fountains and touching them with her outstretched hand, but she didn't want to run between them like everyone else... the water was a bit too cold for her!

The water temperature didn't bother J (our other foster son, B's big brother) one bit, thank you very much!

Meanwhile, Claire made friends with a nice Grandmother who had brought her 3 year old grandson to play in the fountains. The Grandma pushed Claire around on his little scooter for the longest time while her grandson played in the water.

After a while the big boys wanted to cross the street and play on the playground for a while, and warm up some. (The day was very hot... but the water in the fountains was really cold!) So we each grabbed a little one by the hand and went to play over there for a bit.

B going down a big boy slide for the first time ever! He was so proud of himself!

After a while we where plenty warm! So we wandered back across the street to cool off once again. At that point I was feeling much too hot, having sat in the sun for nearly 2 hours while they played! So I joined the little ones in the fountains for a few minutes to cool off my legs and feet! I noticed in this picture that my poor belly button has officially popped out now. I feel like the Thanksgiving turkey with it's little pop up timer, I'm about done! Just a few more weeks before we meet this little one!

Claire taking a break from the water.

My sweet happy Ethan.

H and B venturing back in.