Posted by I cannot believe that our sweet Tenley Mae is already one. I feel like it was JUST yesterday that we were racing to Murfreesboro in time to love on Amy before her emergency C-section. Oh, how we love this beautiful baby girl! It was a must that we made it back to Murfreesboro to celebrate her birthday weekend!
The kids and I left NC on Thursday after school. We made it there in a little over 9 hours with only two stops and the kids did really well, considering there was not another adult to help pass snacks to the back seat. Noah was a trooper when it came to snack and drink distribution in the back!
On Friday, Marcia took the day off of work, so that we could all join “Mamey” (Amy) for her school field trip to the Nashville Zoo. Eli and Emry Jane love zoos and have never been to the Nashville one. I haven’t been to this one since Noah was a toddler. There were definitely some cool differences about it. There were also about 50 different classes on field trips to the zoo that day– I was very thankful that we dressed our kiddos in bright white because they stood out among all the class shirts!
First, the kangaroo petting area was awesome! Eli was especially excited to pet them and was very frustrated that the school kids were hogging all the petting. One of the zoo attendants brought a kangaroo to Eli after watching him get bumped out of the way several times and made Eli’s day! Emry Jane and Tenley thought the kangaroos were pretty cool too!
I bought these little anchor shorts for all of our babies before our trip to the beach back in March. Amy knows me really well (we’ve been friends for almost a decade now) and called me before we came to visit and said, “What are the twins wearing to the zoo, so that Tenley can coordinate?” Insert all the “heart eyes” when these three are matching each other. I’m sure they will roll their eyes at our attempts to match them soon enough. I’ll take it as long as I can get it!! 🙂
The twins’ second favorite part was the tortoise exhibit. You can tell that Eli really enjoyed coaxing the tortoises to come see him.
Amy got to walk around with us a few times while we were there. Here, she was showing Tenley the flamingos. Tenley does a good job with the flamingo stance already!
Tenley’s first carousel ride was a big hit! The twins love carousels. Eli was a little disappointed once he figured out that the giraffe that he picked did not move up and down, but we still had a good time.
After Amy took her students back to school on the bus, Marcia and I took the little ones over to see the farm animals before we walked back to our car. They had a great time at the zoo together, even though Tenley was not very happy to be set down in the grass with the twins.
On Saturday morning, we went to visit a new greenway trail near Amy’s house. While we were at the greenway, Jerry went to the airport to pick up Tommy. We were finally all in town to celebrate Tenley’s first birthday! You can see some of our greenway shenanigans below.
The twins and I had lunch at Camino with MaMarsh, Granddaddy Jer and Daddy before heading back to their house for the twins’ nap. Unfortunately, they did not fall asleep before Tenley’s party. They did really well at her party considering that they didn’t nap!
I got to be the photographer with Amy’s nice camera once we arrived at Tenley’s birthday party. Amy and I worked hard on all those desserts on Friday night and the whole party looked fantastic. Amy did a great job! We need to go in together and plan parties for a living 😉
Uncle Tom and Tenley had quite the game going with that straw. He was eating it up every time she laughed at him. We don’t get to be around Tenley enough so any little smile/laugh that we can get is the best.
Next, it was birthday cake time! Amy did a great job with the cake (and that cream cheese icing was fantastic!)
This is my favorite picture from Tenley’s party. This picture is right before the twins started feeding her cake to her, haha.
After cake, Tenley got to open her birthday presents with LOTS of help from other toddlers, including Eli and Emry Jane. She didn’t mind the extra help with the present-opening. She just wanted her new baby dolls opened immediately.
After all the guests left, Tenley and I had some fun with my phone and Amy’s camera. I love her personality captured in these next two pictures– plus, that her tongue is always out! Amy says she gets that from the Scholten side of the family, especially her Old Man.
Sunday went by too quickly. We all joined Amy, Britt and Tenley at their church on Sunday morning. Then, it was time to head back to North Carolina.
On Tuesday, Tenley officially turned one. On Wednesday, she had her one year photo shoot with a photographer in Murfreesboro, Shelby Fannin Photography. The photos turned out fantastic and I have to share my Top 3 favorites with everyone.
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