Fourth of July

We had a very busy 4th of July. We spent the afternoon at a friend/neighbors lake house and had a blast. They had planned on serving BBQ and setting off fireworks, but both Elizabeth and Katherine had skipped their naps and were absolutely determined not to nap while we were there. They were both on the verge of melting down, so we headed home. As expected, both were sound asleep (Elizabeth snoring) before we could get to the highway. That made for a nice drive home.

The drive home was only about an hour and both girls were still very tired. It was dinner time, so I headed out to pick up takeout and Dennis dealt with two whining tired girls. I returned home to find them all napping in the recliner. I couldn't resist not taking a picture. Dennis was even able to get up with Katherine and Elizabeth continued to nap for another hour. The only reason that we were able to convince her to wake up and eat was that she was going to miss out on fireworks. That got her going.

We really over did the fireworks this year. Dennis and I each had our own carts while shopping for them. I don't think we'll be doing that next year. We weren't sure how the girls were going to be with the noise, but they were great! They loved the and stayed seated and watching the majority of the time. Both of the girls were still tired and we ended up not being able to set off all of the fireworks before they were both clearly ready for bed. Our neighbors down the street gladly took most of our remaining fireworks.

It was a great day for everyone (despite a little whining)!

Nature Trail Adventures and Fender Benders

This week as been quite a week for us. Tuesday set the tone for the week and certainly will be memorable for many reasons.

After seeing just how crazy the YMCA's Childwatch is in the summer, I opted to split my workout time between home and the YMCA. There was easily triple the amount of kids there. Tuesday I walked pushing the double stroller (quite a workout pushing it up the hill on the circle in our neighborhood) in almost 90 degree weather. After walking half of the neighborhood the girls and I were ready for some shade, so we headed for the nature trail.

I had forgotten how beautiful the far section of the trail can be as the trees provide a beautiful shaded tunnel with tiny dancing spots of sunlight breaking through here and there. In a non drought year there's usually a nice trickling sound of the creek that runs along the trail, too. Surprisingly Elizabeth and I were able to spot a nice size school of fish in the creek.


Elizabeth spotted red berries on some of the bushes and was instantly intrigued. When I told her that they were blackberries, she was ready to eat some right then. I explained that the red ones were not ripe yet, but the black ones were. She wanted to get out and help me pick a few. I had to talk to her about letting me make sure there were no snakes around before she could come over and pick the berries. She was completely fine with that as she shrieked at the mere thought of coming across a snake.

She called to all of the butterflies we saw trying to get them to land on her. "Here butterfly! Here butterfly! Come land on me, please!" No such luck. We talked about what the butterflies were doing. That started the whole set of questions for every single bug and pebble we saw. What is this doing and what is that doing and why? She's been into reading The Hungry Caterpillar book, so I took the butterfly opportunity to ask her a few questions. I asked her what the butterfly was before he was a butterfly. She proudly shouted, "A very, very hungry caterpillar!"

When we got home and I transferred the berries we picked into a bowl it was perfectly fitting for us to find a tiny caterpillar crawling on the berries. The little guy had to be only a couple of cm in length if that. Elizabeth was delighted! We let him go in the grass and she sent him off with a big, "Go eat, eat, eat you hungry little caterpillar so you can grow big and turn into a beautiful butterfly!" She was a little disappointed that he disappears so quickly in the blades of grass.

The girls continued to play outside while I started to make our lunch. They were having a blast. As I looked at the clock it hit me that I was forgetting something. I had forgotten Elizabeth's noon speech therapy appointment! Thankfully there was an opening at 1:00pm, so we started the rush to make the appointment.

While Elizabeth was a speech Katherine and I headed to The Peach Tree Stand to grab something for dinner and some fresh produce. As we were pulling out of the parking lot I hit an on coming car! It was a minor fender bender, but their vehicle definitely received the majority of the damage. Everyone was fine, but since it was my fault I felt awful about it! Thankfully, the Fort Mill police showed up fairly quickly and we were on the road again. Dennis did have to run from work to pick up Elizabeth from her speech appointment.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone with the insurance company. Surprisingly that was a pretty painless experience and my car was in the shop the next day. It was completely repaired and ready for pick up on Saturday! Talk about quick service!

We got a Wii!!!!

Since the month of June is filled with special occasions we decided to do one major group gift for Dennis' birthday, my birthday, and Father's Day. We bought a Wii! We have really enjoyed it. It arrived the same day that Tim, Ange, Joel, Ben, Alexis, Noelle, Royal, and Mary arrived from the Tennessee Mountains. It was nice to have folks around that already had a wii. Many thanks to Joel and Ben for walking us through a few of the games.

I've never been one for gaming consoles. I even swore to myself (much like many other parents have as well, I'm sure) that I'd never buy one for my kids, but the whole interactive piece of this gaming console is wonderful! We are clearly hooked on it!

A few nights ago I checked out the tennis game. It was actually somewhat of a workout and my shoulder was a little sore the next day. Of course, the more I've played it the more I've realized that I don't have to go through the full motion as if I were actually playing, but that's half the fun of it. The bad part is that in order to make your shots more realistic have to move the remotes in a manner that make it hard to swing as if you were really playing tennis. So it's not perfect. I imagine one day they'll get it all figured out. Dennis and I played tennis last night and I proudly beat him 3 times (as in 5 game matches)! Wooohoooo!!!! Again, not realistic! Thankfully he's a good sport, but I'm sure next time we play I may not be so lucky.

Another neat thing about it is that you can create your own mii (a character that resembles yourself (or not if you'd like)). Dennis created his and I created ones for myself, Elizabeth and Katherine. Katherine is more into watching us play and cheers occasionally. Elizabeth enjoys it almost as much as we do. She likes to watch and cheer us on when we bowl. "Nice Spare, Mommy!" "Nice Strike, Daddy!" "Awww, Nice try!" Very cute! She helps us race cows (yes, there's a game where you race cows and get points for taking out scarecrows), playing the fishing, and playing Olympic swimming.

Today before nap time we played the cow racing game with just her mii and she was tickled to see the mii resembling her riding the cow and chasing down the scarecrows. "Look, Mommy, I'm riding that cow! That's me!" as she giggled away! She was however, very disappointed that no one was racing with her.

I know there will be plenty of funny stories to share about our wii adventures in the future.

Cousins

On Friday, June 13th, Dennis brother, Tim, and his family arrived for a couple days visit. Dennis parents had driven up to meet them in the Tennessee mountains for a couple days of fun up there and then they all headed back here. When they arrived Elizabeth & Katherine were still napping. It was nice to get everyone settled in before they got up.

It's amazing how much the kids have all grown. They're far from the little kids I remember the last time we were all together. Joel(13) now looks eye to eye with Tim and I'm guessing he'll pass him up by the end of the year. Ben(12) pretty much looks me eye to eye. Alexis(10) and Noelle(8) are close to the same height and it won't be long before they look me eye to eye. Given that I'm only 5'2" so it's really isn't easy to pass me up or look me eye to eye. It just seems like yesterday the kids were Elizabeth's size. Time sure does fly by way to fast.

Elizabeth was the first to wake up from her nap. She played it super shy for about 15 minutes. She was fascinated with their dog, Lacey. She kids what their names were and then she'd repeat their name as if she was committing it to memory (who taught her that name remembering trick anyway?). By the time Katherine woke up Elizabeth had warmed up to everyone and was having a blast playing with her cousins.

Katherine, who is quite the social butterfly, didn't take nearly as long to warm up to anyone. She thought the girls were the best thing ever. I think the feeling was mutual. The girls loved helping out and playing with her.

It was so nice to have everyone together. We've been together a couple of times, but have not taken any pictures so it was very nice to have a new group picture. The last one we took was back in 1999 in Hawaii. Our family has grown by 3 since then.

Topsail Beach

This year was our first experience renting a townhome at the beach. We've gone to one of the hotels in N. Myrtle Beach in the past years. It was nice to have our own little place and there weren't a lot of other people around. Definitely a very different atmosphere from a hotel complete with pool, restaurant, and lazy river. It was so peaceful and quiet!

We only had time to walk down and check out the beach when we arrived. The tide was high and there was pretty much no where to walk. After seeing that I was glad that we were across the street from the beach (the picture below is the view from our balconies) and not staying in a place on the beach. I think having the waves breaking (given they are pretty gentle in comparison to the ones in OR) just below the base of the little sand barrier, in some cases 50ft from your back deck could be a little intimidating. I can't imagine the cost of insurance on these houses with the possibility of hurricanes hitting.

The next day we headed down to first test out the water. It was love at first sight for Katherine. She was not a happy camper when we headed back to the townhome to put on our swimsuits. Elizabeth was a little cautious and insisted on holding Daddy's hand. She was more than happy to ride on his shoulders back to the townhome. She did think it was neat to see a few little crabs and was fascinated by all of the sand and shells. I was a little relieved that Elizabeth was content playing in the sand and only going down to the water on occasion. Katherine was the wild child that would run from the chairs straight to the water without fear. She was quite the social butterfly as she danced, sang, and visited with the gals sitting next to us on the beach.

Dennis purchased a boogie board and got Elizabeth to get out on it for a little while. She was really enjoying it until she got flipped. She did get back up on it and ride a few more waves before she called it quits. I was glad that she ended on a good note. Katherine could hardly stand to wait her turn on the boogie board. It actually took both of us to keep her on the board. She was ready to stand up and jump right into the water. Dennis handled the board while I kept Katherine on it. The little wave just could not come fast enough or big enough for her. By the time her turn was up (our choice not hers) she was up on her knees on the board. I think we may have a little surfer girl on our hands. I definitely look forward to future boogie board adventures on our next trips to the beach. I'm certain the girls and Dennis do as well.

On Friday we headed down to check out the Turtle Rescue Center on the island. Elizabeth has always liked turtles so we thought that she'd really enjoy it. The bad thing was that the center was only open from 2-4pm. That meant skipping naptime, but I think it was worth it. The temperature by that time was 90+ degrees, too. The facility is small and there was a line outside as they only let people in in groups of 8 or less. It was very interesting to hear the various patients stories. One of the turtles, Boater, actually has metal plates holding her shell together so it could heal. They were telling us that she doesn't move around much because it is still very painful. We'll be following the recovering and hopefully release of some of the turtles we got to meet on our tour of their facility.



We were sad to leave the beach on Saturday (also Dennis' birthday). I'm sure that making packing up the vehicles and driving home was not exactly the ideal way to spend your birthday. He was very lucky to be driving in the truck without two screaming kids (a large portion of the drive home). I think Grandma and I were ready for us to be home about halfway through the drive home. Once we got home Grandma and I headed out to get Dennis a birthday cake, so we did get to celebrate a little.

We are definitely looking forward to future trips back to Topsail Beach.

(Link to Additional Beach Pictures)

I Be Four!

For a good week or two before Elizabeth's birthday she was constantly asking if she was four yet and if that day was her birthday. She was so excited on Tuesday when we finally said that yes, she was four and that day was her birthday.

Her day started off with her waking up to Grandma Mary & Poppa Royal being here to visit. She was so excited to see them. Then Elizabeth and I headed out to go to her normal speech therapy appointment and run a few errands. Her speech therapist, Ms. Kelly, had a gift for her and she was so tickled with that. She thanked Ms. Kelly for her Lightning McQueen race car and Mickey Mouse kite with a huge hug and declaration that, "I be four now!" She's so proud of being four! Then we headed to pick up her cake. We ordered a Maggie Moo's Lightning McQueen ice cream cake! She's always excited to go to Maggie Moo's. She announced to the owners that she's four and that today was her birthday. They, of course, thought that she was adorable and told her happy birthday. I was a little concerned that they weren't going to be able to fit her name on the cake, but they made it work.

The rest of the day was pretty much the normal routine. While she was napping, I did all of the prep work for dinner. We spent some time the day before going through a few of my cookbooks and asking Elizabeth what she'd like to have for dinner on her birthday. She picked out a pasta dish that we had not had for a while, but it was one that she usually ate without any hesitation. When she woke up, she went with Daddy, Grandma & Poppa to get a gift for her from Grandma & Poppa. She was so proud of her gift (a teeball set). They also brought both of the girls little wing sets, but Katherine was the only one that could be convinced to wear them.

Before dinner we had a couple of neighbors stop by to drop off gift for Elizabeth. She was so tickled with her visitors and gifts! After dinner we had cake and she opened her gifts. She was excited about every gift and card that she opened. I think her favorite was the one gift that I chose not to wrap since she picked it out the day before at Walmart. She's obsessed with the Cars movie. She had picked out a McQueen light for her room. She loves that it turns her room red at night.

June's a big birthday month for our family. Dennis' birthday was on the 7th (shared with our nephew, Ben) and mine is on the 17th (was shared with my Grandma Ruby & dear friend Kim G.), so she was quick to ask Dennis if he was four now, too. We told her how old Dennis was and she had this look on her face like, "Wow, that's really old!" She proudly tells folks how old her Daddy is now. Got to love that one. I'm sure we'll go through the same routine next week on my birthday. She's also already asking when she's going to be five and if today's her birthday.

Additional Birthday Celebration Pictures