Outer Banks

We spent last week with our toes in the sand, enjoying the sunny skies of Salvo. Which means I've spent this week trying to tackle the mounds of laundry left over from our beach trip. I've not conquered it yet. And now it's built back up after this week. The story of my life.

Our trip started with some excited kiddos. We only heard "When will we be there" eight hundred times...at least. It was a good trip though. There was no arguing. They all played together and shared everything. The drive home was a different story though.

We did get to see an actual draw bridge on our way there. Driving up to it Paul and I were so confused. We didn't know why we were driving directly into a wall blocking the road. 

The kids were not as excited as I was about seeing this. I think they would have been more excited if it was a wall in the middle of the road. Oh well. 

The house was right on the sound, so our sunsets were awesome to watch. I'm sure the sunrises were too, but I was never up early enough to see them. It was so peaceful. 

I was hoping my little OCD mini me would like the beach this year. While he was better than last year, as in he actually played in the sand and got in the water, he still didn't like the beach and said he wasn't going to go on the days we went. He would have been perfectly happy staying by himself at the beach house. Kristen stayed in the water, while Lauren played in the sand.  Both enjoyed jumping in the waves. 

They did get to fly a kite, which they were interested in for all of two minutes. 

We celebrated my dads birthday while at the beach.

I'm so thankful for my mom and dad and all they do for me and my family. I have great role models and hope my kids feel as loved by me as I do by my parents. 

On my dads birthday we went to the sound instead of the ocean. Lauren made Papaw a birthday cake.

Kristen (with the help of a new friend) made him a birthday castle. 

We made him a birthday low country boil.

Kristen loved her some crab legs. She really needed some safety goggles though.

That night the ice cream truck came by just for Papaw's birthday. It was Lauren and Dallas' first time getting ice cream from an ice cream truck. It was pretty exciting....and expensive.

We also had some donuts from Duck Donuts. They were good, but it's hard to beat a fresh Krispy Kreme.

We visited the Bodie Island Lighthouse. 

Dallas was so excited about climbing the lighthouse, but when we got there he wasn't tall enough. Talk about an unhappy little boy. 

So, he and I had to sit in the car while Paul and the girls trekked to the top. I was not unhappy in the least. Why would I pay $8 to climb a bunch of steps.

The kids spent the most time in the pool and hot tub. Mostly going back and forth. 

One of the highlights of our week were the go carts. I had never drove one on my own. It was so much fun. Like a mini car made just for me. I wish I could've captured Lauren's face. It was pure bliss. Kristen was able to drive by herself, although it was a little hard for her to reach the pedal and she couldn't see over the steering wheel all that well. She still did great and didn't hit anything. She preferred to ride with someone though. 

We were sad to see our week come to an end. But, reality always comes knocking. 

A little of this....a little of that

First, I am way behind at blogging. Well, we all knew that, but I haven't blogged about Lauren's party. Mostly because I took, oh I don't know, maybe five pictures. Really. Two of which were blurry. I was good at picture taking at one time. I think we have at least a million pictures of Kristen. But with every additional kid, I'm just lucky to even throw a party. 

The days leading up to the big day were rough. With Kristen having to go to the doctor with an ear infection, to cleaning, to spending 12 hours making a cake. Let's just say I was happy to have it all behind me. I wish I would have taken more pictures though. 

We were very happy to see Paul's grandmother. I didn't think she would be able to make it, but we were very happy she did. 

It was a good party and a wonderful time spent with family.

In other news, we have started school back. We took about a month off and then plunged right back into it. It was nice sitting down to do math and just picking up where we left off. No review needed. 

Kristen is in 3rd grade this year. Her favorite subject is science and she wants to work in a ice cream shop when she grows up. Apparently, since both Paul and I worked at Dairy Queen, she thinks it is the most awesome job ever. She can't wait to make an ice cream cone.

Lauren is in 1st grade this year. Her favorite subject is games. She thinks every subject should come with fun games to play. She wants to be a librarian when she grows up. Which is a major upgrade from last year. 

And this little guy is starting pre-school. He loves school (for now) and every subject is his favorite. He wants to work with his daddy when he grows up.

I did realize after the first day that I was not at all ready or organized for the school year. So, this is what my kitchen looked like as I tried to get the old moved out and the new moved in.

Kristen asked if it was going to stay that way. UUUmmm...NO. We did add some cursive to our wall. 

Kristen is super excited to learn cursive this year. She loves to practice her name and she can't wait to be able to sign it in cursive. This might actually be her favorite thing to do so far. I find her practicing several times a day. All on her own. 

She's still learning her multiplication table. While math is definitely something she is strong at, it is getting harder, and thus she is beginning to grumble and groan when math rolls around. I don't blame her. I'm just glad my phone has a calculator on it.

While Lauren is still very anti-school, I am trying to make it more fun. Lauren's definition of fun is more playing less learning. I'm trying to incorporate some fun games, but there also comes a time for sitting and listening.

I was very proud of her because she did this worksheet all by herself. Read it and colored it. This is a major accomplishment. She has since read and done about five more worksheets and stories like this. Reading is so hard. We've stopped Hooked on Phonics and will be focusing on a different mini curricula until I feel she is ready to plunge back into HOP.

Dallas loves school. One day I had switched the order of his school up a bit and he cried thinking he wasn't going to get to "sit at the table and do chool".

He's learned so much in the month and a half we have been doing this. He can count to 20. Recognize numbers 1-10. Knows his shapes and colors. He is learning his letters and letter sounds. He already knows A-E (upper case) and is excited to put his letters on his letter tree. He is a human sponge. 

We've also learned about the Fourth of July and got in touch with our crafty/baker side.

I am really looking forward to this year and hopefully blogging more about our school days. 

Happy Birthday Lauren

Seven! I cannot believe Lauren is seven! I really did blink and she grew up. 

So much has happened in her seven years and I am so thankful to God that I was given the opportunity to watch this amazing little girl grow. She is funny, sweet, loving, and kind. The list could go on...brave, calm, compassionate, imaginative, generous, energetic, easygoing, shy, warmhearted...oookay I'll stop. But the one word that describes Lauren in full is awesome. She. Is. Just. Awesome.

Lauren is very selfless and teaches me daily how to be a better person. She would give you the food off her plate or her favorite toy...all you have to do is ask. Actually, most times you wouldn't have even have to do that. Her smile and laugh will instantly make my day brighter. I am blessed to get to spend my days with her.

She loves swimming, playing Barbies, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, running, brushing her hair, spaghetti, going to church, listening to music, jumping on the trampoline and painting. She hates all bugs, cantaloupe, big dogs, windows rolled down, large crowds, and the dark. 

She loves her brother and sister and would do anything to make them happy. Dallas will tell you she is his best friend. Always looking out for him and making sure he is happy. (Hmmm...I wonder why he is so spoiled). While I can't believe it has been seven years, I am looking forward to watching her grow into the amazing woman I know she will become. 

Happy Birthday Lauren! We love you!

Camping

I am not an outdoors person and really surprised myself when I agreed to this little trip called camping. I had obviously temporarily lost my mind. I mean, who really wants to spend a weekend feeling homeless?

When I think about camping, I think about the movie, The Parent Trap. They had nice cabins. So, when I  found out we would be in cabins, I was a bit relieved. Until...dun dun dun...I got to the cabin and it looked like this.

Something straight out of a horror movie. Just give me a tent, please. It also came complete with a mouse and cockroaches. I think Paul tried to sabotage my camping trip, since I saw this on the table.

Now, if the outside wasn't bad enough, this is what the inside looked like. 

I'm just going to say, if I had to build a cabin in the woods, it would NOT look like this. At all. Even if I were on a budget. Apparently, according to the campers of the group, these were nice cabins. If so, I would hate to see the not so nice cabins. I kinda picture them being similar to an outhouse. I can't believe people actually pay money to spend a weekend like this. 

The dining hall was a little better. I didn't feel like a serial killer was going to come and kill us all, but it was oh so hot. 

The girls played a lot of games while camping. It was kind of like Survivor. Luckily they picked the same color bandana and were on the same team, Takoda. They had to decorate a team flag. 

Kristen and Lauren had some really sweet girls on their team.

The downfall to homeschooling is organized games. Not that my kids have never played games, but they just kinda do their own thing and are new to the whole relay thing. Kristen had no problem adapting.

Lauren, however, wasn't a fan of all the game playing. Who am I kidding. Lauren wasn't a fan of camping in general and I don't blame her one bit. She did enjoy playing in the mulch though.

The best thing about the trip was that the parents got to play the games too. At least I wasn't having to just sit there and think about how hot it was, counting down the hours until I was home in my air conditioned, bug free home and all the outdoorsy dirt scrubbed away. 

The highlight of the trip for the girls...the part of the trip they found the most exciting was doing the dishes. What? We don't have to go camping to do dishes.

You dip your plate, cup, bowl, utensils (along with everyone else's) in a bucket of soapy water, then bleach water and then rinse water. The crazy clean, I see germs everywhere, lady inside me had a real problem with this. I had to wash them. These buckets just weren't cutting it.

Then we hung them out to dry in our little mesh bags on the clothes line. Now, I am all for this drying method though. If only I could find bags big enough to for my pots and pans. 

The girls went on a scavenger hunt and collected beads to do macrame necklaces. Who knew tying little knots would be so complicated. Our macrame still sits in a bag and will remain there until I declutter. I have watched Youtube videos, but it's way too complicated. Maybe if I had some Burkenstocks...

They also decorated and made little seats out of 5 gallon buckets. 

At first I thought that this was a waste of a completely good bucket. I really couldn't see Paul carrying around a bucket decorated with Frozen duct tape. I had no idea what I was going to do with these decorated buckets, but they look kind of cute in their room. And they are able to store things in them and use them as chairs. Pretty nifty.

They used their new seats around the camp fire while making s'mores. 

We almost had a little emergency when Kristen was given an almond. We don't know for certain that she is allergic to almonds, but were told to avoid ALL tree nuts since she is allergic to cashews. Well, some weirdo makes s'mores Hershey's with almonds. I know, right. Anyways, she came to me and told me her chocolate had an almond in it. Immediately her voice started getting weird. Luckily I had Benadryl and gave her a double dose. Emergency avoided. Mommy 1. Almond 0.

I am pretty sure I will never camp again...EVER. But I could temporarily go loco again. Good thing I have this blog post to remind me of just how horrible camping is...although I really don't think I will forget.