At the Beach

Robert has an annual golf trip in Myrtle Beach with some guy friends.  This year the kids and I hitched a ride with him and dropped us off at Ocean Isle Beach.  We had a short vaca with Mary and her kids (Jimmy went golfing with Rob) and stayed at Mary's parents' house on the second row.  We arrived late Wednesday night so we had 3 full days of just the moms and kids at the beach!  

It actually went very smooth all things considered.  Mary and I greased up the kids, packed the wagon up and got to the beach by around 10:30 am both Thursday and Friday.  The big kids could have splashed around all day, but the one year olds were done after and hour and we pushed it to 1.5 hours.  Then we would go in for lunch and a long nap and finish the day around the pool. 

It was a fun trip - hopefully daddy will let us do it again next year :)   

We made it!

Easton and Avery dancing in the water

 Carter's favorite thing to do on the beach - eat snacks!

 We got seashells!

Tea party at the pool with Ellie

Carter and Ellie looking for the garbage truck one morning

The shirt says it all - "Big trouble in a little shirt"

One morning Mary's parents set up a "treasure hunt" for the big kids

Mary's mom took Avery out for some boogie board practice

One evening, we bravely loaded all the kids in the minivan and went out for dinner!  Mary and I joked about how much going out to dinner at the beach has changed since our high school days.  We left the house at 4:45 pm with no shower or make up on and 4 kids in a van.  Change is good :)

All aboard!

Mary's mom bought the kids matching OIB shirts at the local souvenir store

 Group shot at the restaurant on the marina

Carter was having NO part of the kids only group shot

The kids were so well behaved at dinner so we stopped on the way home for Sunset Slush at the OIB pier.  It's good stuff.

Watching their nightly cartoons on the iPad.

Avery reading a story to Easton before nap time

Graduation

Recently, Avery had her Pre-K graduation ceremony.  We were treated to some of the things the kids learned when they sang 2 songs in Mandarin, 1 in Spanish, and a poem about all the different things that they learned.  It was fun to see about 25 kids trying their best to sit still when everyone's attention was on them.  Avery was pretty excited about it all week and Laura only cried a little bit.

Avery walking across the stage!

Receiving her diploma from one of her teachers.

 Singing one of the songs.

 Avery's class.  It's hard to see, but she is the one on the right half of the picture flashing the Wolfpack sign.  You can also see the number of parents and the number of cameras trying to snap pictures.

 Our proud little graduate.  This smile was on her face all day long.

 Mimi and Papa also came to see the graduation.

 Along with Gigi and Ru

 And Aunt Stephanie

 Avery and one of her best friends, Hunter.

 Lily, Avery, and Hunter; aka the three amigos.

 We tried to get Avery to do a silly face, but this smile was stuck on her face all day long.

 Proud of my little princess.

Daddy-Daughter Day

So after our Memorial Day Adults only canoeing trip, Avery and I blew off work and school to take a daddy-daughter day trip to Carowinds, much like we did last year.  Going on a weekday before a lot of the schools let out means we had most of the rides to ourselves and there weren't that many people.

We had to make a quick stop at Target to pick her up some new shades.

Meeting Snoopy! 

 We went on a lot of rides in the morning.

 Avery picked this horse out pretty quickly...I wonder why?

 On the kids swings.  On the kids rides, they have this annoying thing where the ride operator will yell out, "When I say Charlie, you say Brown!  Charlie!" Avery was one of the few kids that would yell out "Brown!"

 We ended up being 4 times Woodstock Glider Champions!  This is my favorite ride that we can do together.

After lunch, we headed over to the waterpark side of the park.  We did a couple trips on the giant water slide in a tube and 3 times down the lazy river.  I didn't get to take a lot of pictures obviously, but here is a video of Avery getting a giant bucket of water dumped on her.  This splash park was aweseome and is where we spent most of our time....it had 5 different waterslides that were kid (big kids too) sized, water guns to shoot random people, and this giant bucket of water that would dump over the whole thing every 5 minutes.  Avery is in the middle of the frame in a long sleeved shirt.



 After the waterpark, we decided to take a break for icecream and some silly pictures.

 And a few more kids rides.

 Then Avery got to play one of the games.  If we played these games everytime we went, we would have to add an addition to the house to store all the stuffed animals.  It was supposed to be $3 for one throw and $5 for 2 throws, but when Avery walked up he gave her 5 throws for $5.  I don't think he had seen her throw before, because he made a grave mistake.  She popped 3 balloons including one on the top row and ended up with two big prizes.

 After we left, it kind of got quiet in the backseat on the way home...  I think she had an awesome day.

Water Table

Mimi and Papa got Carter a water table for his birthday, so we have been taking it out for a spin over the weekends until the pool warms up.  The first time I brought it out, he was a bit confused about it, but eventually figured out he could soak himself and make a big mess.

The second time, his sister was involved and helped him make a much bigger mess.  I think the grin tells you how much fun he was having.

He was playing a game where he would put his cold hands on Laura's legs and then laugh manically...We then would laugh at him, which started a viscious circle.

 
You can hear his crazy laugh in this video...

Catching Up With Carter

So catching up with Carter.  He has recently gotten very interested in playing with blocks and putting lids on things.  He may not be as particular as Avery was (every lid had to be on in the right way), but is fun to watch him try.

 He is definitely still all boy.  I think he would have gone over the back of the couch if I had not been holding on to him.

 I mean...A headstand on an elevated platform?

 Later on in the weekend, he figured out that if he piled up the pillows that I had laid down for safety could be used as a way to get on to the couch himself.

 And he is still a really good eater.  When he wasn't flirting with the baby in the background, he was stuffing as much pork BBQ into his mouth as fast as he could go.

And then there is his laugh.  Here he is splashing mommy and laughing at her reactions.  He loves to get a rise out of people and will be a trouble maker just to see our reactions.