Frozen

A friend of ours sometimes gets free tickets to theatrical events (Go Dog Go this summer).  A few weeks ago, he had tickets to Disney on Ice's Frozen and generously offered them to us!  WOW!  We were pretty pumped.  The show was at 7pm on back to school night (6-7:30).  I bribed the kids to take a nap after school (4:30-6:30!!) and promised them they could stay up late (but didn't tell them what we were doing).  A neighbor girl came over to sit while they napped and Mike and I ran to back to school night to divide and conquer.  We rushed home, nursed the baby, shoved down some dinner, then drove downtown.  The kids were pumped.  We arrived late but I think it actually was better that way because they didn't have as much of the show to persevere through.  And no worries, we arrived just in time for Anna to meet Hans, long before Elsa froze Arendale.

Peter may be yawning in this pic, and we know the circus hadn't been great for him two years ago, but the boy had a blast and didn't try to go to sleep on us. ;)

 Family Foto.  

(Benny was a little angel.  I carried him in the wrap and we never really heard a peep out of him.) 

 He woke up near the end and sat on my lap for a while but then right back into the wrap for the walk to the car, and not a peep.  Sweet baby boy.

I have to say I really enjoyed it as much as the kids.  It was just fun to go out and do something FUN together with the big kids.  The atmosphere and songs were so festive.  And the way they adapted it for the ice was so interesting.  I loved sitting next to Lily and seeing her fascination with it (and equally for Peter too).  I have a mental pic of Elsa and Anna riding around on steps to symbolize the castle near the end and Lily just smiling and waving to them, like she was really seeing them and they were seeing her!  :)  It was a fun night! 

First Lunch

Maw and I had lunch with the kiddos yesterday!  It was fun to see them in their new element!  Their classes eat lunch next to each other, which is a neat little happening and convenient for more lunch dates!

Ben: 4 months

Hold onto your seats!  Here come some pictures of a cute 4 month old!

 He's discovered his hands. He loves looking at them and uses them to grab and explore things.  In the last week, he's been grabbing at pictures in books and reaching for himself in the mirror.  It is so fascinating to watch it unfold and see his brain & senses & body develop. 

 He is such a happy boy.

 King of the Bed!

 I think that Peter and Ben look more a like than I initially thought.  The (former) brown hair makes you automatically think Lily but his face reminds me of Peter, apart from the hair color and nose.

 'Mom. its so exhausting to hold the baby!"

 "OK, I'll take him!" 

 A lap full.  Thank you, Lord!

I had the realization last weekend that I don't need to do as much housework on the weekends.  Now that the older 2 are in school, I have time during the week & don't need to feel that panic to get things done while Mike is here to occupy the kids. We'll see if I can really stick to that.

I like peeking in to see a baby in my house.

Oh, he started sleeping in his crib just before he turned 4 mo.  I always think I am going to be sad to have them leave my room, esp this time.  But it was OK.  Its also fun for him to turn into a "bigger" baby. :)  And don't shoot me, I take no credit, but he has proving to be a good sleeper like his sister.  He sleeps about 10-11 hours at night (7:30pm-6am), nurses, and then usually goes back to sleep for a while, depending on how loud school preparation gets. 

 After Peter's space party, Mike rigged up a mobile with the paper lantern "planets" and the striped paper straws.  We thought this sounded better than a $60 mobile. 

 The big guy has just learned to roll from this belly to his back.

He is also doing such a great job bearing weight on his legs when you hold him up.

 He's also discovered his toes.  And man, are they sweet!

 Benny Bear, its been such a fun journey to have you as part of our family.

4 Month Stats:

Wt: 13 lb 12 3/4 inches (25%)

Ht: 24 inches (10-25%)

Head: 90%

Peter: 13 lb 13 oz, 25 inches

Lily: 14 lb 12 oz, 24 1/2 inches

Finishing Up Summer

As happy as I was for the kids to go back to school, those words of the title are still hard to type!

Here are a few pics from our final days of summer & the pool:

It was crazy to think of how BIG this boy will be next summer at the pool!

Do they come any sweeter and cuter?

 We enjoyed a date night out for our 11th wedding anniversary.  It was nice to have a leisurely, quiet dinner talking to my husband after an overstimulating (but thankful) summer.  Last year this time, Benny was just a dream of ours that he'd come to us as a healthy earthly baby! :)

 Of course, Peter got A LOT of Legos for his birthday.  He spent much of the last long weekend of summer working on those. 

 Peter requested a trip to the science museum for his actual birthday.

They got astronaut ice cream sandwiches for a treat. 

Peter's 7th Birthday- A Space Party

Peter mentioned months ago that he'd like a space party for his birthday.  More recently, he requested a Chuck E Cheese party after going to a few there for friends.  I looked into a Chuck E Cheese party, but being the cheap & crazy person I am, I decided 'that's too expensive, we have this new house, we should just have a party here.  It will be cheaper too.'  Famous last words.  It always sounds like a good idea. But in reality, I am learning to have 3 kids at home.  They are restless and just annoying each other.  We moved to a new house before all of this and I'm still getting settled here.  I'm nursing a baby too.  And a party at home is never cheaper.

My mom was kind and came up to help me the day before.  But she walked into laundry every where, things everywhere, etc, etc.  So we had to get back to baseline before we have even make progress towards a party.  And then it became more guests than I'd initially thought.  Which I want to like and I do, but still just adds more prep.  And Maw, she is a southern woman, the once president of Future Homemakers of America.  She believes in hospitality right after Jesus.  Which is a great thing. I believe in premade foods.  So we married our desires and bought a lot of freezer foods from the wholesale place.  We had quite the beautiful spread!

His party came before we got our camera back.  And I was so exhausted that I just had to let it go. The party turned out really cute (it always does, right?!) but I didn't get any real pics.  There were 16 kids, 12 adults, & 2 babies, including lots of church friends, neighbors, and 2 friends from his K class. :)  We used black, white, and blue.  We had cute silver star balloons, strings of stars, and paper lantern planets.  We enjoyed the feast of food (Maw was the amazing kitchen staff), heard the story of Mousetronaunt from Goo, and played games lead by Mike.  First was an asteroid toss.  We tossed water balloons into hula hoops.  It was cute!  Then we had a relay race to 'carry the rocket fuel'.  Teams carried water from one station to another.  It was cute too!  Maw treated the kids to a space shuttle pinata.  Then we had chocolate cake with chocolate icing courtesy of Ukrops bakery. It was delicious.  Peter has great taste! :)

Here are a few pics from a friend's cell phone: 

It was great!  Let's have a Chuck E Cheese party next year!

(^birthday weekend breakfast outside^)

First Day of School, K & 1st

These two. Love them.  Its nice for them to be "together" again and on the same schedule.  They compliment each other well.  She is so ready.  It's nice for him to have the expertise and the responsibility of being the "big brother".

 This girl has come so far!  She used to cry for a lot of 3 and 4 year old preschool.  That was our one hesitation about sending her on to K with a summer birthday. She's totally got this!

 Go get 'em, Pete!

"Stop taking pictures and let's get to the bus stop."

We are praying for you & your school year, sweet kiddos!

Beach Week 2014

We spent the second to last week of the summer at the beach, just our family.  The introvert in me loves it.  We so enjoyed our get away two summers ago and decided we could no longer live without an annual beach trip.  Most of these pics are the first half of the week (and the best half).  Mid way through, we left our camera somewhere & it wasn't there when we went back the next day (no surprise).  We assumed it was gone and were so sad to lose ALL of these great pics, let alone our camera. But thankfully, we got a call on Saturday with the name of the person who picked it up for us. After a trip through the mail, we are SO happy to have it back.

We spent the first morning on the beach.  Benny was a great sleeper for us on the beach. Most of the week, I took him down in the wrap and that was perfect.

 Girlie loved playing in the sand.

 We made several trips throughout the week to Currituck Heritage Park.   

(The pier in the background is where we left the camera.)

A storm came in.  So pretty to watch.  And it got crazy windy!

We are so glad to have Holly with us again this year.  She spent a month in Africa earlier this summer and brought the kids these gifts. :)

a bow & arrow for Peter

mama & baby dolls for Lily (that P is picking up by the head)

We enjoyed hearing about Holly's trip and seeing her pics.

Tuesday, the 19th, was MIKE'S BIRTHDAY!

We enjoyed celebrating him all day!

Lily is our little family party planner (gladly!).  She insisted we take things to decorate for his birthday.  So the tablecloth from Peter's pirate party.  When we went school supply shopping, we also had to get "party hats" and various other decorations.  Love this girl and her joy.

The birthday boy enjoyed a surf on his birthday and several other mornings.

His activity of choice was a trip to the NC Center for Wildlife Education.  Also in Currituck Heritage Park.  It was such a cool center.  I highly recommend it.  There was a fish feeding that we went to see.

Then Holly met us for lunch and she showed us around the area.  It is such a great area and was such a gorgeous day!

I love the way a vacation encourages their "friendship" with a sense of adventure together. They were just so excited about everything new.  They played and pretended so well together.  Here, they are sitting at the base of the bridge above and pretending their sticks are the levers to open and close the bridge.  I love their imaginations!

Oh, Benny Boy, you are such a little doll.

The party planner was back to work that eve on Daddy's brownie cupcakes.

She piped them with icing, then added sprinkles.

Aren't they pretty!

And we couldn't miss the prettiest time of the day at the beach. We all headed down after Holly was home from work and got to do a little surfing.  Holly was the photographer of the eve and we are so glad to actually have these pics after they were almost lost!!

 Peter's turn!

 Fun with glow sticks!!

 I love this pic!  It just epitomizes childhood summer- tan bodies, up past dark, glow sticks, and a surfboard at the beach!

We spent Wed on the beach.

I mean, this little man and the swirl of hair on the top of his head.

(He also had a back to school trim when the big kids got theirs.)

 The kids had the BEST time in the waves.  I think they were even too comfortable b/c of their life vests and had no healthy fear of the waves.  They had a blast together.  Therapy mom point of view: the beach is like a week long therapy session.

 Wed eve we went back to CHP.  The kids got dinner off of a food truck and then we let them get an ice cream from the ice cream truck. They thought it was great.  I am a sucker for some beach babes with their sun kisses faces and bleached out hair for the boy.

Hello Kitty doesn't have a face!  WHAT?!

 So these are our final pics before we left the camera.  The sunset was so gorgeous and all that our brains got a little foggy.

On Thursday, we scrambled around the find our camera- to no avail.  We were all a little grumpy but we tried to pull it together. We headed out to see the North Carolina Marionette Theatre as a distraction.  It was really cute... and impressive!  Thanks to Holly for cluing us in to all of these fun events!

 At the end of the show, they brought the characters out to meet the kids.  They were so little and cute and really did seem animated after watching them in the show. :)

 Black Beard had a seat in Peter and Lily's laps. :)

That eve we were spoiled by some time on the beach by ourselves thanks to Holly watching the kids!

 We had two more great days of time on the beach.

and an evening out for ice cream!
And for my own memory for future years....

We took all fresh prepared foods to just heat up each eve.  I loved the minimal amount of work- or just popping it in the oven.  Another favorite part for me is all of the JUNK FOOD we ate.  The kids want a candy bar on the beach?  Yes, of course, you can have a candy bar!  There something about baking in the sun and splashing in the waves (and feeding a baby) that makes you feel like you can eat whatever.  

I also loved the timing.  We were coming to the end of our rope with unscheduled time until school started.  It was so nice to have the extra time with Mike and as a family as a last hurrah to summer and to gather before school started.  We are thankful for the luxury of a week at the beach!

Until next year!  

(I don't even want to think about how big this little guy will be. Oh, Benny, we love you!)