Our Getaway - Day 2

To say the kids enjoyed the beach would be a gross understatement.  They have a healthy fear for the ocean, but they could play there all day.  We only went for a couple hours the days we did go.

After we walked over the sand dunes, we came to this sand "shelf" before getting to the water on the ocean side.  (Remember this shelf.)

 I think it was their goal to find as many gross things as possible on this trip. I didn't even take pictures of some of the things we found -- fish heads, single crab legs.

Love this shot, and I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of half the time because it was so bright outside.

 

Enjoying the beach toy that the girls bought Bud for his birthday in anticipation of going to the beach.

This . . .

led to this.

Wanna play a little game of Name Those Feet?

I took a little time in the afternoon to scout out a place to take family photos.  Enjoyed taking some pictures while I was out.

We headed down to the Hatteras Lighthouse in the evening not realizing they closed at 5 pm.

She wanted me to make her as big as the lighthouse in the photo, but seeing as we couldn't walk a mile away to do that, we ended up with this.

Our first family selfie!

The sunset beside the lighthouse included two rainbow bursts.

Our Getaway - Day1

It's been too long.  Six years to be exact.  A couple long weekends here and there, but not a full week away.  I can't begin to describe how excited the kids have been -- countdown on the wall, jumping up and down, dancing, squealing voices . . .

(I've had this in draft for three days.  If I don't just cut to the chase, I'm never going to post!  So here it is.)

Visiting the Wright Brothers Museum / Monument . . .

A bit windy?!?

Bud was NOT thrilled to be here at first (because we hadn't gotten in the pool yet on our vacation).  I took some time to explain the significance of the Wright Brothers, and by the end, he wanted his picture with Wilbur and Orville.

The Knight, Princess Sparkle and Princess Butterfly walked up to see the monument while Bud and I stay at the bottom and played on the airplane.

FINALLY -- in the pool

A little froggie-CPR

Valentine's

I guess I'd better start blogging before 2014 passes me by!

We haven't been taking too many pictures here lately, but I did manage to take a couple yesterday.  I probably should take more pictures.  These kids of ours are hilarious and amazing.  Last week, Princess Sparkle made an honest-to-goodness fish out of pipe cleaners with intricate details.  I should have taken a picture of it before the cats destroyed it.  They did have fun chasing after it on a string.  She also made a tractor out of pipe cleaners for her brother.  She is my artsy one.

Princess Butterfly is all about helping others, reading and wanting to cook.  Such a sweet, precious thing.  Now Bud on the other hand . . . it's a good thing he's so cute and funny.  Boys.  I'm still adjusting.

The girls had to make valentine's cards for baking club at church.  Every year I hate the idea of giving out candy.  I hate having to sort through store-bought cards with half-dresses Princesses on them.  So we elected to go with homemade cards again, but this time we chose something easier than melting crayons.  That's a disaster I hope I never to relive.  Since Bud didn't have to make any ,he worked on a project he received for Christmas.  He painted it earlier in the week (paint up to his elbows!), and Daddy helped him put it together.

Please refer to my earlier statement about boys. HA!

And a shout-out to my hubby for the beautiful flowers and chocolates he had delivered!  I believe this is the first time he's done this since we were dating 16 years ago.  It's not his fault though.  He's selfless (doesn't want extravagant things and doesn't think about buying them for others), and he's a frugal accountant.  He can't help it! =)  He's been worked on a little bit though.  He also bought me flowers for my birthday a couple months back!  I'd love him no matter what.  He's put up with me for 17 years.  He probably deserves a medal!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

from our family to you!

A Weekend Of Thanksgiving

A little behind, but I don't want to forget the fun weekend we had.

Right before Gramma and Papaw came, a snowstorm moved through -- it was nice packing snow.  The kids enjoyed rolling up the snow. I thought it was funny that it picked up everything and left "clean" grass in the paths.  In the backyard, they attached snowballs to some twine that was hanging in a tree (no doubt from another one of their creative adventures).  It reminded me of the play area that Manny on Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs made for his soon-to-be baby mammoth.

This is the beautiful floral arrangement my in-laws sent us to enjoy for Thanksgiving.

My blessed family enjoying Thanksgiving "dinner".

After we ate, the kids read their list of things they were thankful for (with a little help from Daddy).

We found a new craft that we like to do . . . making window clings.  Click here to see how to make them.

Friday we drug Gramma and Papaw along with us to cut down our Christmas tree.  It was cold, unlike last year, and the pickin' was slim!  We wandered around the hillside for what seemed like forever.  The kids got bored and had fun scooting along on the incline near where we finally found a tree.

We ended up settling on a tree that was good enough.  Was really bummed as all the branches/needles were sparse and already looked like they were dying.  This year's tree was closer to 10'.  It made us laugh when we though about how much smaller it looked than last year's tree.

That's the Knight -- the gray ball at the bottom of the tree -- cutting down our tree.

After we cut down our tree (and drug it for what felt like forever back to our car), we met up with Nana and Pappy at the Chinese buffet for dinner before Gramma and Papaw headed back home.  Everyone surprised me with a birthday celebration at the conclusion of our meal.  It was sweet and thoughtful -- made me feel very special!

Vacation - Day 2

We started Day 2 off in the pool.  Mornings seemed to be the best time to go since no one was around then.  The kids also enjoyed the glass elevator (once Butterfly was convinced the cables were strong enough to hold us).

Excited to get into the pool!

Then off we went to COSI -- Columbus' science center.  Our science center membership got us in for free.  We did have to pay for the Mythbusters exhibit though.  I'd say it was worth it seeing as we spent half our time in that area.

For the Mythbusters fan, this was awesome!  They had actual items from the show on display.  If you've watched the show, you'll recognize some of these . . .

Sparkle pulled the tablecloth out from under the dishes without them crashing to the ground! (The same cannot be done with the silky gold table cloth in the background.)

This was the live show they did while we were there -- can you dodge a bullet (paint ball)?  They asked us to volunteer, but some of us chickened out and wouldn't do it. I won't mention names to protect the innocent.

A little message from Adam.  Was hoping they would have a "Do I still have my eyebrows?" t-shirt.

This display allowed you to see how fast you could move out of the way of a speeding bullet.  The Knight was the fastest in our family.

Not sure what this was, but we thought it was cool -- even our toenail polish glowed!

One of the Knight's and my favorite episodes, the rocket water heater!

Bud would have stayed here for hours.  He was racing a plane and a car.  By turning the dials, you could control the speed of both and lift the plane off the ground.  When we asked the kids what their favorite part of the science center was, this was his favorite.  I love his look of deep concentration.

Testing toast landing butter side or butter side down.

A science center is a science center, so I won't show too many photos.  I loved this photo though, so I had to share it.  We were in the 'Progressive' section.  There were two sets of the same stores/restaurants/etc. One from the horse and buggy days, and one updated to the 50's or 60's, I can't remember.  This picture was taken in the merchandise store.  The kids were fascinated with the phone.

As we were walking to the last exhibit, this man started putting on a "science show" about liquid nitrogen.  That always fascinates me -- and apparently, my children.

Because the penny is no longer made of only copper, he was able to "freeze" them and break them into pieces! Wow!

Then outside we went for the last few activities.  Think you could lift a car? Two weeks after appendix surgery?  Well, this contraption makes it possible.  Had to remind hubby it was probably a bit too soon to be using his core muscles that much.

This echo well was great fun until a certain 6-yr old boy started saying silly things like, "I have stinky toots."  Thankful we were the only people outside at the time!

This cement ball could be pushed and would roll in place all because of the water flowing underneath it.

Looks like they had a great time!

We ended our day at Cici's Pizza.  All the Cici's in our area have closed, so we enjoyed a special treat that night. The kids love the pizza and the arcade.  The Knight loves the chicken alfredo pizza.  I love the spinach alfredo pizza (or "grass pizza" as my kids like to call it) & the flip pizza.  It's a win-win!