A Day at the Beach

A few days after the family reunion, Mindy and Kevin and their kids, Mary and her kids, and Tom and Renee came over for wing night. Mindy and Kevin cooked A LOT of wings, and I prepared side dishes. George and Kevin took all the children to the elementary school before dinner to drive George's remote control truck and fly his airplanes while Mary and I went to get some groceries at WalMart. It's been a long time since we've seen Mary, so it was nice to hang out with her. Also, we haven't seen Zach, Garrett, and Katie in about two years, so it was unbelievable how grown up they are. George and Zach played several games of chess while they were staying with us, and Zach actually beat him (Go, Zach!). We gave the children mini ice cream cones and Bubble Yum ice cream, which they loved.
Everyone except Tom spent the night. The adults played a board game and the children all bedded down in the playroom. The following morning, we got up and all headed to the beach (except poor George, who had to go to work). We went to Emerald Isle, stopping for lunch at an Andy's in Swansboro beforehand. It was pretty funny when we walked into that Andy's. I don't think they'd seen that many kids come in at once before, but they handled it pretty well. And I do have to say that our children behaved themselves very well.










OK, so there was some mild goofiness involved, but on the whole, it was pretty tame. Drake even consented to sitting two whole booths away from me (which means I got to eat a good deal of my food in peace) because he got to sit at the "boys' table" and drink lemonade out of his own big boy cup and straw.
After lunch, we hit the beach...



The kids boogey-boarded and swam. The water was really rough, though. It was so rough, it actually knocked both Skylar and me flat on our rumps one time. Every time a wave crashed into us, it glued little tiny shells to our skin. A week later, I was still having sand and shell pieces spill out of the lint trap in my dryer.



When the waves got too rough for them, Bart and Mack began to build a tide pool with another little girl they befriended. It was quite an endeavor, one that literally took hours. I was really surprised that Bart put as much patience and concentration into it as he did. He really puts a lot of thought and effort into building things, though.










Drake stayed close by me or Mindy and looked for shells. He did a lot of digging, too.

It ended up being quite a nice excursion. The children were all really tired when we drove back in the late afternoon. We stopped for ice cream in Swansboro along the way. Once we arrived back at our house, we showered and then warmed up leftover wings and mac'n'cheese from the night before.

By bedtime, I think we were all utterly exhausted (at least I know I was), but I think everyone had a really good time. It was well worth the drive and the ten pounds of sand and shell bits we drug back with us and deposited onto my carpet. There just really is nothing like the feeling you have when you get home after a long day at the beach. You might be tired, slightly sunburned, sticky from the salt water, and chafing from all the sand down your bathing suit bottom, but it all is somehow worth it as you sit there at the end of the day, all sun-warmed and drowsy.
There is nothing like summertime!

Rub a Dub Dub

I couldn't resist taking pictures and video of the boys taking a bath. They had a bubble bath and decided to put on beards. They were pretty cute. They looked like little old men.

It's really hard for me to believe that Drake is approaching his second birthday. Over the past few days his vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds, particularly in the "potty talk" area. He now can say "diarrhea", "fart", and "poopy". Oh, and of course, "pee-pee". I know this is because most of these words come along with potty-training. We aren't seriously potty-training Drake yet, but he has shown a definite interest and awareness when he does go pee or poo, so we went ahead and bought him a new potty. It's a pretty nice potty, but Drake seems to view it only as a footstool for the time being. And the bowl inside is currently doubling as a hat. The potty is an item of recreation and tomfoolery at this point. However, Drake does enjoy sitting on the big potty (here is his first time on it). I know he only makes the effort so he can get an M&M for trying, which is what we did when potty-training the big two. It generally works, but only when the child is actually ready. Drake, while intrigued with the whole process, is definitely not ready to take the plunge.

On a sweeter, note, Drake said "I love you" for the first time to me just yesterday in the car. I nearly melted, it was so adorable.

House guests, vacations, and other things that stress me out

So here's where life got really hairy.
The last Sunday in June, our friend Nick, who interned at BSH and became a friend of George's before returning to NC State, came to stay a few nights with us, along with his fiancee and their adorable little toy poodle. In theory, I love having house guests, particularly the kind who aren't related to us. However, it always stresses me out. The house is never clean enough. I'm always worried about what everyone likes to eat, etc. So I totally stressed myself out, along with every other member of this household, in order to get our house in even a semblance of respectability. I know I am probably too hard on myself, but then again, I live with a man who has lots of great qualities, but tidiness is not one of them. Honestly, at times, I feel that even Drake is better at throwing away his own trash and picking up after himself. I am not really exaggerating. Both George and I come from homes where cleanliness, tidiness, and order were not real high on the priority list, so I feel that we are fighting an uphill battle most of the time. To me, it is a bigger deal than it is to George, because the house is largely my domain and responsibility, being that I am by job title, a "homemaker". So naturally, I am going to take more notice and offense if someone leaves his or her shoes or empty soda can (my pet peeves!!!) where they are not supposed to be.
I have spent a lot of time drilling into the children that as soon as they come in the door from school, or anywhere, their bookbags go straight away in a designated place, their coats get hung up, their shoes go into the hall closet, and their lunchboxes go in a certain spot. This is so that hopefully, as they get older, they will not even have to think about these things, but will just automatically do them. It is so much easier to put certain items away as soon as you come into your home rather than pile them up on the kitchen table or the sofa for someone else (ME!!!!) to put away later.
But I digress. So, Nick and Lisa spent two nights with us, and they were a lot of fun to have over. They spent literally several hours in the playroom with all of us, playing Nerf basketball and throwing balls at the children, who were delighted. Bart really enjoys Nick's attention. I was very glad that the two of them were able to visit with us.
Directly following their visit came George's and my ten-year-anniversary. Oh, we had entertained grand plans over the past several years of returning to Europe for our 10th wedding anniversary, or even of taking all the children to Disney. However, we hadn't envisioned me being heavily pregnant with our fourth child and being strapped for cash when we were dreaming our lovely dreams. So what did we do? Absolutely nothing. We had no babysitter, no time, and no real desire to go do anything we could actually afford. Plus, two days later, we would be leaving to go to a family reunion at the Outer Banks. Directly following the reunion, we would be having more house guests. Frankly, we were both exhausted and stressed out. There is nothing like a vacation for making you long for a vacation.
George's brother Alan, and his wife, Mary Kay, and their two daughters, Abby and Emily, stopped by on Thursday the 3rd to visit and rest before we all loaded up and headed to Pine Knoll Shores for the reunion. They had driven from Pennsylvania to Virginia the night before, completing the last leg of the trip that morning. We ate lunch together and headed out about 3pm. Traffic wasn't great, and it took us about an extra half-hour to get to the reunion site. The last reunion, two years ago, was also held on the island, at Trinity Center, where George's cousin, Chris, works. Chris was good enough to organize the reunion again this time, so we stayed at Trinity Center again. It's really a nice site for a reunion. The rooms are organized into pods around central common rooms which contain a TV (sans cable or satellite), plenty of chairs, a small fridge, microwave, sink, and snacks provided by the Center. Outside, a spacious raised deck connects all the rooms in a pod (I'm not sure if "pod" is the right term, but it's the best I can come up with right now). We were lucky to be very close to the pool, and only a short walk to the beach via a tunnel that takes you below the very busy main island road straight to the shoreline. All meals were included in the price we paid (not a small sum, by the way, but worth it merely for the fact that it was fairly healthy, home-cooked food, cafeteria-style, and not fast food). I got quite spoiled with our bacon, egg, fruit, and waffle breakfasts. Drake had plenty of his favorite breakfast food at hand - yogurt - and there was always a variety of cereals available at any meal for those picky eaters among us.
Mosquitoes were pretty bad. But the weather was lovely. Not too hot, just perfect for being on the beach. It was rain-free until Sunday morning after check-out, when it poured.
All the children had a blast. Drake screeched a lot, which is presently a very annoying habit of his that we are trying to break. He was extremely attached to "Dada", which made life difficult for me when George needed some away-from-Drake time. I didn't sleep much and over-exerted myself. Skylar had a good time with her cousins Leslie-Grace and Abby. Bart of course hung out with Mack, but he surprisingly made very good friends with Lily, who is George's cousin Cathy's daughter. Bart, Mack, and Lily had quite the beach adventure, looking for pirate treasure. I made the foolish mistake of remarking that a piece of wood they found on the beach looked like it came from a shipwreck. Well, from that moment on, Bart went nowhere without that blasted piece of half-rotten wood. He was absolutely certain it had come from Blackbeard's ship which had wrecked off the coast of Beaufort, and surely, if they only looked hard enough, they could uncover the lost treasure. Somehow (I suspect George) Bart was able to get his piece of pirate ship back up to our room, despite my explicit instructions that the wood was not to leave the beach. Bart was so insistent that this wood came from Blackbeard's ship that he begged me for us to take it to a museum. Surprise, surprise, but the shipwrecked wood did not end up in a museum. It is now in Bart's closet, on display with several framed pictures of his.
Sunday afternoon, all of George's siblings and his parents came over to our place to have dinner. We ordered pizza and wings and had ice cream cake.












The children (all 8 of them) piled around the dining room table and we adults ate in the kitchen. As you can see, they all have such impeccable manners!


After dinner, we went outside to take pictures on the front porch.











These are my really cute kids and my nieces and nephews.

More Kid Pics

As it turns out, the new phone I purchased (the Sony Walkman phone) takes decent digital pics. I suppose I can't say I really "purchased" it, though. I got it free when I extended my contract with AT&T. I got an excellent deal on it by going through Wal-Mart's electronics department, even though it was a nightmare to deal with them. In the end, though, it was worth it because the phone was completely free, and for my trouble, AT&T customer service generously waived the $18.00 upgrade fee they normally charge. All I paid for was a car charger. Had I gone directly through AT&T to purchase the phone, I would have paid around $70 or $80 (after rebates), in addition to the upgrade fee.
So, as a result, I am a phone-wielding, picture-taking machine these days. George always used to say that it was pointless for me to get a camera phone because I really wouldn't use the camera very much. Well, I have proved him wrong. I take it everywhere, of course, and I often don't even bother with our much larger (but still a great camera, Dad, so thanks!) full-size digital camera. Here are some more pool pictures of the children.




By the way, I'm not very picky about weeding out shots. I will gladly post three nearly identical photos, as I can't bear to exclude anything. To me, every shot that includes my three bathing beauties is excellent.
Speaking of my dad earlier, he and Diane came to visit us for awhile on June 20. They came over for lunch and left a few hours later. I had another jewelry show to do that afternoon, so unfortunately they didn't get to stay terribly long. But it was really nice to see them. The children were hyper and excited, of course.



Dad and Diane had been to Biltmore Estate recently, so they came bearing souvenirs for us all. We ate Bojangles chicken and fixings for lunch. It's always like a circus performance when we have company eat a meal with us, or at least that's how it feels to me. The children usually make a point of being on their goofiest, borderline-naughtiest behavior when we have guests at the dinner table. Is that only my children, or is it some unwritten childhood rule?

Other Summer Happenings

The week after school let out, my mom and Mimi came over to visit us on a Wednesday. It turned out to be a pretty fun day. I had to fill about sixty water balloons for a Young Women/Young Men Mutual activity later that evening. Mom and the children helped fill up the balloons and it didn't take too terribly long. Of course, we all got pretty wet in the process, but it was a perfect afternoon for it: just hot enough for the water to feel good, but not too hot. We filled a few extra water balloons so that Skylar and Bart could have a mini water balloon fight in the front yard. Most of the balloons bounced harmlessly off and busted on the ground, but they had a good time anyway.




On June 24, we attended George's department picnic. It was held at Glenburnie Park, at a picnic area overlooking the river and part of the Frisbee golf course. It was pretty scenic. I made a double batch of mac n' cheese, which George loves and apparently raves about, and everyone else seems to love, too. It's funny, because while I think it's pretty good, I don't consider it my tastiest dish. However, I get a lot of requests for the recipe or to make it for an event. There was lots of good food and ice cream bars. It was really hot out and the flies were pretty bad, which boded ill for the ice cream bars. The boys weren't deterred, however, as you can see. Drake ended up covered in chocolate.



Skylar and I had to hurry off right after we ate so that we could do a jewelry show at a friend's house. It turned out to be a good one, and I ended up getting two bookings from it: one open house and one catalog party. George kept the boys at the park to play with some of his co-workers and their children.
It's really neat to be able to do "girl stuff" and "boy stuff" with the children. It's also fun to do mommy-son and daddy-daughter activities. Right now, I'm reading the second Harry Potter to Bart and Drake while George reads the Lord of the Rings to Skylar. The surprising thing is that Drake is enjoying Harry Potter as much as Bart is. We have a little routine. After pj's and family prayer in the boys' room, George and Sky leave and turn off the light. Then Bart turns on the two torch lights under his loft bed. He and Drake open up the Thomas futon and recline on it, side by side, sometimes with a blanket over them, while I sit beside them and read. Drake even has his own word for reading Harry Potter, but it's hard to render in the English language. It's like we're in our own little room at Hogwarts, with the torch light and the cavernous feeling of being beneath the loft bed. I think the boys really get into it.
Of course, we've been doing some fun things for the entire family, too. George and the kids really like going out to the fields beside the elementary school to fly planes or drive the remote control car. Sometimes on Sunday afternoons, we'll head over there and Skylar and I will sit and watch while George flies and the boys play in the dirt.


















On this particular outing, Skylar and I got bit by several fire ants while we were trying to find a safe place to put our blanket down. The boys were mostly out in the sand, so the fire ants didn't bother them too much, but Sky and I eventually had to sit in the car and watch. Apparently, there wasn't really a "safe place" to put the blanket down in the grass. The ants were swarming that day, for some reason, and they took it out on our poor, sandaled feet. I think that's why Skylar looks so offended in the picture above. Thank goodness for Benadryl spray.