The Boys and Their Toys

Lounging on the beach and reading a book is plenty of fun for me, but for the boys this year, they were quite excited to get out on the water! We had a windsurfer, Hobie Cat, and Clay brought up the jet ski from Wilmington. We would watch the Hobie Cat go back and forth and finally one day the Hulchers came and beached in front of our house. (We were about a half mile away from their house.)

The girls got on to pose for pictures and the boys couldn't wait to set sail.

Even Mom made it out for a couple rides!

Tara, the girls, and I waved goodbye from the beach....I made them promise to take me out next year! We had bigger waves that day and I was pretty sure it would not be doctor-approved for me to go out. And definitely not Mom-approved!

They had a blast!


Andy was the only one to venture out on the windsurfer. He's really good, but it's hard work to get that thing going especially in the waves. He suffered a few cuts and bruises, but I think it was worth it for him!

The funniest moment all week was one day when we were all hanging out on the beach and Andy spotted the Hobie Cat coming our way. He threw on his life jacket and swam out into the water. He waited there bobbing around and blowing his emergency whistle to get their attention. Finally they got closer and Clay spotted him at the last minute - Andy grabbed on and hoisted himself up onto the boat! After riding around for a while he jumped ship and swam back to the beach.

Peace, Love, and Sandy Feet

We have returned from our week in Topsail (yep TWO vacations this summer!!) and I have so many photos, I hardly know where to start. So I'm starting with my favorites!

Katie is 2!

Happy 2nd Birthday Katie!!!

Katie had her birthday party at the Children's Museum and it was so much fun!! They had food, cake of course, and they got to play with a parachute - Claire's favorite. They also had a craft activity but Claire was too obsessed with the little ducks that she could TAKE HOME....very exciting.



And the best part was that the kids could play in the museum as long as they wanted! It was also princess and super hero day there so it was pretty crowded. Claire's favorite was the farm area, but she also really loved the apple picking tree.

Visit with Ganny

Popa brought Ganny over to our house for a visit the other day. Claire loved her purse and cane! A penny fell out of the purse and Claire very quickly swiped it and ran upstairs to put it in her piggy bank. We had a nice chance to visit and for Ganny to watch her great-grandchild play and be silly. She put on several costumes, brought Ganny animals and dinosaurs, and told Ganny about her baby brother.

Camp & VBS

Claire has had a great time this summer with her 2 weeks of summer camp at preschool AND Vacation Bible School for another week! (Mommy has enjoyed some time alone in the mornings too!)
Her 2nd summer session week was about camping. They were all so cute on the last day coming out to carpool wearing bandanas and carrying their canteens.

(smores & campfire picture)


The following week was VBS. I had been warned that VBS was not exactly as organized as preschool......yikes it was totally crazy on the first day! They definitely had some problems at the beginning, but the rest of the week went great and Claire had a lot of fun. On Friday afternoon they had a picnic for all the kids and Rosie the clown was there.

Rosie made Claire a purple ladybug.

We love Chick-fil-A!

Yesterday was "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chick-fil-A and I was so glad my friend Mere gave me the heads up about this because we had such a fun time! When you dress "head to hoof" you each get a free dinner! I couldn't believe Rob agreed to doing it (what he'll do for his child.....and free chick-fil-a!) So I spent a couple hours in the afternoon running around the house looking for supplies to make our cow costumes. I had tears running down my face I was laughing so hard at us getting dressed in the parking lot. It was slightly less embarrassing once we saw that there were TONS of other people dressed up. Claire even enjoyed some fries and ate a bite or 2 of her chicken - YAY! (I know I shouldn't get so excited about her eating fast food, but man is it hard to take her out places when she won't eat anything!) She was mostly looking forward to her chocolate milk.

After dinner I told her she could play in the kids' area. She was a trooper and bravely went down the slide twice while tons of kids who were entirely too big and old for the play area were crashing around. I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw how rough they were playing. I had to be "that mom" for a minute and tell the kids to stop running up the slide so that my kid could get down. They got completely silent. You could hear a pin drop. And then you heard Claire say "mommy, I'm trying." I swooped her out of there and told her that I was proud of her for playing so nicely. What were those other parents thinking letting their kids run around like that?! Ugh. Anyway, all in all it was a really fun night and Claire thought it was great fun to dress up like a cow and get chocolate milk! :-)

Hulcher, Mason, & Barnes 4th of July

The Hulcher, Mason, and Barnes families gathered again this year to celebrate the 4th (and Father's Day, Samara's birthday, and Sam's birthday) at the rivah! As always, we had a great time and loved getting to spend time with everyone. Unfortunately, day 1 was not as enjoyable due to Claire's "mood" but I guess that's the way it is with a 3 year old and we just crossed our fingers and hoped for the best on day 2! (Sorry, and thanks to everyone for putting up with her attitude and general unpleasantness)

When we first got to the river on Saturday morning, we spent some time outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was a nice breezy day - perfect for Andy to go windsurfing and the boys to head out on a couple trips on the new Hobie (Rob's favorite!)

Since most of us missed Samara's first birthday, we had a late celebration Saturday night. Mom and I made a sailboat cake for her (Claire "helped") while Samara napped and her parents were out on the water.

Most of the night, we shared our bed with Claire (not our choice) but after a decent night's sleep, she was in a slightly better mood! We spent the day blowing bubbles, going for bike rides, hanging out on "Tandy Island" and enjoying another day outside!

Sunday night we had an early celebration for Sam's birthday (21!!). We had the perfect 4th of July dinner - hamburgers & corn on the cob on the grill. Claire got to enjoy some birthday cake this time around since she behaved and ate her dinner :-)

Rob and I had decided to leave late Sunday night so we could get home and have a day before going back to work. This meant we had to miss the anual 4th of July parade....looks like we missed out on a lot of fun! Even though we weren't there, I had to put a couple pictures up because Samara was SO CUTE in the bike trailer! Happy 4th of July!

Thanks SO MUCH to everyone, especially the Hulchers, for making it such a great weekend. I know they did a ton of work to get all the toys out and ready for us - we had so much fun!