Nagshead 2016

It's been 3 years since our last Barnes family vacation and we were so lucky this summer for Bob and Coral to invite us to Nagshead.  I can't believe it worked out for everyone to be there - between Jake living so far away, new jobs, another move for Matt and Alison - I really can't believe it worked out!  Since I didn't have much leave time, we had to cut the week short, but we had a great time and the cousins had a blast being together.

Rob and I had not been to Nagshead since the summer I was pregnant with Claire.  We were excited to go back.  Here are the kids on the beach!  (Claire had a weird skin reaction the first 2 times she went in the water, but luckily it never happened again so she was able to enjoy herself!)  Fielder, in his usual way, decided when and if he was going to have fun on the beach.  Mostly he decided to have fun.

catching sand crabs!

We lucked out with weather for the most part - one day this weird haze rolled in.  One minute I was looking down at the sand crabs and the next minute I looked up and couldn't see hardly at all.  It was crazy!

One evening after dinner we took the kids over to the beach for pictures.  Alison's mom had these beautiful dresses made for the girls and they were perfect!  Claire loves her dress so much, I think she would have worn it everyday if she could.  I just love these pictures - it's hard to choose favorites so I'm just posting a bunch!  Thank you so much Alison for taking them.

You might wonder how we got such sweet smiles out of the kids.  Well, Uncle Jake had a little something to do with that....skittles!!  Of course, we had plenty of goofy faces too like this one, especially from Fielder...

After pictures, Alison had sparklers for the kids.  We kept reminding the kids over and over not to touch them or touch anyone else with them.  And after his burned out, guess who touched it?!  He burned 2 fingers pretty good so that put an end to the sparklers.  Even with that drama, I would say that was my favorite night - the kids were so cute having their pictures taken and we all were having fun.  And hopefully Fielder learned an important lesson??

The kids were super excited that the house had a pool in the backyard.  They loved that and we probably spent more time at the pool than the beach!  They played mermaids and especially liked taking turns jumping in the pool and doing cannonballs.

Just a couple other random pictures.  Rob and I couldn't get enough of sweet Jenna - she is just so cute you want to just eat her up!  Claire loved "taking care of" Jenna and she always has such fun with Katie.  Those 2 cracked me up - on the first night with a mischievous look, they came up and asked me "Can we stay up late.....to read?"  They shared a room and Claire thought it was awesome to sleep in the top bunk.  Fielder also got the top bunk - in our bedroom.  It was just easier to sleep with him than to try and make it work to be in the girls room.  He thought it was cool and we actually did pretty good - early wake-ups, but I'm used to it!  The first night was pretty rough getting everyone down.  I played a serious game of whack-a-mole with the kids while Matt did his best to put Jenna down.  At one point, Fielder was screaming for me, Claire was crying, and Katie just wanted to talk: "My mom is at the store and I have no one to talk to except my father!"  Once we got past that night, it went much smoother (at least with my kids, not sure what Matt and Alison had to deal with.)

The cousins just love each other so much!!  Jenna is adorable and would call Fielder "my Fielder."  Of course he also tried his best to annoy the girls as much as possible.  Once he realizes he has an audience, he really puts on a show and says everything he can think of for attention - this week it happened to be "booty-butt" and "I'm telling on you."  And of course his normal come-backs of "you're mean" and "I don't like you."  Speaking of telling on someone, the girls had plenty of opportunities to tell on Fielder.  I love that Jenna (2) knows better than Fielder about good and bad behavior!!  My favorite "tattle" was Katie saying "Auntie Katherine, Fielder just said that I am 4-4-3 and Jenna is 3-5 and Jenna said "No, I"m 2" and Fielder said "No you're not!"

There was lots of TV watching this week, but hey it's vacation so I had no problem with that!  I loved this when they all got under the blanket to watch a Curious George Halloween movie?!  Actually this is seriously the only picture I took the whole time.  I was lazy, but also saw that Alison was getting awesome pictures and I could just steal hers :-)

Jake came through with a great idea for the men in the family.  He organized a chartered fishing trip and they all pitched in and gave it to Bob for his birthday/Father's day gift.  It was a half day trip and luckily they had perfect weather and caught tons of Spanish mackerel.  Matt had thrown his back out the day before, but we were all relieved he was able to make it onto the boat and hopefully it took his mind off his back for a while!  Coral cooked the fish for dinner and we brought more home for our freezer.

All in all it was a great trip.  Thank you so much Bob and Coral for your generosity!  I am already missing my sweet nieces so much....but GOOD NEWS!  I don't have to miss them much, because they are moving back!!!  I am beyond excited about this.  They also had to cut their week short to close on their new house and unpack.  Just one more Barnes boy that we still need back on the east coast...  :-)

Mimi Week

Claire's first week of summer vacation was a Mimi Week!  (Otherwise known as "Summer School" if Fielder is around.)  She had a blast and kept Mimi very busy.  Claire kept a little list of all their fun things:

Here are some of the photos that Mimi sent me during the week.  I loved seeing them - most nights she slept at Mimi and Papa's house so I hardly saw her!  Fielder asked a couple times about his sister and we just said "she's at summer school."  Luckily that worked and he didn't question why she was still at school at 7pm!

Claire loves to go to Lewis Ginter - I think these lego sculptures are awesome!

I know she had her fingers crossed for a trip to Cold Stone!!

And a trip to the zoo on a hot Friday!  They cooled off at the pool on the way home :-)

BG 2

We made it back to Busch Gardens in mid-May.  It was another cool morning and hardly any lines - perfect!  We got there early and the kids did their first roller coaster - Grover's Alpine Express!  (just my speed!)  They loved it so we rode it a couple more times before moving on to the next thing.  Now that they've done that, they are getting braver and wanting to try more things.  We ended the day with the big swings.  It was a near-meltdown because I didn't think Fielder was big enough, but when I realized I was wrong he was so happy to go on it.  It was a little scary for their wimpy mommy, but they were excited.

We also took our first trip to Water Country in June.  No pictures because I didn't want to carry a phone or camera around.  We met up with the Mason Jr's and Claire loved having Samara to play with!  Unfortunately we didn't really know it, but Fielder had a little virus and really wasn't in the mood for doing anything.  We spent a lot of time on the lounge chairs and after lunch he got a little energy for the wave pool and Hubba Hubba Highway.  Once we were home, we realized he did have a fever so we ended our day with a trip to Kid Med.  I thought for sure it was strep, but i was wrong.  (hope he enjoyed that $50 popsicle)  After a recovery day at home, his teachers told me he talked about WC like it was better than Christmas so I guess he managed to have fun even when he didn't feel so good!  We'll try for a re-do later this month.

Mother's Day

As a combo Mother's Day/birthday gift, I bought tickets to take Mom to see The Lion King.  We saw the final performance and it was on Mother's Day so it was a special day for all of us to spend some "girl time" together.  It was also Claire's first broadway show and she really seemed to enjoy it.

 Claire also took me to a Mother's Day dinner at the Y.  We had a fun night together!  (need to work on our selfie skills)

Claire pics

And here's a few recent pics of the girl!  She decided to do swim team again this summer.  We're already about half way through the season now, but this picture was taken at the "meet-the-coaches" sign up party.  She was slightly on the fence about swim team, but when she heard there was a party with ice cream, she was ready to sign up.  (Of course there was a more serious discussion about committing to the team, etc.!)

She is modeling her new sweatshirt that she loves....this was right after a weekend at Mimi and Papa's house.  Turns out I'm a terrible packer and forgot to pack Fielder ANY PANTS at all besides pajama pants.  I sent him in a bathing suit and that was all he had.  Also I didn't check the weather and I only sent short sleeves (it was cold!)  So Mimi to the rescue - she took the kids on a shopping spree at Target.  I felt terrible!  (I also once forgot to pack any shoes for Fielder on a previous trip.)  I better get my act together if I ever want another kid-free weekend!  It was the first time for Fielder to spend the night in a VERY long time and the first time not in a crib.  He was so excited I think he woke Mom up at 4am.

Claire and Daddy at the annual Father/Daughter dance at the Y

 Our little reader has started the Harry Potter books!  (She recently finished a 700+ page one!  No idea on the comprehension part of it, but she has loved them)

3rd grade, here she comes!!  Hard to believe 2nd is done. She had a great year with an awesome teacher, but I think this girl is ready for a break!  She has lots of fun things planned for the summer - beach trips, Mimi weeks, summer camp, and even a couple weeks at Fielder's school!  We are so proud of her accomplishments (straight A's all year!!) and can't wait to see what the next school year brings.

We celebrated the last day of school at a pool party with this awesome foam pit!  (and ice cream!)

Fielder pics

Just a few pictures of our crazy boy lately.  I have enjoyed watching him use his imagination more to play - he especially likes it when Claire will play with him, but only by his rules of course.  He loves to build weird things in the playroom - it looks like just a big mess, but things are exactly as he wants them.  He also loves dressing up.  He looked so cute in this outfit, I had to get a couple pictures.  :-)

Fielder surprised me one day with this drawing.  I had never seen him draw anything but scribbles before!  He said it was a picture of me.  I had to hang it on the fridge and he was so proud.

 We signed him up for the Fast Track classes at Aqua Tots to get ready for the summer.  He loved the lessons (except the first one) and would get so excited each morning, but by the end of the 2 weeks I think he was pretty tired!  He could use more lessons, but for now we're taking a break and seeing what he can accomplish on his own over the summer.  The lessons helped him a great deal, but he still likes to do things his way!  He's pretty good on his back and can now swim decent on his belly when he wears his goggles.  This boy LOVES the water!

This is just a cute picture that Fielder's teacher texted me one day while I was at work.  I love when she does that, always puts a smile on my face.  As you can see, everyone knows that chocolate - or any type of sweets -  is the way to Fielder's heart.  And if you look close, I love how the other little girl is giving him the stink eye!

He might look sweet, but he sure can be a difficult child!  Saw this on facebook one day and immediately had to send it to Rob!  We may have joked on occasion about dropping him off at the fire station!!