Amy's Beach Fun

Here's Amy and her day at the beach.  She loves the waves and wore out Elise's arms.  The water was a little chilly at first, but felt good after sitting in the sun for a while.  Sorry Elise, I snuck one in, but it's a small one.

Adam at the beach

Last year we went to see the light house at Cape Lookout.  The beaches were great, so we decided to go again this year.  We took a little ferry across and brought a lunch.  The original plan was to camp over night,  but no one was real excited about that.  It was the 4th of July, but it still wasn't crowded.  Here's Adam doing his thing.

New Bern Park

Last week my sister, Elise, came to visit all the way from Idaho.  We tried to go pick blueberries, but they closed for the day before we got there.  So we went downtown and looked thru some antique stores.  Luckily there was a park in the middle of the block, so we let the kids play a little.  Everyone was camera shy and would keep making grumpy faces or duck, even Elise.  So even though she was here a whole week, there are no approved photos of her to show.  We did have a fun week though.

Blueberry Picking

It's blueberry season all the way thru July and we made our first stop this week.  The kids did a good job just picking the blue ones.  The only bad thing was the ants that live under the bushes.  I got a few irritating bites, but it's definitely worth it.  I felt so nostalgic picking our own and hearing the plink, plunk as they hit the bucket.  We are going back for sure.

Bucket of Berries and Dirty Feet

     Here's the load.  6 lbs for $6.00!  I froze a big bowl for smoothies and we are still eating yummy cold ones from the fridge, plus I made muffins and cheesecake with them.  I laugh at the people buying them at the store.  

      And here's what our feet looked like when we were done.  The dirt is fine and black.  

Clean Kids?!

Not much is new.  Just trying to survive the heat.  I feel like we are always hot, sweaty and dirty.  So I thought it was a rare sight to see 3 squeaky clean kids on Sunday.  The girls got new dresses and Adam has a new shirt that I've been saving since he was like 3.  Pretty cute.

Silly Elli

I was looking thru some pictures and found this top one of Elli when she was about 2.  I said to myself... "That seems just like yesterday!"  Then I remembered it happened again too long ago!  Messy girl.

Day Off

Riley and the kids had Memorial Day off, so we went to the beach.  It was crowded, but we found a spot.  The warmer it gets, the more we want to go.  The water was a little chilly, but it will warm up soon, too. 

Amy and the Ocean

She wanted to spend most of the time in the water.  

She didn't like to be all sandy afterwards though.

Fun Birthday Stuff

Here's what I got for my birthday!  CUTE!  Riley's mom made me the pretty bag, my friends had a surprise lunch for me and gave me the flowers, my sister sent some new baking tools I've been wanting (so I had to make the cheesecake with them), and a little jacket I ordered with some money my mom sent.  I had a really nice birthday!  Riley gave me some good running things I needed and some Creme Brulee ice cream, too.  Thank you everyone!

Birthday Girls

Here's Elli now that she's six!  And here I am now that I'm 20 something.   

Elli's Cake-Pops

Elli didn't have a birthday party this year.  There were about 4 parties right close together and I just wasn't in the party planning mood.  We did go to a movie, dinner and tried to go swimming... all picked out by Elli.  (We were all in our suits and at the pool, but the lifeguards didn't have a key to get in, so after waiting for about 45 minutes, we left and let them jump with the sprinkler.)  Anyways, I saw these on a blog, Bakerella, and thought they were cute.  To be honest, I kind of persuaded Elli into picking these for her cake.  I didn't really persuade her, but I told her I found a good idea and acted super sweet and nice when I showed them to her.  She really did want them too.  They don't look as good as the ones on Bakerella, but let me just say, they were more difficult than I thought.

Rainbow

We've had some pretty good rainy days in the last month.  We drove home as it was clearing one day and saw this over the water.  It was coming right out of the water!  You could see every color in it.  Pretty cool.

Warm-ups

Here's Adam at one of his games.   The boys seem so little still, but there are some pretty good plays and each game they get better.   I think we are about half way through the season.  

Sunday Walk

Sandy's favorite thing to do is to walk on the beach.  She is slowly getting braver with the water and gets deeper and deeper every time.  She doesn't have to be on her leash so she can run free.  She's pretty fast.  It wears out puppies and little kids.  

Elli had to bring the shovel.  She drug it most of the way and made a wavy line in the sand.  Amy would walk behind right on the line.

Out Front

We are trying to get Sandy to chase a stick when we throw it.  She likes to chase it when one of us has it, but will just run right past it after we throw it.

Amy's Birthday Bike

Amy didn't get a birthday party this year with all the excitement of Riley coming home at about the same time.  I told her she could get a bike instead of a party.  Well, it's only about 3 months later and we finally went to Walmart (eww, I know) and she picked this one out.  She keeps asking to go on a bike ride with Riley and they got to go today after the rain stopped.  Pretty big!

Strawberry Picking

For play group this week, we went to a strawberry farm.  It was hard to stop picking even when our bucket was full.  The strawberries were so red and tempting.  The farmers don't mind if you taste a few, too.  Hopefully we can go back before the season is over.  I still have jam from last year when we went.

Mmm Boy!

The load.  There were about twice as many.  I froze the other half.  We didn't make anything with them... just ate them.