Finally it is July!!

I have been waiting since December for July!  July means home!!  It is scary how much I have been looking forward to going home; just nothing quite like it.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.  We don’t leave for NC until the 6^th.

The first thing that July had on tap for us was Ben’s first movie theater experience: Cars 2!  I am not sure when the last time you took any child under the age of 7 to a movie theater much less three AT THE SAME TIME.  As you can imagine I was more than a little hesitant.  In fact I had been debating on whether it would take place, at ALL.  Then good o' Disney made that decision for me.  Got to love Disney.  He loves Lightening McQueen.

pre-movie

                       

mmm, movie snacks!

I’m not sure who was more excited Ben or the girls.  I am also not really sure who picked out the girls outfits, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was Lucy.  He quickly found his grove and has repeatedly ask when he gets to go back.  Luckily the little theater down the street has $2.00 movies or else he would have to wait until he was on his first car date in order for us to afford to go back.  He was great, in fact they all were.  So I see more movies in my future, sigh.

We drove over to Destin to hear what was billed as THE patriotic Church service to attend.  Boy they weren't kidding.  It was move-you-to-tears awesome.  You were handed a desk top size flag upon entering the church and were told not to wave it til the end - yeah right.  After several near eye accidents and at least as many trips to the bathroom the service ended with a wonderful finale. The flags were confiscated by mean mommy until the last possible second.  If they could have figured out how to have fireworks inside this church I believe they would have done it.  AMAZING! 

The last couple of years we have had the fortune to be in Swansboro for the Fourth of July but this year we were going to miss the fireworks over the White Oak.  Instead we took what Boggy Bayou had to offer.  I must say they did a really good job!  That is until the very end when things got a little crazy and the fireworks almost took out a couple of boats.  No one was hurt, but it did make me a little homesick.

Finally it was time to get in the car and head north!  I don't know how it is possible to get excited about a 13 hour car drive that stretches into two day, but we were!!  Our plan was to drive to Raleigh, leave the children with Jim’s parents for the weekend so Jim and I could fly up to Rhode Island to house hunt for the weekend.  Afterwards I would pick up the children and drive to Swansboro for a week.  Jim would meet us later the next week for his family’s beach week in Nags Head (makes me tired just typing that).

The kids had a blast in Victoria with Jim’s parents.  But I was anxious to get home.  Mom, of course had gone all out with new toys and dress up which took the children all of about 5 minutes to find.

who knew Buzz wore a belly shirt?

While we were home Lucy had her 5^th birthday!  How in the world did she live to be 5?  No wait, that didn’t come out right.  Or maybe it did.  She is a sweet heart, but man oh man, is she stubborn.  I can’t imagine where she picked that up.

                

Birthday in the Boro can only mean one thing – MacDaddies!!  They had been talking about riding the go-karts and playing the games since LAST July so of course we did it again this year.  Hey why mess up a good thing right?

We also had to hit the Water Boggan.  As always, it was a big big hit.

a little out of control

         

Being at home also meant hanging out with the friends and family.  We got to see several of each! 

Cousins!!

       

Up next is part 2 of our Northern Adventure – Nags Head!

Hazy Lazy Days of June

Well I was caught up for 15 days and now I am behind again.  But I am ready for the challenge.  Or at least I think I am.

June means Vacation Bible School.  This year the theme was “Back Stage Pass”.  It was a Rock and Roll theme good time.  The kids loved it.  I signed up to help in Arts and Crafts this year.  It wasn’t until the week was half over that it dawned on me that I could have just dropped my kids off and had a week’s worth of mornings off!  What was I thinking!!!!

As noted in the last entry the girls were signed up for indoor soccer.  I must admit, I could not get a read on whether or not the girls like it.  I mean most of the time they enjoyed themselves, but all in all I think Lucy is destined to be something other than a soccer player.  Lilly, however, took to it like a fish to water.

June also meant another session in the pool.  This time the water was much warmer.  The kids continued to improve, especially the girls.  I have been fully impressed with the level of attention and dedication Emerald Coast Dive Center has exhibited to my children and their swimming ability.  I will sorely miss them when we move to Newport early in 2012.  That being said the kids had a great time in the pool.  The instructors even let them have some fun.

As expected they all “graduated”.  I guess I will have to find some sort of swim team activities in Newport to keep them interested in swimming.  They do really love a medal.

Speaking of medals, Jim and I decided to sign the kids up in their first road race.  There is a Pirate Festival here called the Billy Bowlegs Festival.  It is the typical Florida Pirate Festival – lots of bad Pirate costumes, alcohol, Mardi Gras beads  and luckily for us a Fun Run.  Here they are pre-race all pumped up!

Lucy and Ben’s age group (1-4 years) ran first.  They were to complete 1 lap around the track.  Lucy took off like a rocket with Jim trailing right behind her.  I was manning the finish line with Lilly.  Your upper level math skills have probably already deduced what we did not plan for – Kid to Parent ratio is off.  Usually we run a zone defense with the kids, but this really needed a 1 on 1 tactic.  So there was no one to run the track with Ben.  He was more than unhappy!  If I had thought about it, I could have introduced him to some of the kids assigned to run with the kids and he probably would have been better.  It wasn’t pretty but he didn’t come in last.  So that is something!

Lucy on the other hand owned the track!  She took off and never looked back.

So Lucy may not be a soccer player, but she has potential as a track star!

Lilly had a tougher assignment.  She had to run the track twice!  Her age group was 5-7 year old.  So while Lucy was topping out the age bracket, Lilly was square in the middle of hers.  But she was determined and it showed.

She came in third!!  She was pretty tickled.  But Lucy was especially happy that her ribbon was blue and Lilly’s was white.  I believe that is what Jim calls being a meat eater.  I forecast lots of inter-family competitions in my future.

Here’s a group shot of all the runners. 

Lilly got to check off a rite of passage this month.  Her FIRST sleep over.  We have had a few girls spend the night with us, but this was Lilly’s first time sleeping over at someone else’s house that wasn’t directly related to us.  According to the torturee, I mean parent, she behaved and was very polite.  I am glad she has manners even though she doesn’t display them often in the comfort of her own home.  Not to be outdone on the fun factor scale, the two remaining children decided to have a camp style sleep over of their own.

Jim and Ben got to spend some quality time together out on a Head boat far far away from me and the girls.  They bonded over an early morning wake up call, cheese crackers, flat soft drinks, smelly fish and fisherman.  They caught their limit and we are eating red snapper for the near foreseeable future.