Give Him SIX!!

Happy Birthday, Miles!!

The Force is strong in that one

Surprising all of us, Miles decided to have a Star Wars birthday party. No, the Star Wars theme wasn't a surprise, but after Wayne's 40th party in May, Miles told us he wanted the exact same party for his 6th. Who are we to deny? Aunt Elizabeth was our gracious hostess again, and this time food was provided by Baja Burrito and cake by Whole Foods. I love a party where I don't have to cook anything! Check out the great cake. All I told the guy on the phone was to draw on a couple of light sabers and write HBD Miles. We were totally impressed with their creativity! And word is we're getting one in Knoxville soon, yay!

In keeping with the theme, Miles received about a bajillion Star Wars Legos, including some Ewoks, the AT-AT and this cool Boba Fett ship. (click the link to see a whole new side of Boba Fett)

At Wayne's party we introduced the pinata, and I don't think we'll be able to have an event without one ever again. This time they got to beat up Darth Vader for the goodies. But before we destroyed him, we all posed for portraits.

These aren't the kids you are looking for. Move along.

Lots of fun had by all, although we missed having BeeBe & PopPop to celebrate. Thanks to Mimi & PawPaw, and Uncle Kyle and Aunt Megan for driving over, and for Elizabeth, Shay, Evan, Kate, YaYa and B for hosting us all weekend.

First Day of K!

Miles had his first day of Kindergarten today. It's a half day, so I have to be quick and go back to pick up. The rest of the week will be full days. Here he is by the front of the school.

We both took him in today, but I was dressed for Zumba. Look at his fun room!

Here's his teacher, Ms. Anderson. He knew her assistant, Mrs. Douglas, from our All Saints playgroup when the kids were younger. Can you tell how excited he is? We are too!

Doodling fun

I haven't shared any of the kids' artwork in a while, so here's some of the latest. Audrey is drawing all sorts of cute people these days. These are portraits of me and Audrey. Like our hairbows?

Miles had homework for kindergarten, to draw a picture of one of his summer reading books. He chose a favorite by Mo Willems, We Are In A Book!

Here's another, a drawing of a castle complete with sword fight! Lots of prisoners in this castle.

Now we're getting ready for a big week. We're having a family birthday party this weekend, then he starts school on Monday with a half day. His first full day is Tuesday, then he turns 6 on Wednesday! So much excitement! We met his teacher on Tuesday, and we were excited to learn that the teaching assistant in his room is Ann, with whom we had a playgroup until the kids were 3ish. He also has several of his good buddies in his class. Hopefully they will control their energy levels until they get playground time. His room looks like a lot of fun and we're all looking forward to a great year.

At new family picnic for Sacred Heart Kindergarten! We're so excited!

Avast, me hearties!

As you could probably tell from the mobile photo posts, the kids and I traveled to Ocracoke Island in the North Carolina Outer Banks. My dad is a park ranger during the summer and we wanted to visit and do all the fun things he tells us about. My brother Kyle and his wife Megan came with us.

Since dad and Brenda live on their boat while at Ocracoke, we rented a great house to stay in. It was a block from dad's dock and right in the middle of the cute town. It came with bikes with kid seats, which we all loved. We biked all over the place, to breakfast, coffeeshops, the library, the post office, the lighthouse, and the ice cream stands.

Of course sailing was on the agenda. We went out twice during the week. The first day was a little choppy for some first time sailors, but no one got sick. The second time we took a sunset sail with just the jib halfway up, no main sail. It was like floating in a pool, so calm and still. They will be ready for PopPop's sailing school soon!

Other days we found so many fun things to do. The beach at Ocracoke is part of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and we spent one day there digging and swimming in the tidal pools.

A great activity in all the National Parks is the Junior Ranger program. Kids can fill out a workbook of games and earn a badge from the park. During the summer (and year round at other parks) the rangers put on programs about the wildlife and history of the area. All age kids can participate, so of course the grown up kids earned ours too. The ranger programs included seashore wildlife and the history of pirates in the Outer Banks. Blackbeard anchored on Ocracoke for a while and was caught and beheaded in the waters nearby.

One of the programs we attended was an outing to cast for blue point crab. Kyle and PopPop caught a few, but the kids had an easier time scooping up the hermit crabs in the shallows.

Here's the gang with our badges and patches after taking the Junior Ranger oath. We need to make it to the Smoky Mountains and get our badges there too.

Ranger Bob does a great job keeping the riff raff out.

We visited the lighthouse a few times, but you can't climb up anymore.

We all had so much fun! Hopefully we can do it again soon!

Beachy fun

[I'll correct the date on this post soon, so it falls chronologically]

Since Miles starts kindergarten in the fall, we switched our usual fall beach trip to May. As usual, we couldn't even take time to get dressed on the first morning. We had to run right out and frolic in the sunrise surf in our jammies.

It's early, but it is a glorious time!

Our friends the Fishes joined us again, this time with two baby girls. Audrey and Elizabeth had lots of fun digging and running around on the beach together.

Because of some storms early in the week we got some great wind. Miles flew his awesome kite for a while and even let the girls hold onto it some.

The storms forced us to find alternate entertainment one day, so we trekked to Myrtle Beach for an aquarium visit. The kids all loved it and were amazed by the huge tanks full of fish.

After a the storms early in the week we had gorgeous blue skies every day.

Our neighbor friends happened to be staying nearby, so we met for dinner one night. At Chick fil A, of course.

Our favorite beach activity: digging holes.

Our favorite breakfast place: Eggs Up Grill

Best car ride toy: dry erase board with activity pages!

So this lack of text is why I should blog in a more timely manner. Oh well. Enjoy the photos!

Miles likes salmon!