jumping at Tatarus

A beautiful day at World's Fair Park

Audrey sings

{and picks her nose, but let's just ignore that part, shall we?}

The Backyard Beach

We're back from a last minute vacation at Pawleys Island, SC. We were a little worried with it being Labor Day week that it would be crowded, but Sunday was the most crowded and by Tuesday it was deserted. We had huge stretches of sand with no one around which was great since we were running back and forth and screaming at the top of our lungs all day. And by "we" I mean Miles and Audrey, of course.

Who knew a hole in the ground could be so fun? We thought we'd be building sand castles, but instead we were digging holes along the receding tide so they'd fill up and make swimming pools.

We stayed in a new house this year which had an awesome deck, but was a tad bit farther from the beach. We had to walk over the dune to get to the beach. I mean, come on! It was probably a good thing we had a little division from the waves, as a certain redhead was pretty fearless about storming the water.

We encountered lots of wildlife on this trip.  We have never seen a starfish in the many years we've been coming here, and this year we caught a few live ones in the surf.  Then on one of our last evening walks we stepped around at least 100 dead starfish (no exaggeration) along with several small crab carcassas and even a dead baby turtle.  Ugh.  At least we found some cool shells on that walk. Oh, and Audrey had no qualms about picking up stacks of dead starfish, and another day even picked up a flapping fish and tossed it to a seagull.  Our most exciting interaction was with a possum that crawled into our garbage can.  I was cleaning out the car and tossed some trash in one can, glanced in the other and was greeted with a nasty hiss.  I shrieked and ran.  When we came back down much later with Wayne, it appeared to be asleep.  He lifted the can and set it on its side so the creature could escape while we were at dinner.  Thankfully it was gone when we got back and the lids were then firmly in place!

The adventurous duo:

And the best way to end the day: popsicles!

Lots more photos at the shutterfly site: Miles & Audrey

Iceberg, right ahead!

Miles and I went to Pigeon Forge to see the Titanic Museum on our day together today. We had recently read the Magic Tree House book Tonight on the Titanic and later checked out the Magic Tree House research guide and a couple of others.

The museum was very neat, with lots of artifacts that were carried off by passengers, and replicas of passenger rooms, the Grand Stairs, the bridge, and other areas.  There was an area "outside" on deck that was dark and freezing cold! We could touch a real iceberg and dip our fingers in the frigid water of the "North Atlantic."  This area scared Miles a little, but he made it through once.  Throughout there were interactive quizzes and buttons to push and hear stories.  There was a super fun "tot" area where we climbed decks angled as if they were going under, sat in a lifeboat, sent Morse code, and attempted to steer the ship around the iceberg (we failed). Miles spent about 15 minutes playing at the knot tying station, mostly inventing his own knots.  Sadly we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but it was pretty fun all the same!

Today

today he is five! And it started out in the 5 o'clock hour! but that's old news, right? I left a card on his pillow and thankfully he didn't figure out the button to make it play music (I like to move it, move it!). We had muffins with birthday candles for breakfast and he got his first gift: a new (to him) iPod loaded with his tunes, and a radio base to play it on. He has had a CD player and Audrey makes a mess of the CDs. So she'll get the old player and CDs in her room to play. Thankfully I ripped all of the CDs before they started getting too scratched.

Then daddy took him to school.  Audrey and I stopped in a little later with sprinkle doughnuts for snacktime! Whoo hoo! I'm sure the teachers were thanking me for that one, but at least they had playground time after snacks.  There will be more partying tonight too.  I made Oreo grasshopper pie! yum. 

5 years ago

Happy 5th Birthday Miles!

1st day in new classes!

happy birthday, Millie!

What's the rule?

Under promise, over deliver? Guess I better deliver on my promise of more pictures!

August was hot, hot, HOT.  So we did a lot more swimming, or at least splashing in the back yard.  I discovered that if I had Audrey's hair in 2 pigtails when she got wet, they would corkscrew into the cutest little spirals.  Hard to resist this little grin.

And together they are quite the team. They have so much fun together, until, of course, they don't. But most of the time it's giggles and mischief. She loves playing his games, pretending to be on a a train, chasing a monster (which is actually chasing poor Chelsea around the house), and camping underground (under his bed). We'll have to start working on his influence over her, as he knows he can get her in trouble by suggesting she do things, or acting in a way he knows she'll copy. But when he is sweet, oh my, they are so cute.

This day at the pool was great. They both would jump in and paddle down to the deep end, then climb out and head back to the shallow end to do it again. Over and over and over. Mommy got to relax and watch them wear themselves out!

Miles will be turning 5 in a couple of weeks. Hard to believe we've been parents for 5 years now! He'll do Pre-K this year and start kindergarten next fall. It works out that he'll go 4 days and Audrey will go 3, and I'll have 2 days with just her at home and 1 day with just him. I'm looking forward to my days with him. We've already started planning adventures that only big kids and their mommies can do (no baby sisters allowed). So far our list is the zoo, botanical gardens, Ijams nature center, the Fair, Market Square, the science museum and lots more. Any other suggestions I'm forgetting?

One special one we'll do the week of his birthday. He has really gotten into the Titanic after reading the Magic Tree House book where Jack and Annie go to it. (n.b. don't even get him started talking about Magic Tree House. He can go on and on about all the cool stuff the kids get to do!) So I think we'll try to head to Pigeon Forge to the new Titanic Museum for a surprise.

oh, and I am done with the first two classes of my MIS degree! They were very time intensive, but I enjoyed them both and learned a lot. We have orientation this week and I'll be taking just 1 class in the fall. And no, I don't get football tickets, I didn't pay the activities fee! That's one benefit of being a "distance" student (no fees, not the no tickets part).

Here's my little student checking out our leaf-bug.  

Where were we?

Oh yeah, Busy-town. Sorry we've been a bit absent this summer, but we've been going going going. I'll rewind to where we left off and do a quick recap.

Jen and Davey came over for the 4th weekend and we shot fireworks for the boys again.

I went to Alpha Chi Omega National Convention in D.C. Here I am with Emily, Meredith, & Mel on our one break to look around. I texted miles some pictures of the dinosaurs in the Smithsonian and now he can't wait to go!

Then there was a whole bunch of swimming and splashing. It was HOT! Some days it was even too hot to drive to the pool, so we hooked up the sprinkler and dragged out the kiddie pool.

Later in July we headed to Nashville to celebrate Evan's 8th (!) birthday. Can't believe he's EIGHT!! The cousins had the best time together.  Evan's party was on Sunday night and we couldn't stay for that, so the older cousins went bowling to celebrate together.  There was this awesome bowling alley that had kids' lanes that were about half length and lighter, smaller balls. It was so cool, I rolled 3 strikes!

There was a lot more sprinkler time. "B" is such a great sport!

Evan teaching Miles some Avatar The Last Airbender karate-chop moves.

more to come, this weekend I promise!

having an apres swim picnic at the Garvey's. fun!

silly bandz! his 1st allowance purchase.

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The long awaited day arrived: one of my kids unrolled the TP into the toilet. Thankfully it wasn't a full roll and I caught it pre-flush

time for a breather

...and we're back. It has been one crazy summer around here.  Actually I may be the only crazy one, as I decided to start my classes and signed up for 2!  They are pretty interesting (to me, at least.  Guess that's a good thing.) but I have a LOT of reading and some big projects. I turned in my first paper last night.  It was 7 pages plus 5 more pages of citations.  I have one more paper for that class and it is twice as long.  Better get crackin'.  At least there are no tests, that's one plus of distance learning! I sit in bed in my jammies and  listen to the lecture on headphones.  Miles loves to come in and listen with me, and Audrey will come give me a big kiss.  Wayne is a champ for keeping them busy and quiet and then getting them both to bed at the same time.  Thanks sweetie!

The kids have been having a blast. Miles took more swim lessons and is ready for the class where they work on strokes. We're taking a break from lessons now, but still head up to the pool once in a while. If it's too hot to get in the car we'll just turn on the sprinkler in the back yard. That works almost as well and I don't have to worry about Audrey, who thinks she's ready for Olympic diving in the kiddie pool.
Throw in lots of story times, zoo trips, and movies and you've got a pretty full summer so far! Now what will July bring? Hopefully more time to blog, but I make no promises. Just enjoy my photos on the go!

Miles says "the water is COLD!"

giggleboxes

pool buddies!

yum

hot glazed donut on National Donut Day!