Sunset Beach

Our week at Sunset Beach was absolutely amazing.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.... it was in the 80s and sunny the ENTIRE time we were there.   It was the best weather we have ever had there and it allowed us to spend a ton of time on the beach and in the waves. 

The kiddos had such a great time.  They were so sad to leave (Mommy and Daddy were too!).  Stella and Colby have a new found confidence in the water and they had a blast in the ocean. 

Colby found a new favorite sport -- boogie boarding.  He would hop up on the boogie board and Kelsey would set him up on a wave and away he would go, smiling the entire time.   Colby spent SO MUCH time in the water.  He loved it, big waves and all.

 Max is a beach baby!  He loved loved loved the sand and the water.  He especially liked the real wet, slimy sand and would grab handfuls of it and let it all drip down on his legs (and occasionally shove the handful in his mouth!).  And the water.... he likes the water more than Stella and Colby ever did at his age.  I would sit him at the water's edge and he would squeal as a wave was approaching.  When the wave crashed on him, he would burst into laughter.  And, anytime I moved him away from the water, he would just crawl back.  He was so happy on the beach. 

Max even had his very first ice cream cone while at Sunset.  Of course he thought it was the yummiest thing he had ever had and he ate almost all of it!

We spent one day at the Fort Fisher Aquarium.  We had to take a ferry ride over to it, so it was a fun adventure for the kiddos.  While we were there, Max met a new friend.  He thought all of the fishes were so cool.

One of my favorite things to do at Sunset Beach is EAT HUSH PUPPIES!  I can't believe there was a time in my life when I didn't even know what a hush puppy was.  We managed to polish off many many many dozen of the little fried cornbread treats. I ate my entire body weight a whole lot during the week, but so did Colby, Kelsey, Stella, and even Max.  And now (thanks to Andrea) there's a new fried treat to compete with the hush puppies --- fried pickles.  And they're breaded in crushed pretzels.  And dipped in a creamy mustard sauce.  Heaven. 

Sunset Beach was amazing and we look forward to our week spent there all year.  It's so fun to get together with Kelsey's family and spend a week away from reality with them.  We can't wait until our next trip to Sunset!

ABC Book

One week from today we will be in a hotel somewhere in New Jersey while on route to Sunset Beach, North Carolina!  Woo hoo!  We have been counting down the days since.... well, since the last time we were there.  It's been two years since we have joined up with Kelsey's family at "Baywatch," our home away from home.  Last year, I was too big and pregnant to travel anywhere.  Plus, we were right in the middle of moving to Connecticut.   So now our annual beach trip is so close we can almost smell the hush puppies and we are running around like crazy trying to get ready.  One of my jobs for our trip is to plan some car activities for the kiddos since they will be confined to their carseats for approximately 13 hours.  Ouch. 

So, I saw this idea on a mommy-blog I love (http://iammommahearmeroar.blogspot.com/  in case you want to check her out), and I just HAD to copy.  Stella and Coby love to pull out photo albums and look through at all of their baby pictures and pictures of Mommy and Daddy before we were "Mommy and Daddy."  I thought what would be better than a photo album they could bring along with them.  AND, what if it had an alphabetical theme?  Genius.  I used this (free!) fabulous photo editing program (http://www.picnik.com/) and voila!  I made Stella and Colby their own ABC Book.  Here's a few of my favorite pages from it. 

I'm so excited about it, and I hope Stella and Colby like it as much as I do.  I also hope that this will buy us a few hours of peace and quiet from the backseat.  Here's to wishful thinking.... 

Dinner with the Gilmores

Thought I'd share with you what a typical dinner with our sweet, well behaved, good-mannered children is like each night: 

(ps.... this was taken a few weeks ago, so don't think that I still have Easter eggs out on the table.  Ewww!)

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and I was treated like royalty by Kelsey and the kiddos.  They let me sleep in (well, after being up until 2:30am with a very gassy, cranky Max I think I deserved to sleep a little late!) and then woke me up with a yummy breakfast of french toast with fresh fruit and my coffee already made.  Stella and Colby could barely stand to wait until they were done eating to give me their gifts, so halfway through a bite I was bombarded by my Mother's Day gifts.  Stella had made some cute things in her class... I was given a sweet paper tea pot with some chamomile tea attached to it, a painted rock (very similar to the one I gave my dad when I was a kid that he STILL uses as a paper weight in his office!), a plant, and lip stick (which she has used more than me.  Where did this girly girl come from??).  Colby had gone shopping with Daddy the night before and he got me a cookie scoop.  We used it this morning when we made some yummy chocolate chip cookies.  Max got me a cool picture frame and Kelsey got me..... a glue gun.  A man after my own crafty heart.  I've been searching the house up and down for things to glue now.  Watch out. 

I got to choose an activity to do for the day, so I decided to go letterboxing with the family.  I had learned about letterboxing last year soon after we moved here.  Apparently it's a pretty popular hobby in these parts. 

Letterboxing is sort of a treasure hunt.  Around the world, there are 20,000 boxes hidden in various locations.  In these boxes are a rubber stamp and a notebook.  When you find one of these boxes, (from clues found on websites such as http://www.letterboxing.org/) you make an imprint of the found stamp in your own notebook and, using your own stamp, make an imprint in the notebook from the box.  You then record your name, the date, and where you are from.  These boxes are EVERYWHERE and now that I know about them, I'm realizing that I walk by them all of the time.  So, yesterday I printed up some clues to find letterboxes at Dinosaur State Park in neighboring Rocky Hill.  The kids grabbed their backpacks, filled them with snacks, and we stopped at the craft store on the way so that Colby and Stella could pick out a special stamp to use.  Stella chose a ladybug and Colby chose a dinosaur. 

Here's triceratops Stella at the entrance of Dinosaur State Park.  (side note:  Did you know that Connecticut is a mecca for all things dinosaur??  At Dinosaur State Park are 200 million year old dinosaur footprints!  Whoa!)

So, off we set on our adventure with clues in hand and fingers crossed that we would actually find something! 

And, lo and behold, after following the red trail and merging with the blue trail and coming to the intersection with the yellow trail, we looked left and found the "3 sister tree" just as the clues said we would. 

And, right there in the middle of the trees was our very first letterbox find!  Yay!  This particular one was planted by a girl scout troop in 2009.  Stella opened the container and there we found a butterfly stamp and a notebook FILLED with other stamps from others who had found it.  We stamped their notebook and stamped ours with the butterfly one and then quietly placed it back in its hiding spot. 

Unfortunately, the hiking trails closed 5 minutes after our first find, so we weren't able to look for the other two boxes that are hidden in the park (plus there was a certain 3-year old boy who was whining the entire time about how boring it was and about how much his feet hurt.... funny, when we got home he probably ran the equivalent of 1 mile up and down our hallway with no complaints.  Huh.).  We will definitely go back for those another day.  (and continue to search for more in other places.  We can't wait to find the ones hidden at Sunset Beach, NC later this month!)

We headed back to the trail head for a little snack break. 

Even Max had a snack.  (I'm sorry, but is there anything cuter than a baby eating a big apple?  I think it's adorable.  Poor Max has had 2 apples since this one just so I can watch him eat it!)

So, that was my Mother's Day.  It was a great day spent with my amazing little family.  I love them all so much.