A Birthday Party

Here's just a few (hee-hee) pictures of Zack's trail-mix-making...
picture-posing, friend-hugging,...

rope-swinging...

caterpillar-catching...

patiently-waiting...

scavenger-hunting, flashlight-shining...

proud-Mommy's-awesome-cake-decorating-with-some-help-from-Daddy-and-Aunt-Mo...

candle-lighting...

wish-making...

scrumptious, messy...

goofy...

buggy, high-flying...

s'mores-making-with-Daddy...

first-s'mores-eating...

Mommy-and-Daddy-and-Aunt-Mo-exhausting

...campout-style sixth birthday party.

Thanks to Tyson, Andy, Sarah, Jason, Ethan, Trevor, Damien, Christopher, Alannah, Alyssa, Maya, Natalia, and Kennedy for coming to celebrate with us! And thanks to all the dads that hung out and helped with the swing! We all had a blast!!

Wet and yellow

In this post, you were supposed to guess what happened. Here's the thing. It was super hot (yes, in March), so the boys were playing outside, and I started holding up the hose like a sprinkler. Then I discovered that we actually have a little sprinkler attachment. It's been sitting there probably since we moved in, and I never knew it was there. So anyway, the boys had a blast running through it, fully clothed of course! We're definitely going to have to get a sprinkler or a slip-n-slide this summer! Enjoy...

I had the boys strip before they went inside. I didn't want all that wet pollen all through the house...

Of course, somebody walked inside before I could get to them, and left these in the foyer...oh well, I tried to keep the pollen out of the house!

Any ideas...

...about what led to this?

This Easter...

...treats were hidden in some odd places. Xander needed a little help finding this last one.

...Zack had to follow a map of our house to find his treats.

...the Easter Bunny only brought one box of candy and a chocolate bunny for each of the boys. They each got something to make or do, a coloring book and a movie.

...Xander was being grumpy because he wanted to watch his movie, but then he played with the remote and changed the input, so we put in Zack's movie instead.

...our breakfast came from Bojangles because we were too busy-scratch that (how do you do the cross-out thing?)-lazy and ran out of time to make something at home.

...we had two very handsome boys and were counting many blessings.

...we had some fun in the kitchen making a dessert for our Easter dinner with Grandpa, Nana Cathy and Gramma. I posted an extreme close-up of it last night, and here's the finished, complete product.

(It's pretzels and Cadbury mini eggs, by the way.)

Fort Fisher

Last Thursday, Andrea and I squeezed six kids, from the ages of 10 to 1, into her car and headed for the beach. We were worried that we wouldn't all fit, but we worked it out. I'm glad we did, too, because I don't think it would have been as much fun driving down there by myself in the car. I was looking forward most to just being able to talk with Andrea on the ride.

Our first stop was a picnic lunch in a gazebo overlooking the ocean. We saw some dolphins jumping in the water on the way over there. Here's crazy Zack eating his lunch and making faces...

Princess K playing with her apple slice...

and Xander perching precariously on the railing...

Our next stop (just across the street) was Fort Fisher Historic Site. The boys (and Princess K) learned about the battle of Fort Fisher and blockade runners. Zack remembers the big hills, the tunnels and the fence that looked like giant pencils. Here's the oldest five on one of the anchors. This was right after D fell off and got the only injury of the day.
Looking out over the Cape Fear River... Alongside this bridge, we saw hundreds of little fiddler crabs crawling all over in the grass and muck at the edge of the water.

The view from the top of the mound...

Xander loved the little tunnel entrance.

Princess P's first time on the beach...She didn't want to put her feet in the sand. When Andrea carried her towards the water and tried to put her down, she was holding her feet up off the sand.

Sweet Princess P toes!

I tried to take a picture of Xander in the water, but my camera battery died. All the boys had a great time playing in the waves (which were really cold!) and getting very sandy. After the beach, we rode the Fort Fisher ferry over to Southport and back. We stopped at Mickey D's for dinner and ice cream on the way out of town. We passed time on the way back with songs and I Spy and some silly storytelling. Thanks Andrea for a great day!! (and for driving)

???????

Can you guess what we made today?

The hunt that never was

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Xander. He was going to an Easter egg hunt. His brother really wanted to go, but he wasn't being a good listener, so he wasn't allowed. Xander went to the park with his mommy. When they got there, he could see a field, kind of a small field, but it was covered with Easter eggs of all different colors. He could see yellow and orange and blue eggs on the ground. It was hard for this little boy to wait for the hunt to start, but it was harder for the little boys and girls around him who were crying and running away, trying to get the eggs. Finally, it was time to hunt! The man said go, and lots of little kids and lots of mommies and daddies converged on the field to pick up eggs. Xander picked one up and put it in his basket. Then he found another egg. Then we heard a daddy say, "They're all gone already." And it was true. Xander had found two eggs, and all the eggs were gone. Xander was such a nice boy, though, that he shared one of his candies with his big brother.

(I think it could have been all the parents who were picking up eggs and putting them in their child's basket as quickly as they could, or it could have been that the parks and rec department seriously underestimated how many eggs they would need. Either way, we won't be going back to that Easter egg hunt again. We'll stick with Gramma's house!)

Here's the video of the 20 second Easter egg hunt that barely was.