Sean the Chef

When Sean turned 8, he joined the cub scouts. He has already earned his Bobcat and is working hard to achieve his Wolf. For one of his achievements he was supposed to plan and prepare a meal for the family. He chose to make barbecue chicken sandwiches and he did an amazing job. He cooked the chicken in the crockpot with the barbecue sauce and then shredded it when it was finished. It was delicious and best of all he did it all by himself. It was so yummy! And best of all, he is one step closer to the Wolf. :)

Harry Potter!!!!!

In keeping with tradition, some of the young women and I went to see the midnight premiere of Harry Potter. We do this for all of the Harry Potter and Twilight Saga movies. It was so much fun! We bought our tickets weeks in advance, then got to the theater a few hours early and played games while we waited for the movie to start. As always, we had a TON of fun and the movie was great! The only sad thing was how fast the movie went by. I felt like it had just started and all of a sudden the credits appeared! I can't wait for the last and final part of Harry Potter! Hurry up July! :)


These two girls are really a part of our family and I love them dearly! The last time they came over, I told Sean that some of the girls were coming over and when I told him it was Sydney and Maddy, he said, "Mom, those aren't girls, they are family". He was so right! :)

The Math Genius

Sean's school has an awards ceremony twice a year and the first one was in November. Sean was given the Math Award! He was so excited! He loves and is really good at math (something he gets from Eric, definitley not from me)! Eric and I were both there to see him get his award and we were so proud of him! He loves school and works hard at everything he does. We love you Seany!

So much catching up to do...

I have been so busy and haven't blogged in almost two months, so I will try and do a few posts to catch up. :) These pictures are from the state fair in October. After living here three years, this was the first time we acutally made it to the fair. :) It was CRAZY! It took us two hours just to get there from the exit ramp (a distance of about two miles). I have never seen so much traffic in all my life. But, once we were there, it was fun. The kids won goldfish, stuffed toys, rode lots of rides and we all ate like pigs! It was great! We will definitley go again next year, but I think I will pull the kids out of school and go during the day so it is less crowded.

A Howling Good Time

For Labor Day, we went to Great Wolf Lodge for three days and as usual had a blast! We did all of the usual things, like play in the waterpark, but this trip we did a few new things...they had a new program this year in Cub Club (the kids area) and they called it Camp Cub Club. Basically, they offer a camp (babysitting) for a few hours in the evening each weekend. During the two and a half hours of camp, they learned about bugs, made lots of crafts and had yummy treats. Eric and I were thrilled with this idea because it meant we could leave the kids in good hands and run away to do things like ride the Tornado slide (which the kids are too scared to ride). We had an absolute blast and so did the kids. We missed them and went to pick them up a little early, and when we peeked in the windows we saw Avery reading a book with one of the cub club workers, and Sean making yet another craft. They had so much fun they didn't really want to leave when we picked them up. We decided that if they have this option next visit, we will definitely do it!

They also had a special Labor Day carnival, complete with petting zoo, inflatables, rock climbing, etc. It was so much fun and best of all, completely free. Did I mention that I love Great Wolf? :)

Also, this time Avery decided she was big enough to do MagicQuest and wanted a pink wand and cape so she could play too. It is so much more fun now that we can all do MagicQuest together.

Like we always do, we had a fantastic and relaxing time at Great Wolf. We love this place!

Growing Up

In August, Sean learned to ride his bike for real!! We have been trying to get him to do this forever, but the motivation just wasn't there. However, this summer, Sean watched all the other kids in our neighboorhood ride their bikes around together and decided that it was time for him to learn. Amazingly enough, as soon as he had made his mind up to do it, he hopped on his bike and rode off down the street. You would think he had been riding for years. We bought him a new bike (he had already outgrown his other one before he even learned to ride it) and now he rides it as much as he can. One more milestone reached...and one more bittersweet moment for me. So proud of him but sad at how big he's gotten and so very fast.....

Girls Trip to the Beach

Last week I did the most AMAZING thing ever....I went to the beach WITHOUT KIDS!! :) Some of my friends and I rented a house right on the ocean at Topsail Island. It was BEAUTIFUL! :) We left behind kids and husbands for a week of fun in the sun! There are no words to describe how wonderful it was. We are already planning our trip for next year.

We sat on the beach all day, swimming and reading in the sun, then we would eat dinner together at night, and play games laughing so hard there were often tears rolling down our faces! :) Then some of us night owls would take our beach chairs out to the surf and lay back looking at the stars and talking.

Everything was perfect about that week except two things....my good friend Erica got stung by a stingray on our third day there. She was such a trooper though and persevered through the pain and still managed to have a great rest of the week. The other thing is that there were lots of SHARKS!! There is nothing like looking next to you and seeing a 6 ft shark swimming around! I have seen sharks before but usually from the bow of a ship, not while standing in the water. After the second day of swimming amongst the sharks, we didn't go in the water much. :)

I am so grateful for the amazing week that I was able to have. It was so nice to have a break and spend some time with some great women. I can't wait till next year!


Erica and I


The Ladies