Monthly Archives: May 2014

Home again….

I would have to say that the hardest part about going on vacation is coming home.  The return home has been bitter sweet.  It is so good to be around the kids again and I can tell that they are very excited to be home.  It is also very obvious that Faith missed her brothers.  They have been playing together non-stop.  During the trip with Faith, Tom and I would look at each other and comment how easy it would be to have only one child (but not wishing that we only had one).  As soon as put all three kids in the car they started singing loudly and poking at each other.  We had to laugh, shake our heads,  and say, “I love having our three, loud kids.  This is our life.”  We wouldn’t trade having three kids for anything in the world.  They make us laugh daily and are so sweet to each other.

The bad part about being home is that life goes back to normal:  waking up early and making the kids breakfast, doing laundry, constantly cleaning up dirt and doing dishes.  There are so many mornings that I feel like the “Time to Make the Doughnuts” guy.  I probably look like him each morning as I drag myself into the kitchen to pour cereal into bowls and make chocolate milk in a Cars cup for Wilson.  Although life is redundant and laborious, I get to laugh and smile many times throughout the day and that it makes it all worth it.

Some recent laughs are:

Faith used her hair chalk to color Wilson’s hair green.  They were dressing up as fairies.  Unfortunately, she did it on his very wet hair which made his scalp also green.  Even after swimming in the pool for three hours yesterday it is still bright green.  He doesn’t seem to mind.

Then the kids sat out by the street having a lemonade stand.  There aren’t took my cars that pass our house. After about thirty minutes, the garbage truck drove by. The man hanging off the back had his buddy stop the truck. They both bought a glass of lemonade and a strawberry. Afterward the kids were so excited because they earned a dollar and talked to a real live garbage man (in a kid’s world that is very cool and exciting)!

Today they dressed up like a princess, Spider-Man and Miller was a cheerleader. Then they jumped on the couch and sang a song. I put the video on Facebook.

The life of a mom isn’t the most glamorous job, but it full of wonderful memories.  I am glad that I get to see the little things that the kids enjoy and make them laugh. I am also glad I have the privilege of staying home with them. Time is flying by faster than I want it to and I have to remind myself daily to enjoy all of these moments because before too long they will be gone. If I could freeze time and not let them grow up anymore I would.

Kim and Dallas’ Wedding

We left the beach one day early to travel up to Willamsburg, VA because Tom’s sister Kim was getting married. Faith was also going to be the flower girl in the ceremony. Faith has been practicing for months and couldn’t wait to play this special role.

We drove up Friday with Faith and left the boys at the beach with my parents. She was absolutely giddy the entire weekend. I guess having all of the attention from mom and dad with no brothers around is very exciting for her. She was literally bouncing around and laughing constantly. She swam in the hotel pool with Tom, jumped on the hotel beds, and got all the attention from her aunts and cousins. She loved it!

Since we were in Williamburg already, we decided to go to Colonial Williamsburg, walk around and check it out. It was a complete bust. It was very expensive to get a day pass and Faith was way to young for any of it to interst her. Honestly, after about an hour there I was ready to leave as well. It seemed to me that everything was about the money…and lots of it. I am way to thrifty to spend hundreds of dollars to take my kids to something that I would have to force them to take interest in. Maybe in ten years I will feel differently.

The rest of the day was spent shopping at the outlet stores, swimming in the pool and getting manicures and pedicures. Faith and I went to get mani-pedis together. We both got to sit in a chair while soaking our feet and getting a leg massage. It was novel for her and much needed for me. Once again, she felt like a princess.

The wedding was that night at Saude Creek Vineyards. The ceremony was beautiful. Kim and Dallas were so excited to finally be getting married and it showed. Faith walked up the aisle throwing out her flowers just as she had practiced. Bravely, she stood up front with the others throughout the ceremony. I was very proud of her, and I think that she was too. Here are some pictures of the wedding in no particular order….

Kim and Dallas as the Pastor pronounces them “married”…..

20140524-194001-70801993.jpg

 

Faith and I before the ceremony…

20140524-194000-70800628.jpg

 

Cousin Alexis and Faith…..

20140524-194002-70802841.jpg

 

Faith standing up front during the wedding….

20140524-194001-70801225.jpg

 

The Wedding Party…

 

 

 

20140524-194003-70803536.jpg

beach vacation ends….

After six days of vacation fun, our time at the beach is over.  We have had such a fun and relaxing time together as a large family.  Having six adults to watch over five kids is so much easier than having two adults and three kids.  It was like the “great child shuffle”.  I would be watching three kids, two would leave and then another one would appear.  It happened to everyone all week long.  Tag team parenting.  So much easier. I was even ably to get out of bed each morning at my own leisure instead of being pulled out by one of my children. That was one of the best parts.

You would think that I would blog so much more while on vacation, but I didn’t care to be in front of the computer at all.  I think I checked my phone once a day (not that many people call me anyway).  I read my book, took a nap everyday, and played on the beach all morning and then again in the afternoon.  I ate well, had a cocktail each night, and found time to play with each child separately.  I was also able to go on a date night with my husband.  What I did not do was exercise.  I brought exercise clothes, but in the end decided that I was on vacation and that I was not going to exert any more energy than absolutely necessary.  

Each day I would look out at the ocean and comment on how beautiful it was and what great weather we had.  The kids had an incredibly fun filled vacation.   They got to play with their cousins who are moving to Maryland in two weeks.  They are going to miss them terribly when they leave.  I am glad that they were all able to spend this week together and have these memories to hold them over for a few months until they are reunited for a weekend.

The one thing that Tom and I did laugh about today is how we still seemed to over pack.  This year we only brought three outfits per child, pajamas, and bathing suits.  It was still too much. Miller never put on real clothes all week and Wilson only wore bathing suits and pajamas.  Faith, on the other hand, wore everything that she brought.  :)  Next year everyone is bringing one outfit, pajamas, a jacket and bathing suits….this includes tom and I. We should be able to fit all of our clothes into one tiny suitcase.  That is the beauty of going to the beach….very little is needed for entertainment and warmth.

I took only a few pictures this week. Here are a few of them….

20140523-113117-41477747.jpg

20140523-113118-41478364.jpg

20140523-113116-41476286.jpg

20140523-113116-41476948.jpg

20140523-113115-41475424.jpg

Beach Trip: Day 1-2

We left to go to Murrell’s Inlet in South Carolina on Saturday morning for our yearly family beach trip.  This trip includes our family, my parents and Doug’s family.  We always rent a house right on the beach.  Because it is much, much cheaper to go before Memorial Day, we decided to take Faith out of school for a week and go now instead of after school lets out in two weeks.  Seeing that it is only kindergarten I didn’t have much of a problem doing so.  Saturday morning we left around 11:00am – after I taught water aerobics, Wilson had soccer and Faith had auditions for her camp this summer.  It was a busy morning, but we got it all done (I had been packing all week).

We met Doug, his kids, my parents and Grandmama at the Strawberry Festival at McLeod’s Farm on the way to the beach.  We picked strawberries, ate lunch, ate ice-cream, and the kids bounced on the bouncy castles.  After we had our fun there, we loaded up and continued on our way to the beach.  Here are some Strawberry Festival pictures.

20140520-133448-48888378.jpg

20140520-133448-48888411.jpg

20140520-133448-48888308.jpg

20140520-133448-48888133.jpg

 

The house is great!  This year we had to get a different house than last year, but it is even better.  This one has a swing set and a fenced in back yard.  We eventually had to rig a baby gate up on the walkway to the beach because Miller and Shepherd kept going down the walkway to the beach by themselves. Not good!

It has been so much fun to see the excitement that the kids have for being at the beach.  Miller was so in awe of the ocean when he first saw it.  He looked at it in amazement and said, “That’s big water!”  He was right.  The whole first day, he and Shepherd ran back and forth picking up shells and then throwing them into the water.   The weather has been a bit chilly in the mornings, but that hasn’t stopped the kids from going into the water anyway.  The kids keep playing in the water, getting cold, going to take a bath, and then drying off only to go straight back to the beach again.  It is almost comical.

The most amazing thing that I have seen so far, which is scary but fascinating at the same time, is sharks.  They were not in front of our house, but were down under the pier which is about two miles away.   Jacqueline’s sister, Monique, and I were looking off of the pier yesterday afternoon and saw more than eleven sharks swimming underneath us. It was crazy!!  The sharks were circling around waiting for the fishermen to either throw back fish or steal what was on their hooks.  They weren’t small sharks either.  Most of them were 6-8 foot Black Tip sharks.  I had never seen sharks in the wild before.  It was truly frightening, but I have been back to see them again.  Thankfully, no one has been bitten here in years.  I have decided that these sharks are like pigeons:  they go where the food is given to them and they go back daily and never want to leave.  Hey…maybe all of the sharks around here are actually down at the pier getting fed instead of out in the water where we swim.  That thought makes me feel better. I have to say that I am thankful that the water is too cold for us to swim out in this year.  I don’t have to worry about it.

Overall, we have had a very enjoyable first couple of days.  It was a bit windy yesterday so we didn’t play on the beach much, but we stayed entertained riding bikes, playing games, going to the pier and playing on the swing set.  Today is supposed to be warmer.

 

Last Day of Work!

I have been working three mornings a week at the Little Church on the Lane Preschool since the beginning of November.  It has been a bit stressful at times, especially when Tom is out of town.  Because the church is towards Uptown I have to give myself thirty minutes to get to work, where as it usually takes me only fifteen minutes on Sunday mornings.  The traffic was definitely a drawback to the job, but now I have come to enjoy my time in the car, listening to the radio or just sitting quietly after the chaos of the morning.  It was an adjustment, especially since having the other two start school this year, but I have grown to really enjoy my job.  I am looking forward to going back again next year.

When I first started the job, I thought that I would just be teaching two-year-olds and receiving a check for my work.  I didn’t even consider a major benefit of the job:  working and talking with other women.  I get to talk and laugh with other women three mornings a week!  I love it!  This job has been such a blessing to me.  Not only do I make money, but I get to have fun at the same time.  The kids are fantastic and I enjoyed teaching each and every one of them.  I also had the pleasure of working with Yolanda Chisholm every day.  We had so much fun together!  I feel so blessed to have been partnered up with her.  We like each other so much that we are going to do it again next year.   I had a hard time saying “Good-bye” to her yesterday.  I know that we will see each other over the summer, but it won’t be the same as spending every other morning together.

Here we are in our brightly colored, yellow room….

20140515-205022.jpg

 

All that being said, yes, I am ready to be done teaching for the summer.  Mostly, I am just tired of having to get up in the morning and have to be somewhere by a certain time.  I am tired of packing lunches and trying to get everyone (and myself) ready by 7:45am each morning.  It will be so nice to wake up, drink a cup of coffee, and have my peanut butter and honey toast at the table instead of in the car or while standing up at the counter.  Now that both kids are in school and I am working three days a week, I can understand and appreciate the need for summer vacation.  It is a time to play together as a family and slow life down a bit.  I am looking forward to going to the gym again, which I haven’t done that in many, many months.  I actually went today for the first time since I started the job in November.

Little Church is so good to me.  I get to worship there on Sundays with my church family and now I have another family there during the week.  I am a very lucky/blessed girl!

Wilson’s last day of school

Wilson had his last day of school at Cross and Crown on Thursday.  He had a great school year.  This was Wilson’s first year at school and I am so glad that it was a good one.  His teacher was Miss Michele.  She was fun, relaxed and encouraged the kids to get dirty and have fun.  It was the perfect combination for Wilson.  Whenever we were late she just said, “Who cares! It is preschool!”.  She also loved Wilson for who he is: an energetic, silly, caring, smart and fun little boy.  When I tried to get her to switch him to writing with his right hand instead of his left, she just told me, “He will be fine.  Don’t worry about him switching.  His handwriting will improve and he can still be a lefty.”  She was right!  His handwriting finally did start to improve and he continued to use, and insist on using, his left hand.  It is just part of who Wilson is as a person.  He is unconventional in almost every way.

Cross and Crown has been such a blessing in our family’s life.  They are so sweet and caring at that school.  I am so glad that we decided to send our children there.  Wilson will be there for TK next year.  He will go four days a week (which will be hard for me as a mom because I want him to go less) but I know that he will like it.

Here is Wilson and Miss Michele.  He insisted on keeping the lollipop in front of his face…..of course.

20140515-205121.jpg

Soccer

It is time for soccer here in Charlotte, NC.  It actually started almost two months ago and is wrapping up this week. The weather is getting hot quickly and therefore I am ready for it to end.

Wilson is taking a soccer clinic at the YMCA and Faith is playing on a team at Calvary Church.  Wilson was on a team in the fall but he was more interested in talking and goofing off than he was at playing during the games.  The soccer skills clinic is perfect for him because it is only practice.  He can improve his skills without having to worry about playing in games.

Faith is playing on a team with her friend Tyler (one of the boys she intends to marry).  She enjoys being on a team and runs after the ball well, but isn’t so sure about kicking the ball. As the season has continued she has become more confident and better at the game.  I did tell her that she was having her last practice yesterday and she gave me the fist pump and said, “Yes!”.  I guess she is ready for it to be over as well.

We have had a good time as a family going to practices and games.  Luckily, Faith’s practice field is right next to the baseball field so Wilson and Miller can play while she practices.  They found a few aluminum bats on Saturday during the game and tried to sword fight with them.  Not a good idea!  We had to stop that immediately.  For them, a baseball field is a giant sandbox in which they can throw sand and roll around and get dirty.  Whatever entertains them and makes them happy!

Here are a few pictures of the kids over the weeks during soccer….

20140513-214740.jpg

20140513-214852.jpg

20140513-214832.jpg

20140513-215115.jpg