School’s Out For Summer

Kind of.  On Friday, the 25th, Lindy and Will had their last day of school at their church preschool that they go to on M/W/F.  Unfortunately, Lindy still has two more weeks of the hearing impaired preschool she goes to on T/Th.  She’ll only go on T/Th and her last day is June 7th.  Summer is mostly here.  But until Lindy is done it won’t really feel like summer yet.

Monday Lindy had physical therapy with Jill.  She thought her new braces looked good and thought Lindy looked pretty good.  We are back to going monthly now. 

Tuesday Will and I went to Aunt Jamie and Uncle Ed’s for a little while and then we picked up Lindy and headed to gymnastics.   I’m ready for gymnastics to be over but we have three more weeks I think. 

Wednesday my friend Katie and I hung out and went shopping because it was our official last day of having no kids.  We will both have kids with us everyday for the summer now.  Wednesday night I got to do something really cool.  Our local TV station, WXII, has a weekly BBQ at their station and last week they invited the March of Dimes to come to it.  I was excited to get an invitation to go!   The meteorologist went back and forth between the courtyard and inside to do the weather.  When she was outside she interviewed a few of the people there.  Thankfully I was not one of them!  I was on TV but just sitting in the background enjoying the food!  As we were leaving I asked one of the guys there if he did tours.  He took me and another girl on a tour of the station and it was so cool.  We got to go in the studio and we actually got to see the news anchors doing their job since the news was still going on.  The guy showed us all the cool things happening in the news room and told us so many cool things.  It was a really fun evening and so cool to see a live newscast!!

As I said, Friday was the last day of school for Lindy and Will.  I was in charge of the snacks for their last day of school parties.  I had fun making treats.  I went with a summer theme and made snack bag butterflies and rice krispie treats that looked like a watermelon.  The other moms did the treat bags for the classes.  I think the kids had a fun party.  Both kids brought home a really great book of pictures that their teachers have taken of them throughout the year.  Will’s teacher asked the kids questions in Sept., Feb., and May.  In Sept. Will wanted to be a police officer when he grew up and in Feb. and May he wanted to be a builder.  She also weighed and measured them in those same months.  In Sept. Will was 37.5 inches tall and weighed 27 pounds.  In Feb. he was 38.5 inches and 27lbs and in May he was 38.5 inches and 29lbs.  Wahoo, he gained two pounds!  The boy weighs nothing.  He eats small amounts of food these days and he eats like a sloth.  He is SO SLOW.  It was neat to see their pictures throughout the year!  We will miss our teachers this summer.  Both kids had great years and learned a ton.  Lindy will have the teacher Will had this year and Will will move on to another 4/5 class.   After I picked the kids up from school I did something pretty crazy for me…we went and got frozen yogurt – for lunch!  Not just a treat, it was for lunch!  I knew they had had a bunch of treats in school and I wasn’t going to give them a full lunch anyway.  I was feeling wild and crazy so I decided it was frozen yogurt for lunch.  They were loving life!

Saturday I got out early and ran to some yard sales.  I had a few things in mind I was looking for and found just a couple board games for the kids to play.  I’m not much of a yard sale girl and my trips out reinforced that!  Saturday after lunch we loaded up the kids and we headed to a local park, Tangelwood for the NC Wine Festival going on out there.  I won free tickets so we figured we would check it out.  The only problem was we had the kids with us.  We brought the wagon and their leap pads and they were actually really good.  I had feared we’d be the only ones there with kids but thankfully we weren’t!  Drew and I sampled a few wines but we didn’t want to wait in long lines and it was about 90F with 60% humidity.  It was so hot.  We walked around and looked at the vendors and we finally found some shade for a little snack.  They had bands playing throughout the day but there was no shade near the amphitheater.  I took the kids over to listen to it but neither wanted to stay long since it was so hot.  We were glad to get home out of the heat.

Today we had church and a covered dish luncheon to welcome our new Duke student intern for the summer.  Her name is Molly.   There were lots of yummy foods and even yummier desserts today.  I hope Molly enjoyed her welcome and I look forward to getting to know her better.  After church we came home and I decided the kids needed to get outside to play.  We got swimsuits on and set up a new sprinkler that they got for Easter.  As per the last few years, Will loved the sprinkler and Lindy didn’t.  She thought it was okay this year.  She will run through it if you run with her.  I got the water table cleaned out and filled up for them and they fought over played with that for a very long time.  While they were playing, Drew and I created a tiny little garden in our backyard.  I know it’s kind of late but oh well.  We’ll enjoy things later in the summer!  We planted lots of tomatoes, zucchini and squash. We’ll see how it goes.  We usually plant tomatoes every year but we’ve never done squash or zucchini.  Hopefully the wild life will stay away from it!

That sums up the week.  We hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

First and last day of school pictures.  Lindy definitely grew this year.  Easier to see in the third picture.  Looks like she is catching up to Will in the picture on the left!The watermelon rice krispie treat.  I cut it up into wedges so each kid got a slice of watermelon!Butterfly treat bags.Lindy and her teacher Ms. BobbyeWill and his teacher, Ms. SueYummy frozen yogurt!Feeding his sister – who had already cleaned out her bowl and was looking for more.Cute outfit Lindy wore on Saturday.Lindy was playing this morning.  You know your child definitely pukes too much when she starts playing like her stuffed duck is throwing up in the throw up bucket.  And taking it to the bathroom to dump out.Thankfully we don’t dump her puke out like she dumped her duck’s.Before church this morning I painted my toenails and decided to do Lindy’s.  She was loving the pink toenails!I broke all the rules today and sent Lindy to church in cute sandals and no braces.  Seriously, I’ve never done this.  I haven’t found any sandals that will fit over her braces yet this year.  I  have so longed for the cute dress and sandal look – not the socks, braces, and sandals look.  I don’t think one Sunday without braces is going to hurt her.  Do you think every Sunday morning without braces will hurt her?  Because I loved her in her cute white sandals!!Running in the sprinkler.  Yes, our grass needs to be cut!Look at the concentration.  Tongue out and everything!

First Beach Trip of 2012

We just got home from the beach.  We love the beach.  Love it.  So very much.

But before we went to the beach…Lindy had a hearing test last Monday and I honestly had no clue if she had fluid in her ears or not.  Her hearing seemed normal so I was hopeful.  We checked in and found out our audiologist was out sick that day so we actually saw a combination of a few different people.  The first thing they did was the tympanogram and YAY – NO FLUID!  We headed into the sound booth and Lindy had her best hearing test ever.  The audiologist playing with her kept her hands busy so she couldn’t pull out the things in her ears and they flew through the test.  The fastest one she has ever had and thankfully it showed that everything was back to normal.  Well, you know, normal for Lindy.  Her hearing has always been stable but back in January when she had fluid her hearing was down a lot.  Monday it was right back where it’s always been.  The third audiologist checked her hearing aids and we made one new ear mold because it was starting to tear.  Lindy did great with that part as well – my iphone was a great distraction for her not pulling the mold out of her ear while it hardened.  Lindy has been on allergy medicine since we found the fluid back in January.  I guess it’s helping.  I think she might be a year round allergy medicine kind of girl (well, depends if NC has a winter or not.  We didn’t have much of one this past winter). 

Tuesday we had gymnastics after school and it was pirate week.  The kids loved it!  It was pretty cute to watch them.  Lindy doesn’t talk about pirates non-stop like she used to but she does still like them.  And Will actually likes them a lot more now, too.  They definitely had fun that day.

Wednesday the kids went to school but since music class is over we came home.  I spent the morning packing and then finished up after lunch.  We left around 4pm and headed to Oak Island.  We got to Drew’s mom’s house at 9pm but that was after three stops on the way and a trip to the grocery store once we got to Oak Island.  The kids did great – the DVD player is a lifesaver! 

Thursday morning we woke up and got ready and headed to the beach.  It was a little overcast but still fairly nice.  Some storm clouds started rolling in after a couple hours so we headed back for lunch and it started sprinkling right as we came off the beach.  No less than 1 minute after we got back to the house the bottom dropped out!  It was perfect timing.  We ate lunch and messed around and it cleared up again so we headed back to the beach for a couple more hours.  It did rain again that evening but we managed to get some good beach time in.  The kids still LOVE the beach.  We have seriously raised a couple of beach bums.   They love the sand and water.  Will was all about jumping the waves.  Last year he had to hold our hand but this year he was jumping them all by himself.  Lindy ran back and forth from the water to our stuff, over and over.  Which meant we were running back and forth after her.  The water was a bit chilly when you first walked in but it warmed up once you were in.  Of course I never went above my knees. 

Friday we woke up and it was actually kind of cold and really overcast.  We messed around the house all morning and finally decided to go out after lunch.  We decided to drive down to Myrtle Beach.  It was about an hour away and Drew and I haven’t been in about 10 years.  We headed down and to our surprise we found out it was bike week.  As in motorcycle week. You’ve never seen so many motorcycles!  We stopped at a popular shopping center and walked around there for awhile.  We were going to keep driving around but we got stuck in traffic from a wreck and Drew’s blood started boiling so we turned around and headed back.  Myrtle Beach is about the opposite of Oak Island.  Myrtle is full of people and cars and Oak Island is quiet and not crowded.  We prefer the quiet beaches and less traffic!  On the way back we drove through Holden Beach – where Drew used to vacation as a kid.  His grandparents owned a house there.  His mom has a picture of Anna, Drew, and Ed when they were about 3, 10, and 13 on the steps of the house and then another one of them when they were about 11, 18, and 21.  She loves the pictures of the kids on the steps.  We found the house and we got out and took pictures of Lindy and Will on the steps and then Lindy, Will, and Drew.  Lynn liked the pictures when we sent them to her!  We brought the kids’ bikes with us to the beach because the house has this long, flat driveway.  Perfect for riding bikes.  We do not have a flat driveway and our neighborhood isn’t flat.  Therefore they don’t have any good place to ride their bikes.  We let them ride them Friday night and they liked it.  Will, in fact, loved it!  He was really zipping along.  Lindy hasn’t exactly figured it all out yet but she is getting better.  She pedals then she’ll stop and has trouble getting going again. 

Saturday morning we woke up and again it was kind of chilly.  We  hung around the house and the kids rode bikes again.  We rode up and down the street a few times and then had lunch.  Finally after lunch it started to clear up and we decided to head to the beach.  It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon.  The sun finally came out and we had the best time.  We dug the kids a little pool and they played in it forever. 

Today we got up and cleaned the house and headed out at 12:25pm.  We pulled in our driveway at 4:20pm.  No one had to stop and go to the bathroom.  It was the best time we have ever made getting to or coming from the beach.  Everything is unpacked and put away.  I’m not used to getting home on Sunday.  We normally always come home on Saturday because Drew has church on Sunday mornings.  He took the Sunday off so we didn’t get home until today.  I have to make sure I take the kids to school tomorrow and not church!  ha ha!

So here are our first beach pictures of the year.  Enjoy!

Ms. SassypantsShould have taken these Sunday but I forgot.  The kids with their Mother’s Day presents they made for me.Mimo bought Will new trucks.  They were a big hit on the beach.One handsome beach bum!Jumping waves action shots!Walking at Barefoot Landing in Myrtle Beach.The kids on the same steps Drew sat on as a kid at his grandparents’ old beach house.He blinged out his bike.So of course she had to as well.I wonder what they were talking about.  Although it looks like Will is yelling.  I have no idea how her hair got to the top of her head.  It didn’t start out there!She is so stinking cute!  This girl can have so much fun.  Does that smile melt your heart or what?Hey, I was at the beach, too!Daddy was ‘throwing’ the kids in the water!

And just for fun – pictures of the kids each summer at the beach.  My how they have changed!  Lindy couldn’t even sit up by herself the first time they ever went!

2008:2009:

2010:

2011:

2012: