A Sad Ending

When Luke went to school one day in March, we never thought that would be his last day in the 2's class for that school year. Coronavirus took away the end of the school year for all kids, and even though that was a much bigger deal to all the older kids, it was still a sad thing to lose. The preschool decided to end the school year on a somewhat celebratory note with a drive through goodbye parade. But the weather pretty much said it all...a rainy sad ending to what was turning out to be a pretty good school year for Luke. 

We made signs and hopped in the car to join the parade line...

We are grateful for the teachers he had- Ms. Kelly and Ms. Karen- and a classroom full of fun boys (and girls). But now it's time to move on to the next year and hope it will be more normal!

Raven Rock State Park

Road trip to Lillington! You don't hear that every day, but we decided to make the hour drive to Lillington to explore Rave Rock State Park. It's on the Cape Fear River and actually really cool. Pretty views of the river, giant rocks to explore, and an easy hike to get to these spots. The kids enjoyed it. But they might have enjoyed the Bojangles tailgate afterwards a little bit more.

Turns out Campbell University is right near Raven Rock State Park so we got our chicken, drove through campus, and found a shady spot to tailgate and have lunch.

Do we ever need to go back to Lillington? Probably not. But now we've seen another state park and had a little day adventure.

Desperate Times

When you're desperate for entertainment for your kids, you purchase a giant waterslide, spend an hour trying to figure out how to fill/inflate it, ruin your grass in the process, discover it doesn't actually work very well, throw it away, and then throw as many popsicles at them as possible! Desperate times call for desperate measures!

A Treasure

Christmas came early for me! My sweet Grandmother got an unexpected gift of some money and passed it right on down to her Granddaughters. I decided to use her generosity to buy something near and dear to my heart...my blog books! 

I started doing this blog when Collins was a couple of months old. I wanted to capture all the memories we made with her, and I knew with my terrible memory I needed something more than photos. I wanted words and stories to go along with the photos so I could remember all the special moments we had with her. That started the blog, and from the blog came these treasured books. Whenever the kids ask me a question about when they were younger, I go straight to the blog book. It's got all the answers there! 

These books are kind of pricey, but worth every penny. So it was the perfect way to use Baba's gift. I am still way behind on my blogging and book making, but these four beauties helped me catch up. They are truly a treasure!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is my favorite because it's the one day us Moms get...

1) Service with a smile...

2) Sweet surprises...

3) To do any activity we want and the family HAS to say yes..

4) Quality time with our cute little people...and if we are really lucky we might even get guac!

A Bed Full...

of cuties!

To the Patch

We love Page Farm's strawberry patch mainly because we can eat our body weight in fresh strawberries right out of the field...

A small portion of them make it home and get turned into a dessert immediately!

The Toothless Wonder

 How cute is she without teeth? They are falling out left and right for this little six-year-old!

Downtown Bike Ride

We took about one million bike rides during COVID. And to this day, if you suggest going on a bike ride my kids scream, "NO!" Clearly, I traumatized them, but there was seriously nothing else to do those days. But one day, Brian got creative and suggested his work parking garage as a new biking destination. Turns out it's pretty fun to zoom through a giant empty indoor paved lot...

then ride across a bridge...

weave through the government buildings...

take a tour of Dad's building...

and then finish up at the Capitol. It will eat up a couple hours doing the downtown government tour, and they actually enjoyed it. So a win, win for this creative bike ride!