Father/Son Overnighter

I'm sure this title intrigued you all as you know we only have daughters. But as Tim reminds everyone he is both a father and a son. This year Tim decided to go to the overnighter. Which meant that I was at home with the girls and not much different than how our life is normally. The girls and I decided to invite a few friends that were going to be home also just with the moms and daughters. We made pizza, ate, and then the girls were upstairs playing their hearts out which left us moms to sit and visit for a few hours. It was so much fun for me, so much fun for the girls and Tim loved getting some guy time. His first remark coming home: "I forgot how crude boys can be."

While we visited these girls formed a band! (Livie is the bodyguard.)

McKenna and her little friend Bianca (McKenna calls her Wonka.

School is in Session!

Here they are, ready for the first day of school. This year is so different. Alexa is now in 6th grade, which around here is the first year of middle school. Not to mention that her school is in downtown Winston Salem. She is attending Hanes which is a Magnet school. And yes, they wear uniforms and I am LOVING it! We heard such great things about it, did some research and found that we know a few families in our ward that have children that go there also. Logistically it's great because Tim works about 2 minutes away. We now have a new morning routine around this house and it is working well for us. Everyone is out the door on time and very little stress (except for when Maya can't find her shoes, which happens every other morning.) We've stayed on track for a month now so hopefully we can keep up the momentum for the rest of the year. My two other darlings are in 1st and 3rd grade now. They are loving their teachers and so far so good.

Little Miss McKenna is enjoying the quiet around the house. I was afraid she would be lonely without her playmates but she must be like her momma and enjoys her alone time (as long as it she's in the same room with me.) Here she is taking care of her "babies". She's my only daughter that REALLY plays with her babies.

Helping with the laundry (notice daddy's socks.)

Part III Carriage Ride and Boone Hall

Before we left, we asked many of our friends for suggestions of things to do on our trip. The most popular thing was to take a carriage ride. I didn't know how I would feel about it. Was it going to be worth the money? Were the kids going to enjoy it? It turned out to be my favorite activity. We got to see so much of downtown. Beautiful OLD homes with so much history. The only problem is for some reason we were so into listening to the guide and looking we didn't hardly take any pictures (not to mention that McKenna was tired and didn't want to sit still.) If you ever make it to Charleston - take a carriage ride. I can't wait to go back and experience it again. Here are our very few pictures of the ride:

Check out the cobblestone streets. AWESOME!

BOONE HALL

We spent an afternoon at a Plantation. I've always wanted to go and see one. It's fascinating to me. The home was beautiful and the grounds were incredible.(See Abuela was here after all.)

This plantation had a row of slave houses. This last one had a stage and this man shared stories, music, language and culture of the slaves back in the day.

Thanks Abuela and Grumps for such a fun trip. But more importantly, thanks for visiting us and sharing memories with us and our children.

Part II - Fort Sumter

Our first adventure out in Charleston, we took a boat over to Fort Sumter. It was where the Civil War began. The first battle started there. It was impressive. The girls loved the boat ride and enjoyed climbing all around and exploring the fort.

These dolphins just came right up to the side of our boat and started showing off.

What kind of fort would it be without cannons?

The boat trip back!

Alexa and Grumps - check out their glasses!

Grumps and McKenna

View of the fort from the boat!

I promise Abuela was there, I don't know how she escaped the photo shoots!

My new favorite place - Charleston, SC Part I

We LOVE the south. We love the history. We love the people, We love the beautiful plants and green, green grass. We even love the weather (when it's not too humid.) We LOVE how much we can see in a day's drive and even a few hours drive. So when Tim's parents called and said they were coming to see us and wanted to take us some place, we jumped at the chance. We chose Charleston. We were only there a few days and I know there is soo much more to see. I can't wait to go back. Here are a few photos from our first day.

This tree was outside our hotel room.

Two cute girls loving being on vacation!

We arrived in Charleston just before dinner so we headed downtown to Bubba Gump's. It was so good and the kids LOVED it also. The only bummer, trying to find parking.

Bubba Gump's

Check out this Post!

My sweet little niece who is, I think around 10 years old, wrote a letter to Obama. What a smart girl she is. Go HERE to check it out.

The Follow up

I found a few pictures that I thought I'd share. Poor little McKenna. After the protest in Raleigh, we hit the road with my nephews. We stopped to get a few groceries and climbed back in the car. I am sure I was a sight with 6 kids following me through the store. We drove almost the entire way home when all of a sudden (2 miles from our exit) McKenna threw up. Not just a little, either. Since we were so close I just drove straight home. I pulled McKenna out, took her to the backyard along with her car seat and started hosing everything off (including McKenna.) I ran up stairs gave her a bath and dress her in some clean clothes. Then back down stairs to unload the groceries and all the kids bags, started laundry from the girls being gone, started some dinner and tried to keep the kids outside so I could complete my tasks. While I was starting dinner I realized that I hadn't heard McKenna and had this fear that she had thrown up someplace. I headed upstairs to find the little darling asleep right on the floor. Poor girl. What a day!

Don't you just want to eat her up?

Fun with Protesting!

After getting back from the wedding my sister and I planned on swapping kids for a while. The plan was that she would take my kids for a few days and then we would meet and I would get my kids and take hers with us for a few days. She is in Raleigh and we had been trying to keep the driving back and forth to a minimum. We would both drive halfway. Well, a few days before we were to meet, Maren called me with excitement in her voice. She found out that Obama was coming to speak in Raliegh about his Health Care Plan and thought it would be great for me to come out there, do some protesting and then take all the kids after that. If you know me at all, you know I would jump at the chance, which I did. Here are a few pics from the day. 2 favorite stories: 1. While we were walking down the street with signs and kids in tow, a man was walking past and asked if we were going to see the president. Maren quickly responded with, "NO, but we hope he sees us." 2. Maren has a friend from church that is quite the activist. She said to me, "Yeah, I usually bring markers and coloring books for my little kids and lots of candy." I commented to her that I LOVED how she said, usually, like she does this all the time. Her reply was, "Well, this is our 5th one. I guess I'm a hippy at heart." Love it.

My cuties. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the look on Livie's face while she's holding her sign.

Like, Don't mess with me, Obama.
Maren's little cuties!

Maya and Hyde.

My fun sister who is as crazy as me. Love it.

I totally love this sign!

We had a little entertainment out there. These two had Hillary and Obama masks on and went in the street and started dancing.

So of course, we all had to get our picture taken with these "celebrities".

Secret Service

The Motorcade

This lady was awesome. She went across the street and stood right next to these planned parenthood people. I saw them "talking" a few times. This was the largest pro govt. health care crowd there was. (Must have been before they started paying people.) A guy on our side of the street started yelling across the street (after reading these ladies signs.) "Women's Health Matters, PAY FOR IT YOURSELF!" That was as radical as it got. I get so annoyed when I see the news and they are talking about all the violence and crazies out there. I can say first hand that I have never seen any of that. Everyone is respectful and abiding by the laws. Surprise, surprise that the media would get it wrong.

It wouldn't be a fun protest without these cute babies.

I wasn't going to add this but in case you want to see the whole motorcade, Alexa recorded it.