That day I thought would be so far off...

...has almost arrived.  K is graduating from preschool tomorrow!

I remember marching him in to his 3-year-old preschool class almost 2 years ago thinking kindergarden was so far off, but here we are!  Why do the days have to be so long and yet the time just flies by?

And for the record, K is ready and MUCH more excited about kindergarden than his mommy is - he can't wait to get started!

Let the fun begin!

Oh, she is getting so naughty! As much as I baby her, she's starting to show her true colors and exert her little will a bit. She's now throwing her food on the floor, batting away things we offer her, throwing toys off the upstairs landing, climbing on things she knows she shouldn't (and giving us impish little grins that let us know she knows...), smacking my hands when she gets mad, sneaking up the stairs when I turn my back, ripping my glasses off and throwing them, yelling when we don't let her have the phone or remote control or a tube of diaper cream to chew on, arching her back and resisting being put in her high chair...

It's a good thing she's so stinkin' cute, or I'd start to think she's quite the little stinker!

Highlights from the beach

I was a little unsure of how the weekend would go with 8 adults and 12 children, but I am pleased to report that the weekend was GREAT! Every time we get together with any of these friends, our kids all just pick up right where they left off and have so much fun together. I know this is a group that truly I will always call family. I love to see how big the kids are getting, especially the three boys. This time K is just about as tall as the other two, and with their faces thinning out and their arms and legs getting longer, they look like such big guys to me! Those 3 kept disappearing downstairs together to play with the pool table, and several times I found bunches of them sitting on K's bed watching bowling, Nascar, and American Idol reruns on the TV in his room. It was a glimpse of how easy vacationing with kids will be as they get older, and why it might be a good idea to invite playmates along when we go to the beach!
Here are some pictures. If you want to see more, let me know and I'll send you a link to my Shutterfly album.

EB's first visit to the beach - took her a little while to warm up to the sand, and she was nervous about the noisy (and freezing!) waves, but as soon as she discovered she could crawl around in the sand and that sand by the fistful is quite tasty, she was a happy girl. Look at all those kids on the beach behind EB - and there were still 4 more not pictured!


Buddies since babes - my little people were supposed to have hair like that!

Getting ready to test out the water - she proved to be quite the beach babe. She could not get enough of the water. She ran in and out of the ice cold waves constantly and was never phased by waves that pulled her down and soaked her from head to toe. Seemed like the wetter and sandier, the better!

True to form, K was a little nervous about the water at first, but on our second visit to the beach he got brave, first waiting for the water to come up and wash over his toes, then letting water wash into his bucket, and finally running through the waves with all his friends.

Geof was the designated bedtime story reader each night.

Fun with beachballs in the car port under the house

On Saturday morning we had perfect weather to take the big kids for a visit to Jockey's Ridge - giant sand dunes perfect for climbing up and sliding down, ensuring a good night's sleep that night! It was quite a workout!

The kids brought kites to take advantage of all the wind on the ridge. At the base of the ridge there was a giant "puddle" filled with tadpoles. A started digging through the sand trying to catch one, and before too long all the kids were into it. I don't think anyone got as wet and sandy as our little girl, who was totally in her element belly-crawling through the muck. She was a mess from head to toe and in absolute heaven!

We did a couple things with just our little group of 5 - we took the kids to Kitty Hawk Kites, a fun kite store I remember going to every time I went to Nags Head as a kid, and we let K climb the rock wall. On our way home Monday, we went to the NC Aquarium at Roanoke Island - a great little aquarium that made the perfect pit stop.

I think we are going to plan to do something like this every year, so here's looking forward to another great trip!

550 pictures...

That's just WAY too many pictures from one weekend! My goal for the weekend was to get 1 group picture. We went to the beach with 12 children, ages 4 months - 5 years. I didn't get a picture that included the babies, but I think I got a few good ones of the "big kids" to choose from. More posts and pictures later, but here's a few group ones. What wonderful kids these are! We miss them a lot, and it was great to all be together again!

Take 1: Everyone on the porch

Take 2: Everyone off the porch

Take 3: Everyone grab a beachball

Take 4: Everyone race through the water!

Watch EB Grow!

My blog is getting LONG because of 11 months of baby pictures trailing down the side bar... In June I am switching to another blog, so I thought I'd go ahead and clear those "Watch EB Grow" pics from the side bar and put together a little slide show in this post. Then when I have her 1-year-old pic, I'll post the entire series on her birthday on the new blog site. Got it? :) So for now, here's 11 months of growth:

music © 10,000 Maniacs

Yay! Yay!

Here's a really quick clip of Ellary saying one of her words - it's my favorite! She says it all the time, sometimes squealing it over and over at the top of her lungs (and for the record, at 11 months her words are: Da-da, Ad-da [Addie], Aaah-da [all done], yay, uh-oh, duh [dora], jhu [George], oooooh [moo - she moos at any animal, not just cows], and da [ball, her favorite word].

Happenings

While it looks like Addie came down with green measles, the spots are actually the result of an afternoon painting project. We've made bubble prints a number of times, but it's never been this messy. I used store-bought bubble solution rather than homemade solution to mix with the paint, and it sprayed everywhere! Oh well, lesson learned. Addie thought it was fun and she liked seeing all the green spots on her face!

It's been a season for kids here at our house, so I haven't had much time to sit and blog. We had little friends from church spend the day with us on Sunday, and Addie has absolutely fallen in love! Here are a few pics from that day (the day ended with a bonfire at another friend's house, where the kids were supposed to eat s'mores but were too grossed out by the brown toasty marshmallows to try them!).

J&J bucketheads and the boys in the playhouse - it was so sunny outside!

Addie is in love...she's been asking for her new friend since Sunday! Today she hoped he would come to her house and she wanted me to pick out something very pretty for her to wear for him. :)

This morning we had lots of kids over for the morning to give some moms a quick break, and this weekend we are headed to the beach with dear friends we knew in Maryland. There will be 8 adults and 12 kids ages 5 and under! Jenni calls it a vacation - I'm calling it, well, we'll just have to see how it all turns out! ;) I'm sure there will be pictures.