Anna's Latest Stage Performance

Anna took a camp this week at Town Theater with her favorite teacher, Ms. Jamie. It was a fairy tale camp and they worked on Hansel and Gretel. Today we went to the theater to see all the kids perform the fairy tale skit. Anna played the part of the witch!!! Her main excitement from this part was the "costume." She said "Mom, wait until you see my dress and my hat. The dress has feathers on it!" I was really blown away by how well she had learned her lines in a week. Up until this point she has had only one or two lines in the plays but she had 7 or 8 lines this time. She didn't forget any!! I was so proud of her! She is really very funny about the whole acting thing. She told Patrick Monday when he dropped her off for her first day of camp, "Daddy, this is what I want to do for my job." She cried today when the play was over, just like she has after each one. She told me yesterday that a another girl in her class that had never been in a play before asked her what to do if she got "stage fright" ? Anna's reply to her was, "That can't happen." Patrick bought her flowers last night and she was so excited this morning when he gave them to her. After the play was over she got to come out in the audience in her costume to see her guests... Jack and Alec were both so funny looking at her. Jack was touching her as if she was some kind of Movie star. He couldn't take his eyes off of her! We had a very nice time today.

The new member of our family... Coley!!!

Patrick and I went away for the night in June for 24 hours of rest and relaxation. We however found a way to make our lives a little more exciting and busy. We got a puppy for the children!!! It wasn't the kind of dog we were originally looking for but it turned out to be much better choice. Coley is a cutie patootie cockapoo who can be an inside dog, only gets about 20 pounds, and does not shed!! Patrick and I never saw ourselves as small dog people but I now can surely see some advantages. The kids had no idea we were getting a puppy. Anna has been asking a lottttttttt lately about when are we going to get a dog, "the cats aren't fun!" I knew it was time to get a dog when one day I found her setting up an obstacle course for Missy and she was going to try to train her. For those of you who know Missy, you get how that is going to turn out. Missy has not wanted to be an inside cat since the day we got her and her mind was made up when babies started toddling around. Needless to say when we brought the puppy in the house the kids went crazy with excitement, except Alec. Alec was not sure of the puppy and was a bit afraid of him, but after a couple days he started coming around. Coley has been a really good dog so far. We are in the midst of trying to house train because we are determined to have a house dog! He seems very smart and very loving!

Visit to Grandpa and Lori's

The weekend of July 12th Patrick and I took Anna and Jack up to Franklin, NC to visit with Grandpa and Lori. Nana was kind enough to keep Alec who does not enjoy the car (understatement) and had been fighting ear infections again. We had a very nice scenic drive there and once we got there the kids were busy the whole time! They got to experience lots of things they don't see at home on a daily basis. They picked plums, peaches, blueberries, blackberries, apples, and vegetables which they thoroughly enjoyed! They came close to making themselves sick on Blueberries. They both rode Grandpa's tractor, made homemade blueberry and apple pies, birdwatched and visited with the horses! Jack found a pair of binoculars that he had stuck to his face just about the whole time, he will surely need a pair of those for his birthday. Anna would have stayed outside the entire time if we had let her, she really enjoys nature. On Sunday Grandpa took Anna and Jack to dig up their own worms for fishing. This was the part that Anna did not enjoy quite so much especially the idea that we were going to have to put a hook through a worm. She said she wasn't going fishing but later changed her mind. I might have told a small white lie...we may have just wrapped her worm around the hook... luckily it didn't become an issue. Grandpa's pond was stocked with fish so catching a fish was a sure thing and that is definitely what you need for a 3 year old and a 6 year old. From the time the worm hit the water it wasn't 3 minutes before they had a bite. I'm afraid Jack would have lost all faith in fishing had he not caught something. Jack and Anna both caught their first fish on Sunday and the excitement for them was overwhelming. Jack caught a few large catfish and Anna caught a giant trout, it made their day and made Jack's whole year! We had a really nice visit and look forward to visiting again.

Litchfield 2008

The weekend before July 4th Patrick and I took the babies to Litchfield like last year. We had such a great time again! We stayed in the building that is directly next to the waterpark so it was very convenient. They were all old enough this year to really enjoy the splash pool, lazy river, beach, etc. At night I don't know who was more tired, us or the kids!! Anna found a live Conch under the sand that people came down the beach to see, so it made her feel very special! Anna had no fear of the ocean which I am not sure is a good thing but at least my ocean fears have not been passed on to her. Jack took his fishing pole and spent a lot of time just casting into the ocean. He was sure he would catch a shark or something exciting!! He also enjoyed his Spiderman kite and flying it all over the beach. Alec spent most of his time digging in the dirt and snacking!! He had a great time covering Patrick with sand! He actually was a little bit scared to go in to the ocean too far, but has no fear of pools! We took a visit to the Shark mouth beach store again, went a few times for ice cream, went once to the marina but mostly we just stayed at the resort and relaxed. Looking forward to doing it again next year!

Jack's 3rd Birthday!!! We love you!

We celebrated Jack's birthday at the bowling alley at his request. He had been bowling one time before this and he really enjoyed it. He can barely pick the ball up but he has the best time watching it roll "sloooooooooowly" down the lane. Thank goodness for gutter blockers! Jack had a dinosaur cake but I am sorry to say that was his second choice. I was unable to fulfill his first request for a "Jonah and the Whale" cake. Let me tell you. I searched high and low. I called every bakery in Columbia and just about every one asked "what kind of cake???" There is a story behind this Jonah and the whale thing. This is Jack's favorite story of all time up to this point. He can tell you the entire story including words and phrases like "Ninevah and the sea will be calm again." He is hilarious. He will also be glad to tell you the story of David and Goliath fully equipped with words like Israelite and Philistine. But back to the birthday.... he had a great time and even enjoyed the dinosaur cake. Happy Birthday buddy, we love you!

Hole in One!!!!

The last day we were at the beach, Patrick played golf with James, Allen and one of Allen's friends. They were on hole 7 at a beautiful golf course called True Blue, Patrick hit his shot and saw it land close to the green. Everyone was apparently trying to find the ball until someone looked in the hole for laughs and saw it in there! Hole in One. Congratulations to my husband who does not get to play golf as often as he should but he may have to start now! Anna insisted on getting him a cake before he got home from golf and we had a small celebration for him.

Family Beach Trip

We went to Garden City Beach last week with the Darby clan. We were busy!!! The kids had a great time because the more excitement the better and there was definitely some excitement. When you have 24 people in one house it gets very interesting. Nobody got sunburned (we love our ONE STEP AHEAD sunsuits, so convenient!!!) and nobody was seriously injured (major accomplishment)! Jack still was not fond of the sea grass, Anna was still a waterbug, and Alec still was not afraid of anything! We were very lucky to have a pool where we were staying and Jack was much more calm in pool water, he must take after me! Looking forward to next year!

For a link to the children's SPF suits:

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=525797&parentCategoryId=100180&categoryId=100182&subCategoryId=100184