First Real French Braid

Yesterday was the first time Amelia asked me to braid her hair (like Anna's from Frozen - not Elsa's, because her hair just won't do that).  She never wants me to fix her hair and if I tell her I'm fixing it, she wiggles and whines and asks a million times if I'm finished yet.  

But, for whatever reason, before we headed to church, she asked me to braid it for real.  

 While it's not perfect (because I was trying to do it as fast as possible before she decided she didn't want me to do it anymore), it doesn't look half bad.  And maybe she'll start letting me play with it more when school starts.

Ice Skating

Saturday, we decided to beat the heat and take the kids ice skating in Greenville (about an hour away). Amelia has been obsessed with ballet for a little while now and just a week ago, I found an Angelina Ballerina ice skating movie that she wants to watch 24/7, so Amelia was pretty excited!  Caleb knew he loves roller skating, so he was excited too!

 I wasn't even sure if I would be able to do it.  I can't remember the last time I went ice skating.  Luckily they had walkers for beginners.

 I won't lie, I was totally using this to help me skate, not to help her!

 Caleb loved it at first and was having a great time.

 Amelia, on the other hand, wasn't too sure about it and was on the verge of tears for a bit.  But after a little while, she was doing it on her own.

 About this time, Caleb decided he was over it and went to sit on the benches to watch us.

 His over it face.

 As usual, we're the good parents that bribed him with one more time around and we'll leave.  It got him back out on the ice :-).

 Amelia watched a little girl pushing her walker away from her, then skating back to it, so she had to try it too.

About an hour and a half in, my ankles were killing me, Caleb was pouting and Amelia and Shawn were still going.  She skated for a solid two hours and didn't want to leave!  It was a great time and I'm so glad we decided to do it!  Afterwards, we went shopping for Caleb's 1st Grade school supplies!  Sunday, we went to church, and then had a fire for the rest of the afternoon….which meant grilling out and s'mores.  We had a great weekend!

Birthday Boat Ride

Last night we went on a scenic boat ride for Shawn's birthday.  We had hoped to see the wild horses and some dolphins, but no wildlife was found.

 Our friends, The Kempf's, came along for the ride too.

 Amelia, Caleb, Molly and Sheppard.

 Usually where the horses are found.

 It was a pretty busy day out on the water.

 That's the bridge we have to go over to get out to the beach.

After the boat ride, we ate dinner at Clawson's just across from the Beaufort marina and water front.  It was a fun night out with friends.

Celebration Week

On Tuesday we celebrated Shawn's birthday!

 Tomorrow we are going on a scenic wild pony and dolphin boat ride and out to dinner to continue the celebration.

Last night, we celebrated Christmas in July with our Life Group.

Having a snowball fight before everyone got there.

Decorating sugar cookies.

(Clockwise: Caleb, Levi, Norah, Silas, Piper, Vivian, Amelia, Mathis)

 Kids gift exchange.  They all brought something they wanted to give away.  So, we kind of got rid of toys, but then we got new ones:o).

Mathis, Silas, Levi, Caleb, Amelia, Norah, Vivian, Piper, Keller and Eva.

 We had a great time and love that we get to do life with this group every week!

Blueberry Picking

Yesterday, we headed out with our friends from down the street, to go blueberry picking.  

 The kids were too busy playing and running all through the bushes, so I did most of the picking.  We ended up with about 4.5 pounds of blueberries!

4th of July Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend was pretty relaxing.  

Friday morning, we dropped the kids off at Playdate and Shawn and I headed out for a hike.  For those of you who don't know, we are going to hike the Tecumseh Trail, that runs from Martinsville to Brown County.  It's 42 miles long and I figured we I need to get in a few practice hikes with my pack.  I filled it to weigh right around 20 pounds.  We hiked 4.4 miles that morning and I was surprised at how good I felt…….that is until I woke up Saturday morning!  We're going to try to hike every weekend until we head to Indiana in August.

 Saturday afternoon, we headed downtown to go to the Tryon Palace, which was fee that day.

 It was really hot that day, so we walked through the gardens and after that, everyone was done.

We stopped at the Pepsi store for a few drinks.

 Later that night, we headed back downtown to watch the fireworks.  We found some friends and played a little bit and even did some sparklers.

 Then it was time for the fireworks.  For a small town, New Bern has a great little fireworks show.

Happy 4th of July!