A 3rd Birthday Party in Pictures

Blowing out the candles

So many fun new toys

Food Table (menu: chicken salad croissants, pizza pinwheels, kids' PBJ's and turkey sandwiches, fruit, veggies, chips & cheese balls)

Lots of little friends!  (Robertson, Simeon, Luke, Liam, Katie, Addison, John, Ben, Lia, Abigail, Evalyn & Esther)

Dump Trucks, Buckets & Shovels for serving food

The boys

Playing "Pin the Scoop on the Excavator"

Waiting Patiently

Throwing sandbags into the dump truck

My first attempt at cake decorating and it was a hit!  Cupcakes courtesy of Daddy & Oreo Cake Pops that Josiah helped make!

Oreo crumbs for a dirt pile :)

What it's like to be 3

1 Month and counting...

Okay, so with exactly one month left, let's be honest:  here is why I'm not too sad about moving. (I posted about all the things I will miss here)

Things I will NOT miss about this place:

• being in the flightpath for Oceana.  Love our military, but the jet noise is deafening.  Huh? What'd you say?
• living below elephants my incredibly noisy upstairs neighbors.
• having to blowdry my hair in either the kitchen or Josiah's bedroom because none of the other outlets are powerful enough... who am I kidding, I never blowdry my hair.. but if I did, what a pain!  
• 850 square feet, but not a cool NYC loft.
• nasty old carpet
• tiny ugly kitchen
• 30 year old stove with lopsided burners and and oven that sets off the smoke alarm anytime I cook above 400 degrees.
• kitchen cabinets that aren't even big enough for a box of cereal or my dinner plates to fit in without tilting them.
• a rusty toilet that looks like it's full of poo, no matter how clean it really is. 
• darkness... seriously, it's like a cave.  Nap, anyone?
• roaches... big ones!
• having virtually no storage space... anywhere! 
• driving 25 minutes to church, 30 minutes to Great Bridge, 35 minutes to Mike's parents' house and many of our friends.
• doing laundry on the floor between the kitchen and my bedroom
• the big ugly super-sketchy van that is parked next to mine but never moves
• doors that won't shut (to my bedroom, bathroom, closets...)
• the ghetto being right next door.

Not to complain...

:) 

6 more weeks

6 more weeks of living by the beach and then we're moving back to our condo in Greenbrier!  It'll be our 3rd move in 2 years, but at least we're coming full-circle!  It's bittersweet.  I have a love-hate relationship with our current place. 

Things I will really miss:

• evening bike rides on the boardwalk
• Fall & Springtime at the beach
• impromptu beach trips with no planning involved
• Grommet Island Park 
• our library (cheesy as it sounds... but Josiah has been enrolled at Storytime for the last year, and I adore his teacher!)
• the Aquarium being right around the corner
• Trader Joe's & Kroger
• the Whole Foods that's about to open nearby!
• amazing Target clearance finds (apparently they are much more plentiful at the one out here)
• one-story living
• our neighborhood park
• living so close to my grandparents, to the Gathings and the Perkins... it's been so nice to spend lots of time with them all and not have to drive far!
• working out at our little Hilltop YMCA (even if it often seems like a geriatric social club)
• the Hilltop Chick-fil-A (ha! we are regulars, and we love running into friends at Family Night with Ryan the Balloon Guy!)
• sometimes going to the beach 3-4 times in one week, even if just for an hour.
• did I mention being a mile from the beach?

"Things I will NOT miss at all" post... coming soon!

Summer Vacation

We have taken a number of short trips and joined extended family for long weekend getaways over the last three years, but this past week was our first full week-long family vacation. We packed up the van and headed south to Myrtle Beach, SC. Our good friends, the Hortons, invited us to vacation with them at their family's condo on the beach and we gladly accepted. What's better than spending a week with friends and having a free place to stay?!

We got there Monday evening and the Hortons came the next night. It was an action packed week! Lily (3 1/2) and Josiah played hard and had so much fun together!

Silas (18 mo) had no problem keeping up with the "big kids" either! We spent most mornings on the beach followed by lunch and then some time in the pool. The kids wore themselves out and napped like champs from around 2-5 and then we went out in the evenings.

We took turns for date nights, and also spent some time all together walking around Broadway at the Beach and letting the kids ride some rides. With people setting off fireworks right outside our building every night, getting the kids in bed before 11 was going to be futile. So we just embraced it, enjoyed the nightly shows and let them stay up!

Suzanne and I had to live up to our reputations for bringing and cooking way too much food, so we all feasted on homemade bread, chicken salad, cheeseburgers, French toast casserole, baked oatmeal, fresh cinnamon rolls, pizza roll-ups, carnitas, greek salad, pistachio trifle and chocolate chip cookies! Yum!!!! It's back to working out and counting calories for me tomorrow though!!!

Trying Cotton Candy for the first time!

I can't believe we let him do this!  (Yes, that's Josiah 25 feet in the air!)

 

A few highlights:

• Josiah napping and sleeping all night in a big double bed for the first time.
• Josiah mastering swimming with just swim wings.
• Sitting on the balcony watching fireworks with my two favorite boys.
• Josiah fearlessly doing the bungee trampoline jump and riding a kiddie roller coaster with Suzanne.
• Shopping the outlets with Suzanne during naptimes.
• Waiting 2 hours to be served the pizza we ordered, only to get the wrong pizza!  
• When being told to go to time-out, Josiah angrily telling me "You need to listen to God...God told you not to say to say that!"  (And trying my hardest not to bust out laughing while I explained to him that actually, God told me very clearly that it's my job to discipline him because I'm his parent!)  
• Overall, we had 3 well-behaved kids, lots of fun, and great memories!

1984 to 2012

A vacation post will be coming soon but first, how cool is this?

My childhood friend, JoAnn, and I riding the ladybugs at Busch Gardens in 1984.... And then Josiah and his friend, Abigail, on the same ride... 28 years later!

Amazing day!

Yesterday, we went to Busch Gardens for the first time as a family. Actually, Mike and I had never been together either! Our good friends, the McHenrys, went with us and we couldn't have had a better day. The weather was absolutely beautiful and there were no lines at all! It was awesome! I didn't know how Josiah would do, but he LOVED LOVED LOVED it!

We started out at the Sesame Street kids area where I took him over to the Grover roller coaster. Before we could think twice about it, we were strapped in and racing around the track! It was actually really fast! He was definitely scared but not too much.. He said it was his favorite ride all day! Then he rode every kiddie ride in the park and was totally enamored with it! No fear! He took a little power nap in the stroller and then was ready for more. Check out the picture of "prince Elmo's spire" - that's Josiah right next to Mike... I can't believe he is big enough to be on there!! He was really excited about the bumper cars too although they ended up being a little harder to steer. He'll figure it out with a little practice!

Since Stephanie is 32 weeks pregnant, and couldn't ride much other than the sky ride, she was great about hanging with Josiah and Abigail every once in a while so Mike, Stephen and I could ride some roller coasters. I couldn't believe how much we got to do in a short time because there were no lines! Their 21 month old, Abigail, had a blast too. She loved riding some things with Josiah and was such a happy girl all day even though she never did take a nap!

It was just such a great day and we are excited to go back again soon. Josiah really wants to try the log flume and teacups next time! :)