North Carolina Trip - Day 1

I took the boys to North Carolina again this summer on my own.  And we survived the long car ride!  It took us 11 1/2 hours to drive from our house to my mom's house in Wilmington.  That was with minimal stops and eating all meals in the car.  The boys did amazing.  There was plenty of "how much longer?" and "I don't ever want to drive this far ever again" and "I want to go home", but it was manageable.  Considering Carter didn't nap and Rylan only slept 10 minutes and I didn't go crazy, it was a success :)

Must say that there are perks to a minivan!  When Carter needed to pee, I could get off on a rural exit ramp, unbuckle him reaching from my seat, and open his sliding door so he could just pee out the car.  It really reduced our stopping time!

When we arrived in Wilmington around 7:30 pm Eastern, we picked up my mom and headed straight to Wrightsville Beach so the kids could burn off a little energy.  We pulled their shovels out of our toy bag and they were content to dig lots of holes.

First steps into the ocean this summer ...

And Rylan's first steps into the ocean this summer ...

 Love this little series of photos from Rylan's second steps into the ocean ...

Love evenings on the beach ... It's empty, there always seems to be a nice breeze, and sunsets can be beautiful!

Super sweet boy!

 Walking down the beach with Grandma ...

We headed back after about an hour to unpack the car and get ready for bed.

Lots more beach pictures to come!

Older Recent Pictures

I was going through my draft folder and found this post started from a few weeks ago.  Here are a few pictures from the end of June and beginning of July ...

Brian made the kids a massive fort in the bonus room using my painting sheets.  It stayed together for a few days before overuse brought it all down :)

My dad visited around Rylan's birthday.  He wasn't able to make it here last Christmas and this was the first time we've seen him this year.  So we finally exchanged Christmas gifts.  One thing he got the boys was this giant helium shark with a remote control.

One of Rylan's favorite presents from his birthday party was this Ninja Turtle backpack that is a water gun.  He loves to soak the entire screened porch with it.

We met Missy and Heather at Missy's neighborhood pool a few weeks ago.  The kids decided to do a group jump into the pool ...

Junior Swim Team Conclusion

Junior swim team ended for Carter on July 3rd.  The last week it was only him and two other kids since most of the kids were on vacation or graduated to regular swim team - it was an awesome week of lots of individual attention (and a ton of laps).  Carter learned so much and truly enjoys swimming now.

It was really difficult to push Carter to do it at first - he was very stressed about it and would almost cry at the beginning of practice each day (I think there were a few tears in the goggles).  Carter wouldn't talk at all as we drove to practice - he was so focused on his fear of practice.  He'd beg me each day not to go.  But he did it.  And finally, maybe the last 2 weeks (???), he actually wanted to go to practice.  Ultimately I'm really glad I pushed him (though it was a bit stressful for us all)!

Carter was even sad when junior swim team practice was over.  The end-of-season banquet was when we were in North Carolina but I stopped by the other day to get Carter's participation medal (which I couldn't find), but found these in his folder.

Apparently Carter won "Most Improved" for his age group (which included the regular swim team kids as well).  He is so proud of his award!  It's hanging on his wall with all his medals and trophies.

We also got Carter's ribbon for the one race he did at the last swim team competition.

Going to the pool is so much more fun with Carter now that he can swim.  He's lost a ton of endurance already but is still able to do a 25-yard freestyle.  He loves to dive down to the bottom and do all sorts of silly tricks.  I'm really glad he did junior swim team too because he got a lot more attention than he would have on a regular swim team.  Hopefully next year though he'll be up for doing regular swim team!  I think if I can remind him he gets awards, he'll be up for it :)

On a side note, Rylan is swimming so well!  He can jump in and swim at least 10 feet with a freestyle stroke.  I think he's picked it up from watching Carter (I had to drag him to all of Carter's junior swim team practices).

Recent Pictures

I haven't been taking a lot of pictures lately because our main activity every day is going to the pool (either the Y or a neighborhood pool with some of our friends).  But here are a few from this week ...

On Tuesday we stopped by the Brentwood Library for storytime and to turn in the boys' summer reading logs.  Their prizes included a magnetic drawing board, a slinky, and pop rocks.

We went swimming with Suzy on Thursday at her neighborhood pool.  These two (Hutch & Rylan) were over swimming before the rest of the kids so I took them to the playground outside of the pool to play for a little bit.

Rylan asked to draw on Brian's whiteboard in his home office the other day.  I was "brave" and pulled a chair up to it for him and left him alone with a marker!  He called me in a few minutes later to show me he'd written his name!  This is a huge step for him.  Rylan is such a perfectionist that when we work on it together, he rarely gets past the "R" because it's not perfect.  Granted, this isn't perfect, but all the letters are there!!!  And some look pretty good :)

The boys and I met Laura (with McCabe and Cole) at Cheekwood on Friday.  It was actually not too hot in the shade and the two pregnant mamas weren't too uncomfortable!

The boys spent most of our time by the lakes that are joined by waterfalls.  Laura let her boys take off their shoes so I couldn't deny my boys joining in on the fun.  Unfortunately Rylan and Cole each slipped at the top of one of the waterfalls and landed on their butts in the water.  Neither were very happy.  Luckily we both had extra shorts for them since they are both still not 100% potty trained (that's for another post).

And one of these posts wouldn't be complete without a picture of Rylan having fallen asleep on the couch!

Rylan's Birthday Party

On to the actual party!!!

So we had originally planned on renting an inflatable water slide for the party.  And that was pretty much going to be it - didn't plan on spending much on anything else.  Just some snacks, drinks, and goody bags.  However, the morning of the party, the rental company called because there was an 80% chance of rain during our scheduled party time (2:30 to 5 pm).  Even though the inflatable has water running through it, you cannot get the blower wet so it cannot be run in the rain.  Even if it ended up not raining, if the rental company set up the inflatable, we'd be charged the entire $250.  After a little deliberation, we decided to not risk it and cancel the inflatable waterslide.  Then we spend the next few hours scrambling to come up with a few more activities for the kids (which I hated because that day was Rylan's actual birthday so pre-party wasn't much fun for him).  We ended up adding making numchucks, a balloon pop, and a piñata.

And then, of course, we didn't get a single drop of rain in the afternoon (it did pour in the morning though).

Besides setting up all our water toys, we also got out our cornhole boards, sandboxes, balls, frisbees, and basketball goal.  It was plenty to keep everyone entertained but the inflatable waterslide would have been more fun!

Our first guests were Christian and Campbell who didn't get to stay long since they had another birthday party to attend at the same time but it was good to catch up with them since we hadn't seen them since school ended.

We ended up with a total of 21 kids plus Rylan and Carter so it ended up being pretty crazy at times!

After everyone arrived we set up the white ninja balloons.  Inside each balloon was a few pieces of candy.  I thought it was going to be slightly difficult to pop the balloons but our grass is apparently very sharp!  We popped several just putting them out!

"On your mark, get set, ..."

"GO!"

Rylan collecting some candy ...

It took a good minute to pop all the balloons :)

Rylan was having lots of fun!

Between my handful of planned activities, the kids had fun on the slip and slide and spraying each other with water guns.

Piñata time!

Brian picked up the piñata the morning of the party so I blame our lack of planning time on not taping the pull string area - doh!!!  Two good hits from Rylan and one from Carter and it was pretty much done!  Oops!

We switched to a piece of PVC after Carter which made it kind of last through a few more kids.

Luckily at least a couple of pieces of candy still fell out per kid until the end.  We also didn't let anyone pick anything up until every kid got a hit.

The next big thing was singing to Rylan and having cupcakes.

(Rylan is very protective of getting to blow out his candle!)

Love that dimple!!!

The official party ended at 5 pm. But we had an "after-party" for anyone that could stay (which was almost everyone).  We roasted hot dogs over the fire pit (and I also had some bbq chicken for the adults).  A lot of my friends also brought along a side of some sort to share with the group.  It ended up working out really well.

After dinner we made smores!

I think all the kids had a blast!

After everyone left (a little after 7 pm), we left Rylan open his presents from all his friends.

He got lots of cool things, including some fun Ninja Turtle stuff.

Happy birthday, Rylan!!!