Sandbridge, VA

Seeing the ocean for the first time this year

Peyton demonstrating the back stroke. She does much better on her back.

We went to Sandbridge last week and had a wonderful time at the beach. It was blazing hot each day and there were a few incredible storms, but for the most part, the weather was perfect for sitting on the beach and by the pool. Liam was swimming without floaties by the end of the week and was so proud! Peyton's swimming improved too. Spending several hours in the pool each day helped a lot. Peyton wasn't scared of the ocean and went out with Mark, but Liam stayed on the shore. He was content to stay out of the waves. It was so nice to be away from home, but great to be back. Only 4 weeks until school starts, yikes! I feel like the summer has gone way too fast.

Rain day Fun

Peyton and Liam were so excited to play in the rain this week. After about 2 weeks of dry weather, we had two days of rain. They ran outside and played in it for about 15 minutes. I stayed dry in the garage with my camera! Our brown grass has greened back up a bit and our garden seems to be doing fine. We have only picked one large tomato and about 6 grape tomatoes so far, but we are hoping for a big crop of tomatoes!

It's July!

All dressed up in our Egyptian garbPeyton really got into the eye makeup

And so did Liam (he has to be just like his sister)

Riven Rock Park

Completely wiped out after a long day of playing in the stream and hiking around the park

We have been so busy this past month. Our church just finished vacation Bible school and we had a great, but very tiring time. We did an ancient Egyptian theme and the children studied the life of Joseph. The volunteers and children got dressed in costume each night and I think that was part of what made it so much fun. Mark was Joseph each night and the kids would yell hello at him every time they saw him, in or out of costume.

We stayed in town during the holiday weekend. We spent Saturday downtown enjoying our town's local July 4th festivities. We watched a down home parade and ate cotton candy and bounced on inflatables at our church. We did not stay up for fireworks because we had so many late nights during VBS. We heard later that the town fireworks were only 10 minutes. I'm so glad we didn't keep the kids up late.

Mark had Monday off so we drove to Riven Rock Park, about 15 miles outside of town. We ate a picnic under the shade of the trees and then we let the kids play in the stream. They had a blast. By the time we left they were completely soggy and wet. Peyton went home in Mark's t-shirt and Liam went home with no clothes on! Mark tried to put a pair of his boxers on Liam, but he complained that they were too big, so we threw a towel on his carseat and drove home. He kept saying he wasn't tired in the car, but about 5 miles from home he crashed. We carried him in and put him on the couch and he slept for about an hour.

We have had such an incredible heat wave these past few days. We were spoiled last week with high temperatures in the high 70's/ low 80's and now it's 100 today. We went out this morning to run a few errands and then we came home. I am so grateful for a nice cool house and the ability to get out of the heat. Our grass is dead and our veggies are suffering from lack of water. We're hoping for some nice rain soon.

June is great!

Peyton's last day of kindergarten

New hair cut for summer

Summer is here and so far I haven't heard the words, "I'm bored!" We have been very busy since Peyton's last day of school. We visited Nonna in Richmond for a few days, stopped by the family farm for an afternoon, and have been taking swimming lessons. It has been crazy hot so we haven't spent a lot of time outside. We are taking a one hour rest almost every day and that has been fantastic for me. I get to rest and take it easy and they are quiet in their rooms, reading, playing, resting. We did take an afternoon to weed out some toys from their rooms and we're going to tackle the basement next. There are WAY too many toys in our house and it's been good to have them involved in making the decision about what stays and what goes. We have such a full summer planned that I'm savoring these days at home with just a few things on the schedule!

Rainy Day Fun & a Visitor

Last Saturday we had a substantial downpour (that lasted all of 5 minutes or so). Mark had been standing on the porch with Peyton and Liam and he said, "I'm going to go run around the apple tree" and then took off. Before I knew it, all three were playing in the rain. They ran in the yard, up and down the street, in the driveway, and sat in the gutters letting the rain water hit them like a mini tidal wave. They were hilarious and so of course I grabbed my camera!

Our special visitor was a beautiful luna moth that arrived one morning and stayed on the front of our house all day. We were fascinated by it and kept going out to see if it was still there.

We are very excited by the fact that there are only 3 days of school left for Peyton. We cannot wait to experience summer and all of the fun things we have planned!

Late spring photos

This nest of robin's eggs is in the tree by our garage. The mama shrieks at us every time we get in and out of our car. I had to balance quite precariously on a stepladder and aim the camera without looking to get this shot!

Meet Carol, the ladybug (named by Peyton). She lived in the bottom of a milk jug for about 30 minutes before being released back into the wild!
Celebrating Peyton's lost tooth with local bakery goods!
Quite excited by the gap in her mouth!
We had a two headed gerber daisy in the front planter
Just off the bus - only a few more days until summer!

We are gearing up for an incredibly busy summer. We'll be out and about a lot, so I'll probably not be updating this site very often. I am very much looking forward to the end of the school year. Peyton only has 7 more days and 2 of those are half days. Liam is done for the year and so we're finding time to visit the Children's Museum, the park, etc. We are also running errands, which is NOT his favorite thing at all. He is, right now in fact, throwing a small whiny fit because we are about to run out for gas and a few groceries!

Another milestone- lost tooth!

Peyton finally lost a tooth. She has been waiting for this moment for a very long time (long for a 5 year old is like a few months!) She discovered a wiggly tooth about 2 months ago and has been very reluctant to wiggle it. It got really loose this week and she was crying about it falling out. She was scared that it would bleed and that it would hurt. I told her this morning that I could pull it for her and she said no that it was just going to fall out, but apparently she pulled it herself at school. When I picked her up this afternoon I was so surprised and excited.