A Week at the Beach

All summer long we have looked forward to our beach vacation. At the start of the summer, I was a little disappointed that we had scheduled it so late in the season because it seemed like it would take forever to get here. But in the end, I am glad that we saved it for later because it was a great way to end the summer!

This is our second year vacationing at Topsail Island, and it felt like coming home! Now that we know our way around and all the fun things we like to do, we came a little bit better prepared! In the end, that helped me to be more relaxed and thoroughly enjoy our vacation. We let Shelby bring her friend, Tori, along this time because it is not always fun to live in a house full of boys when you are a teenage girl! They had a lot of fun hanging out together and checking out all the HOT (their word, not mine!) guys!

The beach was perfect the first 5 days of our vacation and the kids had blast playing in the waves, building sand castles, boogie boarding and playing frisbee.

Chris was excited to spend his first relaxing vacation of the summer since the other two weeks of vacation time he spent were with the scouts and NOT very relaxing according to him.

The last two days we were getting alot of wind from Tropical Storm Fay and it wasn't so much fun to be on the beach, so we spent more time at the pool and sightseeing around the island.

Joshua and I went on a "turtle date" to the Sea Turtle Hospital where we got to see several of their sea turtles that are being rehabilitated and learn more about what we can do to protect them. Joshua's favorite animal in the whole world is any kind of turtle, so he loved going! We had to add a new stuffed turtle to his collection!
At night we went crab hunting. Caleb is our master crab catcher and while everyone else on the beach catches them with nets, Caleb can get them with his bare hand!

We added a new nighttime activity this year. There was a sea turtle nest near our condo that was hatching and Joshua, Caleb and I joined "sea turtle watch". For those of you who have never done this, it is an incredibly boring yet strangely addictive activity! Topsail Island is a sea turtle sanctuary and so far this year, they have 93 turtle nests on the island. The nests hatch 55-65 days after being laid. Here is Joshua with our turtle nest.

We joined in on day 55 and basically sat and waited at the nest for 2-3 hrs. every night with volunteers from the Sea Turtle Hospital. After 4 nights of watching, we became very invested in this activity and really wanted to be there for our sea turtles to hatch! It was our last night on the island and we headed out to sit with our turtle nest again around 8:30 pm only to find that it had hatched a little bit earlier and we missed it! We were so disappointed. Poor Joshua almost cried! After investing that much time, we felt like we missed the birth of our babies!

If we had been able to see the hatch, it would have looked something like this. We took the kids to the aquarium on our way home and saw this model.

We are holding out hope that next year we can try this again with greater success! On the positive side, it was very relaxing to sit on the beach each night and listen to the ocean and look at the stars. I had some good talks with the boys and we learned lots of cool things about sea turtles from the Sea Turtle Hospital nest watchers!

It is amazing the things you find out about your kids when you are on vacation. For instance, Savannah is setting her sights on a modelling career!

After a few of these poses, I asked her what she was doing and she told me that this is how Miley Cyrus looks in all of her pictures! I am sure my mom and dad have plenty of pictures to add of me posing, so what else can I say.....like mother, like daughter!

Then we went to the park one day and Samuel informs me that he is "Monkey Bar Champion" at his school! How did I miss this?!!! I asked him what that meant and he said that he can do monkey bars faster than everyone and people keep challenging him and he still wins. He can do them forward and backward and twist around while he does them! It's always fun to find out your kids hidden talents! I took this video after he had done it several times and was really starting to get tired, but take my word for it......he definitely deserves the title "Monkey Bar Champion"!



Caleb insisted that we go to the aquarium before we left the beach, so we went up to Emerald Isle and visited the aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. The kids loved seeing all the fish up close! We even got to pet a stingray!

\It soon became apparent that we had been at the beach way too long and we needed to get on our way before the kids changed any more!

On the way home we stopped off in Wilson, NC, where we used to live and visited with one of my friends, Judy. We met up at Sonic so we could all eat and visit without the kids running through her house! It was fun to see her again and she was shocked at how big the kids have grown!

We couldn't resist stopping by our old house and taking a picture! Of all the houses we have lived in, it is still my favorite house! The kids were sad that we didn't see any of their old friends hanging out in the neighborhood.

Wow! What a great week! We can't believe it is over! It is good to be home again, but we are already setting our sights on next year!

Trust Your Mommy Intuition

Caleb has been sick with mono for 6 weeks now. He has dragged all summer long. He has spent most of the time in his bed or on the couch. He complains all the time that different parts of his body hurt, but it was always something new and since the complaints weren't specific to one part of the body, I wasn't sure if I could call the dr. with that kind of non-descript complaint. I kept telling myself that this is what happens when you have mono and the tiredness, aches and pains would go away soon. But then I would see pictures that we had taken of him. He looked so weak and listless, his skin color was awful, and he had dark circles under his eyes. It shocked me everytime I looked at him and saw how bad he looked. However, not wanting to be the overactive parent, I waited till 5 1/2 wks. of mono to make another appointment at the doctor's office. The nurse practitioner that we saw was pretty rude. She basically chastised me for not waiting the full 6 wks. and told me that this was just how kids with mono acted.

I don't get mad much, but I was really MAD!!! I stood my ground and told her that when a 13 yr. old boy breaks down crying several times a week because he feels too bad to do anything, there is something wrong and I wasn't going to leave till she figured out what it was. So she agreed to check his white blood cell count (just to appease me, I think) and told me it would be low because that is what happens when you have mono. Unbelievably, she didn't even apologize to me when she came back in with the results......his white count was HIGH, indicating bacterial infection somewhere in his body. Caleb has now been on antibiotics 5 days and he is a different person! He has energy, he can go to the pool and swim with us, he actually smiles and laughs, life is good! I cannot believe that I waited so long to take him back to the dr. I really feel bad that he lost his whole summer to this. Hopefully he can have lots of fun on our family beach vacation next week and make up for some of this misery!

We Have a Fungus......

Well, not us really, but our cucumbers do indeed have a fungus! I had no idea that vegetable gardens with growing plants could get a fungus! Who knew this would become an instructional gardening blog?!!! I took a leaf from my cucumber vine into the local farm store after my dad told me it looked like I needed to spray a fungicide on the garden. They helped me pick out a fungicide that hopefully will be able to treat the garden. My squash was starting to show signs of fungal spores too, so it was just in time. There was a wealth of information at the farm store and I strongly advise you go there first rather than wasting your time at Lowes or Home Depot garden departments. I was also able to find out what happened to my other 2 squash plants....apparently there is a borer that chews through the base of a healthy squash plant causing it to go from growing nicely to dead in a matter of days. I do believe we were victims! So I am chalking this up to a very educational year in my garden and hope to try again with pesticides and fungicides from the start next year!

Fun in the Garden

It's the lazy hazy days of August and not alot is going on around our house, so I thought I would update on the garden. If anyone has gardening advice, feel free to send it my way, because we have some funky stuff going on in our garden!


Savannah has started watering her watermelon twice a day and is still asking me everytime if we can pick it yet. We have found that watermelons are a perfect plant for kids to grow because you can actually see them growing! It is amazing how we can tell that it is getting bigger everytime we water!

Our cantaloupe is not doing so well. It stopped growing and now seems to be shrivelling up. I have no idea what happened to it and we haven't see any others pop up on the vine, although there are lots of flowers.

The cucumbers continue to grow and I think they are the best thing ever! They taste SO good! Fortunately for me, I am the only one who likes them!

Something weird is going on with our cucumber plants though. I planted two plants and only one is producing cucumbers. The other one looks like this. The leaves have yellow splotches and I am starting to see this on the plant that is producing now too. Does this mean it is dying?

Here is what happens to your tomato plants when you don't use large enough baskets to support their weight. I will probably be getting half as many tomatoes now, but hey, that's better than nothing!

I am happy to report that my lone squash plant is producing more squash! I think I have about 5 on it now and I am anxiously awaiting their growth so I can EAT them!

Garden Update

The mystery is solved! Apparently my neighbor's daughter was visiting last Saturday and they sent her out to the garden to pick veggies. She didn't know that I have a small section of the garden, so she picked my squash by accident! Unfortunately there are no new squash growing yet. :(

We now have a cantaloupe and a watermelon growing! Savannah is beside herself with excitement and can't wait to pick and eat the watermelon. I am having a hard time convincing her that a watermelon the size of the palm of her hand would not taste very good! I am so glad that we decided to garden this year. It has been a really fun experience for our whole family! I just might be tempted to spend the money to take out some trees next year so we can have a full size garden in our yard!

The Game Room

A friend of ours gave us a combo pool/air hockey/ping pong table for our basement which we have been hoping to turn into a gameroom. The kids have been down there ever since we set it up last night and are in HEAVEN!
We really need to finish this part of our house to create a cool teenage hangout since our kids are getting older and wanting to have friends over more often. In our house now, the family room is right off our bedroom, so it gets kind of loud when they kids stay up and watch tv and we want to go to bed.
Of course, Savannah is still thrilled to have a place to drive her little car around in. She was unphased by the new game table, but loves having everyone else hang out with her downstairs! Maybe this will be the incentive we need to go ahead and finish our basement....or at least the gameroom portion of it!

Can You Really Love Something TOO Much?

Savannah went to get her favorite "grandma blanky" out of the dryer the other day, only to find it looking like this. She was devastated! This blanky was made by her Grandma and given to her at birth. It has been with her every night without fail for almost 5 years now. It was there to comfort her when she was tired, scared, lonely, sick or hurt. It has been dragged through dirt and mud and washed too many times to count. Shortly after Savannah came home from the hospital, her wild and crazy brother Samuel decided to bite it with his teeth and drag it away from her. That's when the first tear happened and I did my first repair on the beloved yellow blanky.

Today, I am afraid that the blanky may be well beyond repair since the fabric seems to be degrading and shredding. But how do you let go of something that is loved so much? Savannah is still happy to sleep with it, even in its current condition! Grandma, do you have enough of this fabric left over to make another one?

Garden Surprises

My little garden is finally starting to produce! When we got home from day camp on Friday, I was able to pick my first cucumber! I peeled it, sliced it up, and we all shared it; well all of us that I could convince to have a taste anyway, in spite of the fact that it was a green vegetable! It was so yummy!

My watermelon and cantaloupe plants look great but they still haven't fruited. There are lots of flowers though, so we are holding out hope.

My tomatoes are coming along nicely, although they are growing out of their tomato cages. I think next year I will use larger cages. I didn't realize when I planted beefsteak tomatoes that the small cages would be completely insufficient to support them.

Two of my yellow squash plants have died, but the third is thriving. I have been watching a squash grow on it and was so excited to pick it. Then I went out this morning and the lone squash was GONE! There is no evidence of trauma to the plant, and my neighbors have all their squash plants on the other side of the garden, so I cannot believe they would have picked it by mistake. It has just vanished into thin air! I am so disappointed because I LOVE yellow squash! My dad has this great recipe where he cooks bacon, onions and yellow squash to death, leaving no semblance of nutrients, but it tastes SO good. I was looking forward to making some with my three squash plants, but it is looking more and more like I will be getting my squash from the grocery store again this year.

Cub Scout Day Camp

It's been a long, hard, and very fun week at cub scout day camp. Savannah will miss the tot lot and is already counting down till next year! Samuel has had so much fun this year, but is disappointed that he can't really earn all the pins and belt loops till next year. It's all about the award to him, I guess!
Joshua made new friends, became a skilled marksman with the red ryder bb gun and emerged as a leader in his den. He will be an excellent webelo next year!

Shelby and Caleb worked harder than they have ever worked in their lives in 100 degree heat plus humidity! They danced and sang their hearts out all week!
Here is a fun video of Shelby and her friend doing a camp song with the kids.

After a full year of searching for and trying out different crafts, here are the ones that made the final cut! If you want to make your own, click on the title and there will be a link to instructions for how to make it.

The African Drum (Djembe)

Tahitian Tiki Tapa Bookmark

Japanese Carp Kite

Malaysian Blow Guns (okay so they are marshmallow guns!)

We also did the geodesic dome, but I have already shown that one on my blog. It was a little crazy that day, so I didn't get pictures! If anyone has any cool craft ideas for next year, send them my way!

Swim Team Awards Night

We had our end of year Swim Team banquet and awards night this week. After a full day at day camp, the kids were excited to go jump in the pool and cool off!

Savannah has been waiting to get a ribbon all year, so she was ecstatic to get participation medal!Samuel and his best friend, Timmy, are a pair to be reckoned with in the pool! They race against each other at all the practices.

Samuel got an award for Most Improved Swimmer and received his medals and ribbons from Champs.Joshua has worked hard this year on swim team and is an enthusiastic coach by cheering on all the swimmers on his team!

Caleb and Shelby were too cool to wear their medals! I thought it was cute how all the older kids just hold them!