Beach Bums

The kids are finishing up their second week of fall break. As luck would have it (or as the calendar worked out) I was able to take off all of last week to spend with everyone. As much as I wanted to spend time with my family, I think I wanted even more to catch up. I was so tired of feeling overwhelmed. So my plans for the week were to hang out with the kids and Jeff, to play outside every day, to spend two days away on a mini-vacay, to do lots of shopping and cooking and eat wonderful meals and fully stock the freezer with premade meals, to really clean the house, and to spend two half days working so I wouldn't feel like I was drowning when I went back to work. And I have to admit, I honestly believed that could all happen. (I have a long history of seriously overestimating the amount of things I can cram into a small window of time. But in my defense, I am really good at cramming lots of things into small windows of time.)

It wasn't long, though, before I realized my plans were doomed. It wasn't going to happen. And on a certain level I was pretty frustrated and upset. I couldn't figure out how I could possibly survive the rest of the fall without cramming all of that into a week. But I didn't want to stop playing outside with my kids. Or taking naps. (Yes. Naps. Glorious naps!) Or cooking normal amounts of food.

And it turns out as much as I thought I needed to do stuff, what I really needed was to rest. This week I've been a whole new person because I did spend time playing with the kids and reading books and watching movies. And it turns out it's great that I didn't stock the freezer because it's looking a bit iffy on whether we'll keep power all weekend. And we got to go to Wrightsville Beach twice, and spend a day in Myrtle Beach, and another day in Sunset Beach. Not only were the beach days nice (how many people get four beach days at three different beaches on a staycation?), but who knows when we'll be able to go back to the beaches because a significant amount of beach erosion is predicted this weekend. As for getting the house clean, it looks like I will have all day Saturday indoors to get it done, so that will take care of itself as well. So the lesson learned is...procrastination pays! Or something like that.

But on to the pictures.

We had gorgeous weather for Wrightsville Beach, part 1.

Then it was on to Myrtle Beach, where we spent most of our time exploring the boardwalk.

 

We actually went to Myrtle Beach because oldest girl child wanted to ride the Skywheel, and it turned out to be closed. Doh.

Since John Candy wasn't around to break us into Wally World the Skywheel, we settled on spending an afternoon in an arcade. We all went crazy with the quarters and had a ton of fun. And brought home a ton of stuffed animals.

We did actually spend a little time at the beach at Myrtle Beach.

And then it was on to Sunset Beach. The kids didn't even want to go to the beach - we had to drag them out to the sand. But then they remembered the awesome part about Sunset Beach is we can go out past the breakers and go swimming, and then, of course, they wouldn't come in from the water. But the real highlight of Sunset Beach, as always, was playing the Game of Life.

Our week ended with a second trip to Wrightsville Beach. There was a storm passing offshore and we found relatively big waves. Natalia liked watching all the surfers. I had to work pretty hard to keep Leon from swimming out and joining them.

All told, it was a great week, even if it's not what I had planned. And I'm so glad I went with the change in plans.

Kings Island

My kids just finished their sixth week of school and have already received interim report cards. But, given that everyone else is going back to school now, it seems like a good time for a How I Spent My Summer Vacation post. (Okay, and honestly, with four kids now in school, it's taken me this long to get organized enough to write a post.)

This summer we headed to Ohio to see family. Our vacation included time in both northern and southern parts of the state. While in Cincinnati, we spent a day at King's Island, a great amusement part with a fantastic kids' area. While we were there, Mike said, "Mom, you have to write about this!" So this post is for Mike.

Aside from a couple of relatively short days spent in the Magic Kingdom when we went to my cousin's wedding in Orlando five years ago, my kids have never been to an amusement park. And although that was Disney, they were so little that Ree is the only one who remembers it. So this was a whole new adventure.

Our kids work better with preparation, so before we went, we showed the kids the website (more than once, of course, at their request, as they tried to memorize all of the rides and map out the best course for the day). And we mentioned waiting in lines, especially to Nati, who has no patience. Then we crossed our fingers, coated ourselves in sunscreen, grabbed three grandparents to help, and off we went.

We went on a Thursday when the park was pretty empty and the temperatures stayed around 80 degrees. We couldn't have asked for better conditions. We arrived right as it opened. We were able to walk right in, and we soon took the obligatory pic in front of the Eiffel Tower.

We headed toward Planet Snoopy, the kids' area, which has won numerous awards. We had no real basis for comparison, but to us, it was fantastic. I figured we'd spend the morning there and then check out the rest of the park in the afternoon, but there ended up being so much to do that except for a lunch break, we ended up staying there until we left at 7pm.

I have relatively few pics of the rides, mostly because I am a big kid and I gleefully road all of them with the kids. We were also grateful to have grandparents along to help since many of the rides required an adult to sit with each child and it would've been really difficult if Jeff and I had to take one kid at a time on the ride while the other stayed with the other three kids. 

Waiting in line, brothers gotta hug.

 

Shhh! I think the girls might secretly like each other. 

 

Natalia found and hugged every character she could find. This was a country Charlie Brown. 

 

Mike and Gran riding in the front seat of the roller coaster followed closely by Grandpa Jim and Ree.

The rides were great, but I have to admit I was completely gleeful to discover there was a petting zoo. It was a fun and relaxing break to just hang out with the animals for a little while. 

 

And Natalia did not like waiting in line. But she didn't torture us too much. I would call that a successful day!

Beach Escape

I'm guilty of  being overly optimistic. It makes me a bit of an odd duck in the very serious, analytical world of auditing (as though I wasn't an odd duck there in any other way). But I do believe that there is usually good in everything, and I definitely experienced that on Sunday morning.

For the past few months, I've had a lot of trouble sleeping. I've blamed the lack of sleep on the kids and the dogs, and while they certainly don't help, I know I am to blame. (I am starting to figure out why I'm not sleeping, and that's a whole other topic.) I fall asleep without any problem, but I wake up for the day really early. Sometimes as early as 4:30.

On Sunday morning I woke up at 5:40 to a completely quiet house. No kids tiptoeing around and slamming toilet lids, no doggies pacing to go outside. It was nice. But I was also wide awake and stir crazy. The never ending to do list in my brain was screaming at me to stop wasting time. But what could I possibly do without waking everyone up? Then it occurred to me - I could sneak out for a walk. On the beach. 

I managed to get dressed and out of the house without anyone chasing madly after me. While I was driving to the beach it occurred to me that it was still not light out. I could actually watch a sunrise on the beach. It's a bucket list item that I've wanted to do for years, but I could never make myself plan to get up before 6am on the weekend for fun. That's just wrong. 

I was greeted by a beautiful, quiet beach.

 

I found a place to stash my flip flops and my water bottle, and I took off walking. I walked barefoot on the water's edge, and it was soothing. I was also lost in my thoughts. Thankfully, at one point I realized two girls were sitting on a blanket with their phones up recording something, and if not for them, I would've completely missed the sunrise.  

 

This little guy did not want to miss sunrise either. 

 

I was amazed at how quickly the sun came up, and I'm so glad I got to see it. 

 

And, yes, this experience probably just reinforced my optimism. But is that really all bad?

Finish Line

When most people think of the beach, they probably think of summer. But living in Wilmington, I really don't associate the beach with any particular season. We make an effort to go there year round. As evidenced by this ancient picture of Ree hanging out by the water in her winter jacket.

But the pool, the pool means summer. And we finally went to the pool for the first time this year on Sunday. It was crowded, but it was so great to swim in a pool. (And not just because it was 96 degrees out, although that definitely made swimming extra appealing.) And after being in a pool, it was really hard to try to shift back into school mode in the evening. Thankfully, the last day of school is this Friday.

With the end of school, we are also reaching the end of end-of-the-year events. It has been a busy year for them. We've had:

The Girl Scout Brownies bridge to Juniors.

A school spelling bee.

A preschool graduation.

A performance of Sleeping Beauty.

A first grade picnic and awards ceremony.

And a little gymnast earn her first trophy.

We just have to make it through tomorrow's Entrepreneur Fair and Thursday's third grade class swim party. And then we will be ready for summer. And real pool time.

Time Out

Sometimes I wish I could get sent to time out. Wouldn't that be the greatest? Time all alone in a room where no one could talk to me and I wouldn't be allowed to talk?  Not being allowed to leave until I felt ready to rejoin the group? Unfortunately, I don't think I'll get the privilege of a time out any time soon. But I do like taking time out from the rest of life when I can. 

Since we moved to Wilmington, my favorite place for a time out is the beach. (It's also my favorite place to relax, to go on date nights, to walk, to visit with friends...) We typically head to the beach on Sunday mornings, and it's such a nice break from the rest of the week.

We hadn't been since Mother's Day (yes, I know how spoiled I am), and it felt so good to finally get my beach time out last Sunday. Ree was still recovering from many late nights of rehearsals and Saturday night's performance of Sleeping Beauty (which was fantastic, not that I'm biased or anything), so she stayed home with Jeff. The three stooges and I met up with friends. And, of course, given that it was a typical lazy Sunday at the beach in Wilmington, we also ran into other friends. It was a very fun time. And a perfect time out. 

Nati thought the donut holes were pretty perfect too!

Memorial Day Weekend

Sometimes life is such a blur that I don't even notice how busy it is. The last week was like that. It didn't register with me that we were busy at the time, but looking back, I guess things were kinda nuts.

It started with Ree's Girl Scout bridging ceremony last Tuesday. The girls are no longer Brownies. They are now Juniors!

 

On Thursday the boys finished karate for the year. I was not invited to witness this momentous event, but apparently they were allowed to put on protective gear and beat each other with foam bats for a good portion of the class. They, of course, declared it best karate lesson ever!

Friday morning Jeff and I got to witness Natalia's preschool graduation. I suppose I could've been sad, and I admittedly got misty eyed when one of the teachers started crying (I'm a weeper!) but I was too excited. Do you know what this means? After seven years, we are done paying for preschool! And before anyone needs orthodontia!

Natalia (and some of the other girls) were not too sure about this graduation thing.

 But Nati did manage to get her diploma.

 

And she was happy when they got to dance.

The weekend forecast was abysmal with at least an 80% chance of rain every day, so we sent the kids outside every time we could. Friday afternoon they were tired, and Ree had dance at 5:00, but we still managed to squeeze in an hour of outside time after school. Ree also had a dance rehearsal from 10:00 - 3:00 on Saturday, so Saturday morning we were back outside at 8:30. (I figured someone else was already mowing. Sending my herd outside at that hour wasn't that much worse than a lawn mower. Really!)

Saturday morning we also managed to squeeze in some emergency blueberry picking. We picked about four pounds, and they are almost all gone. Without any used in baking. Someday we will actually pick enough to have some left to make a pie or at least some blueberry pancakes.

 

As it turns out, the weather was never really bad over the weekend. It rained every day, but mostly at night, and in between it was bright sunshine. So we had lots of outside time all weekend.

We had planned so stay home as much as possible, because traffic in Wilmington is horrendous on Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day. Except it wasn't. It was a ghost town. Except for Costco. We are relative Costco newbies and made a complete rookie mistake and went there on a holiday weekend. Holy cow. I should've realized that everyone and their brother is going there because with guests in town they can actually use that 24 pack of pre-made burgers and the 36 pack of super hextuple rolls of toilet paper.

Don't my redneck children look thrilled to be shopping? (And despite their faces, they had an amazing time at Costco since everyone, even with their picky preferences, got double digit samples including ice cream sundaes.)

Monday afternoon we had friends over. We discovered the best way to get eight kids to sit down quietly is to let them stuff their faces with Jello. 

 

The downside, of course, to the Jello eating (aside from the consumption of so many chemicals and dyes) is a whole lot of energy. But thankfully the weather cooperated, so it was outside to play with poppers.  

 

The weekend ended with Natalia passed out at 6:30 Monday evening next to Jeff while he watched the Reds game. Obviously the sign of a good (and busy) weekend. 

New York, Day 3

Yesterday morning we took Kramer to the farmer's market in Prospect Park. The sun was finally out, and it was pretty.

There was lots of great food for sale there. 

Monster and Olaf came too.

On the way home, we saw Darth Vader and some storm troopers.

We went to lunch at Uncle Andrew and Aunt Yuka's apartment. Aunt Yuka made taco, but not the tacos you're thinking of. It was octopus! (And it was delicious!)

In the afternoon we all went to a park in Queens to play wiffle ball. I'll have to show you a map of all the places we went. 

On the way home, we saw lots of school busses with all the writing in Hebrew. 

Last night we had dinner at a food truck. They had the kind of tacos you know (although I had a burrito).

Hope you are having an awesome weekend. I will see you soon!