Team Up Thursday - Small

Yes, I am late. It is b/c I am a failure at actually trying to accomplish anything while on vacation. I had a few posts that I scheduled for last week but to come up with one? Nope, didn't happen. Do you know I had eBay auctions end while I was on the road too? Some days I think that my brain wakes up on a different side of the bed lol :)

Here we go! Angie's shot is perfection. I can tell that she is loving her new camera! I am not sure that with my noisy crew I would even get a dragonfly to stay near me. Great job Angie! My shot is of a shark's tooth. Small but still I wouldn't want to run into that shark anytime soon. The awesomeness that is Topsail Island has many unique things to beach comb for. Violet actually became quite a little shark tooth finder. We found so many I don't even know whose this was. It is one of my most favorite things about that area.

Of course the laundry is still not done so more vacation pictures (although not many) to come.

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Vacation - another post??? Yep!

Of all the things to see I am not even sure which surprised me the most. Vacation this year held a lot of surprises for us to uncover. I have never seen a jelly fish besides at an aquarium but let me tell you they scare the heck out of me. I believe we were on the island 1 day when Matt found the first one. It was not alive and had got washed up in the tide. The next one we found however WAS alive and Matt quickly scooped it into a bucket and put it back in the ocean. Then a few days later while I was walking on the beach I stepped on one, afterwards screaming "I just stepped on a jelly fish, when should it start stinging?" - it was dead so the answer to my question was never but it was still something that I don't want to do again. When we went and visited the fishing pier we must have seen 10 of them swimming around and then there was the one that brushed up against Matt and stung him - slightly but what freaks me out is that we were all out there swimming and it could have been one of the girls. By the end of the week I would just be walking and say "jelly fish" and Matt would come over and see if it was still alive and either save it or toss it by the dunes. I can't be sure but I think that the storm stirred them up. No pictures b/c out of all the sightings I NEVER ONCE had my camera with me, can you believe it?

Hello little dolphins dancing and playing outside of our house - we LOVE watching you! Thanks for gracing us a few times with your presence. I did manage a horrible picture :(

While down at the fishing pier we got to see a King Mackerel get reeled in. A man and his son were fishing and were lucky enough to get one. It was really neat to see the dad struggling with the pole and having his son "help" him to catch the fish. After it was all done (10 minutes or so) the dad said "How do you feel to catch your first big one" - made me tear up. The little boy was so proud. Our girls thought that the big fish was pretty darn cool - all 18.5 pounds of it! No pictures on the pier b/c I was afraid to bring my camera out and look like a total tourist - b/c I am sure they couldn't tell already right?

Each morning we awoke to the shrimp boats and each morning when we opened the blinds the girls would shout "Shrimp Boats!" like it was the first time they had seen them. They liked how the birds seemed to always follow behind. Kids find the smallest things so fascinating - I love it!


Oh how I wish that we would have found this little urchin the day we were leaving rather than a few days before - he might have found a new home in our tank. It was getting to be late but we decided to take just 1 more walk before getting ready for bed and there inside of a sea shell I saw him. If I did not have our salt water tank I would have walked right by but I stopped in my tracks. He was still alive so we threw him back of course and I hope that he made it. I think it is pretty cool that Piper knew what it was too when we showed it to her, not every 3 year old can identify one :)


There are a few other things that we saw that were VERY cool and as soon as I get some time I will write about them too :)

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Ahhhh, vacation

Ok, so I have been a bad, bad blogger lately but hopefully will get back to posting more frequently. I figure it will take me a week to recap our vacation alone with the minimal time the girls give me on the computer lately. Last week was our family vacation to Topsail and it was so much different from any that we have taken there yet. To start out the coast experienced a Nor'Easter on the Thursday before we arrived, that was what someone referred to it as but I thought those were only in the North East (???). It eroded much of the dunes and many of the stairs to the beach were damaged. The dunes by the beach house we stayed at are normally much higher.

Many of the homes lost their stairs from the storm - luckily for them that was all.


Thankfully on Sunday when we arrived there were already some very nice guys there working on the stairs that we were missing. We only had to cut around the house 1 day and that was really easy since the dune was completely gone next door. Not only did the storm do a lot of damage but it stirred the ocean which gave us some interesting beach combing during the week. That will be a post in itself. There was not a day that went by though that we didn't have a pocket full of screws to bring home and throw out - I would hate to see that in any little kiddos foot or even an adults for that matter.

Our week was glorious! The weather couldn't have been better! Early in the week it was still in the mid 80's and then cooled to the mid to high 70's for the remainder. Ahhhh, perfect weather for this pregnant mama! It rained for maybe a total of 1 hour and it was a little overcast for an afternoon. Until Friday the beach was basically ours, I LOVE vacationing there in the fall!

Our Violet decided that it might be a good week for her to try potty learning - um what? So much for vacation when it came to that - ugh! I was pretty laid back with Piper and didn't even attempt until she was over 2 1/2 so it was super easy with her. Now the baby is another story. She wants to go potty at the very least 100 times a day - seriously no lie! Thank goodness that Matt was there though b/c he did most of it as he never got sick of her and her "Come on-k Daddy". She is ending certain words with a "k" sound lately too. Piper would come out and say "Mama, Violet went potty! Come and give her the big thumbs up!" She is doing pretty well at it so far for a 21 month old. There is a possibility that when the novelty wears off we will be back to dipes but that is ok b/c well I love all my dipes that I will probably miss them (sad cd addiction).

Friends of ours have moved to the coast also and of course we hooked up. Barry was kind enough to take the time to give Matt a tour of the Wilmington port which of course my husband LOVED.

The operator of the crane even let Matt drive :)

Here are a few views from when they were up at the top - WAAAYYYY to high for me to EVER feel comfortable!


Afterwards we all ate at a little seafood place on the river and then Barry and Lisa joined us for ice cream - yummy! They were filming One Tree Hill across the river while we were on the boardwalk and Piper decided to throw a tiny mini crying fit so either that take was a cut or at some point someone might hear our kid screaming across the river :) I don't watch the show but it was kind of cool to see them doing that.

More pictures and memories to follow. I do hope that I remember most of it so that the girls will always have this since they are too young and pictures don't really tell the true story. This is why I blog, for my girls - oh and also b/c I am 37 and will forget what happened a day later - stinks getting OLD!

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What.A.Week

It has been pretty crazy around here this past week. I swear we were really busy each and every day, next week we will try and not let it get so hectic. Well, after taking Piper to preschool again on Tuesday I decided to pull her out. There is a good little story time at the library on Thursdays and I will find something else for her to do, I just couldn't deal with her crying whenever we mentioned that she had to go to school. Finally got the laundry done from the vacation *blush*, I have gotten so bad at laundry - my poor family. Today Megan and I went to an Etsy craft show at Independence Park in Charlotte. It was pretty cool, I met Amy the Crankymama IRL and bought Piper one of her monster bags. After getting it home I think we will hold off on giving it to her until her birthday and then maybe we will fill it with fun little girlie gifts and maybe a new book or 2. I also found a really cool mama Lori of LORiOLA that made glass necklaces - did I get one for a certain mama expecting...hmm will have to wait and see. Afterwards we headed to the Charlotte Farmer's Market and I got a great deal on 2 HUGE mums for my front pots. While Violet slept this afternoon Piper and I planted them and then also got out some of the Halloween decorations. She saw so many pumpkins today that I will have to put that on our list of places to go next week that will be fun for her. Life around here is pretty boring so I am going to end this post with a montage of our beach trip since I just got to downloading the pictures tonight. Am I the only mama that loves that her daughter digs Dan Zanes, Piper loves him! Here are the beach photos (make sure to turn up your volume), this got a little long but painless I think...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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Vacation - By the Numbers

Well we are home from our week at the beach - oh the fun the family had!

1 - cozy cottage set on top of a dune on the ocean. The house we stayed at was perfect for the kiddos, we don't have to worry about them breaking fancy items and the view...what can you say about waking up and seeing the beautiful sun rise every morning and set every night. Sitting on the back porch lazily swaying back and forth on the swing watching the porpoises swimming in the surf. I LOVE the beach!

2 - little girls who played like crazy on the beach. Piper helped us pick up shells and had to have her own treasure bag by the end of the week. I plan on planting a paperwhite in a hurricane vase and having our collection on display inside for the holidays. Everytime a wave would wash up on Violet she would giggle and splash - so darn cute! We didn't do many sand castles though because Piper lost interest too quickly. Just before low tide there was a wade pool near the house that Piper enjoyed "swimming" in. She also wanted to take a bath immediately upon returning to the house and "swim" in there too.

3 - fun filled hours that our family played like crazy at the Children's Museum of Wilmington. We had never gone to one before and although we had to lead Piper a bit she had a ball! We spent an entire hour just in the campfire room reading books and putting on puppet shows. Piper made a bunch of sandwiches for us at the diner and both girls crawled and climbed in the matted toddler room. If you are ever in the area you should check this place out. After we were done we ate supper at The Reel Cafe with our friends that moved to the area, Lisa and Barry. A walk on the Wilmington boardwalk to see the sights followed and there was some snacking on ice cream and fudge. Such a fabulous day!

4 - cockroaches that we found at the house (eewww!!) - R.I.P. One of them was like 2 inches long - yuck, yuck, yuck!!! We have dogs and cats that kill all sorts of things but something about a cockroach makes me want to crawl out of my skin.

5 - pairs of shoes (excessive I know) that I brought to the beach for Piper and she only wore 1, that is right - her rain boots. I have given up trying to get her to wear anything else, to her relief I am sure. This morning when I went to find a site that sells them for when the day comes that they are outgrown I found that there is highway robbery out there when it comes to a 2 YEAR OLDS rain boots, they are asking $24 a pair. Maybe I am cheap, ok I am cheap, but I got these boots at a consignment sale for $4. Hopefully Mother Nature might see Piper sporting her boots and give us some MUCH needed rain then our oldest will be able to splash around in them 1 time before they are too small.

6 - teeth in the mouth of our baby. Violet left with 5 but now has another one poking through. She is also working on 2 more bottom teeth that should be here anytime now. Thankfully she learned very quickly not to bite Mommy with those toothers, it only has happened twice and I am knocking on wood like crazy over here that it doesn't happen again - OUCH!

7AM - that would be the glorious time that the girls slept in until. Some mornings it was even 7:30! They were both so worn out that they went to bed each night between 7 and 7:30 and slept until morning, well except for Violet who has yet to sleep through the night but that is another story. If only we could keep them as busy and worn out when not on vacation when our days are filled with fun and excitement.

8 - diaper changes (at least) per baby per day using gDiapers. We only had 6 covers for both girls and I would strongly suggest if diapering with this system full time to have at least 6 per child. I would wash the cover and the liner each morning because they were in them for so long and I didn't want stinky dipes so then I was left with only 4 covers to diaper with the entire day. The refills do bunch up a little bit between the legs but with frequent changes doesn't present a problem, at least to us it didn't. The covers do take a very long time to dry and I didn't want to risk putting them in the dryer and having them shrink on us because we had nothing else to fall back on. I won't use them on a daily basis because I love my stash of cloth diapers but will use them again when we go to Ohio for the holidays. All in all - g diapers are really great and it makes me feel better to use a *sposie* like them that will decompose in less than 150 days than clog our landfills with regular disposibles.

9 - times per hour some days that Piper would ask "What's this?". "Oh Oh" has been replaced with an even more fun "What's this?". I am guessing this is a prelude to "Why?". To say the least our daughter is very informed about her surroundings after this past week.

10 - well it is actually over 10 feet (15 feet) of Didy yumminess that came to the beach with us. Tobi was the perfect wrap in our stash to bring to the beach with his beautiful blues and yellows. Violet slept most of her morning naps in a rucksack while Piper ran along the water splashing and Matt and I combed the beach for sharks teeth.

That is our vacaton in a conch shell (hee hee), pictures will filter in as the week goes on- off to work on my mounds of laundry, Happy Monday!

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Vacation

It is all I can think about today - and I guess stress over. The Zoo is going to the beach for a glorious week away from normal life. Actually it is a great time to go to the beach because there isn't really anyone else there besides the locals. The weather here has been so hot and dry it will be so nice to have the wonderful ocean breeze. We stayed at a little house right on the ocean last year and decided we liked it so much that we are going back. Last week and then this week again I have been scouring Target's clearance racks for deals on sand toys for the girls to play with. I even got us a tent to set up so that we will have some shade to escape too when the sun gets too much to handle. While coming up with the list of things to get before we head out I came across a question - what am I going to use for diapering? I wasn't sure if we should bring our dipes with us or get disposibles but ended up talking to a friend of mine and she was thinking about giving g Diapers a chance - she is a disposible user too! Could I have changed someones mind? Hmmm, verdict is still out but anyway I decided to head to our local health food store and grab a starter pack. Put the girls in them overnight as a test and they work awesome! Hubby was in Asheville today so I had him stop at Earth Fare and pick us up another starter pack and some inserts that we will need for the week - I will definately give a review when I come back!

Seriously thinking about pulling my daughter out of her preschool. She has been having complete meltdowns at the mention of school. Initially I just wanted her to play with other kiddos and do messy projects but I never wanted or expected her to react to school this way. We will be gone next week so I think that I am going to give her 2 more weeks and if I don't see any improvement we will be done with it for this year.

Went to the Lazy 5 AGAIN this week with the mommie group that I belong to, I don't ever get sick of that place. It was nice to meet some mamas that I normally wouldn't in real life and not on the board. I should do more with them but mostly I am a loner so I don't. That is all for now, thanks for letting me ramble if you read this.

I also saw a fun thing for my family to do while on vacation when I was reading Crunchy Domestic Goddess's blog. She is celebrating World Vegetarian Day and asking us to join her! I am a meat and potatoes girl myself but in an effort to try and be more healthy have started eating more poultry and fish rather than red meat, it's a start right? Anyway - wanna do it too? My fav isn't really a recipe as it is a sandwich but I will take a pita, spread hummus, slice onion, chopped green or red pepper, and sprouts - YUM! Now, what's yours - post away!

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