Rainy Day Fun

 A school day yesterday was exhausting for the entire family!  I parked at Fit for Fun at 9:30am & turned around to see that 2 had passed out on the car ride.  Our school staggers the start days for the kindergartners, so Filson will be home again tomorrow & then go back Thursday for good.  He may have needed these 2 extra days to rest up!!

 Filson & Ian on the see-saw, a great place to spend another wet day.  Sure wish we could send some of this rain to the midwest : )

They have a small basketball hoop & Grant was mostly interested in shooting baskets & throwing the ball.

Kindergarten

 Ready for the big day

 A hug for his little brother, the one that's going to have the toughest adjustment : )

 

 A kiss for little Boo-G

 A few more weeks & it will be pitch black for the 6:50am bus ride

 The boys

The bus ride, one of the things he was most excited for!

Can't wait to see him get off of it this afternoon & hear all about his day

Last Days of Summer

 Bedtime Stories

 Grant & Filson made crowns on our trip to the Children's Museum last Friday

 Mr. Cool ready for a trip to the island on Sunday

Mmmmmm......cookies!  And a little bed head ; ) 

Saturday's birthday party had cookie mix as party favors, we baked them Sun night & they were delicious!

 Chocolate Face

He's in that stage of loving to have his picture taken & saying "Cheese" over & over again!

 Monkey Joe's on Wednesday, one more place he wanted to go before school starts.  Hopefully he bounced off enough energy to last him awhile.

 Our last week day at home before he becomes a Kindergartner.  They built a big fort, made this helicopter, spent hours with their legos & never changed out of their pjs...so I think they enjoyed themselves.

Ian working hard with his legos.

Super Heroes

 We went to a really fun birthday party Saturday where each of the kids received their own handmade super hero cape & mask.  The kids were adorable running around in their pink & blue capes all afternoon. 

 

 

 Maybe his "G" is for Super Golfer?!?

 Ian, with his mask pulled up on his head, making sure he doesn't miss out on birthday cake ; )

 Filson & Ian sure do have a rough life, as they lounge on their rafts Sunday afternoon

 Snack break

 A needlefish John pulled in with his net

 Digging time

 A visit to the Serpentarium was on Filson's list of things he wanted to do before school starts.  Not someplace I was dying to visit, but we invited our friends along this morning & the boys had a good time.

 This guy was saying "Cheese" for me!  Glad their was a thick piece of glass between us!

 Grady, Ian, Carter & Filson outside the museum

 Nothing like ice cream to persuade the boys to sit still for a few minutes

We walked along the river & stopped for hot dogs at Trolley Stop.  On our way back to the car, we spent about 30 minutes checking out all the action across the street, where the Jennifer Aniston/Jason Sudeikis movie was filming today.  We have 5 or 6 major movies being filmed here this summer, so there are movie stars in town.  However, while wrangling 6 kids around in the hot sun, we never even really got a good look at what was going on over there!

Vada & Isla

 Anna Leigh brought the girls down & spent Wednesday & Thursday night with us.  The kids always have so much fun together & it's fun chaos to have them all running around the house for a couple days.  We finally are at the point where all 5 kids are old enough to go to drop-in daycare.....woo-hoo!!!  We dropped them off Wednesday night & had dinner at an Indian restaurant & grabbed a drink at the Mellow Mushroom.  I'm sure the kids had just as much fun playing together at Simply Play as we did enjoying dinner without them ; )

 Pretty I.J. & Grant cheesing it up for the camera

 Filson & Vada getting wet

Yesterday we went to Filson's elementary school & played on the playground, then cooled off at the Splash Pad downtown.

 Snack time!

 Vada, Filson & Grant at the Splash Pad

Ian, Vada & Isla running around the tunnel of sprinklers

As always, we had a lot of fun with the Cunningham's & hated to see them head home today!

Weekend Fun

 Grant at Panera, where we went out for breakfast Friday morning

We missed John last week while he spent a few days with friends in Costa Rica, but the boys & I had a really fun weekend & found plenty to keep us entertained! 

 Leave it to Uncle Pups to send us a package with 2 pairs of boxing gloves & a punching bag. 

The boys were thrilled, but I let him know I'd be sending him the Doctor bills for the first broken nose ; )

 Surely these sweet faces wouldn't want to use boxing gloves on each other.....yeah, right!

 Saturday morning our friend had his birthday party at the farm.  It took Grant a minute to warm up to all the animals cruising around him, he's taking off in the other direction as this goat comes near him!  By the end of the party, he was loving it.

 Ian missed out on the pony ride the last time we were at this farm for a party, so he talked about it all morning & was first in line this time.

 They wouldn't get any closer for this picture, as they were afraid the goat was going to snatch their popsicles.

 Off on a hayride

 These 3 growing boys downed some fresh peaches & watermelon.  And cookies, ice cream, popsicles, juice boxes....talk about a sugar overload!  They are going to eat us out of this house when they are older!

 Ian petting Sadie, who made an appearance at the end

 

The boys love this farm & saw guinea pigs, rabbits, horses, goats, ducks, lots of chickens, a pig & a peacock.  They had a great time!

 

Sunday morning we went to the church at Wrightsville Beach where they had bible school last week.  The entire service was put on by the kids & it was fun to watch them perform their songs & to see the slideshow of pictures from their week.  This church is where the boys attend a Moms Morning Out program during the school year & they invited all of those children to take part in bible school.  Each evening they took the kids to the beach to have their lesson, and I explained to the boys how fortunate they are to have that experience!  It was extremely generous of their church to let us be a part of such a fun week.

We then headed to another birthday party, this one with a huge water slide, bouncy house & a pinata.  You can imagine how hard it was to pull them away from here when the party was over!

 

Ian is determined to get to that candy!