Happy Birthday, America!!

The Fourth of July is a great holiday simply because it is in the summer and we are lucky enough to have ready access to the beach. I have many, many fond memories of the 4th over at Shackleford, eating pig and staying over until late in the evening to watch the fireworks shows on the mainland. While things have changed a bit over the years, water is still a big part of our celebration.

The children and I started the weekend off by baking some festive cupcakes after we got home from school on Thursday. I managed to bake these as well as make so yummy teriyaki pork chops for dinner! We baked the cupcakes before dinner, let them cool while we ate and then they were ready for icing.  Of course Avery and Will helped.

Watching TV while the cupcakes bake

Can you guess which one Avery iced?

Avery spent the entire time icing one cupcake. Probably had something to do with her licking the knife every 10 seconds. Then she eventually managed to break off a piece of her cupcake and gobbled that up. Will spent a good 5 mins upset b/c I had given him a "real" knife to use.  I actually thought the icing on his cupcakes was really artistic and looked like fireworks!

Will's "firecracker" cupcakes are the bottom right 3

Friday afternoon, after short work and school days, we hit the road for the coast. Us and about 10,000 other people. We had quite a bit of traffic getting out of Raleigh, but once we got on the road, the trip, traffic wise at least, wasn't bad at all. Now, traveling with a newly potty-trained 2 year old is a different story. I bet we stopped 10 times on the way down, which wouldn't be so bad if she would just GO once you stopped. But no, she has to touch everything in the back of the car and wave to cars passing by, etc....  Each stop was a good 5-10 minutes.  Thank goodness Matt's mom had the girls because they would have for sure, well Stella, been hit by a car. They don't sit well in a car on the side of the road with the back doors open. Stella has escaped onto the highway I think once, maybe twice, before and it is just a bad situation no matter which way you look at it. 

So a side story about our trip. Because of the long trip down (over 4 hours!!!) we were still an hour outside of Beaufort around our normal dinner time. We pulled into one of the last fast food restaurants we would pass...a Burger King. Now, I normally don't eat at Burger King. In fact, I can't even tell you the last time I ate at one...maybe the day we closed on our first house over 9 years ago?!?!?  We didn't have much time between the closing and the inspection and it was one of our only options. Anyway, Will is in love. In love. With Burger King. Yes. "They're cheeseburgers are hot...just the way I like them."  And so forth and so on. GG Jane loves Burger King too....so I think he must have gotten it from her!


We headed out in the boat on Saturday morning, not really knowing what the day would hold. Growing up, we always went to Shackleford but it has gotten so crowded and shelly, there really isn't a good place for the kids to play. This year we went to Cape Lookout with my brother and his in-laws. One of my sister-in-law's coworkers went as well and she had 2 kids exactly Will and Avery's ages, so that was a lot of fun.  We grilled out, played volleyball, kayaked and got pulled behind the boat on a big innertube. Will ABSOLUTELY loved this last part. Everyone was so surprised. Bless his heart for once he decided to listen. So when he was told "don't let go", he took it literally. As in the tube is upside down and/or bouncing across the water with everyone else already fallen off and he's still holding on!!  I unfortunately didn't get a good picture of him on the tube. I had to stay on shore b/c a certain little mermaid had fallen asleep on my chest. I did eventually move her to a raft when I thought my ribs were going to crush one by one, but I stayed close by so she wouldn't wake up and be scared.

sleep doesn't get much better than this

Sunday was such a treat. My mom's side of the family had a little mini-reunion of sorts. It was a surprise for my grandmother, although she wasn't feeling great that day but I'm sure she will enjoy the memory of it all. One of my mom's brothers rented a beach house on Emerald Isle and brought his daughters, who live in Massachusetts, and their families down. My cousins from SC as well as my brother came too. The only thing missing was one of my cousins and her kids. They moved out of state last weekend and were unable to make it.  It was so fun to hang out and see everyone. I have only seen my cousins in MA maybe 3 or 4 times in the last 25 years or so. Crazy.  Between Jane's 5 grandchildren that were there, we had 9 of the 11 great-grandchildren there!! And so many of them are very, very close in age. It was a blast.

the guest of honor

somebody enjoyed their cupcake!

Jane and her 3 children

Jane and 5 of her 6 grandchildren

Jane and 9 of her 11 great-grandchildren

Ironically, Will and Avery were terrified of the ocean. Sure they are in the water all the time, but in Beaufort, we are always sound side. Will has been in the ocean before, but he was very small and it has been probably 2 years since he was in it. Avery has never seen/been in the waves.  They were scared and actually didn't have very much fun at first. All I kept thinking was I was so glad I wasn't at the beach for a week with them b/c man, it was misery. They did occupy themselves in the sand for a while but about every 10 mins or so, one of them would ask to go back to Nana and Pops' water. I was feeling the same way b/c I don't love the strong waves either!!

On the way back into town on Sunday night, we stopped by Uncle Gray and Aunt Greta's house for a few minutes. They were having a 4th (ok 3rd) of July cookout. After that, we had to swing by Mimi's house to scoop up our girls!!

On Monday, the 4th, we had a fun morning of going to Lowe's and riding the tractor (and picking up Uncle Gray's gift) and then lunch on the picnic tables at Char-Grill. After 3+ hour naps from the troops, we headed to Paw Paw's house for Uncle Gray's birthday party.

Happy 4th of July!!!

Telling Uncle Gray about his birthday greetings drawing

Giving the birthday boy a kiss

Food time!

HUGE beetle that crashed the party!

Happy 4th of July!!