Swept Away

All week, Todd has been mysterious and coy about plans to celebrate my birthday. He led me to believe that he was 1) running a half marathon on Saturday AM and 2) that all birthday festivities would begin Saturday at 2. Well, Friday at 2pm, he called to tell me he was coming home and taking me away for 24-hours... You can imagine my delight and surprise!

Todd whisked me away to one of my favorite places, The Duke Mansion. While less than 2 miles from our house, this historic mansion turned inn is worlds away. We had a fabulously relaxing and luxurious stay. Todd had several fun treats waiting for me - an amazing bottle of champagne on ice, high quality dark chocolate and People Magazine, of course!

I feel so loved and celebrated -- what an incredible husband I have! Many, many thanks to Jake and Allison for staying with the kids, Julie J for helping out with them, as well, and Jessica F for the generous gift card to the very delicious and elegant Ruth's Chris Steakhouse!

The boys were delighted with some "treats" we brought home for them: a pint of the BEST mango gelato, the chocolates left on our pillows, and the cork from the champagne bottle. You're probably wondering what the deal with the cork is... Well, last week, I found Caleb on the floor of the kitchen with many of my cooking "tools" strewn around him. He was intently whittling the cork from a beautiful carved wooded wine stopper with a knife (just flatware - not sharp). Cork was everywhere and our wine stopper is now rather oddly shaped! I suggested he not do that anymore and he asked if I could save corks for him to practice his carving skills. He was most pleased to receive a fresh cork today!

Thank you again, Todd for loving me so extravagantly and for executing the surprise flawlessly!

Boombalatti's

Perhaps the best ice cream place this side of Italy is Boombalatti's in Wilmington. I have dreams about their Chocolate Cream Pie ice cream. Because it is so hard to choose from their delicious flavors, they offer a sampler with 4 mini-scoops. This has become a family favorite, especially for Caleb, who at mealtime likes to count how many different things are on his plate. He's all about diversity of flavor!

Caleb's top picks this trip: Mango, Blueberry, Key Lime Pie and Oreo.

Three Years Later

One of my favorite pictures is this one of Dad and 2-year old Caleb venturing into the waves.

At the beach on Friday, I snapped this photo of Dad and 5-year old Caleb on their way to jump waves in the ocean.

Hard to believe how much he's grown... Caleb that is, not Dad! : )

Catching Crabs

A special activity in Wilmington is catching crabs off the dock. Dad and the boys bait crab traps with chicken pieces and throw them off the dock. They love checking the traps and releasing their findings!

More Photos from the Kid's Museum

One Last Summer Trip

Last week, I decided to take the kids for one last trip to Wilmington for the summer. We had a blast going to the beach, the pool, and the Wilmington Children's Museum. The Museum was incredible and perfect for pretend-play and sparking the imagination! There was a pirate ship equipped with a canon that shot balls;, a camping room full of tents, sleeping bags, "fire" area and loads of books; small reptiles and animals in glass cages; areas to learn about weather, rocks and microscopes; and a circus section. However, the big hit for the boys was a pretend restaurant with kitchen, prep area, and tables and a pretend grocery store complete with a conveyor belt/ check out area, produce area with scales for weighing food, a food dumb waiter delivering food to the pretend restaurant upstairs, real shopping carts and aisles with food. We had so much fun - it was hard to drag them away. Addison was a trooper taking it all in from her stroller.

Thank you Nummie and Nah-Nah for such a great visit!

Blast Off!

Sarah and Lily Williams gave the boys a Stomp Rocket for their birthday. They LOVE it. We've spent several afternoons launching Styrofoam "rockets" high into the sky. The boys take turns counting down and stomping - it really is amazing how high these things fly! Last week, half of our rockets ended up on the roof or stuck in our big tree out front. Part of the fun is looking for the rockets after a big wind. So far, we've retrieved them all.

Bye Bye Brown

Last week, Caleb informed me that brown was no longer his favorite color. Since brown has been his loyal favorite color for nearly three years, this was big news, indeed. I waited with anxious anticipation for his new color of choice to be revealed...... "Fire is my favorite color, now. Red, orange, yellow. Fire colors."

As brown is now on the outs with Caleb, he later got real serious and let me know that chocolate was no longer a favorite either. Chocolate being brown and all. This was quite a shock given Caleb's penchant for all things sweet and gooey. I pressed him a bit and he clarified... "Chocolate isn't my favorite. Mango flavors are. BUT, chocolate milk, chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate ice cream, chocolate shakes, and chocolate candy are still my favorites." Good to know.

GOOOOOOAAAAALLLLL!

For the past 2 years, Caleb has played soccer afterschool once per week. Coach Jeremy, a dear friend of ours from church, is an amazing coach, teacher, and herder of little people! Now that Cole is 3, he is FINALLY eligible for soccer with Coach Jeremy. For the past month, he was been asking non-stop to lay soccer. He was elated. He even has shoes he has named his "soccer practice shoes" just for this occassion. He has patiently sat on the sidelines for 2 years.... and today, his day came.

Caleb gave him some pointers pre-practice and Cole never looked back. At one point, I was asking him to pose for a photo. He looked at me and whined, "Mom, I want to play soccer!" Okay, then!

Caleb Sleeps Over!

On Friday night, Caleb slept over at his friend, Anna Riley's house. He was THRILLED! Neely called late that afternoon to ask if he could spend the night. Caleb couldn't believe the invitation, but was disappointed to learn it would only be for one night and that he would NOT be having breakfast, lunch, and dinner there! I asked him to pack a bag with his PJs, toothbrush, glasses case, change of clothes, Puppy, pillow and the big blanket he likes to sleep with. He told me he had packed. When I asked further, he told me that it was all ready to go at the front door. Turns out, he had rolled ALL of his stuff up into his big red blanket. He said it would work as a bag. I'm learning some traits may be genetically male... I mean, really, who packs for a trip by rolling up all his stuff in a blanket, but a guy!

When Neely and Demain arrived, Caleb ran out to the car without even a look back. Cole on the other hand came unglued. He wailed and required one last hug. He got in the back of their van and held tightly to Caleb screaming "I miss you, Caleb. I miss you." He was so, so sad until we found enough M&Ms and Starbursts to overcome his grief.

Caleb had a blast... They went to a high school football game, ate pizza and M&Ms, and stayed up late talking. The next morning, Demian took Caleb and his kids to meet Todd and our kids at Chick-Fil-A for breakfast. Caleb announced that he would be going him with Demian. Guess he had a blast!! Can't believe how old he is...

First Days!

This week has been eventful! Cole had his first day back to pre-school. He's in the 3s class and is blessed to have his teacher from last year, Miss Sally, back this year as his teacher. I was a bit concered about how he'd do with Caleb not going with him -- but he popped out of the car, kissed me goodbye, and trotted in. He's doing really well.

Caleb had his first day of half-day Kindergarten today. After much prayer, turmoil and school visits, Todd and I decided in May to not send Caleb to kindergarten at public school. Lots of factors including how much he LOVES to play, his recently diagnosed vision problems, and school starting at 7:30 AM - YIKES! We found this wonderful kindergarten that is from 8:45 - 1. He has two super sweet teachers and 10 fellow students. Todd and I both fell immediatly in love with the school and are so grateful that there is such a perfect option for our family.








So... today was the first day. I asked him this morning how he was feeling about his first day. He thought a minute and replied, "Mommy, I think you and Daddy chose a really good school for me. I'm glad about that. I'm still going to have lots of time to play with you and my friends." That just made my day! Only to be topped by him chatting up a storm when I went to pick him up this afternoon. When asked how he liked school, he said "It's great! My room is great! My friends are great! My teachers are great! Everything is great, great, great!" As you can imagine, I am now great, too!!

Healthy Boys

Wednesday, we all trekked to the doctor for well visits. Everyone is healthy and enjoyed seeing Dr. Martin.

As the nurse said, Caleb is a "perfect square" -- 45 1/2 lbs and 45 1/2 inches tall.

Cole is just over a yard tall and barely over 30 lbs.

It's never dull with these two! Addison had fun watching her silly brothers...

Let's Go DUKE!!

On our way home from the beach, we went to visit our dear friend, Laurie, who just started Divinity Grad School at Duke. Laurie is such a part of our family and each of us misses her terribly. We have loved living daily life with Laurie and the boys and I especially miss her dropping by during the day. The boys were THRILLED to see her. Cole kept saying that he wanted to "go play Duke with Miss Laurie."
While she was in class, we walked around campus and showed the boys where I lived and ventured to the sacred grounds of Cameron Indoor Stadium. They even had mini-golf on the quad! Jenn, another friend of ours attending Divinity School, hung out with us, too. It was a really great afternoon....

Beach Photos

We're home... But have such fond memories of our vacation... You could find me (Julia) lounging on this chair most afternoons with Caleb and every evening with Todd. More photos follow....