North Carolina in a Nutshell

My kids took it pretty hard the day that their best friends moved away. Jaina thought it would be three years before we ever saw them again. Jayce didn't understand why they wanted to live in a new house when their old one was perfectly fine. And both kids didn't understand that their new house in North Carolina was not just over the state border like most places we visit in NC.

They definitely needed a visual to understand where their friends went. We were so fortunate to have the opportunity to visit them this past weekend. Jaina and Jayce had a Teacher Workday last Friday and their friends Ashlan and Kyler had a teacher workday on Monday. We both let our kids skip one day as well. That gave us a long 4 day weekend in which to play. And play we did!

We rode bikes, scooters, and power wheels:




We went to a festival:





We played dress up:








We played at the local "tractor" park:












We painted pumpkins:








And of course, we went to the beach:
















Brittany, thank you SO much for hosting our family last weekend! We had a fabulous time on our mini-vacation! And we can't wait to do it again! Except that due to the 6 hour drive, it probably will not happen next Thursday like Jayce thinks. I will try to encourage him to play "kickity-kickball" here instead :)

Old Friends: A Sneak Peek

The kids and I had a fabulous time visiting some old friends in their new home. Many, many more pictures to come!

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

This is my first time composing a "Not Me Monday" blog post even though I've been reading them on everyone else's blogs for weeks now! And I couldn't have picked a better time to blog since I just returned home from a 6 hour car ride with my two children.

During this car ride, I did not bribe them into silence with twix bars and skittles. I also will not admit to making up ridiculous songs on the spot about how much I love I-26 (which was one of the last legs of our journey). I was also a really good mommy and stopped the car immediately when my son announced that he had to pee and did not encourage him to use the pull-up he had on instead (in case of an accident) so I could get home faster.

Also, during our weekend, I did not have to pull my 4 year old off of a TWO year old that he was trying to fight with. No, never. Because my 4 year old would never do that.

So, that's my "Not Me Monday". Join me again next week for more tales of my perfection as a parent!

See you on the other side...

The kids and I are heading to Eastern North Carolina (not far from where most of Nicholas Sparks' books are set and where Dawson's Creek was filmed!) so I'll be offline until Tuesday. We are going to see these lovely people:






See you when we get back!