A teacher at school sent me this picture. The kids had to get their temperature taken as they came into school each day and they always tried to line up like this to be funny.
The weather finally warming up so it's fun to be in and out of the pool!
For St. Patrick's Day the kids all made leprechaun traps.
Then Nicole told me she would take the kids on a walk "just in case" there were leprechauns around. Thankfully I'd stashed some ring pops and could make the visit magical :)
Grandma and Grandpa Ostler came for a visit and John was happy to share the joy of an apple squeezie with Grandpa.
My three boys playing before church. Love how similar they look!
John expressing himself at preschool.
Swimming time with the cousins and grandparents.
The Bradford pear trees have petals that fall and look like snow! They also smell like rotting fish but it does make a pretty scene!
John ready for the sun!
Jim and I on date night redecorating his Apex office. It's been a long time coming!
We went to Pigeon Forge for spring break. It was a four hour drive and a lot of it was random back roads. I think google maps took us a quicker route to avoid traffic but it was windy, small, and remote roads and one-way bridges.
View from the hotel balcony was so pretty!
Hot tub while waiting for dinner.
The next morning we went to hike in the Great Smoky Mountains! Turkeys stopped traffic for a few mintues.
I'd seen a hike to Grotto Falls online. We didn't realize we went to the wrong parking lot (thx google!) but apparently the right parking lot was closed anyways so maybe it wasn't google's fault. It was supposed to be a 3 mile hike. Good distance for so many littles! It turned out to be 8 miles. The kids developed some stamina, saw tons of wild deer and turkeys and walked behind a beautiful 25ft waterfall, all before breakfast. I carried John for maybe 5 minutes, Katy about the same. But they walked almost the entire way, it was incredible.
Hardly anyone chose this hike because it was so long- the parking lot was crowded but most went the other way to shorter hikes. I loved hiking seeing so much wildlife and being able to spread out on the trail. The weather was a little cool, but quickly got even warm.
We saw 7 deer on both sides of us.
Spring was not quite there yet, but gave us some great views.
There had been a bunch of rain so a lot of the trail had to be carefully managed. Lots of little stream crossings that were wider than normal. This one we decided to climb a log instead of get our feet wet. We *mostly* succeeded.
Totally hollow log. But nobody wanted to brave the spiders and go in!
The kids really learned how to cross streams. I was amazed that even John and Katy did so well.
Some of the streams had large boulders placed to cross.
Finally can see the falls!
The water was ice cold and it was so cool to walk behind.
The sunrise was at just a perfect spot for some gorgeous shots.
Huge tree uprooted by all the rain.
Somehow the kids still had energy after all that hiking to jump on the hotel's bounce pillow overlooking the river.
Jim, did not. :)
We were ready for a good dinner after all that hiking! We went to Dolly Parton's Stampede.
Johnny boy was totally out though. It was amazing how far he walked.
Cute girls selfie with a little photo bomb by Mike in the back.
Horses
Bison
Acrobats coming down from the ceiling.
Cattle herding
Pig racing
And lots of fun horse tricks! Jim and Nicole got to be part of the show in a competition too! They had to haul water to a bucket racing against another father and daughter. Since the show had to have both sides with equal "awards" to make the finale more exciting, our team had to lose so they rigged it somehow. Anyways, it was fun!
The next day was pouring rain, so instead of more fun hiking we went to Magiquest. The kids had wands that made different things light up. They had to solve clues and find the items and wave their wands at them to complete a "quest". Jim and I stayed with the youngest and the others paired up and did harder quests on their own.
There was also a mirror maze. Jim and I sat outside chuckling as we heard the kids running around trying to find their way out.
As part of the package we got at the place, everyone got to do a few arcade games. They loved the driving. Jim on the gas and the littles driving was hilarious to watch.
Diana is a fearless driver
John didn't do so shabby either.
The last thing that the Magiquest place had was mini golf in black lights. We'd gotten a package with everything we did included, it was great.
Both Katy and John got real hole-in-one shots. It was crazy!
John celebrating his hole in one.
Before we drove home, we just had to go in the store with "live sharks" :)
We saw some amazing views of the Great Smokies!
The Great Smoky Mountains were amazing. Pigeon Forge was too touristy/crowded for us. We prefer smaller towns like Boone, but we were glad that we got to hike and explore in a new place!
We've been dreading this repair and praying that it didn't ruing the pool or cause another problem! They had to add more support under the shelf because it was sagging 3 inches. So they drained the pool until the shelf was dry, took off all the tile in the area, dug under to see the problem, then spend days adding support. It was a tough, hot, dirty job!
They managed to do it and get everything fixed!
For Easter we had the cousins over! I had numbered the eggs so each age group could only pick up their numbers. Of course the older the kids, the harder the hiding places!
Happy with their candy!
Mango chilling in Mike's shirt
Grandma Kathryn came to stay with us for a month while she had dental work done. A fun Sunday morning walk!
Our Easter dessert every year is hummingbird cake. It's a southern classic I discovered years ago when randomly looking up what typical Easter dinners are like in the south. We love this cake.
Nicole was home with the kids. Someone came to the door. Her communication with him was obviously not very clear and made me laugh. So someone was going to do something at around this time. haha.
John teaching Grandma how to play Trash Pandas was definitely including rules outside of the box.
We took Kathryn to the farmers market and had to laugh at this chocolate quote.
Lizard showing off his pink beard was so pretty.
John at his preschool Easter egg hunt
Love how they have the whole couch but choose to watch tv together. Lately John has tried to "match" Katy. It drives her nuts that he wants to eat the same breakfast as her every day.
We *finally* made it to Marian's lake house! Uncle Luke was visiting and their goal was to get rid of some beavers (you can't just transport them somewhere else, you have to kill them. They will destroy the land and are aggressive. They live very close to the dock). Somehow this developed into Jim buying a bow and arrows, bb gun and Brandon getting a crossbow. And Jim borrowing a shotgun from a guy at work. And Luke bringing shots in his luggage. So while we were up at the lake house, the kids got to shoot a little.
John especially liked it!
And since the beavers don't show themselves until dawn or dusk, the kids spent time breaking apart the sticks of the lodge.
Beautiful blue heron hunting nearby.
Everyone coming in from a few hours wakeboarding/surfing/kneeboarding
Love preschool naps. It's the calm in between all of the energy.
Jim went with Luke to Florida on business. And no location near a beach is safe from their fishing. Nice little shark they caught.
Pompano I think... Energizes them for the rest of the day of work.
Katy turned 7! She had to wear the "party shirt" that used to be Diana's that diana would wear to any party. It's so cute how I know exactly what she'd wear :)
Lots of swim toys and some stuffed animals.
Swim time with the cousins!
Katy wanted a mermaid cake! Chocolate with chocolate pudding in the layers, plus chocolate mermaid tails!
And she wanted a frozen escape room!
Kathryn was such a trooper with so much work being done each week. But we did get a few fun outings in like a trip to Ulta. John was darling carrying all of our finds in a basket. The ladies that worked there and were helping us knew his name by the end. And he insisted on carrying the bags since we'd complemented him so many times on his muscles :)
We got a beach house in Surf City for a week. The kids had a four day weekend, so they stayed the first four days and then Jim took them home so Grandma could watch them the rest of the time. So many beautiful sunrises!
Our family doesn't sleep in at the beach. The waves are calling and we must be outside!
Exploring the southern end of the island.
Fun sand dunes but not as many tide pools as the top end of Wrightsville.
There was an epic fishing spot in front of us and pelicans fished there for days.
Gorgeous weather! A little too cold for a lot of boogie boarding but the kids still got in!
The sounds, smell and feel of the beach rejuvenates my soul.
The house was so close to the beach. This was taken from the back porch. I could be in the house and hear the kids perfectly. It was awesome.
Game time with all the kids playing. Love how they can do this more now that they're older.
There was prettymuch always a line in the water. Lots of fun stuff caught and eaten!
Endless sun and sand
Afternoon storm coming in...
Hope springs eternal. Fishing pole just waiting for a fish to come by...
Playing around with the stunt kite we got at Kitty Hawk in the OBX a few years ago.
John loved flying the octopus kite.
Puffer fish are so fun!
Crab!
Sand pipers are so fun to watch. Fast little legs!
When Jim took everyone else home, Marian Robin and Eve came up for a night!
My birthday was the next morning and I got to do some yoga on the beach as the sun came up. The peace of that was amazing.
We took a looooong walk on the beach (the pier is farther away it looks!)
20 kids at home. That's a lot of relaxation needed! :)
After too short a time, they left that afternoon and Jim came up for the last two nights of our rental. I felt a little like a lizard that had missed the sun for a long time and I really enjoyed the peace and quite and rest.
Spring has sprung!
Strawberry picking with Grandma!
Foxglove looks so cool!
Little baby banana leaf coming out!
Mike made some "pants" for school out of boxes.
Tiny Asiatic Lily
Elephant ears coming up! We've been so excited to have our plants around the pool.
Mango popsicle poker plant!
Goblin something plant. We don't remember anything but the name goblin :)
Calla lilies came up!
Diana has had an uphill battle with school this year. Virtual school was just...impossible for her to get interested in. But she did try. It was just...ugh. Anyways, with the threat of not passing and having to do summer school, teachers are preparing the kids for the end of grade state testing. Diana was very clear in her goals for the test: "I do not want to go to summer school." Thankfully, she has taken another end of grade test and did great. Apparently all she needed was to actually get taught in person at school.
Beautiful rainbow this week in the morning.
Our pool is finally done. Still have to get the certificate of occupancy, but it's good to go.
These plants are grasses and some dinner-plate hibiscus (with huge 9-in flowers). They are very young plants, it will be interesting to see how they grow since the mature plant is 5'x5'!
Dwarf palmetto and hardy bananas are the fun tropical plants in there.
This mandevilla is just a summer plant, but it's got cool vines that have already attached to the fences!
Lavender, aloe vera, and even my calla lily bulbs are coming out!
I have two of these ice plants. One is purple, the other red. They are so cool because they open up their flowers when it's sunny, but close up like anemones when it's cloudy.
Jim is on his yearly trip to surf! This year they're in Costa Rica. Jim took pics of food because that's a huge part of his joy :)
And Diana has her own brand of snacks.
Fun, sweet preschool moments.
Park fun. Nicole and I ran a few miles in a loop around the park while the littles played.
Some more pics from Jim in Costa Rica.
This morning for Mother's Day the kids made breakfast, cleaned the house, all combed their hair and came to get me by 7:30 for biscuits and eggs. I love being their mom!
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