It Was a Bust

Normally our outings with the kids go well but sometimes it all falls apart. Saturday morning started out well enough. We started the day by watching the sun rise over the ocean.

We had the best donuts I have ever eaten - Duck Donuts. The donuts were freshly prepared and still warm when we ate them. We chose the maple, strawberry, cinnamon sugar, and chocolate coatings. We took them back to the house to share them with the other early risers.
The kids got to watch the donuts being iced.
Everything fell apart when we went to the Cape Hatteras Light House. We were a little foolish. We knew the height requirement was 42 inches but we weren't sure if they strictly enforced it or not. They do!

Lydia cried because she couldn't go up with Daddy. She cried and whined the entire time they were up there. She handled not being able to ride certain rides at Disney just fine but Saturday she had a complete melt down.

I had Josiah in the front carrier and they wouldn't let me go up either. I did argue just a little bit with the girl at the ticket counter. Chris pointed out that we need to teach our kids that rules exist for reasons (and he didn't mean to be broken) and that we should obey the rules.

We also discovered that I had left the memory card for the SLR camera in my laptop. That is the first time I have done that. Right when I was starting to feel really bad for leaving it in the computer, Chris saved the day! He had a backup memory card tucked away in the camera bag! He is always taking care of things like that! He is my knight in khaki shorts and a t-shirt!

Chris said Wesley a little scared climbing up.
It was a beautiful day.
There is Lydia sucking her fingers.
I took a picture of Chris and Wesley with the little camera. You can barely see them. The keeper's house had a lot of neat historical artifacts. I learned that during the spring of 1942, German U-boats sank a ship a day.
Chris said that Wesley wasn't scared at all when walking down.
This is a great shot of the lighthouse and you can just barely see the dust spec on the camera lens.
Thankfully, the rest of the weekend went great!

I Should Have Known

This past weekend we went to the Outer Banks. As soon as we got there the kids wanted to go down to the beach. Chris and a few other people went to the grocery store while I took our kids to the beach. Wesley asked if he was going to wear his swimsuit but I assumed that the kids wouldn't get in the water because it was cold.

At first the kids just got their feet wet.

But soon they were in up to their knees.

Look at this wave coming their way.

Soon they were drenched and having a great time.
They played in the water for 45 minutes. Wesley and Layton had a great time playing all weekend.

When they finally asked to go in because they were cold we ran into Chris inside the house. He asked, "What happened?" I replied, "They went swimming in their clothes!" I should have known that they would get in the ocean even if they weren't wearing their swimsuits.

I don't know this fisherman but this is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. I love the colors of his outfit and the water as the sun sinks lower in the sky.

And So It Begins

Forget saving for college, Chris and I need to save for three sets of braces.

Merging

On the ride home from school on Monday I asked Wesley to review the first four commandments. He said, “You shall have no other gods. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. You shall honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. You shall honor your father and mother.” We have talked about what each of these mean.

I asked him, “Did your teacher tell you what the fifth commandment is?” He replied, “You shall not merge.”

“What did you say?”

“You shall not merge.”

“You shall not do what?”

“Merge!”

I asked him if he knew what “merge” means and he said no.

It sounds like he is ready to drive in Northern Virginia!

I told him the fifth commandment, “You shall not murder.” Then I explained what murder is.

Apple Picking

After going to the early church service on Sunday we headed to Homestead Farm to pick apples.
First we went on a hayride. I thougth about turning Josiah around for the camera but he was sound asleep.

The hayride stopped at the pumpkin patch so everyone could pick pumpkins. I think this was my first time actually harvesting pumpkins. Lydia had a hard time walking in the patch and she fell down multiple times but it didn't bother her.

Lydia chose a white pumpkin and Wesley picked a good sized orange one.

After the hayride, we looked at the farm animals and then went to pick apples.

Josiah had his hood on to project his head from the sun.

Wesley and Lydia carried the bucket when it only had a few apples in it.

Most of the remaining apples were higher up in the trees.
Wesley and Lydia liked Daddy lifting them up to pick the apples.

We ended the outing with a caramel apple.

While Lydia was at Cubbies and Chris was at Trek, Wesley and I made an apple crisp. I used a friend's recipe and it was delicious! Wesley liked mixing up the topping with his hands.

Hopefully this will be a fall tradition.

Blue Hair

Yesterday Chris took Wesley to a nearby Fall Fun Fair that I took the kids to last year. Of course, Wesley loved the big slide. He also enjoyed checking out the police car. Chris said he got to turn on the light several times.

Wesley won a stuffed dinosaur while "fishing".

This is a funny picture.

Wesley rode the "pony".

He seemed very excited when he told me about petting a chicken. It is not every day you get to pet a chicken.

We had neighbors over for dinner last night and Wesley was rather hyper. Normally I don't think sugar affects him that much. He has a lot of energy all of the time but he was in overdrive last night. After he went to bed I realized that he had part of a funnel cake and a bomb pop for lunch. Then he went to a birthday party and had "three little hotdogs (little sausages with crescent rolls around them) and strawberries," cake and ice cream, and some candy from the goody bag. After eating a little bit of dinner he had a piece of cake.

What was Wesley's favorite part of the fun fair? Getting blue hair!

Lydia missed the fun fair because she refused to get dressed. She had plenty of time and too many reminders and at one point I tried to help her put her jeans on but she didn't want to wear them. So, Chris left without her. We hope she learned something from missing out on a fun activity and we thought that was a better consequence than us dressing her. She got dressed over an hour later.

We are praying for wisdom.

Nap Time