Five Years Old

My little girl is five years old.  I watched her wake up on the big day last week and she asked if she looked older.  Five is a big birthday.  She requested a "pretty cake," so I let the experts take care of that.  I did make cupcakes for her little preschool class. Originally, she requested Chuck E. Cheese for dinner (we haven't been since she was a baby probably), but when she found out they mostly just have pizza, she requested Lonestar.  She loves their mac & cheese.  She got a bunch of fun gifts and late in the day admitted that she didn't really feel like she was five yet.  Ben took two days off work to celebrate which made everything extra special.

Testing

Just wanted to see how the iPod app works...

Thanksgiving 2011 (fixed!)

I better post a few pictures before Christmas comes. It was a real treat to have family drive the five hours down to visit us. My brother Jim, his wife DeAnn and two cute boys, my brother Greg, and my parents. We took a few shots before they left.

Santa wasn't busy at the mall, so the kids were able to have a quick chat.  A visit with Santa is free, it's just the pictures that cost an arm and a leg.

Thanks to the tremendous help of my sister-in-law DeAnn (and my mom, Ben, & Jim) we really had a yummy, yummy meal.  I'm already craving those stuffing balls.  Amazing.

Halloween 2011

We really enjoy Halloween costumes.  We think about it for months and then on October 1st the kids tell me their choice and no changes are allowed.  (Joe tried to tell me this morning that he wanted to do be yoda, but I reminded him of the rules).  I made the watermelon costume for Rosemary and Tim's dog costume (glad he liked it).

The rain let up for trick-or-treating and we had a great time.  So different than our old neighborhood where all the kids from our part of the county got dropped off.

Pumpkin Patch

Mike's Farm in Beulaville, NC.  We had been a few years ago when Tim was our only child (five years ago!).  Times have changed.  For the Farm too.  There were throngs of people there.  Lines everywhere and the parking lot completely full.  We're gladly we went though.  Beautiful weather and the kids now have pumpkins!

 

Field trip

Carolina is part of a small home-based preschool this year. Three mornings a week. We joined her class for a field trip to the science museum week before last. They had been learning about dinosaurs, so we walked the dinosaur trail and dug for fossils.

I think it's about time we cut his hair!

Last Weekend: Burnsville, NC

It was so nice to have a weekend away! We enjoyed some chilly weather in the mountains of North Carolina.  The views were great (no pics of those though).  Ben's uncle's cabin is very homey and it was a much needed getaway.

Now he's three!

Little Joe turned three this week. We celebrated all day.  Ben took off work and Tim skipped school and we headed to the zoo.  Joe was there to see giraffes.  They're his favorite right now.  We paid a little extra to  feed the giraffes from the giraffe deck. Totally fun!

Ben made the cake from start to finish.  He did a great job.  I wish that I enjoyed making cakes and could whip up super cute ones!  

Since the hurricane...

Just some recent updates for our family.  Starting most recent and we'll work back.  Rosemary was blessed yesterday at church by her dad.  We were kind of worried no one from our family could come be a part of things, but Ben's cousin, Chris, drove two hours that morning to be there and my brother Jim and wife DeAnn drove down from Maryland for the entire weekend to spend time with us (they left their cute boys behind).  Rosemary was a little angel during her blessing.

We visited the same cemetery with Jim (since Wesley Jolly is Jim's 3rd great-grandfather too) and took another picture on the same bench.  It's not often we get our entire family in a picture and this is a first for the six of us.

We also went to Sarah P. Duke Gardens.  It wasn't as hot as our last couple of trips and much more enjoyable.  

Carolina likes to find random flowers and get her picture taken with them.

I'm so glad I just found my camera battery charger. I've experimented with the ipod and the android and really having trouble getting decent pictures.  The next two were taken with the android phone.

Love the biscuits Uncle Jim made us this morning!

Moving back a week...     Rosemary is one month old and Joe finally was cooperative for his first pictures with her.  Most of the time he pretty much ignores her, but every once in awhile, he will acknowledge her presence.  He is very talkative and usually carries on a running narrative for us.  He can say her name just fine, but usually refers to her as "new baby."

Saturday evening after the big storm and we were at the Durham Bulls' baseball game.  Not sure if they won or lost, but we had fun.  Ben got free tickets through a local orthopedic office for the whole family.  The event took place on the party deck and included free food too.  I loved the freedom of the party deck.  My kids could just roam and enjoy themselves and not drive everyone crazy.  We'll save our baseball game attendance for this once a year event.

So here is the damage from Irene.  We are several hours inland, so it was just a windy rainstorm.  Pretty mild, I guess.  The tree broken below is small compared to the next picture.

This picture is of a 100-foot tree that fell during a lightning storm at the end of June.  Seriously huge and we're glad it fell in the direction it did.