Hey Everyone!!!! Did anyone make it to the kite festival???

Kitty got another boo-boo and needed some stitching.  It is a little scary for me to let Aiden love him, since I got him from my BFF (Mary Pilaar) when I was 4.  So far he is being pretty gentle, Kitty is just old, so as long as I don't have to repair him too much, I guess I can share him.

I took Aiden for his Kindergarten physical on the 18th.  I have been saying all year that he has been growing like a weed and his doctor confirmed that I was right.  So normally a child will grow about 2 inches from age 4 to 5.... Aiden grew 4 inches.  No wonder all his pants are high waters..... good thing it is almost warm enough for shorts everyday.

Last weekend Aiden was supposed to go to a birthday party for a classmate and he had been misbhaving so he was told he could not go.  ((I was pretty happy that we didn't go after I found out some kid pooped and peed on the slide at Burger King during the party))  Instead we went to Goodwill to get some clothes for the "Moonshine Tour" -- stay tuned for that story.....

On the way to Goodwill J called and told me that the kite festival was going on....I have been trying to make it to this festival for a few years now and mostly because of the weather I have not gone.  This year it was a perfect windy day, but still a little chilly for my taste, plus J was off mowing a yard and I had all 3 kids.

Once we got done at Goodwill and started to head home, I got curious and had to see if the festival was over....to my delight the sky was still full of kites.

The girls didn't really notice the kites until we got out of the car, but once they did they were in heaven.  Aiden was really good at helping me hold his sisters hands, even with his help it was still hard to coral them all. 

We only stayed for about 15 minutes, but we saw some awesome kites and Even got to see them put some of the bigs ones up too......

Aiden couldn't decide if the frog, lizard, octopus or parrot was his favorite......

Isabella and Emma loved them all and we pointing and saying "I Kite, I Kite!" all the way out of the park.

I did have to work Saturday night as well so we had to get home, but I was happy to get a few pictures and to get to at least take the kids and let them see the sky full of kites in all their glory. 

I took this one out the car window, but loved the light effect that it caught so I threw it in too.... I hope next year I will get it on the calendar so we don't forget and that the weather will be good so that we can all go out for a day of fun together.

If you've ever tried taking pictures of more than one child at a time, I feel your pain....LoL

I got the tablet out to check out the different cameras on it and see what kind of pictures I could get out of the girls.....

They love the tablet and wanted to keep pressing buttons, so half the time I would press the button to take a picture and there would be a little finger somewhere else on the screen causing it not to respond....

So to eliminate the "help" I was getting I tried to get the girls to sit in their comfy chairs.....

Emma smiles and disobeys as Isabella sits there heartbroken, because I told them "No" when they wanted to get up......

...but around here "monkey see, monkey do" happens more often than not....

....I just kept snapping away.....

....and eventually I had enough good/decent pictures to share.....

...at least one of them sat still for a few.....

When we gave up on getting the girls to sit together for a picture, we switched back to the rear camera on the tablet and tried again....((I just love the curls))

Emma was better behaved this time....

...and she really enjoyed looking at herself making different faces....

...she is so cute even with a silly face on! :)

Isabella is more stubborn and I had to catch her playing in the background to get her to sit still.....

I hope you all enjoy the new pics.... I will get some more of Aiden and send out an update asap. ;)

6 years married ---- 12 1/2 years together......It was great to get a night out with no kids!

J and I got married 6 years ago on April 14, 2007.  It was a overcast and rainy day that day, lucky for us there was beautiful weather for our anniversary this year.  We decided to take a overnight trip to celebrate this year, but we didn't want to spend too much time driving, so we got online and started searching for festivals, events, concerts anything to do..... the selection was very limited, but there was a comedy show in Durham NC.  So we got tickets to the show, booked a hotel and arranged for childcare..... ((Thank you so much to everyone that pitched in to help, but especially to Mom, who had the kids most of the time we were gone))

The show was at the DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center...see first pic) and we had seen on their website that they served all types of alcohol there.  We were surprised to see that you could also buy it on the sidewalk outside even though it is illegal to smoke on the sidewalk there....hmmm?

.... boy did they have a selection tho......Since the show started at 5pm and it was a little early for me to start driniking liquor I grabbed a Sprite and J got a beer and then we took our seats and waited for the show....

Yes, I know it is just an empty stage, but I wanted to see if I could get a decent picture.... of course J was a party pooper and wouldn't let me take any pictures during the show, as not to disturb the people sitting around us with my bright phone screen.... :( ... irregardless we had a blast and laughed so much that our checks hurt.... If you get the chance I would recommend seeing Larry the Cable Guy and Bill Engval perform.  They are Hilarious!!!!

DPAC has 3 different balcony levels and they were so organized getting people seated that I was amazed to see how many people were actually there as we all filed out after the show.  We went to dinner at The Saucy Crab after the show, which had an awesome design, but not so awesome menu.  Their seafood selection was good, but there was no steak offered to go with it....idk... I guess we are just steak and seafood type people....LoL... The hotel was so-so as well, hard bed and we had to pay $3 extra for high speed wi-fi access that still wasn't good enough to skype on :(Plus I took a die hard VT fan and put him on Duke campus overnight with this hotel selection)..... Ooops... LoL... surprisingly he took the news better than I had expected.  Neither of us would recommend a stay at the Homestead extended stay hotel, that is for sure.

 We decided to drive back the same way we took to get to Durham until we got to Danville so we could take some pictures of neat places and things on the way back, that we had seen on the way.  We got to see most of the things we wanted to again, but we did get off track a little in Danville and missed some of the sites in Martinsville.  Now, Durham was a nice place to visit, but we prefer to be in the country, so we drove for awhile before finding our first treasure.  This old time store is in Yanceyville, NC.  We loved the old time gas pumps and the wethered rocking chairs on the front porch, it looked like it was plucked right out of the history books.

 Now, I don't know about you, but when we passed this on the way to Durham we were totally curious.  ((How redneck is that)) so we planned to stop here on the way home and see what it was all about.  Now mind you this Walmart is about the size of a Dollar General, but they managed to fit a little bit of everything in there... from the fresh produce to toys.....

...this end cap and 1/4 of an isle plus a rack of new release DVD's made up their electronics section....

....and as long as you already had a pole and some fishing line, you could pick up some lures or live bait... Lovin' the DMF advertisement ;)

After making sure we could stop at the Walmart Express we decided to find food....while we were trying to decide where to eat we drove through downtown Danville.  The architecture there is absolutely beautiful, it's hard to see in this picture, but the middle window in the tower was done in an awesome stained glass design.  We also drove through the old tobacco district and looked at the tobacco storage warehouses.  I wonder what they are being used for now...the years have not dulled the beauty of this district at all certainly worth the visit.

 

We found a mexican restaurant "Los Tres Magueyes" (I think that is how it is spelled) in Danville for lunch...their decor was awesome down to the metal garden art outside and the menu was huge.  I would definitely recommend stopping there if you are in the area looking for food, cause it was Super Yummy!

Although our mini-vacation was fun, it was also nice to be at home and see the kids again.  They ran their poor grandma ragged and they were happy to see us too.

Just checkin' in.... ;)

I have to say I Love Love Love my Samsung tablet. I have not had a chance to explore all of the things it can do, but I did find the button that changes the camera on the tablet so that we can take pictures while we view the screen.  Hopefully that will help me get even more great pictures of the family.

We got Aiden's class picture this week and he can't wait until I frame it so we can hang it up to look at all the time.  I bought a big package of pictures this past fall and then they popped another school picture day on us.  This time there were options of different poses to choose from and a picture to preview before ordering.  I am torn at this point, the picture turned out really cute, but the cheapest package is $16 so I haven't decided if we are going to get this picture or not.

 Emma and Isabella have gotten interested in Mr. Potato Head recently and Emma loves to put on the glasses and look like Mommy.  It took a lot of shots to capture these so-so pictures, but as always I will not give up and there will be many more pictures taken to capture the innocent beauty of my babies. The girls (and Aiden) have found a love for hiding under the big red toy tubs, for some reason they get maaaad when someone else sits on top of it while they are hiding....LoL....As you can see they are still boycotting clothes (and sometimes I don't blame them)....I actually got a sunburn on April 10th, just 6 days after we had 3-4 inches of snow on the ground....I am still in disbelief of the odd weather we have been having....

It is a very unique experience having twins sometimes...I have walked in to see them tackling one another to the ground and tickle one another.  As they have learned more and more words it has been interesting to hear them vocalize different things.  For instance, Emma loves to count (and has been counting to 10 for about a month now) and she really wants to learn the names of colors, she says "Tank you" still which is great.  Isabella on the other hand expresses herself "Bye,Bye" (she is ready to leave, but going outside will do) "Come here, get me" (I am done with playing in my room) "Hungry" "Ow" "No, mine" things like that.   I wish my babies wouldn't grow up so fast, but I love watching them learn and smile and hearing them laugh from deep in their bellies.

Is it Spring? Really!?!

This little chick makes me want to have a chicken of my own, he hatched 2-3 days after the rest of the eggs in this batch and is as unique as the Ugly Duckling.... I love that it has striped feathers while all of the rest of them are mostly black with a speck of white here and there.  Aiden and I got some pics of these guys while Mom was out of town and now they are getting adjusted to life without their heat lamp so they can be put outside.  They have finally gotten big enough that they won't need a heat light anymore, and other than the late hatcher the rest of them have pretty much lost all their fuzz and it has been replaced with feathers.... I think it is very interseting the difference just a couple of days can make in the growth of a chick.

Since the snow melted this last time we have been having better and better weather.... I have had the chance to transplant some of the Iris's and even got to take the kids for a wagon ride today ((that'll wear you out))....They love it when I tie the wagons together and they all get to ride on the wagon train....J and I even worked on the trampoline and were able to straighten the frame out enough that the kids can still enjoy it.... I'm not so sure adults want to get on it anymore, but I know it can handle 50lbs with no problem and that makes Aiden a lot more happy.