Trip to the beach

This weekend I had the chance to be a speaker at a conference at the beach. The family got to come along to spend time on the beach too.

Our hotel was on the boardwalk, with an ocean view. We weren't there five minutes before the bathing suits were on and we were ready to hit the beach.

The balcony in our room.

We went down to the beach to "play in the sand, not in the water." Uh huh, we'll see about that.

Notice Brian still has his shirt on at this point. It eventually came off, once he was properly soaked. The ocean was maybe 65 degrees, but that didn't deter my fishies. Addie would've stayed in there all day long, if we let her.

My new background.

Ben enjoys playing in the sand, but not having sand on him once he's done playing. You see the problem with that requirement?

This picture made me laugh. She is digging a hole in the sand, but looks like she has no upper body.

My three favorite people.

Heading out of the surf.

Ben showing off his guns this morning (in his new shirt from Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda). Notice how macho he looks while sporting Addie's pink and blue Elmo backpack. Yup, he's hard core.

Addie's amazing 5th birthday party

Somehow 5 years have passed and my sweet first born will be turning 5 tomorrow. I'm not sure how it happened.
We had her birthday party today. In all, 15 children and 25 adults joined in the festivities. The weather was perfect. The moonbounce was in full force. The jeep was in full use and just a wonderful time was had.
My personal best homemade cake. I am so proud of how it turned out. It was four layers tall, with buttercream and a raspberry filling inside. I free carved it into a round shape and iced in buttercream. The nose is white chocolate I tinted pink. The bow is just buttercream icing. The whiskers are toothpicks and the eyes are just black dots. Addie was tickled pink with how it turned out.

Ben took advantage of the moon bounce and sunny weather.

Addie played in the house while Emma ordered.

The kids decorated their own cupcakes. It really wasn't nearly as big of a mess as it could have been.

After Aunt Kim decorated this cupcake, Aunt Gail and Addie were in cahoots to "have Uncle Teb smell it. " When he knelt down, Addie squished his face in it.

Some of the crowd watching on as the pinata was swung at.

The cake all ready to be lit.

Ben and Emma hugging before she left.

My new favorite picture of Addie.

Aunt Gail and Ben got to hang out too.

Ben was deep in thought here. I asked him to tell everyone what I say after I take a picture of him. The correct answer is, "Good one," but apparently he had a hard time thinking of it.

Afterwards Pam came over and got some cuddling time.


"It's a Ben sandwich" between Tom and Aunt Kim.
Thanks to everyone who made my almost five year old a very happy girl. While having dinner tonight, a song was on the radio and she said, "This is the right song for today." The song is called "Lovely Day." I agree.

A Day in Old New Castle

A day in Old New Castle is the longest continually running historic house tour in the country. My physician partner lives in one of the historic houses and asks friends to be tour guides. It's a bonus to be in costume... well you know Muddy loves a challenge.

Addie wore her Halloween costume, which was "a girl from the Cibil War." She started out back in the garden as a tour guide with Muddy, which quickly turned into her owning the garden. It got to the point when tourists were coming in saying, "I heard I need to had Adelaide give me the tour." She was in her element.

Here she is pointing out one of the plants. She told each person "I want you to notice three things..." and "Can you find the crown sculpture?" and "These are bleeding hearts." She was loving it.

Looking cute and sweet.

Hanging in their backyard.

Muddy, her her typical amazing style, surprised me with this beautiful outfit. It's incredible.

Mine even had a bustle and hoop skirt.

Why digital cameras are awesome

Addie's middle name is in honor of a longtime family friend, Joan, who passed away after a valiant battle with cancer just after we found out we were pregnant with Addie.

Joan was the family photographer, always running around with a camera in hand (sound familiar?). One day right around our wedding, Muddy asked Joan how she always got so many great pictures. Joan's response was, "I don't. I just throw out the bad ones." Ahhhh, brilliance. That made sense. This is back in the day, gasp, when digital cameras were not the norm, so each picture had to be developed.

Muddy sent me an email this week while at work to let me know that Addie found a plastic film canister and asked what it was. She was flabbergasted that that's how we used to have to take pictures. Hearing that made me think of Joan and how she would just throw out the duds. Then I thought of some of the recent duds we have and thought it'd be fun to share. With digital pictures, you don't have to worry about wasting money on developing bad pictures-you just get to save them to post on your blog!

As you're well aware, Benjamin has the tendency to have "Jim Brewer" eyes in photos. No problem, just snap another one.

This one you HAVE to click on to enlarge. Look at her face.

This one was snapped just as Ben sneezed. For real.

And this one when Addie decided to jump into the solo shot of Ben. It's ok though, because I'm pretty sure I would've captured more Jim Brewer eyes, as you can sort of see.

Just wanted to share.

So proud

Ben "the Bullet" has no fear, clearly.

I was shocked to see this, especially because she usually plays all coy and wants the teacher to hold her hand while jumping in. And yes, she has the belly burn that goes with the belly flop.

Round 2

Nothing fazes him.

Feel the burn!!

They were both sooo excited to have accomplished this. Note Ben's huge smile after the first jump.

Chanticleer Mother's Day 2010

While the temps barely reached 60, that didn't deter us from our picture-taking, which I'm sure is surprising. Prepare yourself for lots of pictures...there were only 100 taken.

Chanticleer has a thing about chairs. There are pairs of chairs all over the place. Addie and Ben thought it was pretty cool to take a picture in each chair. I'll spare you all of them, I promise. This one, however, is my laptop's background now.

The annual picture inside the green house.

Closer.

After posing in the giraffe chairs.

Shocking! There's Ben in a chair!

Addie posing with Aunt Kim and Tom.

They are standing a little like the two-headed monster. :)

Typical Addie, hamming it up for a photo shoot.

Ben's hair looks soooo red outdoors. He chose to have spiky hair for Mother's Day.

Annual pose of the royal court Kim and Tom

Our annual tree trunk picture.

From a distance.

The fish keeper lady happened to need to feed the fish just as we got to the top of the ponds. She had some serious helpers in Addie and Benjamin. If you look to the top of the rock in the water, you'll see one of the massive fish with his mouth open. Blech.

Addie thought this Alium looked like a dandelion and here she is trying to blow the pieces.

If I had thought about it, it would've been cool to capture their faces in the reflection completely. Oh well.

holding hands while in chairs

Aunt Wendy with Addie and Ben

Ben, Guppy, Muddy, and Addie with wind blowing their hair

Cutie Benjamin

Hey!! There's a shocker! Ben's in a chair!