Summer Life

I am super lucky to be able to spend every summer with my kids. It is an amazing perk of being a teacher. Most days start with London waking me up to remind me that is is "morning time!"...followed by Izzy yelling, "mommy?!" Luckily, this is usually around 8:30 or 9 and on some days as late as 10am. We spend morning eating breakfast, watching cartoons and just playing on the floor. This summer we made the awesome decision to get a pool so we usually swim in the afternoon and also have fun in the blow up pool and with the hose. I try to take them places every day but some days I just don't have the energy or patience to take them out solo. I do best when I meet up with friends with kids...gives me some back-up if needed. Luckily, Kary has Mondays Nader Fridays off so we are able to do some fun family trips. This summer we went to NY for a wedding and then to PA for family time and spent 11 days away from home.  We traveled 13 hours to NY, then 3 to NEPA and then 9 back home. The kids are rockstar travelers and usually do better than me. We also went to "Discovery Kids", "Tiger World", "Zootastic", the Water Park, "Bounce U" and went to lots of playgrounds and parks. We went to a few Concerts on the Green and hung at Crafty Beer Guys and went out to eat a lot. Some of our favorite places are Pinkies, Cafe 100, Lupies, Hawthornes, Bad Daddy Burgers (veggie) and 131 Main. Kary and I spent our evenings watching the entire series of Breaking Bad and Orange is the New Black on netflix. We also enjoyed drinking wine in the jacuzzi after the little ones went to bed. It was a pretty awesome summer. We also have a trip planned to Wilmington to see some family and then to NEPA again at the end of Septemeber for Wine Fest and to see more family.
Here are pictures from the many fun days we enjoyed this summer.

London's 4th Birthday~ Pumpkin Patch!

London turned 4 last Sunday and so far he is loving it! There was a while back when he was super against the number 4 but now "4 is pretty awesome" and "4 year olds cab do lots of stuff!" We started off his day with some gifts (ninja turtle fort, race track, connect 4 launchers, a new fish named Iggy Lovely!) and an Angry Bird cupcake for breakfast. He was a little bummed he wasn't having a big party this year but I was so impressed with how sweet and grateful he was after he opened his gifts. He never once asked if there were more or complained...he's an awesome kid.

Our original plan was to go to the Asheboro Zoo but Izzy wasn't feeling good so we went to the Pumpkin Patch. It was beautiful! He tried everything! He went in the corn pit, rode the cow train all by himself, slid down all the big slides, did the duck races, played on pumpkins, went for a hayride, played with pumpkins and we topped off the day with some cotton candy ice cream. It was such a fun, sweet, family day. He kept saying it was the perfect day because he is with his family. When I look back at previous blog posts I can't believe my baby boy is already 4! I am already noticing him slowly pushing away from me to earn more and more independence. It is hard but I am so proud of the little boy he has become. He is smart, kind, loving, an inquirer, and confident. I just love him to pieces!