A visit and a beach trip

Last Wednesday the kids and I spent the night at Kelly's new house (it's gorgeous!)  before heading to their shore house the next morning. The kids had a great time playing at their house that evening. 

No good can come of this...

Thursday morning we all loaded up and headed to the shore. We got there in time for lunch, a little resting, then we were off to the beach!

Ready to go!

Sadly, it was cloudy, cold and very windy. Sand was blowing everywhere, stinging our legs and in our eyes. Not a good beach day :(  So we turned right around and headed back. Thankfully it's a short walk!

The kids were all cozy while dinner was being made. 

Then after dinner it was ice cream time!

Friday was a much better beach day!  Makayla didn't waste any time getting in the water!

She's a beach lover!

This guy is still undecided...

Playing in the waves with Matthew. 

Hey look, my feet are in the water!

Working hard

Loving the sand!

Silly kids

Cute kids

It's so nice when two best friends have kids that play well together!

A huge thank you to Dottie for letting us visit her beach house for a few days!  It was a wonderful time, as always!

One last kid pic before loading back in the car to head home 

While we were out...

While we were out playing at the beach, Jason worked on a "little" project at home. We had ordered a play set for the kids. It arrived like this...

And after a few days and a lot of hard work, it looks like this!

Meet Ava Charlotte Hodge!

After a very long labor, Ava finally arrived on Tuesday, July 23rd at 11:58 am. Weighing in at 7 lbs, 3 ounces (seems tiny to me!) and 21 inches long, she is healthy, beautiful, and already very loved!

Look at all that hair!

The new family of three were able to go home on Thursday and everyone is doing well. I'm sure Colleen and Jason are experiencing a whole new level of exhaustion and are understanding how much you can still do in that tired state, but a love that makes it all worth it!

Beautiful girls!

Keeping busy!

A few days ago it was hot, hot, hot!  So we decided to keep cool with a little indoor obstacle course. 

Mad skills!

Conner got tired and decided he'd rather play lifeguard. 

Showing off her new bike!  Both kids needed new bikes, they are growing so fast!

We got both kids a mask and snorkel and Makayka has been testing it out in the pool. She is doing great with it!

She can almost do a handstand!

Here is the Queen of Egypt with her royal babies (she came up with all of this all on her own!)

To much going on or not enough???

Conner's bathroom

Conner has been asking when we can paint his room and bathroom (since we painted Makayla's as soon as we moved in).  But when I would ask him what colors, he said he wants his room black and bathroom orange...  The black room isn't going to happen, but check out his bathroom!
Before...

Add these colors...

After!

DC day trip

As we were eating breakfast Saturday morning, Jason said "want to go to the DC Aquarium?"  Sure!  Within an hour we had all eaten, changed, packed lunches and were in the car headed to DC.  The trip to DC went very smoothly (which was a nice change from some of the recent trips we've had...)  The kids were excited to check out the fish, but this aquarium was pretty small.  Makayla was not really impressed...

The weather was really nice so we found a place to sit and eat our lunches that we packed.

It was just a short walk to see the White House.  I've never been this close to it before, pretty cool!

Hanging out

And the Washington Monument.  It's covered in scaffolding for repairs due to damage from the little earthquake we had a few years ago.  I've heard it looks cool at night because there are lights all over the scaffolding, but it doesn't look too cool during the day.

Gotta get the family shot!

Friday fun day!

After several days of outings, we had a chill at home day on Friday.  Although I think I need a new name because we don't really "chill"...  We started with a little crafting.

Then I worked with Conner on learning to cut - a skill I know his next preschool teacher will really appreciate him knowing!  He did great and now wants to cut everything - so there are many reminders that we cut paper only!

Then Mickey wasn't feeling well so Dr. Makayla had to check him out.

A fresh batch of home made play dough and a big box of toys kept them entertained for a while!  It was a fun morning!

 

Movie theater fun!

One of our local theaters has free kids movies in the mornings so last week we went to check it out.  You have to get there early to make sure you can get a ticket and a seat, Makayla wasn't too thrilled with the amount of time we had to wait for the movie to start...

They were both happier when the popcorn arrived (popcorn at 10am, who wouldn't be happy!)  But I think Conner was done with pictures...

The movie was "The Land Before Time."  I had talked to Makayla and let her know there would be some scary and sad parts but that it was just a movie and everything would end happy.  As predicted, she did not like some parts of it and has told me she only wants to see Tinkerbell movies because they aren't sad...  Conner loved it and each day asks if we can go "back to that place where we sit in comfy chairs and eat popcorn and watch movies!"

 

More catching up...

"Catching up" may need to be my new title for all my posts...
A few weeks ago my friend Sarah and I had the idea to do our own "Art Camp" for our kids.  We both have plenty of supplies, our kids all play well together, and it's been fun! 

We only moved about a mile but the sunsets here are so pretty!

On July 3rd, we hung out at the Walking Mall in Winchester where they had all kinds of night before the 4th festivities.  The kids enjoyed getting their faces painted.  Conner chose a motorcycle...

And Makayla a pretty flower. 

We stopped for ice cream on the way home and as we were finishing, the fireflies started to come out.  Look out, here come 4 kids ready to catch you!

I love Conner's expression in this pictures!

He got one!  He's actually squeezing it under his thumb...

Happy 4th!  A patriotic snack (it looked better on Pinterest!)

Time to break out the slip-n-slide!

Yippie!

Fun!

Waiting "patiently" for the fireworks to start.

He looks like he's ready for a luau!

Looking good!

The show was great!  Getting out of the parking lot and back home, not so much...

The next morning we went to Marker Miller to play.

He loves being up on the tractor.

Check out Conner in the way back - I think he put himself in Time Out but I don't know why...

Craze weather rolling in!

Lunch break at the pool!

Ready to swim!

We recently joined the neighborhood pool.  I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time here!