Well, I guess summer officially came to a close with the passing of Labor Day. I know we had a GREAT summer, but I can't help but feel it's a little bittersweet since it seemed to go by so fast. Maybe partly because it was spent scattered across 9 states... but that's all those other blog posts I'm sure you've been following.
We continue to adjust to life in North Carolina. We live in a really small town compared to what we were used to in Philly and Las Vegas, Pinehurst is around 20,000 or so, and "country livin'" is not really my thing. Luckily Raleigh is only about an hour away, and the beach, but you can't make day trips outta those every day. We also still know NOBODY even though we've been here 3 weeks--so we're kinda bored. A lot. All part of moving I tell myself, and I often have to remember that I didn't start liking Las Vegas until after Christmas-- it took that long so I gotta give Pinehurst it's fair dues and time to grow on me, right? Right.
At least this last week we had some very welcome visitors to spice things up! My brother Devin, his wife Sarah, and their little girls Sophie and Eva drove down Thursday night before Labor Day, so we could babysit their kids while they continued on to Mississippi to see the Ole Miss v. BYU game in Oxford. Naturally my mother, also a die-hard BYU fan couldn't miss out on the action and flew out for the the 30+ hour road trip. Good thing BYU won!
Friday the BYU friends left bright and early and we stayed home and just let the kids play with each other in the toy room. That night we got brave and ventured out to Chick Fil-A for dinner, and the only way we could coax them away from "Chick Fi-Way!" (chanted the WHOLE ride there) was to bring some ice cream home. This is the little munchkins enjoying their creamy treat OUTSIDE (key-word).
Ha! Ha! Rub-A-Dub-Dub! Four naked cousins in the tub soaking before bed time.
Saturday morning we checked out a local farmer's market, where there was this super cook-a-doodle-doo lady offering face painting for a dollar-- who then tried to cheat me out of like $3, but I've discovered that not all people living in the South are in their right mind. Oh well. The kids LOVED it.
Lucy chose to have Ariel painted on her face to match her shirt, and she didn't wash it off until the last possible moment right before church the next day.
Zachary, surprisingly, also really wanted his face painted and chose his favorite super hero, Spiderman. He held PERFECTLY still and was the cutest thing to watch!
Look out! Here comes the Spiderman!
Eva patiently waited her turn and chose Cinderella. She couldn't wait to tell her mom and dad about it! She also has a vocabulary bigger than me, and kept saying, "Isn't it exquisite Auntie Sara?"
The weekend went by pretty quickly considering we had a 4 year old, 3 year old, 2 year old, and almost 1 year old cooped up together, but the best part about it?? Devin and Sarah now owe US a weekend of free babysitting! They got home late Sunday night, and headed back up to Richmond on Labor Day while my mom was able to stay and spend the week with us in Pinehurst. Besides getting me newly addicted to
Pinterest, we also:
Made curtains for Lucy's bedroom, crafted like crazy some fun fall ideas found on Pinterest, cut stuff with the Cricut for wall-projects, including these fun designs to jazz up my Kitchen-Aid mixer and a saying for the kids' bathroom.
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We also got caught in a tornado on Tuesday, which adds yet another natural disaster to my list since moving to NC. We were in the cross-hairs of another tropical storm where it rained and poured and lightning-ed all day, and even spawned a few twisters that touched down on the golf course nearby. FYI, we were totally oblivious shopping at Michael's for craft supplies and going out to lunch to be bothered to hunker down inside. Oops.:)
And since we
are in the South, peaches are EVERYWHERE and along every highway at roadside stands right now, so we bought a bushel and made several batches of peach and raspberry freezer jam on Friday. Yum!
All good things must come to an end, and my mom had to leave Saturday morning. After taking her to the airport we decided to have a little impromptu picnic and walked down to the lake about 1/2 a mile from our house.
There's a really nice beach with sand, umbrellas, and gazebos, etc. which are specifically for people belonging to Pinehurst country club, but since they leave the gate open and no one is EVER there we figured they wouldn't mind if we visited.:)
Goodbye summer!! We loved you!! Bring on the pumpkin patches, spiced cider, and fuzzy sweaters...
