Gramma Dennice came for a visit a few weeks ago and as always the kids enjoyed having gramma time. She gets to come for a week every couple of months for work with the benefit of spending time with the kids.
We picked up our favorite fast food chick fil A (sorry lyn, don't be jealous HA!)and went to the creeper park for a picnic lunch and some fishing. It would literally be sunny one minute and then down pour the next and go back and forth doing both so we were dodging the rain alot.
About a month ago we decided to pull an all day trip to Corolla where you can drive on the beach and see the wild horses. We packed the necessities the night before and headed out first thing in the morning. We had a great trip down. Craig you and I actually got to talk while Laura slept and Bradley and Alayna played peek a boo with the towels in the back seat. So cute! Right when we hit the beach there come the wild horses. Alayna starts squealing so we had to get out right away to see them. This year there were 2 little babies still nursing on their momma. It was so cute! Once all that excitement was done we drove down to pick our spot and were a little dishearted that the dreaded little beasty biting flys started in right away which put everyone crying. We quickly put the screen tent up and hid in there to decide what we would do and had to laugh at all the drama while we ate our sand infested sandwiches as we reminded ourselves to keep a PMA. Afterall, life is 10% what happens and 90% how we react to it right? Then I remembered I brought the bug spray just in case. Good thing! That helped so much and we were able to enjoy the beach for a few hours. Bradley loved looking for shells and Alayna just pittled all over the place and Laura slept mostly the whole time. The kids had a ball climbing on the dunes until we got kicked off...OOPS!! Didn't know they were forbidden or forgot from last year. We were able to capture a few pics before getting caught. After 4 hours on the beach we decided we wanted to check out the YMCA down there because I was almost positive they had big outdoor waterslides there, but when we got there they didn't have any and the lady said they never did. Thought I was loosing my mind because I see them everytime we drive down there. Even drove the strip twice to see if they were somewhere else and no waterslides. Crazy! Their outdoor pool wasn't even open yet so we used the indoor pool to play and be refreshed after the beach which was perfect for the ride home. Before we left we enjoyed some dinner and a little shopping and got home just in time to transfer the sleeping babies to bed. Overall the day was a success and some great quality family time. We're ready to go again only this time to Oregon Inlet where we hear there aren't any flys.About a month or so ago I noticed Bradley had his first grown up tooth growing in behind his baby teeth on the bottom and his baby teeth were barely loose so I was worried the dentist might have to pull his teeth out. When I called they said nature would just take it course and no need to worry. Bradley had been working that tooth ever since and at the beginning of the week daddy took the pliars after him and Bradley actually opened his mouth. Silly kid!! Well finally yesterday at school he lost his tooth while pushing it with his tongue. His teacher thought he lost it totally, but he found it in his lap. Good thing! He would have been devastated. She gave him a little plastic tooth to put it in. He was so excited to put it under his pillow and he already seemed to know about the tooth fairy. He came in this morning and looked so sad and we asked what was wrong because we knew he should have had a huge smile and he said "the tooth fairy took my tooth, but I didn't get any money" Craig returned the plastic tooth, but put it inside his pillow case so it wouldn't fall off the bed.. So we told him to go look again and he found it and came running back with the huge smile on his face. So one tooth down...many to go and my baby is growing up too fast!
All three are obviously at such different ages and stages, but I love when we can all just come together and be silly together or the 3 of them together where the ages between them doesn't really matter. It was just such a cute and sweet time watching the 3 of them.
I love this one of Alayna and Laura making the same face
Awwwww....love this one too. Sweet sisters1
That's my girl! She can be a little miss priss when she wants to be.
Ah yes, it's the season of the caterpillars. Alayna's new little fascination....her new best friends. Goes out to look for her friend of the day each morning who she can squeeze and love it death (literally). We used to call them army worms/tent worms and I remember as a little girl doing the same time only back then there was one year where there was an infestation of them and you would literally find thousands of them squished all over the roads...they would cover the houses and trees to where it would look like the trees were moving. I would collect buckets of them. That time has remained in my past because now I think they are the grossest things, but do have a vivid memory when they too were probably my best friends. Alayna has no fear of any bug or critter. Bradley on the other hand didn't even want to touch them at first....go figure. Anyway, she lets them crawl on her...she'll have a fist full because when she finds one she'll say that she has to go find their family. So cute! She'll have them swim in her little pool and I'll tell her they will die and she'll assurdly say "They won't get dead" and she plunck them out and they'll start moving again and she'll say "see they're not dead" Little smarty pants. I don't think she understands why mommy doesn't want them crawling on her. "mommy, do you want to hold them?" "no honey, that's ok, you are doing a great job taking care of them all by yourself" I love her zest for life and her imagination that she brings to almost all she does.
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Don't think Bradley's too keen on the little critters 
We decided to take just the 2 big kids to the circus this year. The Ratz clan joined us and we decided to get a sitter for the babies so we could dedicate this time to just the bigger kids and be hands free for them. Alayna was mesmerized with all the action. Her little eyes were glued almost the whole time. She'd get fidgety now and then, but for the most part just stared and took it all in. Bradley seemed so tired the whole time and ready to fall asleep, but come to find out the poor little came down with the flu that night so that explained why he didn't seem so into it. Craig got alot of really great shots with the camera, but won't bore the photo book since we weren't in the circus acts ourselves HA! I do love the elephants so gotta put that one. It amazes me how they get them big creatures to do the things they do.
I surprised Bradley one day last week and picked him up from school to take the kids strawberry picking. The field isn't too far from his school so they ate lunch on the way there. He was so excited. He loves when I throw a loop in the normal routine to do something different. Alayna had an abnormal morning nap due to the fact that it was the day after camping and was still so tired so I knew she wouldn't take another nap in the afternoon so it was nice to take a break from the normal routine of getting home for lunch and naps. They both quickly filled up there little buckets. I was surprised Alayna didn't dive right in to eat the strawberries, but once she decided to try one there was no stopping her so her light yellow outfit was all stained pink. We've had strawberry muffins, our favorite strawberry pretzel dessert and strawberry syrup. All of which didn't last very long. The strawberries weren't very sweet, but half the fun is in picking them anyway.
