For the holiday weekend, Randy & I took the kids to Nanny's for the weekend. We had not been to Wilmington since April & that had to be a record time for longest interval! Since Randy was off on the Friday & Nanny was too, it just made sense to get a long weekend in with Nanny & all the festivities that Wilmington has for the 4th. I am so glad we went because the kids (& us) had a blast & we got to do some really fun stuff! We took the kids pick blueberries....
{I think Eli ate as much as he picked. He LOVES blueberries!}
{Jackson was more preoccupied with blowing the bubbles with the big bubble wand, but he was willing to pose by my bucket full of blueberries!}
{And he is always willing to pose with me to take a picture when i hold my arm out to take it myself. He loves this!}
And after that, the kids got to ride in the back of Peto's truck (only down her driveway & my heart was thumping the whole time- it was
not my idea!) to go gather fresh eggs from her chickens. And fresh they were, Peto literally showed Eli how to move the chickens over to get the eggs underneath! Jackson wasn't as sure about this whole situation & just preferred to hold the bucket. Peto did convince him to pet a chicken after she caught it by the tail though!
{just before taking off down the driveway}
{I was in panic mode watching them from Nanny's truck.... but they thought this was the most fun ever!}
{checking out the chickens in their coups}
{showing off his egg he got!}
{Peto showing him how to move the chicken over....}
After this, we went back to Nanny's, & the boys played in a blow up pool Nanny had gotten. It was certainly a hit & the greatest part was that she set it up right next to her covered patio so we got to watch them in the shade!
We hit two fireworks shows while we were there also. The first was the fireworks at Carolina Beach from the back of Nanny's truck. These were a good "warm up" to the show downtown on the riverfront the following night. I forgot my camera in the car that night, but we got there right before the show started & managed to get great seats around the back of an office building that backed up to the river. We were out of there in 20 minutes too when it was over. It was an excellent show & the boys liked it, even though Jackson covered his ears the entire time. They also got to throw some "Pop-its" at Nanny's house which entertained them for quite a while before we ever left for the show.
The covering of the ears was a theme for Jackson's weekend, because we also went to the "currie parade" which was the first annual one for the area. It was definitely a small scale parade, but the kid's didn't care. We got to see Uncle Ed pulling Currie's oldest resident in his horse drawn carriage and the kids especially liked the kid sized motorcycle & 4 wheelers.
Nanny & i also made homemade ice cream over the weekend too! We went out to Sears just to buy them on the 4th when they were on sale. I have been eyeing this particular one since helping my friend, Theresa, make ice cream last year in hers. It doesn't require salt or ice- you just freeze the inner barrel. It was awesome! We made blueberry of course & to appease Randy (picky!) we made vanilla. But honestly, the vanilla was a flop, so we will find a new recipe for that one before trying it again!
We hope everyone had just as much fun celebrating our country's independence as we did!
Jackson drying off... he did this a lot & i felt like i had to reapply sunscreen constantly (you know that label .... it reads "reapply after 2 hours in the sun, excessive water exposure, or towel drying...)
Getting ready to throw a torpedo in for someone to fetch.... i bet it was Jonathon was was going after them!
Here's Eli showing off his "Dora muscles".... he discovered that he liked the swimmies about halfway through the stay... he liked the extra freedom it gave him when we combined it with....
the fish float....... he would hang out in there all day if we'd let him...
Jackson on the other hand.... he was swimming under water.....
above water......
And he must have learned something else on this trip because once we were back home, we went to our regular weekly pool date a couple weeks later & he said, "Watch Mama!! I am going to do a "pencil!" He CRACKS me up sometimes, but he knew just how to do a pencil! And a cannon ball, and another cannon ball & another cannon ball. I am pretty tired of getting soaked at this point! Ha!
