New Items in the Etsy store

A few new items up my Etsy store. The bottom necklace was made for a friend on Scrapper's Daily dose. I hope she likes it.

Kids are adjusting to back to school... we are trying to figure out the bus schedule. CRAZY!

I am making the kids some Santa's suprise cookies.(peanut butter cookies with snickers rolled inside ) yummy! My friend Tania - who will be visiting in a few weeks (insert Peaches and Creams Reunited song here ) was already asking if we were ready for Christmas and that reminded me of those fabulous cookies.

On a sad note. Kevins uncle John passed away yesterday. This is the second of Mike's (Kevins dad) brothers to pass in the past 6 weeks. John has been sick for awhile so we were alittle more prepared for his passing. Not that you can ever be prepared for this . John was the pastor of Kevins childhood church, Kevins mom worked at the church for almost 20 years, and Johns son- also named John delivered Alyssa .(planned c - section not what you all think! ) His obituary has not been posted online but once it is i will link it up. Please keep Kevins dad and mom in your thoughts, as well as the rest of Kevins family, John's wife, kids and grandkids, and friends and family. Thanks

Back to school ....

Well the good news is they backed our school start times back by 20 minutes. So now Andrew gets to sleep in till 6:45 which is later than his bus came last year.... now the bad news... my poor baby girls didn't get off the bus today till 5:25 - yes, and to boot they had homework ! I surely hope the school district looks at these times and gets it straightened out. And yes, today was the first day so maybe it will work out but really, we are talking about 5-10 year olds getting off the bus with 2 1/2 hours till bed time ... and they are spending and hour of that doing homework.

Enough of my griping .... here are my lovelies. Sporting the new back packs, lunchboxes, shoes and school clothes. Don't ya just love the first day of school ! I spent the afternoon baking them a welcome home treat. Today was the first time i have been alone in a very,very , very long time.... wasn't sure what ever to do with myself!

little bubble blower

Aryn got a vintage bubble gum dispenser when we were in Chicago. She has had gum in her mouth pretty much non stop since we have returned. Well she has mastered the art of bubble blowing :D ..... next time i will have to get sugar free gum .

Lemon Drop Boutique is up and running ..... this has been keeping use really busy .... creating can be such hard work :D

Here are a few of my pieces that I just listed at my store at ETSY. Check it out when you have a chance.

In other news tonight was open house at both schools. Kids are looking forward to getting back to school, as much as they can be anyway.

Extreme makeover.....

Bathroom addition... this weekend we did an update on the kids bathroom

gone are the frogs (before)


HELLO BLUE! Carolina blue at that...Love it --- the shower curtain has beach stuff on it live a sand pail, surfboard, tiki hut etc...

Kevin also put up a much needed cabinet . All thats left is to frame out the growth chart and paint the exsisting cabinet.

Lawnmower man ! ( or pre teen)

Last week Andrew took over the lawn cutting responsibilities. We weren't sure if he weighed enough to keep the engine from stalling but he made it ! He did a great job ! And believe it or not the kids a had a grin a mile wide while doing it ! Hey if it makes him happy then who am i to put a stop to it ! :D

Taking in a little culture

Today we went to the North Carolina Museum of Art . We had a great time looking at classic works of art. The museum has Classic Roman and Greek portraits, pottery, and statues ( yes, they were anatomically correct - insert Alyssa's giggle, Andrew's embarrassment and Aryn's shock here ) as well as many Renaissance and current American works as well . Some of the Greek work was from 400-600 BC hard to imagine being so close to something that is over 2000 years old. Today it was raining so it was a good day to be inside. The museum has a large outdoor art gallery as well . We will have to do that at another time. We thought we would share some of our culture and insights from today's journey w/ you .... Enjoy

After our culture for the day we surprised Dad at work with a few cookies from Fresh Market.

Wasting away in Margarittaville

We spent this past weekend in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Myrtle Beach has a ton of hotel options ... we lucked out and stayed a great one! Our hotel included admission to 2 water parks, 1 mini golf course and 1 amusement park. Throw in a great view of the ocean and awesome weather and you are bound to have a great weekend !

On the way home we stopped at Broadway at the Beach . We had attempted to eat at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville on Sunday night but the wait was 3 hours ..... not an option with three hungry kids ! SO we lucked out on Monday and walked right in. The food was ok , atmosphere and service is what would bring you back. While in there they started playing Margaritaville somewhere - And the hurricane warning light starts flashing , sirens are going off, the lights are blinking ---- music is screaming coolest thing ever - hard to explain but here is a link on youtube that you can watch to kind of understand. No, no Cheeseburgers in paradise.... but i did buy a salt shaker that says " searching for my lost shaker of salt"

These pictures are for Uncle Duane.... Andrew said he will share with you ! :D such a good kid ! Parrotheads in training!

more broadway at the beach photos

Hmmmmm..... there's a factory for this kind of thing. Ok that explains alot !

Broadway at the Beach is a great outdoor area in Myrtle Beach. Everything is over prices,tons of tourist, but you can find everything here !

and of course the Kiss Coffee shop. Aryn used the restroom and said " I can't go in there by myself... its kind of freaking me out !" And this cabbage patch kid was so freakin funny..I just could not pass up a photo of it ! And as much as i use to complain about all the Kiss albums that i use to get from my darling, thoughtful brother Jimbo , i am the one that drags my kids and hubby to this place everytime we go ! Rockhouse S'more frozen cappacino gets 5 stars from all of the rockers in our house!

A day at the beach and getting back in the swing

Well we are slowly getting back into the routine. We had a ton of unpacking to do when we returned from Chicago. I also started going through the kids drawers and closets.... they are growing so fast i can hardly keep up. Maybe i should just have 1 giant closet for them and they can wear whatever fits! I feel like i almost have triplets..... Andrew and Alyssa are both size 12( some of Alyssa's stuff is a 10 but some back to school stuff is a 12) Andrew is too thin for 14's and not quite tall enough yet for 14's but almost . Miss Aryn went from a 6 to and 8 this summer. Hard to keep up !


The girls are both in summer dance . Aryn is doing a duet and has started practice for that. They are dancing to "Shake your tail feather" Super cute song, and of course Jenny and Brenda did a super job with the choreography.

back to school in less than 3 weeks - August 25Th! Going to be strange again to be home by myself. Haven't had that in along time!

Went to the beach this weekend. Weather was great! This time we went to Topsail Island. However on 2 seperate occassions the surfers in the water started yelling "Shark Shark" They all stood up on their boards and were all staring into the water . Never seen that before. The tide was really low, and there was a sand bar about 10 feet out in the water. Kevin and I both noticed no fish at all in the water ... not sure what that was about - weather it was the sand bar or the sharks or something else. We did collect some sea glass and some shells, and of course worked on our tans a little bit :D