off to the beach

My friend Melissa called me on Friday morning and asked if we had any plans for the weekend. She said they had a friend who's beach house was empty this weekend and invited us to go with them. I was so excited! We packed up the kids and headed out of town. Sadly the dads had to work so they couldn't come. After driving what seemed like forever we got to Surfside beach (near Myrtle) Friday evening. It was a great little house in a neighborhood about 1/2 mile from the beach. So, everyone had golf carts and cruised around going to and from the pool, park, and beach. The girls had never been in a golf cart so that was another whole adventure in itself. We played at the beach in the mornings and then came home during the heat of the day. Then we would go to the pool in the afternoons. The girls all played so nicely. We had a ton of fun but having 5 kids (two 4 year olds, two 5 year olds and a 7 year old) and 2 moms at the beach is a lot of work. I guess it was the first vacation I've really been on without Daniel and extended family. We were pretty stressed out while at the beach because it was so crowded. It took a while for the kids to understand that they couldn't just get up out of the water and start running because usually they were down the beach in a different place. They'd just start running straight back and realize they had no idea where they were. We had to keep our eyes on all 5 kids at all times which was challenging as you can imagine. Once we got a system going it became easier. For example, swimming and surfing in the ocean became like an amusement park ride. The girls would put in where I was standing, ride the waves to where Melissa was standing then get out and run back to me. Not much time for relaxing on the beach!

Anna, Alexis, Arianna, Ellen, Micaiah, and Melissa getting ready to go for a stroll on the beach the first night we were there.
Alexis and Arianna taking a break from boogie boarding.
Anna, Ellen and Micaiah catch a wave.
MerEllen and MerArianna Checking out the ducks that walked around the neighborhood and slept by the house. They lived in the pond across the street. We fed the ducks once and attempted to get near some geese one time but were chased away by a big mother goose.
Out to eat at the Conch Cafe. It was right on the beach in front of our little village. We never had to get in the car. Everything was just a golf cart ride away.:)

sleeping sisters

tie dye family

I can think of a lot of jokes to go along with this picture. Here are just a few :) . . . just in case you didn't think we were hippies before now . . . our uniform for the next protest. . . look at the boob shirt on that guy. . . Well seriously, the girls dresses turned out great and they loved creating their own clothes. A woman in our playgroup organized a big order of white clothes and supplies. We all went over to her house on saturday and worked on dipping, tying and dying the clothes. We had a lot of fun.

The background is our front yard. Daniel has been spending a lot of time trimming and weeding and cutting and it looks very nice. The whole yard (front and back) have been completely transformed since we moved here.

happy photos for happy father's day

Showing off our garden and his new hat. The watermelon and squash look beautiful. Happy Father's day!

Before tie dying I had to get pictures of the girls in their matching white dresses. I'll explain more about our tie dying party later.(our clothes are still drying) They are holding the black cherries that we identified in the yard. We have tons of them. They are not very sweet but edible.

Billy Jonas Rocks!!

I love the library. That's where I first found Billy. I search through the cds on our weekly trip and check out a few new cds. I just happened upon the cd called What Kinda Cat are You. I/we immediately fell in love with the sound. I started asking around if people had heard of Billy Jonas and most of my playgroup new and loved him too. They said he plays free shows around the area. Turns out he is from Asheville and travels around doing shows for families. The library sponsored a free concert here today and we had a blast. I think I like him just as much or more than the kids. I'm so impressed with his talent--how he can make such great music with such simple equipment. And he is so great with the kids. He plays a guitar for some songs but mostly makes rhythms on recycled jugs, pots, bells, tamborines, basically anything that can make noise. He had all the kids up and singing and dancing. Everyone in the crowd looked like they were having so much fun. After the show we hung around like groupies with a few other friends and talked with him and got a picture with him. You should look him up and listen to his songs. Very impressive. (billyjonas.com)

Meet Max

Our cat Tigre disappeared last week. We had gotten him the same time we moved into the house which was a little under a year ago. The girls loved him and were very sad that he was gone. We don't know exactly what happened to him. He spent most of his nights outside and one morning he just didn't come back. So we waited about a week or so and decided it was time to get a new kitty. We went to the city animal shelter and picked max. It was very hard to not get more kittens since there were tons of them and they are just so darn cute. But we decided on the little black and white one. We all love our new pet. Even Jay is excited to have someone else to play with. Ellen and Arianna followed him around with my camera yesterday and these are some of the pictures they got.

music and fireworks at finlay park

Just in case you haven't seen fireworks and listened to reggae music lately.

Way to go Columbia!

We had a blast on Saturday night at a free concert series put on by the city and held at a big park in downtown Columbia. We met up with some friends from our playgroup. The kids ran around while the parents chatted and listened to reggae music blaring from the stage. It was blazing hot but so great to see so many people out and enjoying themselves together. I was actually surprised to see the diversity in the crowd. Lots of families, singles and older maybe retired people. There were nicely dressed typical Columbia socialites sitting 10 feet from the scummy old guys who yelled "hey baby" when I walked by. (there is a story that goes with that and I actually caught it on video and will post later.) We stayed till the end (10pm) to see fireworks show. I was talking to another mother in the crowd who has been going to the series for several years and she said that this is one of the best things that Columbia spends its tax dollars on and one of her favorite things about the town. Way to go Columbia!

This is a picture of Daniel and his naked face with Ellen watching fireworks.

potato and onion harvest

(Ellen took the 2nd picture)
Back in march I bought one each of 3 different organic potatoes (red, yellow and russet) at Rosewood Market. As soon as we got the first bed set up Daniel cut them into pieces and planted them. I got the onion starts from Lowe's. This is what he pulled out of the ground this evening. Love it!

dancing with friends in sc

the girls loved dancing with cole!

house shopping

Everyone knows that moving is awefull!!! I hate it. It's complicated because of all the phone calls and new services that you have to shop for, set up and get organized. It's stressful because there is usually some sort of a timeline or deadline that you are working with. And it's emotionally draining leaving your friends and your home and starting over. It can be a very lonely. I know all these things because we have done it several times (Boone to Indy to Columbia). The good news is--all the hard times are worth it. Your new home can be just as good as your old one. It's exciting to be in a new town and meeting new people. I've made some of my best friends in places I never thought I would. I say all this because I've got 2 very good friends that are in process of moving right now.(not counting Lesley who moved from TN to VA last month) Anna and family moved from Boone to Durham this weekend and Shael moved from Indy to Greenville a few weeks ago. After talking to Shael on the phone several times last week we (the girls and I) decided to make a trip to go see them. I wanted to see the house that Shael and Tom are buying and be there with her to check out their new neighborhood. The girls always want to play with their best friend lily. So saturday morning we left Daniel at home to work on the rain barrels and his new classes that start Monday and drove to Greenville. Shael's husband Tom watched the kids so that Shael and I could go sit in the house that they have a contract on. We talked about where all the furniture was going, where the kids room would be and walked down the street to get a feel for the neighborhood. After that we went back to their apartment and went swimming with the kids then had a sleepover at their place. Thanks for having us guys--I think you are going to love Greenville and we look forward to visiting many times:)

arianna rides for 1st time

Arianna is so proud. She can ride now as long as we run next to her. You can't hear it at the end of the video but Daniel says "how does it feel to be riding a bike" and then she stops and looks at the camera. I realized afterward that she thought I was taking a still shot of her and so she was posing. Very cute!!