Sweet Tomatoes

The kids and I took all of our snow skis to Raleigh to the ski store. They all need to be sharpened and waxed before the winter ski season. While in Raleigh, we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants, Sweet Tomatoes. The kids love the salad, soup selections, baked potatoes, pasta, homemade muffins, and the dessert bar. 

Proud of his ice cream creation

The kids are already asking to go back...we still have to pick up the skis. :)

Preschool Open House

After months of Alex asking if it was time for preschool again, the day finally came. Well, sort of. We had preschool Open House, which was great, but try explaining to your seasoned preschooler it is not actually a preschool day. Needless to say, Alex was delighted to get back to a school, see his friends, and check out his new classroom.

This is Alex's pal, AJ. They are so glad to be in class together. There are two four-year-old classes, and he has several friends in his class of nine.

Alex has the same teacher Luke had, so that makes it nice. She has known Alex awhile, and I like it because she has become a friend of mine!  The little girl by Alex was in class with him last year and loves him.  I heard from many of the moms how much their girls liked Alex...he is totally oblivious.  Alex is with pals, AJ, Micah, and Rachel.

 

'Tis the Season'...for soccer

Soccer is back in full swing. All three kids are playing, so we are busy. Madison is very excited to be back with her team again. I am excited to see how the kids' skills have improved.

Home Depot

Alex and I stopped in at Home Depot when the older two were at school. I was hoping to find some flowers for the house. Well, as we walked in, the guy working told me to check out the racks of discounted plants and flowers. He told me they were free today, and anything that was left at the end of the day would be thrown out. I figured it would all be dead, but to my surprise, there were a lot of nice plants! After checking a couple more times to verify that these were, indeed, free, we loaded up out cart. We left quite a few, and here is what we took home.

We were both really excited with our findings. We scored a few indoor plants, a couple tropical, a Mum, a rosebush, and a couple others.

Back to School

School started here in North Carolina on August 26. Both Madison and Luke were SO excited for school to begin.

We had Open House a few nights before a school began. Luke ended up with the teacher he wanted, and as a bonus, the teaching assistant for that class had been  out afternoon bus driver last year (their school uses the assistants as the bu drivers...pure genius). She had loved Luke, so they were both excited to find out they would be together this year too.  Here is Luke in his first grade classroom. I forgot to snap a picture of Madison's class, but her room looks very similar, nice, new, and clean...just the third grade version.

Well, we began another school year with Edward deployed. Thankfully, he was able to FaceTime with the kids at 7 AM.

Madison spent several days picking out her whole outfit, down to the shoes and jewelry, so she had to show it off.

Big lunches for my hungry kiddos

The crew! Alex had to wait another week for preschool to begin.

3rd Grade!!!

1st Grade!!!

The new backpack 

The new backpack

Off they go for a new school year!

Karate

Karate is back in full swing after a break in July. 

Madison's Back to School Look

Madison got a haircut before school started. She is really enjoying the idea that she has some day over her hairstyle. She loves it really short. 

After that, her other big change was that she got her ears pierced! She has been asking for awhile, but between camp and the beach, it was just never the right time. She was really excited and has been doing a good job cleaning her ears. I have very, very sensitive ears and nickel earrings (most kinds) really bother me, so we will see if she has the same problem. We bought really good quality earrings to start.

The boys enjoyed watching.

The Exterminator

Who needs to hire a real exterminator?  I have Luke on the job (and his prices are fantastic!).

 

Love my Bug Guy!

Castillo de San Marcos and the Beach

Thursday morning, we all went to tour the old fort, Castillo de San Marcos.  It sits in the heart of downtown St. Augustine, right on the water, and it has been there for several hundred years.  It's a very cool fort to tour....cool, as in interesting. It was definitely NOT cool the day we visited. The day started off okay, and even though we arrived early in the morning, the Florida heat and humidity quickly made the temps miserable.  We still enjoyed our visit to the fort; the kids really enjoyed the cannons.

 

 The gang is ready to tour.

 Before we went inside the fort, Luke spotted a sea turtle right in the water!  The water was very shallow, only a foot or so deep, and because it was so clear, it was easy to see the sea turtle.  That was really cool! We all enjoyed watching the turtle swim around for a few minutes.

 Beautiful morning

 There's the turtle.

 I tried to get a few pictures with its head out of the water, but it was moving around too quickly.

 What a view!

 The guys

 The grandparents

Lookout window 

 Luke loved this pose.

 After our hot morning, we had a delicious seafood lunch, and then we ended up back at the pool.

 I don't know how they found the hot tub enjoyable.  It was so hot.

 Later that evening, we ended up back on the beach.

The beautiful evening on the beach was a great way to end our vacation. While it was a really fun time, it was definitely not the same without Edward.  I'm grateful my parents decided to join us for part of our summer adventures.  It was nice having other adults around, and the kids loved it. Thanks for meeting us, Mom and Dad. No trip, however, is the same without Edward. We missed you very much.