1st Day of School

I can't believe summer is over ;( The kids were excited to start school. Hayley had a great day, she really likes her teachers-she changes teachers for every subject. She and all of her 'Peace' wear! I love her shoes!Brent & Maddy are in the same school this year and ride the bus together ;) They had great days too. Brent hasn't stopped talking about how great his teacher is! I'm Maddy's recess/lunch monitor so I'll get to see her during the day. I know her teacher from last year and she's very nice. I haven't talked to Maddy yet as she's across the street playing. Our neighbors were gone all summer visiting in Mn. That's where their mom is from. So, Maddy hasn't seen Megan all summer-they're catching up! When I saw Maddy today, she was having a good day. They're growing up too fast, the year's go by too fast ;( I'm wiped out. Getting back into EARLY routines, working..............I'm ready for bed.

Madison cheering

Saturday was Madison's 1st time cheering for a ftball game! I think she likes it. She's so cute! She's the smallest on her squad.

Hayley's team cheered Sunday for their 1st game too. I didn't get a chance to take a pic-I was coaching. I must say they did a great job! Hayley's cheer coach moved and asked if I'd take over this year.

Happy Birthday My Dear!!

Poor Hayley had to spend her bday riding home in the car ;( She got a new Ipod for her bday though (a few weeks ago) so all's not too bad. We let her pick where she wanted to eat last Friday and she picked 'Aunty Wisa's' pizza place!! Good choice ;) There was a little ice cream place at the end of our block where our condo was, and we stopped for bday ice cream. She got homemade cards from her loving siblings and some moola from us. I made her fav spag dinner when we got home and she had an ice cream cake too. She's having trouble deciding on what to do for a friend party. Decisions, decisions........

Happy Birthday Hayley!! xoxoxoxoo

We went to the NC Aquarium on Roanoke Island. While swimming, these dead jelly fish would wash up. We had DQ for dinner one night and sat at the kite shop and watched the kite boarders. Pretty cool to try that. $400 for 2 hrs-UGH. So we watched instead. We found a great pizzeria to eat at-Lisa's Pizzeria. We nicknamed it 'Aunty Wisa's!!' ;)

Outer Banks is on Hwy 12 which is surrounded by the sound on one side and the ocean the other. Hwy 12 is only 1/2 - mile wide. Very scenic south of Kitty Hawk which is the Cape Hatteras Nat'l Seashore which is protected. Beautiful wildlife, dunes, etc. Nags Head, Kitty Hawk north up to Duck is commercial, touristy. We were in Rodanthe, the Seashore Reserve and it wasn't as built up. We had a deck off our condo lr. We ate breakfast every am and read and watched the ocean. It was great to go out there and relax. We saw a pod of dolphins swimming one day at the beach. It was awesome to see them swimming by. They're so graceful.

A great week of R&R and time seemed to stand still and then it's already Friday. BLAH. Until next year..............

Now we're home and back to the usual. In no time, we'll be in Mn. On the road again.

OBX

Our vacation was awesome!! Outer Banks is beautiful. (I'd love to live there!) The drive was very pretty too. W Va and Va are pretty w/ the Appalacian Mtns. We stopped in Norfolk Va to a naval museum where we saw the USS Wisconisn and jelly fish everywhere in the ocean. We went to the beach everyday and brought home bags of shells. Brent & Hayley loved swimming and 'surfing' the waves w/ their boogie boards. Maddy wasn't quite ok w/ going in-she'd wade in. The waves can be pretty rough when you're little like her. At night, people go out w/ flashlights and find Ghost crabs. The crabs dig holes in the sand and hide during the day and come out at night. We went to the Kite Festival at the Wright Bros. museum. Brent & Maddy made kites and we bought a cool turtle to fly-we named him Crush ;) The festival were flying a huge octopus, alligator, squid and a bunch of other cool kites. We saw the Cape Hatteras light house. It's the tallest light house at 208 ft. There are 4 lighthouses in OBX. We saw this crab on the beach one day. We had picnic lunches on the beach everyday and ate out everynight. Awesome fresh shrimp and crab! YUM

More pic's of the girls. Maddy making an out at 3rd. And running to 3rd. Her hit went thru 1st & 2nd base, she got to 1st. And then Hayley and her new Ipod-Happy early Birthday!!! The craze here is Silly Bandz. Maddy has too many to count. She wanted to wear them during her game. She and Brent collect/trade them. Hayley likes them but is too old to admit it I think ;)