Wave Babies

Last week, on what turned out to be a perfect beach day, my friend Susan; her boys Jonah and  Luka, Fin and I headed to Fort Macon Beach on the Atlantic Ocean in Morehead City NC.   We arrived in time to picnic lunch and spent the whole day exploring the beach.  It was AWESOME!

Happy Mamas 

Luka & his Boogie Board

Finner & Luka Dooo

Jonah

Jonah catching sand fleas

Playing in the poodle

We have made some very good friends while living here in the south.  Our kids get along famously, our parenting philosophies are similar and it is easy and fun to hang out in a group...let's face it when parenting  - it's awesome to have allies!

The best part of having a three year old is having some autonomy.  There are brief breathing spaces where I can find myself separate from the attention I give my toddler.  At three she can entertain herself a lot better and play with friends more cooperatively.  I'm not saying there are no melt downs or me/mine behaviours they just seem to be a little further apart which is SUCH A RELIEF after the TWOS...Susan and I could actually hold a conversation ... that's HUGE!

Anyway it was a great day punctuated with ice cream sandwiches, shell collecting, attempting to swim in huge waves, dinner out at El Zarrape and a quiet drive home with three snoring kids in the backseat. I can't wait until we can go again!

John Deere Birthday Party

Let me begin this post by saying the only involvement I had in this party was the cake and some of the food.  Otherwise this party was the brainchild of my sister in law Dee.  She and her husband live on an awesome horse farm in Eastern NC, our children all have birthdays within a few days of one another so Dee usually does up a party with her friends and our family and we join in.

This year Dee chose a John Deere theme and we took the kids strawberry picking.  We probably should have weighed the kids coming and going from the berry field! They ran through the rows eating more than they picked and all their mother's were chasing behind the kids picking up half eaten berries and throwing them in the baskets.  Have you ever seen a kid eat a strawberry? They take one bite toss it and move onto the next berry. It was strawberry field carnage.   

Finley (Birthday Girl!) chewing strawberry and checking out the field.

Noah (Birthday Boy!) picking strawberries.

Finley and Gavin cousins and birthday boy and girl!

The three birthday kiddos

Of course the John Deere was hooked up to the trailer for a hay ride.

Dee set up the tables outside and the kids ate in the open air.  Mini hay bales held organic lollipops and each child was given a fabric  John Deere ditty bag made by my Mother in Law.  It was a a really cute birthday theme and the kids had a blast ripping around the farm and the berry patch. 

Mini hay bales used as table decor.

Ditty Bags as treat bags. They were later filled with goodies from the pinata

The table set for the kid's dinner.

Our Birthday Girl wearing her John Deere birthday t-shirt -an Etsey special order.