On Saturday, we picked up our rental van in lieu of taking two cars to the beach as all six of us fit in neither Nat’s nor my vehicles–ahhh…I must say I soooooooo miss my old Honda Odyssey mini-van!!!   (I apologize.  I am positive I just threw a little tantrum there.)  The kids were slightly disappointed that our van was sans a dvd player but they toughed it out like the little non-spoiled (okay, slight lie there) troopers they are, and traveling with them was a delight, actually.  

We arrived Saturday afternoon, spent Saturday late afternoon and evening on the beach.  The section of beach we happen to have chosen was speckled with trucks,
fishermen/women, and families but was peaceful.  The kids busied themselves making sandcastles, and Connor enjoyed making a sphinx, a pyramid and a temple, and he tried to make a sanctuary, but none of the other kids were interested in helping him.

We had a little action when one of the fisherman caught a baby great white shark.  Pretty cool…and a little cause for concern…though it was only about a foot long.  Nat and I came into the State Park at a different entrance this year than we had last year and, thus, had not found our “secret” spot we had only been to once before, and had, apparently, landed on more of a fisherman’s beach.   Live and learn.

Later Saturday, we ate at the local pizza joint–Villa Pizza–by far the best pizza I’ve had to date–and were in bed by 11 p.m.  We found our way back to “our spot” on the beach by 8:30 on Sunday morning–a spot we were happy to share with our kids and a HUGE school of dolphins.   Nat found a sand flea while jumping waves with the kids.  We headed home by 11 a.m., having our first “beach tailgate” beforehand.

Sorry this update is so late, but we’ve had a very busy week so far as the boys are taking some classes at a local community college (more on that later), and the girls are busy with their gymnastics.   We will update the blog again soon.   We hope you continue to enjoy the pictures. 

Later, we went to the pool.  Topanga has gotten much better with her swimming.  She should be proud.  We had a picnic and Bella liked watching the swim team.  Afterwards, we stopped and got ice cream and also some bagels for the weekend.

We have a couple of stores here called “5 Below”, which sell things for five bucks or less.  It’s not the kind of stuff you find at dollar stores–the quality is much better.  I alloted each kiddo a spending allowance of 7 bucks, plus Connor had an additional amount from the “Tooth Fairy”, so off we went.  Of course, with so much wonderful stuff in the store, it takes a child (and an adult) a while to make a selection, you know.  But I also put a limit on the time we spent in the store (20 minutes), and the children respected the limits and picked out the items rather quickly.   River was torn between candy and a soccer ball until I told him “no candy”. LOL   Connor selected computer games, and Topanga picked something for her DS system.   Bella, absorbed with fashion at the moment, snagged up nail polish and a t-shirt.

Connor has been talking about wanting to get a snake.  (NEWSFLASH for Allison if you didn’t already know!)  Apparently, he’s interested in several different kinds of snakes, none of which I know anything.  I decided a quick trip to PetSmart (because we were right there, and because our cats could ALWAYS use a new toy) would give us a quick education.  We learned that the kinds he are interested in are fairly easy to handle but ARE constrictors, do NOT have opposable thumbs (DUH), and therefore cannot remove the clamps to their cages, and are better off in smaller tanks their first few years than bigger so they will not get used to becoming big hunters by having lots of room to roam.   Hmmmm.    The turn off was the word constrictor.   I don’t like anything more constricting than the elastic in my underwear, thank you.   So, I’m sorry, Connor.   I think if you want a snake, you’ll have to discuss this with Mommy Ally on your own.  ;0)    We were invited back at the end of the week to hold the year-old snake (ummmm….) and we bought some fake mice…for our cats, not the snake.  Here is a cute cat up for adoption.  

Our busy morning ended with an early afternoon lunch at China Jade’s restaurant, where the children were very well behaved and the food was delicious.  Connor has decided that he likes to try a lot of different things instead of having just one entree, it appears, and today he has learned that he loves pepper steak prepared well-done, hold the peppers, thank-you. 

I also got to play the Wii for one whole hour! I played Carnival, Hannah Montana, and Mario Kart, and then I played the DS Jewel Master game for about 20 minutes.

Later, Bella and I went to gymnastics practice but guess what?  We didn’t know that there was NO practice because of the 4th of July holiday break.  They were also closed for the 5th of July, too.   So we got another little break.

We went to the store with the boys afterwards and bought all the things to make tacos with…hamburger, cheese, sour cream, taco seasoning and beans.  We had the other stuff at home.  We had a yummy dinner!

We played outside for part of the day but the bugs were bothering us.   We would have stayed out longer or even eaten outside, but we went inside instead.  Nat grilled us a nice dinner.  We had delicious chicken with barbeque sauce and corn.  We also had potato salad, coleslaw, and watermelon and it was awesome!

We did not go to see any fireworks but we heard some in the neighborhood.  We spent the evening playing video games and watching some television.   Did you take pictures of the fireworks?

 I want to tell you about the groundhog family that lives under the bushes in our front yard.   They like to come out on our front patio to see if Nat has left them any treats to eat.  She puts some out almost every day.  I think they are so cute and puffy.  I wish I could hold them.

On Saturday, we went to the pool.  Guess what I learned how to do?  I learned how to doggie paddle a little.  I am afraid to put my face in the water.   My brother, River, sister, Bella, tell me that it burns to put my face in the water.  My mom says that sometimes the chlorine in the water can sting your eyes, but she gave me goggles.  I am going to keep practicing swimming a little bit further each time I go to the pool.  My mom has been trying to help me but I’m not really letting her that much.   I will try to let her help me more so I can learn.  I am really good at jumping into the pool.   It is so fun.   It was so fun throwing the ball at the boys and jumping in at the same time.  I really like that.

After swimming, we came home and relaxed.  We also played the Wii and some other games.

We will go on vacation this Saturday to the beach.  All of us are going to be more careful with the door so the cats don’t try to get out.

This afternoon, we went to the Lilypons Water Gardens in Adamstown, MD. lilypons.com   Our bad GPS basically ALMOST got us lost faraway from highly populated civilization. So we had to ask Lilypons for directions from where we were. Once we finally reached our destination, we got the fish food and started our “safari” at the koi pond. While feeding the fish, we got to see the old turtle everyone was mentioning. After the koi pond, I found a tiny water garden with statues or fountains in each of the miniature pools surrounding the main mini pool. Mommy almost got a picture of a frog when Topanga yelled for River to come and see it. Then it hopped away. After Topanga was fussed at for scaring the frog away, we made better pictures of the water garden, then we went further down the path and saw a chair and posed for pictures on it. Finally, we saw some geese when the insects swarmed us. Mommy was out of range of the main swarm of gnats taking pictures of lilies. We decided to go home and flee from the pesky insects who messed up our pictures. We also wanted to escape the heat of the sun making it feel like the Sahara desert.

Once we got home and had eaten some pickles and cooled off, we went back to playing video games. Have a great summer!  ~~Connor~~