Train Trip to Charlotte

This weekend the girls and I went on an adventure! My mom had to be in Charlotte from Wednesday through Sunday to sell origami at a convention so why not take advantage of an opportunity to visit a nearby city (no childcare in Raleigh, hotel room in Charlotte...) Carissa came to town to help out with the origami and the babies (Thanks Car!) so on Friday morning we set out...

Jason had to stay home to watch the dogs and work on a big project for work so he dropped us off at the train station to catch the 6:45 AM train! We stopped by Bojangles to keep Carissa happy and were on our way. The train trip was fun- just a few hours and they had a snack car that we checked out when Ellie got bored. At one point both girls were lulled to sleep by the clickity clack and it made for a pretty pleasant trip down to Charlotte.

Sleeping on the train seats

Sue picked us up at the Train Station in Charlotte and we dropped her and Carissa at the Convention Center to sell origami! The girls and I headed to the hotel to check it out and get diapers changed and our day planned. We ended up going to Discovery Kids! A new kids museum in Charlotte very similar to Marbles. Eleanor had a wonderful time- checking out all the new displays.

Firefighter Ellie in a life-size fire truck

Ellie loved sitting IN the water table!

Who is that baby?!?

On Saturday Vera, June and Jesse came to Charlotte to hang out. We went to Discovery Place and Imaginon and the kids had a great time playing together. After a busy day we went back to the hotel and had free "kickback" (their answer to Embassy Suites' Happy Hour) which included macaroni and cheese for the kiddos. It was fun times for all!

Sunday morning breakfast at the hotel. Lucky Charms= vacation food!

Sunday was the last origami selling day and the convention center was also open to public so we had breakfast together (which made for some happy cousin time!) and packed up the rooms. We stopped by the convention center to walk through the displays and then hit the park for one last round of Charlotte Cousin Play 2011 before we packed up the origami display and headed back to Raleigh, with a stop at the airport to drop off Carissa and IKEA of course....

It was a great weekend- and now I need another to recover.  

Eleanor's First Hair Cut

After

Before

Ellie had her bangs cut tonight! She sat perfectly still in my lap and enjoyed the whole process very much. Her bangs are pretty short but they are super cute. It was pretty funny- we were thinking we would go to the kids hair cutting place around the corner but turns out they close at 7 (crazy!) so it didn't work so well when we pulled up at 6:56.  Ellie was crushed so we settled on the Great Clips a few doors down.  They did a great job, it was MUCH cheaper and they still gave me the "Baby's First Haircut" card with a curl taped inside. 

Happy Father's Day!

 

Happy Father's Day to all the daddies out there!  I hope Jason had a good one.  I took the girls (With the kind assistance of Zoe) to one of the local bisque painting places and we made him a really cool mug.  It was a lot of fun, gave him some time off to himself, and I think turned out really well.

Ruby's Footprint

Ellie's Handprint

Ellie's First Day of School

Take two! (the last attempt was last September...)

Eleanor started school today. She is going to the childcare center that is on campus at my work and we are sharing a spot with another family so she will go every Tuesday and Thursday for the entire day. The center is SO nice. I can't even tell you how cool it is. They grow much of their own food (the kids are very involved in this process!) have fun, get dirty, and learn a lot (my observations so far!) Her teachers are great and are very understanding of the fact that this is her first time away from family and they want to not only make it work but make it a great experience for her. 

Checking out her cubby!

Lovely gardens on the way into school

 Ellie and I visited three days last week. Quite a big difference from the preschool that wouldn't let me visit with her. Her new school required it! She is in the River Otter class and is already pretty fond of her new friends and teachers. She'll have water day every Tuesday which will be super fun this summer and I think a great event to look forward to each week. I'm just a little worried about the sleeping situation (on a mat- going to sleep independently!) and I'm hoping peer pressure rubs off on some of her eating habits (I'd love if she would eat a sandwich for example!!)

Today went well.  Nap time was rough but that is to be expected...it is a big change.  I'm happy to report that I didn't see any tears which is much better than I expected and it seems like she has a positive attitude towards the whole thing.  I even made it through the entire day without calling to check on her, I was tempted but instead just thought about her basically the whole day and left as soon as I could justify it to go pick her up.  I realize going back on Thursday she'll know a lot more about what to expect but I'm really excited!

So happy to see her mommy at the end of the day!

 

Beach Trip 2011

My mom bought a week at a condo in Emerald Isle at a silent auction last year. We used it last week and had a great time! Jason wasn't able to go because of work commitments and his usual dog duty- we missed him a lot. I had to come back for a couple days of work in the middle and brought Ruby with me. Since mom was away we used a back-up daycare that Jason has available through work. Ruby did great- just didn't sleep very much because they couldn't swaddle her.

The beach was great. The weather was pretty nice the whole week and Ellie couldn't get enough of the water. It was funny because last time we were there she didn't mind the water but was still pretty scared of it. Not this time! She would just run right in. She loved searching for sand crabs and making sand castles too.

 We even got to visit Fort Macon with Uncle Alex and Babur. The safest place for Ellie was on top of Alex's shoulders- they even had a sign about the very-unsafeness of the Fort. 

Jesse, Mike, Vera and June came down at the end of the week. The girls had a blast. Grandma Sue made her famous picture pancakes- a highlight from my childhood and Vera and Ellie were equally impressed.  A true vacation food!
 
One of Ellie's favorite parts  of the weekwas playing at the pool. She was crazy into it. She jumped in over and over and over throwing caution to the wind! At one point she jumped so fast I couldn't react and ended up going under for a second. I was right there and scooped her up expecting she was upset and scared, but no- she just giggled and was ready for more, more, more! Ruby even got to go swimming. Her first time ever and she didn't react much to the whole experience. She was too cute in her little bikini though!

One of the highlights of the trip was the NC Aquarium. We actually went twice because our zoo membership gets us in free. It was super nice and Ellie loved looking at all the fish, turtles, and RIVER OTTERS! 

I say that with such enthusiasm because she is starting part-time at the daycare center at work and just found out she is in the River Otter classroom. We made sure to make it to the river otter feeding demonstration which was very fun. Both Vera and Ellie got new river otter shirts and enjoyed seeing them play in the water.

Ellie amazed by the fish in the giant aquarium

Cousins on the sea turtle outside of the aquarium!

Vera, Ellie Grandma Sue and Zoe looking at the baby sea turtles

On the last night we went mini-golfing. I had Ruby in the Ergo so didn't golf but took Vera and Ellie ahead of the group. They had a blast! They played every hole like 4 times---their style! They had no rules- just get the ball in the hole! They almost always used the club and loved finding their ball and seeing all the different holes. Fun times!

Happy Mother's Day and Ruby Katherine's Baptism

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommas out there! I had a great one. Ellie made sweet cards and picture frames for all the moms in her life- she worked really really hard on them- too sweet. We are going to help the girls make a concrete stepping stone with their hand prints in it as well but haven't had time for that messy task yet. I'm excited about it, I think it will be a really nice tradition and fun to see how their hands grow. Best of all, we got to spend this day having Ruby baptized and visiting with family.  Jason's dad and stepmother were able to make it down for the weekend which was great. 

During the service

This morning we went down to Star, NC where Jason's grandparents live. Ruby was baptized in their home church- Candor United Methodist Church. The minister of their church was great and we really enjoyed the service. Jason's grandfather is a retired minister and he was able to baptize Ruby which was really special.

Jason's grandfather during the baptism

 She wore a dress that his grandmother made with lace made by her grandmother. The dress was made for Ruby's Great Aunt Sally.

Grandma made the dress for Aunt Sally (her daughter)

After the church service we went to Jason's grandparents house and had a lovely lunch and visited with family. We are so grateful for everyone who was able to come help us celebrate this day and support our little Ruby Kate.

A very happy Mother's Day to my mom!

 We were all so tired by the end of the day but managed one Mother's Day photo of me and my girls!

She Rolls Over!

I was pretty sure Ruby could roll over because all of the sudden she is all about arching her back and wiggling around. So tonight I pulled out the video camera and put her on her tummy---a position she still doesn't love to be in and....

She rolls over! Ellie was pretty amazed and even demonstrated how she could roll over too!