Have I mentioned before that my kids are really friggin cute? Kane likes to be the same thing for Halloween, and since he was Optimus Prime last year, we told him he should switch it up and choose a new costume. He chose Bumblebee. Technically it is different, but it's still a transformer, and the costume was pretty much the same except yellow. But hey, it's his costume right?

And of course, Kaia could be nothing else but a Pink Elephant. Now I looked for costumes, and found one on amazon. If I wanted her to be a super pink elephant on steroids, or crack. And pay way to much for it. So I say, I'll make her costume! And I do!

So out we go with my Bumblebee and my Pink Elephant!





Daddy was a fabulous Ghostbuster!

Now I am not promoting child abuse...but really! We see all kinds of parents and kids at the shop where I work, and some are great and we really like seeing them come in. But then there are the kids that run over their parents, and the parents who not only allow their children to act that way (a way that wouldn't be acceptable in the privacy of home, much less in public) and then reward them for their fiendish behavior with sweet treats! The kids Sunday night really won though for the worst kids we've seen in quite a while.

They come in as a very large group. So at least I don't think all 4 kids belonged to one set of parents. There were two girls about 8-ish, one a little younger looking, and a little one that couldn't have been more than about 4. The rude sullen kids are given generous sized cups and allowed to choose their seats. They decide to take up our taller cafe style tables by the window. This of course also involves them climbing up and down out of the chairs every few seconds and playing in the window sill. Now, as a parent, I wouldn't have allowed this simply because I typically prefer my child not to fall and crack his skull.

Both Saedi and myself need to make a fast break for the bathroom, but we're rather busy. So we are going to run between customers inside. Saedi tries, but the girls are in the bathroom. Although the door keeps opening and closing, there is at least one of the 4 in the bathroom for the next 30 minutes! Finally giving up, Saedi just goes into the men's room. She comes storming out a few seconds later complaining that the soap dispenser is missing. This is sadly not an uncommon occurrence, since for some reason people get a thrill from stealing things, like soap dispensers. For just that reason we have a stash of extras in our utility closet. I go out there, fill a new one, and put it in the men's room. As I am coming out I see a couple of the girls running out of the bathroom, so I decide I should go check it.

Opening the door, I am overwhelmed by the scent of air freshener, but all I see is the youngest, who looks to be drying her hands. I close the door in apology, and wait, thinking she should be out soon if she was drying her hands. Oh, no. After several minutes I hear the "Pssst" of the air freshener. Then again. And again. I am not sure what to do, because I don't really know where the line is drawn as to what's acceptable discipline wise for a customer's child. But after several
"Psssssstt's" I don't actually care anymore. Opening the door I ask the little girl to go back to her seat.

Oh, the Carnage! As I open the door, a billowing cloud of Sunshine Citrus fumes come visibly rolling out. It is so thick I can taste it from the hallway, and I start sneezing. I leave the door open, and let some of it dissipate before grabbing my last clean breath and heading in. Between fantasies of whopping the kids upside their heads I take in that almost every surface is nicely greased with the sheen of air freshener. And what is that in the sink? Oh, bubbles...and empty soap dispensers. Yes, that was plural dispensers because since apparently failing to make a big enough mess with the mostly full women's dispenser, they were the thieves who took the men's as well. Both are open, and floating empty in a sea of sink bubbles and a river of soap slime all over the sides of the sink and the handles.

There were 2 and a partial rolls of toilet paper, and a mostly full roll plus backup of paper towels when we did our last bathroom check. Since then it was almost exclusively those girls in their, so there was no excuse for there to only be a half roll of paper towels and one roll of toilet paper left. Most of the rumpled towels were in the sink, on the purse ledge, and spilling from the overflowing trash can.

I propped the door open, and stormed to the front counter, directly in front of the table where the adults where sitting and called to Kayla.
"Hey Kayla, will you hand me the cleaner and several dry towels? The bathroom is TRASHED!" and I stomp of to the bathroom, banging thing as I put them back where they go. I call out over the counter to Saedi, "At least I found the men's soap! It was in the women's bathroom, since the women's dispenser apparently wasn't full enough to make enough bubbles!" It legitimately takes me about 10 minutes to put the bathroom back together and as I am almost done one of the parents drags only one of the kids to the bathroom.

"She has something she'd like to tell you" Damn right she does.
"I'm sorry I sprayed a little air freshener" The heathen child says insincerely. The mother then looks so pleased with her self and her daughter and saunters out before I can respond with anything that resembles words. The group leaves a moment later, leaving 4 tables (that would have seated 14 people, although they only had 8 in their group) completely dirty, rearranged, and trashed.

It was time for another trip to NC's Outer Banks!
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We all met up at Bojangles to caravan out there! We had 18 of us total...including plenty of kids!
My brother with my nephew Logan!
He was a blast this week...I really don't get to see enough of him...
We spent one evening having drinks...my husband caught this fabulous shot of me...

We headed to Ocracoke Island again...this time I got to check out the ponies...
Kane and his Daddy make such cute photo ops...

We headed out to swim in the sound...It was scary. We took an old empty trail to get out there and half way through, we hit a puddle...and it was so deep I didn't think the jeep would make it... then, over the hill was another one! Even worse and deeper! I'm screaming "STOP!" but he couldn't stop, because there was no where to turn around, and he couldn't back up through the last one, so we just had to go for it! And the jeep made it, so we had a great little beach all to ourselves...

My daughter loved the water...she cried when we took her out...

Please don't eat the sand, Kaia...
Mommmmyyy...no more pics!
Theses are from the actual ocean...

When we weren't at the beach, there was still plenty to do...
Like eat Sting Rays...
And swim in the house's private pool...
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tfXTSjdR1MM06yFKiJNJw6AiNtqnxEhuhT-GZ79OCo0?feat=directlink
Then we headed to the Currituck Lighthouse...
Yeah, that's my kid in the lighthouse...meaning that was me in the lighthouse too...He wanted to climb to the top...that meant, that, yep, I got to climb to the top...oh thrill... And I told you Derrick and Kane made good photo ops...

Oh the goodies I received! I was completely overwhelmed...

See the handmade slippers! So in love with those! And all the local hand made goodies!
And she sent me hand dyed roving and the matching handspun yarn! Isn't it amazing!

So for Memorial Day we wanted to head to the Mountains. We rented a cabin with Sue and Papaw and off we went. We stayed a few miles outside of Bryson City, the cutest little town, and our cabin was really on the side of a mountain. As in, leave the highway for 10 min of circling through back roads, to have it end in a gravel road that starts to head uphill, then to the driveway, which was so steep I couldn't see the pavement over the nose of my car...

Derrick smashed baked Alaska cake all over my face...

Kane was so glad that Jay was able to go...

Sue and Papaw at the Ripley's Aquarium

Excuse me Mr. Octopus...

We decided to get a zoo membership...it only cost as much as 2 visits would have, so we thought it was totally worth it.
Kaia is becoming quite the little ham...she loves having her picture taken already!

From Spring 2010

Thought this was a rather pretty picture... It was in an area with all these birds running around free...one jumped down and made me scream...scarred the crap out of me, but the bird was unphased...
There were so many things for Kane to do...this was one of his favorites of course...
Then Easter hit...and of course, the Easter Bunny came...

We went to Church, all dressed up and pretty, but I didn't get any good pictures of us all dressed up. Even Kaia had the cutest little dress...
A couple days later, we decided we wanted to hop in the car and head to the beach... just for the day, but boy we had a blast!
Doesn't he always look so happy hehe

Just for fun...