Happy Halloween 2013

The Monarch Butterfly, Navy Seal, and Geisha Girl wish you a Happy Halloween.

Matching PJ's

Still Best Buddies

Best buddies then and now....

Photos taken by Sheila Burns

Into the Mist

Wednesday, the kids had the opportunity to hang with their best buddy Livi at the Durham Museum of Life + Sciences. I think their favorite thing was the new exhibit - Into the Mist. They were nearly soaked afterwards but it served to cool us all off.

Here is my first Instagram photo to commemorate the day.....

(see full image)

Photo of the Day

from Easter 2012

Giving Thanks for Friends

We had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday and weekend with friends.  

On Thanksgiving day, the kids played well with their friend Serra, whom they have known for quite a awhile, but don't get to see nearly as often as they'd like. 

I don't know that they'll do if we ever get new furniture!

Then on Saturday we drove to the coast to visit the Burns' in their new home. 

Best Buddies (copyright Sheila Burns)

In both instances, the kids behaved exceptionally well - no one got hurt and everybody stayed happy. Now that's something to be thankful for :-) 

Photo of the Day

in Turkey with Friends

Friends

Their best buddy Olivia, whom they have grown up with, is moving to the coast in a few days. So today we picked her up for lunch and playtime at Chick-fil-a. At the moment, they have the play area all to themselves and are having a great time. This may be their last opportunity to hang out before the big move. It has been a joy watching their relationship grow and change. Here's to hoping they are lifelong friends despite this move or any future ones.

NCSU Farm Days

I'm behind on postings due to moving. So here is something I've wanted to post about for a while.
A few weeks ago, we went the Farm Days at North Carolina State University with the kids best buddy Olivia. The kids got to pet farm animals, lasso a metal calf and investigate tractors - that last bit was probably Jonah's favorite.

Picnic at the Museum

We had a lovely picnic/joint birthday celebration for all the kids in our home fellowship at the Durham Museum of Life and Sciences. Jonah, led by his friend Olivia, put on quite a show.





We had a great day and ended up getting a membership to the museum so I can take the kids through the week. This museum has so much to do, we can never see everything when we go. I look forward to having a good place to take the kids when cold winter days hit.

For more photos/video from today go here.

Kid to Kid Skype

How different being a kid in the 21st century looks from being a kid three decades before.... Jonah and Elisabeth's 1st friend skype. Now if Jonah can just learn how to pronounce "Lego"

Best Friends

An Afternoon at the Beach

Sharks and Snakes and Frogs, Oh My!

We haven't been to the North Carolina Museum of Natural History in quite some time until this month - we went twice. We went with some friends and their daughter to check out the Megalodon Exhibit. We thought Jonah would love it, but the big shark models hanging from the ceiling and the dark lighting kind of freaked him out. His favorite thing that day was playing with all the little miniature aquatic animals in the "hands on" learning center. We went back the very next Saturday because Jonah's preschool teacher told me about Reptile and Amphibian day. On this trip, Jonah got to "pet" some snakes. I made sure I was behind the camera for the snake petting. My favorite pictures from those two visits are below, followed by a link to many more.

Looking for shark teeth


My little dinosaur lover


My thoughts exactly


A biologist in the making


More Pictures

In case you are interested, here is the schedule of upcoming events at the museum.

Jonah is Three Today

Today is Jonah's birthday! We are having a little party tomorrow at Chick-fil-a but we made today special too. We began by watching happy birthday videos from Grammie and Papaw. Then we went to lunch with Daddy to Red Robin. A couple of Kelly's coworkers/friends joined us.



Later, his friend Olivia came over for a spaghetti dinner.


After that, he opened some cards he had gotten from family in the mail. Then we brought in his big present at toy tool bench with various battery operated equipment. Kind of looks like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in parts but here is more video :-)



Party hats, cake, and ice cream tomorrow......

Elisabeth's 1st Birthday Party

We had about 25 people (kids and adults) here on Friday night for Elisabeth's Birthday Party. The weather was stormy earlier but cleared up about 30 minutes after people started arriving. The kids had a great time in the pools and with the water sprinkler. Jonah kind of dominated the big pool as he likes to splash a lot and the other kids weren't really into that. Serra hung with him though and Olivia got more tolerant of his splashing towards the end. Jonah definitely had a good time. Elisabeth hung out in the baby pool by herself for a while, then little Yusef joined her. He didn't like the water and started crying which upset her and she started crying. And the end of the evening, we rewarded those who stuck around with the left over fireworks from Independence Day.



For all the pictures and video from the evening go to Flickr.

Birthday Party: How do kids eat cake?

Elisabeth: Very carefully - at first.









Jonah: Icing first, of course

A Funfilled Weekend!

We had a very full weekend. I think I have recovered!

On Friday evening we went to a picnic with friends. Jonah's swim class started back this weekend, so he and Kelly went to that on Saturday morning. He did really well and even floated on his back for the first time comfortably with some help from Daddy. That is the first big step in actually teaching kids his age to swim. As soon as they got home from that, we all went to the Turkish Festival at the fairgrounds for some good food, fellowship and entertainment. See our pictures from that event here.

On Sunday we went to the NC Zoo with our friends the Burns and Tim Lockamy. We took a lot of pictures from that day as well. Click here to see them. These are a couple of my favorites from the day.

Happy Easter!

Bath Time with Livy

A few weeks ago we had Jonah's friend Olivia over one evening. Jonah was in need of a bath so Kelly put him in the tub and Olivia went in the bathroom and began to play in the water from outside the tub. With all the splashing it didn't take long for her to start getting wet. I then took her britches off and put Jonah's rain jacket on her.

Kelly turned his back for a couple of minutes and then found Olivia in the tub diaper and all. So I decided to just put her in there with him. They played very well and it was even one of Jonah's more subdued bath times.