First day of school 2015

Summer break has ended :( and off to school they go.  Paige in 10th, Simon in 7th and Nixon in 4th. I have to admit as nice as a lazy summer we had and the kids enjoyed not having too much to do it will be nice to be back on a regular schedule and routine. 

I think I might call this "The Year of Simon". He is going to be the one to pack our schedule this year, which is a good thing. It is so enjoyable watching him turn into the Man he is going to be. He is still in Taekwondo and Youth Group and has just asked to volunteer in the kids' ministry at church. He also has joined the football team (which immediately took over our schedule lol with practices M-F 3:30-5:30.) Those games start soon. He is still in band and is hoping to make it into the Jazz Band as well. I am guessing he will do other sports throughout the year too. It's a North Carolina law that kids can't play school sports til 7th grade. So, all that said yep it will be Simon packing our scheduled. Of course Paige and Nixon have stuff going too just not quite as much as their brother!

Open house Nixon got to meet his teacher Mrs. McCarthy.

Packing his backpack the night before!

Ready for the first day!

Off for the big day! Dad took Simon to the bus stop on his way to work.

Waiting with Mom for the bus!

Paige starts school today too! I told her for school clothes shopping we just needed to get her new PJs. :) But, seriously so proud of her she is so self-motivated and such a hard worker. She picked American Literature and British Literature as 2 electives for this year and also French for her foreign language. Along with the core classes of Geometry, Biology, Language Arts, and World History.

Here are a few end-of-summer pics!

See we have been working out LOL!

So instead of starting to get the kids in bed earlier and ready for school the last week we decided one night to head to the beach instead!

That's our boy, he always makes himself a chair at the beach!

Paige watching her Dad and brothers jump waves into the dark of night! Paige and I decided we like to be able to see the water!!

They had a blast!

Paige and Simon had an overnight youth camp with church at Camp Albamarle the last Friday night before school started. They had a great time (and both came home burnt to a crisp). Needless to say it was not the most comfortable thing to wear his backpack for Simon today and I am sure that his full football gear won't feel great today either, but it's a right of passage, we all burnt ourselves at one time or another as kids! They have a huge obstacle tower and Paige took the challenge and made it all the way to the top! It really is huge and you have to be in a harness.

The Tower

On her way up!

Almost there!

At the Top! Then you just jump off and they lower you down.

We had a great summer and hope you all did too! Here's to a new school year!

The Pirates Invaded! And another Coast Guard ball!

Argh every second weekend in August Pirates Invade Beaufort for 2 days, first by land and then by sea! And it is awesome!!

Day 1 by Land...

They march through town to the town hall and take down the town flag and raise the Jolly Roger. Then they capture the "Govenor" and put him in the old jail.

It really is the old jail in the historic district where the jail and courthouse and some houses are that on special occasion you can tour. Like during the Beaufort Pirate Invasion. Nixon had no idea the Govenor was trying to grab his head!

Nixon got branded with a P. Or as the Pirate told him there now you have been P'd on.

Day 2 by Sea...

Oh yeah we were ready! What do you do when Pirates invade? You dress up and invade with them!

Don't mess with the Crothers they may make ya walk the plank!

Two ships battled it out with real cannon fire!

Italian ice time Yum!

I embrace the local culture! Heck yeah where else can you dress up like a Pirate and walk around town all day without it being Halloween?! And get a huge mug of root beer with free refills all day might I add! Fun Fun Fun!

The Beaufort History Museum. Beaufort is actually where Blackbeard spent a lot of time and his ship the Queen Anne's Revenge is sunk right off the Coast here. The museum has many artifacts from the ship on display along with a big selection of Coast Guard items. Nixon and I decided since we were Pirates we probably should steal this boat. Our plan was to turn it upside down over our heads and walk out and see if anyone would notice. :)

The Encampment...

They set up a whole area in the historic part of town with an authentic encampment so you can see how they lived and ate and worked.

Getting to the end of Summer and big sister Paige was sweet enough to ask her brothers if they would like to have a sleepover in her room one night. She has the biggest room and they had a blast with Legos and games.

2015 Coast Guard Ball, 225th Birthday

Thank you to Paige for snapping some pics for us!

Look kids a selfie LOL

Awe look at Tim he is so cute! I love you Tim just as much and more than I did 21 years ago!

Here is a Tucker picture! He is so fat and hard to hold LOL he hangs on to your arm and look at his cute paws he looks like he stepped in ink!

Tim's Birthday and Camping

Tim shares his birthday week with the Coast Guard.  This year the Coast Guard day festivities fell on his birthday so we (by Tim's choice) started the day off with his birthday cake for breakfast! Yes you know your gonna have a good day if it starts with cake! :)

Happy Birthday Tim!

Happy 225th birthday U.S. Coast Guard

Since we just couldn't swing a vacation to anywhere this summer we decided to take Tim camping at New Bern KOA about 45 mins from our house for his birthday. We had hoped to camp more this summer but our tent's main weight bearing pole broke. Luckily this KOA had a variety of cabins to rent.

It was the perfect spot! We had a catch and release pond right out our door. And over the bridge was the pool.

Boys getting the bait ready

It was so relaxing to just sit there on and off all day and toss the line in. We used a bamboo pole for it. Funny note Paige, caught the biggest two by using left over potatoes from dinner as bait LOL!!!

At night it was such a great view they had solar lights along the water and rope lights across the bridge. We had our fire going for smores. This was the view from across the pond of our cabin.

The kids really enjoyed the giant checkers and chess board.

They had kayaks and paddles boats so we did the kayaks.

Man we could sit there all day!

They had a big jump pad too!

On the way home we stopped at the birthplace of Pepsi. Great little historical place.

Good old fashioned soda fountain.

Had to have a Pepsi for Grandpa. Simon even got a Pepsi float which Grandpa always makes.