Summer Break 2018: Week 3

For the first time this summer, we stayed home in Kernersville for the week and had lots of local adventures! Before I get to our week, I wanted to share a few of the milestones I've observed with Emmy. With the extra time I've been spending with her, I've been able to see just how much she is growing and changing. She is giving kisses on request, generally leaning in and offering her cheek. She will also blow kisses or hold out her hand for you to kiss it. She has really started to master the 'b' sound and can say "bye-bye", "Bobby", "boo-boo", "bump", and "bird." She loves pointing out birds when she sees them and also says 'bird' when she hears one chirping outside. She continues to show some awareness of bodily functions, with gesturing toward her diaper and saying 'poo-poo.' It is usually after I have said it or when we are in the process of changing her; she has not yet initiated it or let us know without being prompted. She can point at people when asked who someone is, which is a fun game to play when we are together with family. She is also showing some improvement with using utensils during meals. It's easiest to let her practice when we are at home, in the familiar environment of our kitchen and her high chair; on-the-go is a little more difficult. My hope is by the end of the summer, she will have mastered using a fork and spoon so that in the morning before daycare, she can feed herself her own breakfast. I think this is a realistic goal given where she is right now. 

During the school year, there is maybe one thing to write about each week, perhaps one event on the weekend. The summer has been quite different; we are making fun memories every day, and I feel like each day is deserving of its own post. We are still fitting in naptime, and I am trying to hold to a reasonable bedtime (around 8:30PM, which is a little later than during the school year). Between snacks, meals, and diaper changes, we are filling every minute that we can. Last blog post was a little long, so in an attempt to shorten the remainder of my summer posts, I am going to follow what my sister does on her blog: a quick overview and then lots of photos. As the little sister, I've copied her a lot in the past (Thanks, sis!) She is the reason I started my blog in the first place, and I'm so glad that I did! Already I feel memories fading, and I am so thankful to be able to look back at my writing. Here is a re-cap of Summer Break 2018 Week 3:

1. We kicked off the week with a play date with a new friend, Michelle. She is one of Boomer's coworkers at Forbush, and she has a son, Levi, who was born within a few days of Emmy.
2. Megan turned 35 in June, and we had a belated celebration at Fire & Sticks Japanese Steakhouse. Maddox made quite a mess feeding himself shrimp sauce, which has led to me being the butt of a joke about wipes. When my family is together, it usually means inside jokes and picking on each other! 
3. We had a fun pool day at the YMCA with the cousins, Grammy, and the Williamses.
4. Emmy and I did some evening swimming with Caro and Carrie while Caro was house sitting. After swimming for a bit, we had a picnic dinner on the porch.
5. On Wednesday, we celebrated July 4th with a spontaneous trip back to Lake Tillery. Grammy, Emmy, and I made a day trip of it, and the cousins posed together in their patriotic attire.
6. Emmy and I had another lake day on Thursday with the Williamses. Sarah and Josh have a boat, and we went out on Belews Lake. We sure are spoiled to have so many connections to keep cool on these hot summer days!
7. While Boomer had a writing day on Friday, Emmy and I went to the Greensboro Science Center with Aunt M, Grammy, and the cousins. Emmy loved the new color maze and the slide in the kids' play zone; she wasn't so crazy about the peacock.
8. That evening, Boomer and I had a double date with our friends Jared and Ashley. Jared was just recently named the principal of my school! I am very excited to work with him, and of course that means he and Boomer have a lot to talk about as high school principals. We went to the Dash game and had unlimited food, drinks, and desserts in the Flow Founder's Club - what a treat! While we were on our date, Emmy had a sleepover at Grammy and Grandpa's. On Saturday morning, when we met up for breakfast at Cagney's, Emmy had the cutest pigtails. Grammy had some fun getting her all dolled up.
9. Saturday was overcast in the low 70s and was unusually cool. We had a park play date with Daddy!
10. We got burgers at Miller's Restaurant - one of the items on the Summer To-Do List. Miller's was featured in Our State magazine and is in Mocksville, about 45 minutes away. Boomer offhandedly mentioned going, and so we did! We got the recommended pimento cheeseburger, and it was delicious.

11. Thanks to free tickets from a golf tournament that my Dad played in, we went to Wet & Wild Emerald Pointe. With the ages of our crew, we enjoyed the smaller attractions, like the wave pool, splash pad, and lazy river. Thank you, Grandpa, for a fun day!

 

Well, this post is still a pretty long one. Hopefully next week I can be more brief! We are having so much fun that there's so much to write about! I have to include one more picture -- with the sticky, hot temperatures, the sunscreen, and chlorine, every night has been a bath night this week. Emmy has gone back-and-forth on her feelings about bath time, but right now, she likes it so much that she doesn't want to get out! She often tries to hoard her toys in protest :)

 



Summer Break 2018: Week 2

I don't think we could fit one more thing into the month of June! We finished up the school year, took a family vacation across the country, had a girls' road trip home to Morganton, and had several other fun summer activities. A few things that I haven't written about yet from Week 1: on the first Friday of the summer back in mid-June, Boomer and I went on a matinee movie date while Emmy was at her last day of daycare. It felt a little strange not having our little girl with us, but it was a fun way to spend the day with just Boomer. Boomer really wanted to see the latest Marvel Comics movie, Infinity War, and so we splurged and went to the theater in Winston with the fancy reclining seats and unlimited butter. Boomer has been watching all of the Marvel movies and was very excited about this latest one. Although he knew a lot more about what was going on than I did, it was entertaining enough that I enjoyed it, too. Plus, did I mention UNLIMITED BUTTER?!



We have also visited Great Gma Nancy a couple of times. Emmy loves playing with the stuffed animals Gma keeps there especially for her. She can entertain herself for quite awhile between the stuffed animals, her shoes, and the small calculator that Gma lets her pound on.

Emmy continues to love to read. Every night, we read several books before bedtime. Some of her favorites are: Each Peach Pear Plum, The Magic Bunny, and Sophie la Girafe: First Words. Even though I practically have these three memorized, I love that Emmy enjoys looking at and reading books. She already seems to know how to hold a book correctly and how to turn the pages. She also repeats words back to me like "Mommy", "baba" (banana) and "quack, quack." I love before bedtime when she cuddles in next to me to read our nightly stories. We have settled into a special routine at night where we will pray together as a family, then she will tell Boomer "bye bye", and we begin to read. When left unattended during the day, she loves to pull every book off the shelf. It's a relatively harmless game she plays, so I go along with it!

On Saturday, the 16th, we went to a Dash game with the Houstons and the Williamses. A few highlights: Megan scrambled for a foul ball for Zander, who was ready with his glove to catch one. Also, Luke was selected to deliver water to the umpires, and Laurel participated in the toddler race. Towards the end of the game, we managed to pose for a group picture - a rare feat for 6 adults and 5 small children! 



Summer Break Week 1 wrapped up with a pool date with Katie and Grant. Grant and Emmy are only 4 months apart and are doing a lot of the same things right now. It is so fun seeing them together. This was my first time trying out the life-jacket with Emmy. Within only a few minutes of being in the kiddie pool, Emmy lost her footing and went back into the water like a baptism. She was a little hesitant to be in the water after that, so we sat on the edge and splashed with our feet. In the last picture, you see the tired faces of two toddlers ready for nap time.

Summer Break Week 2 kicked off with the Tour de Morganton. When we returned to Kernersville, on Tuesday we had our friends Michelle, Brian, and their little girl Stella over for dinner. Emmy watched Stella carefully as she played with her toys. She surprisingly even allowed Stella to play with Bobby!

 

On Wednesday, we went to the movies with Megan, Zander, and Maddox. There are several local theaters doing 'summer kids series' with discounted ticket prices and mid-morning showtimes. For only $1, we went to the Palladium in High Point to see How to Train Your Dragon 2. Nevermind that none of us have seen the first one, or that Megan and Zander have already seen this same movie! This was Emmy's first movie, and although I would have been hesitant to pay real movie prices, it seemed worth the dollar, even if I spent the whole movie in the lobby. While Emmy looked at the screen from time to time, she also liked climbing on the seats, moving the small lap tables, and eating the snacks I packed for her. She was mostly still enough that I could follow along with the plot of the movie -- I count that as a success!

 

On Thursday, we met the Williamses and the Houstons (minus Zack) for what I hope will be the first of many pool days at the YMCA. The moms got in a workout first while the kiddos were in the child watch room. Then we spent some time at the pool and splash pad. Emmy and I stayed at the splash pad the whole time; it is the perfect amount of water for us! She didn't venture far from the edge and mostly liked playing with the fountain that sprayed water. We have already planned to meet again Tuesday for another pool date.

That evening, Sarah and I went to Raleigh for a quick visit with Jen. We went out to dinner at a place called Parkside Restaurant (I highly recommend the chicken-and-waffle sandwich!). On Friday morning, we leisurely woke up and then got in a workout. We usually do some form of exercise when we are together, whether it's a run, a cardio class, or a workout video. We then visited Amy and met her brand-new, only-a-week-old baby boy, James. It is always a special treat to see these girls! It's hard to believe that it has almost been 10 years since we were in school together at Wake Forest. We are planning another get-together in August when Christina is back in NC. Big shout-out to Boomer for watching Emmy for this week's trip and again next month so Mommy can have some girl time!  :)



After I got home from Raleigh, it was back in the car to head to the lake. We finished out Summer Break Week 2 with an early July 4th celebration with the Kennedys. It was a small crew this time: Granny, Paw Paw, Carlin, and Carlin's boyfriend, Matt. We went on several boat rides, which Emmy has definitely come to enjoy. Unlike in the past, she didn't protest when we put on her life jacket (which can be a bit restricting). She especially loved sitting with Granny while we were on the boat. She would be squirmy with Boomer or me, but she would go right to Granny and then usually fall asleep. When not on the boat, Emmy was splashing around in her baby pool or stacking blocks and figurines on the porch. She played hard both days and has a little bit of a sun tan to show for it, despite Mommy's best efforts to keep her lathered in sun screen! Our girl is becoming a little water baby! 

Week 3 will find the Kennedys staying put in Kernersville. Even so, we have a lot of fun adventures planned - stay tuned!

Tour de Morganton

While Boomer had a conference in Asheville earlier this week, Emmy and I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Morganton. We had the best time! The original plan was for me to go with Boomer to the conference and tag along to the fancy dinners and hang out by the pool during his sessions while Emmy stayed with Aunt CoCo only an hour away in Morganton. But I'm so glad for the change of plans. I had not been in Morganton since September, and even then, it was only a few short hours for a baby shower. As for spending the night in Morganton, I don't even know the last time I did that. We packed a lot into the short 48 hours. We hit the road after church on Sunday, and Emmy napped during the drive:

After a quick shopping trip to the new TJ Maxx and to the Ingles, we had dinner at Toyko Diner. When I was growing up, it was always a treat when we would get take-out from Toyko's for dinner. Emmy devoured both my and Coley's helpings of sweet carrots, and she had her first fortune cookie. It said: "Very little is needed to make a happy life."

We had a little bit of room left for dessert so we met Shawna for ice cream at Scooper's, a new ice cream place on Enola Road. Emmy loved having a few bites of my salted caramel ice cream.

On Monday morning, Coley made waffles for breakfast. Emmy had a whole waffle all by herself!

Then we went to the Greenway and got some exercise. It was a nice overcast morning and very comfortable for walking. Emmy loved pointing at all the squirrels we saw.

We stopped by to see one of my favorite teachers and now Coley's coworker, Mrs. Baker. Mrs. Baker was my AP Calculus teacher, and she is one of the big reasons I went in to education. She still has just the same enthusiasm and spunk that I remembered from 14 years ago! We hung out by her pool for a little bit, but because there was a threat of a storm, we did not swim. Emmy enjoyed munching on some Veggie Straws while we chatted.

After afternoon naps for everyone, we got cleaned up for dinner at Moondog's Pizza, a restaurant I had never been to before. It is one of the many new restaurants that have come to Morganton since I have lived there. The storm came in while we were eating and knocked out the power! We ate the last 30 minutes of our meal in darkness, but it was yummy. I loved the garlic knots [not pictured].  

We topped off the night with Pelican's Sno Balls. Like Moondog's, I had never been there before, but it is a popular summer spot in Morganton. I got the Burkemont Blueberry Blast and Coley got cherry 'stuffed' with chocolate ice cream.

While we were in Morganton, Emmy got a kick out of Coley's cat, Otis. Emmy hasn't really been around a cat and kept calling him 'puppy.' She liked pointing at him and shrieking at him. He was a good sport to put up with her noise.

 

On Tuesday morning, we were able to visit my alma mater. Since Coley is working at Freedom now, she was able to show us around. I had been to a football game a few years ago, but I hadn't been inside the building in years. My sister's and my 'Patriot of the Year' photos were still hanging up in the lobby so of course we posed for a photo there. My favorite picture of the whole trip is Emmy crouching in front of the Freedom Patriots mural.  



We fit in one last staple during the Tour de Morganton: lunch at Pat's.



After saying our goodbyes to Aunt CoCo, I drove by Bel Aire Drive before hitting the interstate. Of course there are new owners now, but a lot looked the same.

3996 Bel Aire Drive

3998 Bel Aire Drive - my grandparents' house

A special 'thank you' to Coley for hosting the Kennedy girls. We had so much fun! Morganton will always be my hometown, but mostly I'm thankful for friends who are a piece of home wherever I am. We didn't quite fit in everything, so we are already planning a 2nd Annual Tour de Morganton next summer!