Our Little Juliet

Since the kids had good report cards this past quarter we decided to do a little celebration evening. We went to Ruckus for dinner and YoLo for dessert. We wanted to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful day, but we were stuck inside because there was no room for us. Nevertheless, we had a lovely meal and everyone enjoyed dessert afterwards.

Lily's friends were lurking when we came home and they had a fun time hanging out. We are getting a new wrinkle in the pack of friends though - there are some local boys who have started trying to ingratiate themselves into the pack. Fortunately, Lily doesn't think much of these guys. Her friends tried to have some fun with her before the boys came by chanting things like, "Lily likes Jordan," which Lily vehemently denied.

As the evening wore on it was time for Lily to go to bed. I called her in, but shortly after she had gone up to get ready I heard some funny noises like something was hitting the house. Oreo also started to bark like crazy. I opened the front door to find two boys in the yard, one of whom had some small sticks in his hand. Katie and Sarah were closer to the driveway. Lily was talking to stick boy from her open window. It seems that Lily offered to pay the boy a dollar if he could throw a stick through it.

We had a talk about this in the car today. I acknowledged to Lily that it was nice to have the attention from the boy, but that she needs to understand that he will misinterpret it. He probably thinks that Lily likes him now or at least that there is a chance of it. Never mind how ridiculous the idea of dating is in 4th grade, but beside that she was starting to make some ripples in their little social sphere with this. Of course, she just wanted us to drop the matter rather than discuss it. She also was very embarrassed when I told the kids that they had to leave our yard because Lily had to go to sleep. 

I don't think it's the last time her dad is going to embarrass her...

Field Trip

Lily and I had quite the day today. I got up at 4:00 and she got up at 4:15. I took a shower and then made us omelettes to prepare us for the day ahead. We got to Northwoods at 5:30 and were on the road at around 5:50 for the trip to Wilmington.

Our first stop was to Masonboro Island. However, before we could take the boat over the kids waited in line to use single-toilet bathrooms. That took quite a while, as you might imagine. The boat ride was fun for everyone, though extremely cold. I would estimate that the boat traveled around 15 kts, so combine that with a morning in the mid-50s, no sun, and some breeze on its own and you have some chilly children. The adults all stayed in the cabin.

The island was a lot of fun. There were three stations set up. One was to learn about the various life that is on the island. The next was to try catching some crabs, which was wholly unsuccessful since it was too cold. The last was to gather shells, but in a focused way. All three stations were quite educational.

After that we headed over to Ft. Fisher and the NC Aquarium. We had a picnic lunch which was unpleasant due to no-see-ums and fire ants. We breezed through the aquarium and all the girls had a good time. The gift shop was of course the main attraction. 

We then got back on the buses and went to see the USS North Carolina. This was the main attraction for many of the kids, even one of the girls in our group. Unfortunately, we were really pressed for time so we had to hurry through it. Lily was a little nervous standing on the grating in the engine room. Unfortunately, by the time we finished touring below decks we didn't have time for the bridge or CIC. We plan to go back as a family.

We rode for a little while and then stopped at a McDonald's. This was a pretty rough experience since they were out of ice cream with no way of making any. I tried to salvage it by buying apple pies for the girls. I hoped that the kids would all crash on the ride home, but only a few did. Fortunately, most were quiet as we watched Rio on the ride home.

Lily, Lauren, Kathryn, and Madeline

Everyone said that they had a great time. I know that I did. I also know that I am very, very tired now.

Lost and Found

We have had a busy weekend so far. We decided that it was finally time to replace our old TV, so I took Noah to Target to take a look at what they had. We ended up with a 47" Vizio floor model that we're very happy with so far. As I type this Amanda and Lily are happily watching "The Voice" through Amanda's laptop on the TV. However, the process of getting to this point was not without its bumps.

First came the shopping experience. Noah wanted to look at toys, which was fine with me. However, he forgot that I was talking to the TV guys. He got scared about it and I found him crying and scared. This happened once before at Sam's Club and I always feel terrible when it happens. He played Lego Star Wars on their XBox 360 the rest of the time I was working on my transaction.

Next came the breaking down of our old stuff. Our old TV was very nice when I bought it in 1996, but it has become something of a dinosaur. What it hasn't lost over time though is mass. I had Amanda help me take it out of our old TV armoire and as we took it out the plastic just disintegrated under our hands. She ended up dropping her end and the TV literally fell apart. It was as if the plastic had turned into marzipan. This ended my dream of putting the TV in the basement.

Noah, Lily, and I later went with Noah's friend Nathan and his dad to the NC State Red White game. We had a good time there except for them being out of food by the time we arrived. After we got home I asked Jeff if he would mind helping me get the old TV to the dump as well as some other miscellaneous bits that we had leftover from all our construction. We left Noah and Nathan playing in the yard, which Amanda knew about.

When we came back I found Lily in the backyard dragging Oreo by his collar back to our house. I asked her about Noah and Nathan's whereabouts, but she didn't know. It turns out that they weren't in the house. We started to search for them and I found them being escorted by a local mom. I thanked her for her help and then we started to interrogate the boys.

As you might imagine, it was not a very fruitful discussion. Apparently they were helping Lily retrieve Oreo the other time he got out and then decided to "go exploring." We explained again that they were not to leave the area around our house. It was much scarier than the time at Target, to be sure. Fortunately, it ended well for everyone.

I think that's enough excitement for now. My next post will likely include some photos of our redecoration in the bedroom and bathroom.