Our Week

I forgot to post last week about our outing to feed the ducks. The only place I know in Wilmington is Greenfield Lake, which is a little sketchy and I was a tad worried going there by myself. Once we got there, we found the ducks and geese and decided to start throwing our old pita bread at them. It was not a nice duck-in-the-pond experience. They all swarmed us, we just kept throwing bread to keep them away. Luckily, Anna loved it. 

Only to turn around and see this sign.......oops! 

Soooo, we decided to just go for a walk and not break any more rules. Anna's quote for the day, 

"Mom, just keep your eyes on the ocean, look for the alligators!"

One of our many beach rides home. He plays SO hard. 

And, one of our many taco tuesday nights with our best buddies! 

Here's how I found them, coloring together, so sweet!

We saw a bike, well, not any old bike, a DISNEY PRINCESS BIKE, at Walmart last week and Anna just LOVED it. If I were by myself I would have came home with it, easily! 

But since we were there as a family, Greg talked some sense into me and we decided that Anna is old enough to earn something like that. We set 5 easy chores for her to do to start earning money.

1. Set the table for dinner

2. Clear the table afterwards

3. Water the plants on the back deck

4. Take out the recycling

5. Help put laundry away 

For each of those tasks she'd earn $.50. Well, the bike cost, $67, this was going to be a looooong summer. To help boost the bike fund we decided to go through old toys and books and bring them to the resale shop to see if we could earn a bit more money. WA-HOO! Anna made $35! They gave us a check so we took Anna to the bank and showed her how to cash a check then put it in her jar to save for the bike. For the past week and a half, she's been doing chores and adding $1-$2 a day to her jar. 

Greg has been off this week (SO NICE!) so I've actually had some day time to relax and read a magazine & snack quietly, LOVE IT! We did a lot of family beach days this week and had a blast swimming in the ocean with both kiddos, digging holes, jumping in the waves, building castles and just enjoying quality family time together. 

Wednesday we decided to take the drive up to Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium on Emerald Isle, it was quite a drive but well worth it. Here's Anna loving the otters. (We don't have otters at the Fort Fischer Aq.)

Mommy being silly 

Their shark tank is awesome! 

After the aquarium, we had a picnic lunch outside, Anna had a ice cream cone, all to herself! and then we took a family nature hike through the woods. Anna is a super hiker, I think we may be able to do something next spring/summer. 

"C'mon Sydney, lets go play, follow me."

"OK, fine, we'll stay right here, I'll throw it for you."

"C'mon, jump Sydney, Get it!"

"C'mon!!! Why are you just looking at me!?"

"Forget it, I'm leaving. You're no fun."

Weeeeelllllll, Greg and Anna went out this morning to do some errands and while they were out Greg stopped into a Pawn shop to try and sell some old electronics we had hanging around, well he turned around to see Anna drooling over this bike. This is a 16 inch princess bike for $24. The one we were saving towards was a 12 inch bike and $67. So? Greg told Anna she had enough money saved ($40), did she want to buy this bike right now? YEEEEEESSSS! Happiest girl on the planet. She came home so happy. We had to wait to the rain stopped and the took it out for a ride around the streets. Anna also got her first boo-boo for falling off but seemed ok after all said and done. We will get back at it tomorrow. 

Quinn had his 1 year check up this week. He is a healthy one year old. Weighs 21.5 lbs (25th percentile). He is 29 inches tall (25th percentile) & has a head circumference of 47.5 cm (75th percentile). 

He says "Dada or Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", "muuuu-muuuu" and "Go-go-go-go-go-"

He signs, more, please, eat, drink, sleep/nap, come, all done, and shakes head for yes & no