Oak Island - Beach shots and hangin' around

Tim and Dave, gettin' the ribs ready for a day of smokin'

Now THAT is a lot of ribs.

Potter and Tim, chillin'

I absolutely love this picture of Tim and Dave. How relaxed!!

Molly and Fie. They were BFFs this entire week.

Caleb, Adeler, and Potter - no doubt trying to catch minnows

Adeler, Potter, Eli down by the edge of the water

WAVES!!!!

Adeler, Potter and I had been working really hard on a castle - the stupid tide ended up washing it away

Merrill and me, soaking up sunshine!!!

Caleb with one of the 2, 345 popsicles he consumed that week

Dave, trying to get Caleb's popsicle and a hug :)

Kate and Caleb - true love

I love Oak Island

Taleb Tark

Now we are at the courtship phase of the relationship......

Rare shot of me

Lin and Tim on the porch

Vacation - Part I - Oak Island

Oak Island, NC. What a fabulous place to vacation, especially with a great group of friends!! The last week of June we all arrived at our rental house for 7 days of eating, drinking, swimming, surfing, laughing, talking, playing and general mayhem! With 6 adults and 8 children, suffice to say that there was ALWAYS something fun happening! I was pretty slack the first couple of days and didn't take any photos of note. One afternoon, though, we decided to take all the kids to the pier that is only a very short walk from our house. There was not one day of clouds or rain, no bad weather or water advisories. It was just as we remembered from our summer in 2009 - TERRIFIC!!

Tim, Bill and I take all the kiddos to the pier

The lighthouse, taken from the pier

Our house, taken from the pier - brown one in the middle

We lucked out and saw a huge loggerhead turtle in the water, right under us at the pier

Molly and Fie became BFFs on this trip - like their hair dos?

Most of the kids hanging off the pier - I don't think anyone fell

Caleb, Potter and Molly - it was quite bright out and Molly couldn't keep her eyes open

Walkin' along with the waves

Another squinty shot of my girl!!!

Just for fun....

I wasn't blogging at the time, but here is Potter on the first day of Kindergarten. You'll get to the last day of 5th grade. How did my son grow up so fast???

The end of an era

The last day of school for my kids. The last day of elementary school for Potter. Since we skipped the official last day of school to leave on vacation, awards day and graduation day ended up BEING the last day for our kids. We knew the kids were getting awards this year, the school didn't divulge what the awards were. So, here starts the bragging part, if it is too much for you, just skip down and look at the photos instead ;) Molly was awarded Outstanding Art Student of the Year for Kindergarten - it was no huge surprise to me, that girl has some serious talent. All year, Mr. B. (the art teacher) has been going on about her ability to see things much more maturely than her classmates. Art is one of her passions, I hope budget funding doesn't slash through it in coming years. Potter was awarded (deep breath): Outstanding Art Student of the Year for 5th grade, the Presidential Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement (with a signed letter from President Obama and a pin), Citizen of the Year for 5th grade, Student Council and Safety Patrol recognition. Whew!!! I was almost crying by the end of this ceremony and I am NOT a crier!!! My kids are the absolute best!!!

Before the last day of school: Potter in 5th, Molly in K, Caleb in UPK

Potter on the last day of 5th grade
Molly with Mrs. Riddleberger (the principal) receiving her award for Art

Kindergarten through 3rd grade outstanding art students

Potter with his 5th grade graduation diploma!!!!

The next pictures are of Potter getting (some) of his awards. Honestly, they all started to look the same, so I only posted 3. But as the Mom, I almost did them all.

Caleb graduates from preschool gymnastics

Caleb wrapped up gymnastics for the year during the last week of school. He has progressed so much and really enjoys the class. Now that he'll be 5 in October, he'll be eligible to do the boys only class, which focuses more on the skills that male gymnasts perform (like the parallel bars and rings). That starts up in September and I very much look forward to that first open gym date to see what he does.

Caleb getting his award and certificate (I think he must have the certificate on his rear end)

Part of his class

The entire class (it didn't bother him to be the only boy either! ;)

3rd annual smoke off

Yeehaw!!! We had seven (7) smokers going at the third annual smoke off this past Saturday at our house! The amount of smoke that was produced cannot be quantified appropriately, but holy cow, my garage still smells of pork, pork, more pork and chicken. Things were fired up around 8:30 with a couple smokers, then by 11, all smokers were going full throttle. We started off tame with coffee all around, got into the keg around 11:30. The total weight of meat was not ascertained, but I am pretty sure that it was a number greater than the weight of my oldest child!! By around 1:30, families and kids were arriving, side dishes were brought out, water balloons and other toys were being used as weapons against adults, dogs were chasing each other and tail wagging, and general mayhem ensued - it was fantastic! The weather was quite spotty, starting off overcast and dreary, turning to some rain midday, but then clearing up and sunny by the late afternoon. With a total of over 50 people and 2 dogs, we couldn't have predicted a better time. Thanks to all of our friends who helped out and to everyone who came and ate!!!

Early in the morning.....getting the smokers going

Smoke, smoke, smoke

Two smokers face off in some smack talk!!

Dave reloads his fire box

Bradburn - talk about smack talk!!

Ben helps Doug wrap up his ribs for some final hours on the smoker

Rain, kids, dogs, cornhole

The immense spread of side dishes

With the rain, the party went into the garage, which actually worked out quite well

Neil and Potter - BFFs

The pork table (with a little chicken there too!) Talk about heart attack waiting to happen....

The sun is out, lots of eating and talking

Bradburn claims his false victory. Although all of his ribs got eaten.

Sunny afternoon, kids abound

Greg thought it would be a good idea to pick Crash up. I got the caboose end for my picture.