Lilly and Sophia's Birthday Party

On Saturday Afternoon, Emily and I took a ride over to Marna's house for Lilly and Sophia's birthday party. When we arrived we were greeted by Lilly and given lays to wear, since it was a pool party. At first the kids played in the pool a little while and then took a break to eat and work on making mugs they could draw on. Afterwards it was back into the pool. The last time we had been over there, Emily kept saying she wanted to jump off the diving board, but was too scared to jump. However, she decided she was ready to take her first jump to Daddy who was in the deep end to catch her. After that, she was hooked. She jumped too many times to count to Daddy, me, and Mason. After a while it was time for cake and presents. Everyone seemed to have a great time. Around 7, we changed our clothing, and Emily, me, Daddy, Katrina, Megan, and Blake all headed to the mall to play. We stayed for a while to play and then headed home.

Play Day

Today, Saturday July 12th Kim, Helen, Melissa and Addison came over for a play date. Melissa and Addison arrived first and we all visited a little bit inside and they were soon followed by Kim. We changed all the girls into bathing suits since it was hot and then headed outside. Melissa and I played with the girls up at the recently finished swing set and sand box, while Kim snuck off to pick up the bar-b-q. Since it was hot, I filled up the pool and turned on the sprinkler. All the girls played on the fort and some played int he water. It was not long before Kim got back, so we all visited, let the kids play, and the kids enjoyed their popcicles. Before long we headed in, changed out of wet clothing, and ate lunch. The kids were done in a hurry and they all played while we visited. Luckily, Heidi, Brandon, and Valery were able to make it in time to eat and visit/play for a while.

Firework Time on the 4th of July

On Friday evening after dinner, We started loading up the car. I had been packing some off and on during the day. Once we were to a stopping point, I made a quick trip over to Target to get Emily some ear plugs since I knew the fireworks were going to be really loud. While I was there I also picked up a flashlight for us to walk around before the fireworks, and some poppers (since I thought this would be a good alternative to sparklers for the kids since fireworks were not allowed on the IOP). After I returned, Emily and I walked over to my Dad's condo. At that time, the traffic was really pouring on to the island. Once we met up with the group, we found that they were planning to sit by the pool for the fireworks so we headed down there. While we were waiting, the kids and I walked right outside the pool area to play with the poppers. They all really enjoyed them, but unfortunately we had to stop. One of the policemen came by and said that he hated to ask us to stop, but technically those counted as fireworks. Who knew =)

We then headed back into the pool area and chatted for a while. Around 9ish, we started to see the fireworks on Sullivan's island in the distance. They were pretty and it was a nice warm up for the kids. Since they were somewhat around the Sea Cabins, I had to hold Emily up and Daddy held Christian up so they could see them.


Starting around 9:30, there was a lot of activity on the pier and they started shooting the first fireworks. It was a little slow getting started, but then they were off. They were very pretty and right over our heads. Emily was so funny with her wow's. It was really cute. After the finale, we all packed up and started heading out of the pool area. However, there must have been a few that didn't go off, that they decided to light, so we were surprised to see a few more. After those were over, Emily and I walked back over to our condo. When we went in, we visited with John and then John took Emily out for one of their famous 'frog hunts" with Mason.

July 4th Riding the Banana Boat

On Friday afternoon, July 4th, John and I left the girls with Katrina and Christian, and headed to the Isle of Palms Marina to meet up with my Dad and Marna's group. After a little bit, Marna and all the young girls headed out for the first session, which was suppose to be the slow ride. During the 45 mins they were gone, the boys and I visited. It had really heated up a lot that day, so we stayed under the awning some and went out on the dock some. When the girls got back, they said they had a great time. Once they unloaded, we all put on our life jackets and hopped on. We took it slow on our way out until we got out of the no wake zone. It was really pretty and we enjoyed the sites. Then we sped up since we were in the fast group. It was not nearly as fast as I was expecting, but it was tons of fun. John was in front, followed by Mason, Jim, Daddy, and I brought up the rear. After a short ways, John attempted to make us capsize and ended up being the only one off the float. It was pretty funny!!! After we picked him back up, we took off. Soon, we all capsized thanks to John. It was actually a lot of fun and since it was obvious we were capsizing, I took a dive off. It turned out Mason was scared to be in the water and ended up crawling up on the back side of the raft so fast, we could not believe it. Everyone, including Mason, enjoyed a good laugh before starting back. The water was nice, and it was nice to be wet on such a hot day. During the rest of the ride we capsized two more times while in the fast part (always on purpose) and had a tone of fun. After that Mason was acting scared so the guys did not try to flip us any more. Then once we got back to the no wake zone and were going very slow, Jim flipped us. It caught me off guard, but it was fun to get in again. The driver just laughed since we had been going in so much. After that we made the trip back to the dock after about a 45 minute trip and unloaded.

Here is a short video of the adventure =)

Independance Day 2008

The morning of July 4th we got up and I fed the girls breakfast while john went to get on-line to do some work stuff. As soon as he returned, we headed out to the beach to play. By Friday, it had gotten much warmer, but it was still nice for July. Not long after we had gotten out there, Mason and Christian came down, and were soon followed by Daddy, Katrina, the Bartons, and the Mauros. All of the kids had a blast playing in the ocean. Emily even got brave enough for me to take her out in the waves with the big kids. She really enjoyed riding the waves. In addition to the water, we played in the sand a lot and had a great time. Once it was getting to much for the babies, I took them back to the condo and John stayed with Emily for some more fun in the sun.

Playing at the Beach and Pool with Cousins

On Thursday afternoon after everyone had arrived, we all met out at the beach and played in the water. All the kids had a great time. Christian and Emily partook in her favorite activity, punching waves. They also rode on the float some. After a little while we were even joined by Aunt Pat who came out into the ocean. Not bad for someone 70+ =)

After a while, the kids wanted to head to the pool so we made our way back up there. We all played int he water and afterwards headed to the condos to clean up. Emily and I then met the group at CiCi's Pizza for dinner. While we were there the kids ate a lot of pizza due to playing hard in the ocean, and then thoroughly enjoyed playing the games. Mason was so good at the stuffed animal grabber game that he one a dinosaur and an animal for Christian.

Trip to the Market

On Thursday morning, Emily and I decided to make a trip to the Market. We started our adventure at IHOP on Mount Pleasant, since that was where Emily said she wanted to go for Breakfast. We both enjoyed our pancakes and then headed downtown. We parked and walked on the south end of the market so we started at the bottom end of the Market. When we were walking to the Market, I gave Emily some money for her to get her items at the Market. She was excited about it for a minute, but didn't want to carry it after a little while. While we were there we looked at several booths. Emily's first stop was at one of the jewelry booths. She found several things she wanted, but after lots of though, she settled on a silver bracelet. After that we wandered to other booths where Emily helped me pick out some t-shirts for John, bought some candy, and finally found what she called her princess dress. At this phase in her life, she lives for princess dresses and that was the main thing she said she really wanted from the market prior to arrival. After that we just looked around some, she talked to one of the ladies that was making the sweet grass baskets, and had fun. After we had made our rounds, we headed down one of the side streets. The first shop we came to had hand spun ice cream. There she picked out some birthday cake ice cream and thoroughly enjoyed it. At the same shop there were also giving out sugar covered pecans and much to my amazement, she tried one and like it. After the ice cream and a potty break, we continued to walk around and finished up with our last shop being the DelSole shop where everything changes color in the sun. She picked out some slime and then we headed back to the car.

Cookout at the IOP

On Tuesday evening, we had a cookout to visit and to greet Aunt Pat who had arrived on Tuesday morning. When we got to the cookout area, they were just starting to bring out some chair and the table. Soon, Granny, Aunt Pat, and Jennifer came down. We all visited for a while. Soon the burgers and hot dogs were ready, so we all enjoyed dinner.

After dinner, John took Mason, Emily, Daddy, and the other big kids out to the pier to try fishing, while the little ones and I hung out at the cookout area. Blake, Ansley, and Bailey thoroughly enjoyed feeding the birds with leftovers. And Ansley did her impression of Ray Charles (see photo =) ). After a while, the fishers came back. They had a lot of fun, but surprisingly had not caught a thing.