Weekend update.

After the nasty Heman-woman-haters virus and the death of a family member, we were ready for a relaxing weekend.

Friday night I went to an event with my mom.  It was fun to get dressed up, eat yummy food and drink a few glasses of wine.  I was also able to see a dear friend and that is always fun!

This photo is verification that I am an actual person.  I know that you rarely see me in photographs.  This is mainly because I hate pictures of myself.  This photo is also verification that I can't hold my shoulders back to save my life, my fingernails need painting, and I need to shave my head and just start all over again.

Saturday morning we headed to Hampstead, NC for the day.  Ryan's mom went with us.  We went down to eat breakfast with the Easter Bunny.  It was a fundraiser for my niece's school.  Cool fundraiser, huh?  I thought it was a great idea!

It just so happened that when we got there, the Easter Bunny had a flower in her hair.  Therefore, we actually ate pancakes with the Easter Bunny's sister.

The girls actually took there picture with the Easter Bunny's sister without shedding one tear.  They are growing up, people.  Can you believe it?

They had games, face painting and awesome crafts outside.  We went out and soon the Easter Bunny's sister followed.

Of course the girls stared at the Bunny playing a game.  Suddenly Caroline noticed something.

She noticed that the Bunny was in fact an imposture.  She did a small gasp and quickly turned around to inform us that she saw inside the Bunny's head when the Bunny bent down.

"I saw it!  I saw the hair!  It looked like Mrs. Arthur!"  (Mrs. Arthur is her teacher.)

I don't think she ever announced that the Bunny was a fake loud enough for anyone else to hear.  She totally ruined it for Emma though.  Emma would have never noticed the detached portion of the head on the costume.  She didn't seem to mind that the Bunny was a fake though.

After the Easter Bunny fiasco 2013, we went to visit my SIL's house and sat on the beach for a little while.

The girls and I have definitely been longing for salt air in our hair.  I could have stayed out there all day.  The breeze was really cool though and the girls decided to get in the water a little.  Their dresses got a little wet so we left soon after because they were freezing.

Saturday ended with 800 hush puppies, a half pound of spicy shrimp and a glass of wine (with ice).

Later in the evening, I met this creature...

Freak.Me.Out.

They didn't even kill him.

He is just roaming around the shop were the boys are always working.

I dreamed of spiders crawling in my ears Saturday night.

Ugh!  I still get the chills looking at that thing.

I created a poster that I need to print and send with Ryan to hang up over there.

Our great weekend ended with Preschool Sunday.  Emma sang at the church where she goes to preschool.  She is awesome and we were all so proud of her.  We had a great lunch and a relaxing rest of the day.

We are already looking forward to this weekend.

Dream

Today was our last day on our mini vacay.

I settled into Heavier than Heaven with the wave lapping at my feet.

The girls took off with Grandmom to play pretend.

I took a break from Kurt and I watched them play for a while.

Caroline was "making a movie".  She was Allison and she was a surfer.

Then they played bath tub.  The fought over the biggest hole in the pool of ocean water that gathered during the exchanging of tides.

The biggest hole equals the biggest bath tub... complete with dead, half eaten sand fleas.  But we all know that biggest is bestest even with a little dead sand fiddlers floating around.

From the shoreline, I saw two little imaginations racing... taking my babies anywhere they wanted to go.

Those moments are what I want to remember.

Sometimes I feel like all I talk about is the bad days.

I want to remember the good days too.

I love the imagination of my children.

I always want them to remember that with a little imagination and you have the whole world at your fingertips.

Dream on, little ones.

Fight Club and GNO

Today is the day.

Today is the day I get to go to the beach with just my friends.

We can talk without interruption.

We will only have to apply sunscreen to ourselves.

We will have a nice dinner without someone throwing food or having to go to the bathroom every 5 seconds.

We are free for the next 24 hours.

We are excited but...

I wonder how long it will take for one of us to call our husband and children?

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The Rules of GNO
Based on The Fight Club (because I love that movie)

1st RULE: What happens at GNO, stays at GNO.

2nd RULE: What happens at GNO, STAYS at GNO.

3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, be sure they have a DD. {Seriously... just kidding. We will be civil.  No one will go limp.  We aren't 16.  I just used it because it was a fight club rule.}

4th RULE: No limit on the number of girls in attendance.

5th RULE: Loads of conversation at one time. {We are multi-takers, people}

6th RULE: Cute dresses, cute shoes.

7th RULE: We shall all have a good time.  No drama.

8th RULE: If this is your first night at GNO with us, you HAVE to have fun and please do not pass judgement on the rest of us... we may use ugly words at times.

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Loosely based on the rules of Fight Club. 1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB. 2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB. 3rd RULE: If someone says "stop" or goes limp, taps out the fight is over. 4th RULE: Only two guys to a fight. 5th RULE: One fight at a time. 6th RULE: No shirts, no shoes. 7th RULE: Fights will go on as long as they have to. 8th RULE: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB, you HAVE to fight.

What?
I puffy heart Brad Pitt.

Foodie Travels

We went to the coast this weekend.

Going there involves two things... sand and good eats.

We are always on the prowl for awesome food.

Morehead City is a hub for awesome food.

We decided on City Kitchen.

It has been open for a little over a year.

**Note: Make reservations.  It is always full.

We never make reservations because we always decide at the last minute where we want to eat.  We will learn one day ;-)

We were able to slide in and get a table.  As luck would have it, they had a reservation cancellation.  It happened that the table was outside on the front front which made for a great atmosphere.  Score one of us.

If we could have ordered one of everything, we would have.  Everything on the menu looks delicious!

We started with the Baked Oysters.  I am NOT a fan of oysters but something about a baked oyster is amazing.  Especially when it is topped with super yumminess.  These were topped with creamed collards and onion-bacon jam.  Talk about awesome?!

Iron Man went for the special which was fresh grouper.  The owner told us that her husband (the chef) is super picky about the fish he gets.  If it isn't to his liking, he will send it back.  He only gets the best.  Good for the customer.  The grouper was fried and laying on a bed of fresh butter beans.  It was topped with a roasted corn salsa and some sort of cajun mayo.  They had a name for it which I clearly forgot.  It was also served with a bed of jasmine rice.  Jasmine rice + seafood= awesome.

Sister went with us.  She is not a big eater.  She is super picky.  For example, she order pizza with NO sauce on it.  You heard me.  Just crust, cheese, and pepperoni.  Anyway, she ordered the Pimento Cheese appetizer as her meal.  It was made with Vermont cheddar and roasted red peppers.  It was served with crostinis.  It was awesome too.  I am picky about pimento cheese.  This was very good.

I had a very awesome meal.  I chose the Black-eyed Pea Cake.  It is similar to a crab cake only with no crab.  Black-eyed peas are in the place of crab.  It was to die for.  It was served on a bed of bacon-braised collards with a spicy tomato sauce which was like Heaven in a bowl.

On top of amazing food, drinks flowed.  Ryan had a few Fat Tires and Anna had a margarita which was delicious.  I opted for water being that I was the DD for the night.

Being that we got a table was awesome enough for us.  Then our waiter offered us a dessert.  He explained it to us and said it was like their "specialty" dessert.  It was an English dessert that they made a batch at the beginning of the week.  He said once they ran out, they didn't make anymore for the week.  He also explained that when people call and make their reservations, they also go ahead and reserve this dessert.  It just so happened that the party that cancelled and gave us a table had reserved two desserts.  SCORE ANOTHER ONE FOR US!  We jumped on it.  He brought us all spoons and we sat patiently waiting for what we would soon find out to be the best dessert of our lives.  It was a warm sticky toffee pudding made with purreed dates.  The little, light dollop of whipped cream on topped with a sprig of mint finished the dish off.  Ahhhh-mazing with a capital A.

All in all, City Kitchen is awesome.  The people are great and the food is amazing.

So, the next time you are in Morehead call and make a reservation to eat there.  You can thank me later.

So not a proud moment

I guess I use the word vagina a little too much.

"Why don't you just crawl back up my vagina, Caroline?"

"He is such a vagina."

vagina.vagina.vagina.

So, I wasn't very surprised last night when my child made up a song saying the word vagina over and over again.

To bad she pronounces it bagina.

"Bagina.Bagina.lipsmack.Bagina.bagina."

Not so cute in front of Nana {the most conservative woman in the world} and my mom.

Beach

Ryan surprised me Friday morning.

"Let's go to the beach. My mom will keep the children."

You don't have to twist my arm. "Beach" and "no children" in the same thought. Hailey is all in.

It was simple.


It was fun.


Dinner on the waterfront was amazing... as always. {We ate at the Ruddy Duck Tavern for those of you that are interested. It is one of our favorites. Ryan had their Jambalaya which is to die for. I had a Jamacian Jerk Tuna sandwich {cooked med. rare} with homemade chips and salsa and a side of Caribbean slaw. I don't even like slaw but this was so good. It even had a little coconut in it. Put this restruant on your list of must eat places. This is only our second time eating there. We thought that maybe the first time was great because they had just opened. The second visit was even more awesome than the first.}


We were in bed at 9:15pm.


It was perfect.


This is not us. We don't even know these people. It was just pretty.

More food than you can imagine...

... and we didn't eat a thing. I'm not kidding.

There were a million people there. I wanted a cajun shrimp wrap so bad I could taste it. I wanted a funnel cake. I wanted shrimp gumbo. I wanted some of those curly flower potato chip things. I wanted shrimp tacos. But, the lines were just too long. So, we just walked around and watched Caroline ride the rides.

Then Ryan promised to take me out to dinner at one of our favorite resturants, McCurdy's.

The atmoshpere is fantastic. We always sit on the deck that over looks a small bay on the causeway in Atlantic Beach.

They bring you the best hushpuppies in the entire world. They look like onion rings and are made with an onion flavor seafood batter. DELICIOUS!!

For dinner, Ryan had the Black and White Sesame Seared Tuna and I had the Shrimp Black Beans and Rice. Everything was delicious.

I am not a big beer drinker. Ryan on the other hand loves to try all types of beer. So, finding a place with 50+ beers on the menu is a big plus. Ryan drank Fat Tire {one of his all time favorite beers} and I had a Blueberry Sea Dog. It is a wheat ale beer. It was light and really tasted like blueberries. I only had one {that is all that I could make myself drink}. I am a wino at heart. {wink}

Sunday, we went to Fort Macon to take pictures of the girls. I can't wait to share those pictures... but you will have to wait until Wednesday. I have them up and ready for Wordless Wednesday. So, be sure to check back.

Until then, I will leave you with these pictures.

{She's not so sure about those shark teeth}

Where am I?

Sitting at the beach, having my morning coffee, planning the day ahead.

We are headed to the Seafood Festival along with 150,000 other people. Seriously.

It is always a good time.

The food is excellent. {I can taste the spicy cajun shrimp wrap now}

I will be back late tomorrow with posts and pictures.

Until then... I'm going to eat until I explode.

Peace out.
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PS- Don't forget the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival that is going on today in North Wilkesboro, NC. Be sure to stop by and visit Ashlyn for your Cole Baby Tutu!

Last beach weekend.

Another beach weekend under our belts.

I didn't even make it on the beach.

Here are our pictures though.

I only have one more beach weekend planned for a while.

So enjoy!
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Beaches (not really), birds, & boats...




Blowing blonde tresses...



Bonding...




Brillant, beautiful sunsets...




Big blue-eyed {beat up} babe...



She got in a fight with a mosquito. The mosquito won.
She also fought with the coffee table. It won too.
The joys of an 11 month old.

The next photos are disgusting. Don't look it you don't want to see a smashed finger.
A little story behind it. My family members are trying to lose their fingers. A few weeks ago, my Daddy George {my granddad} almost cut his pinky finger off. 12 stiches and one ripped off finger-nail later, he is still in pain.
This weekend, Mary George shut her finger in the door. Pictures are Below.

Big blue Busted thumb.




Ugh! Throw up in my mouth a little.

For prettier photos, scroll back to the top. {smile}
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Hope you all had a fabulous {long} weekend!