Kindergarten Screening for Jake

While Brooklyn and I were living it up Downton Abby style at Biltmore, my mother-in-law took Jake to his Kindergarten screening.

From what I understand, he was a bit nervous at first but then settled right in with Mrs. Hamilton.




He did an excellent job and left feeling like a rock star. :-)
So proud of this boy right here. He's such a sharp, witty, compassionate little boy, and while I know he will do well in Kindergarten, I do know it will be such an adjustment to leave his favorite classmates and teacher at Village Kids. Thank goodness for about 10 weeks of buffer between the two.

Fourth Grade Trip to Biltmore

If a 13 hour field trip with 100 4th graders taught me anything it's this...

1. I love my job.
2. I love that teachers love their job, because I am not changing jobs any time soon.
3. I am "still cool" because Brooklyn requests that I chaperone field trips, and her friends seem to think I am an acceptable chaperone.
4. I'm still wondering who has to dust and sweep this house and how often they do it.

Friday, May 15, I accompanied Brooklyn's class to Biltmore in Asheville, NC. I had never been before, (between visiting the Outer Banks and Biltmore this spring I feel like I am checking lots off the NC Bucket List) so I was super excited about going. The 4am wake up? Not so much. :-)


The kids were actually very well-behaved, and it was a great day with my sweet girl and her school.

Cousin Fun at the Strawberry Patch!

Friday, May 8, we took my three favorite kids to Ingram's Strawberry Farm. Lots of strawberries, a few goats, chickens, and pigs, and some messy fingers. :-)

This Kid...

In honor of Jake's last day of preschool today (more on that later), I wanted to share a few pictures of how much my BABY IS GROWING UP.



On Friday, May 8, Jake lost his first tooth. I swear it happened in a matter of minutes. We were riding home from school at 5pm when he tells me he has a loose tooth and by 8pm, it was out. CRAZY.



And because no one was ready for that, he promptly swallowed it. :-)

No worries, though, because he left the Tooth Fairy a note.


Was so not ready for that huge childhood milestone!

Did you know we went to the Outer Banks?

In some ways it feels like a dream because it was so long ago, but April 25-28 our family traveled to Nags Head for a mini beach vacation.

We had this great house a block from the beach...which was really too cold and windy to fully enjoy, but that didn't stop us from a few short visits.

Full Day 1 was kinda rainy and cold, so we headed to the Wright Brothers Museum in Kitty Hawk. I was totally fascinated and the kids actually enjoyed it, too.




Then, according to the web, we HAD to stop and get "world famous" milkshakes from John's Drive In. "World Famous" was a bit of a stretch. They were good, but I don't think these people had ever had a Cook-Out milkshake before.

I also made Chad go through this Brew Thru (when in Rome, right?). I don't even drink beer but the idea of driving through what looks like a carwash and someone handing me a six pack was too good not to experience firsthand.

When the rain cleared, the kids enjoyed the hot tub with Grandpa.

There was just a lot of snuggles and goofiness, too.

Finally on Day 2/3, the temps warmed up enough for the kids to swim.

They were very happy campers...

One afternoon, we traveled to Bodie Island Lighthouse and climbed the 200 steps up and 200 steps down. The kids did awesome!



I've said it before and I'll say in again...time with family is priceless. When given the opportunity to travel with our kids and our parents, we take it. A few days off work and school is the small price to pay when you are making memories such as this.

We were so thankful for this trip to see a part of the state we had never seen before. A little history, a little activity, a little (very little) sun, and lots of love and laughter.

May Update: #splitaplatelosesomeweight

I'm the worst blogger ever and have 11 entries in "draft format" right now. I promise to be better. :-)

So, I'm starting with something easy- the May update for #splitaplatelosesomeweight.

No vacations- so we are already in better shape than we were in April.

Here's a re-cap.
May had two holidays- Mother's Day and Memorial Day. We had some lovely non-splitting meals at Moe's (oh, love that chicken quesadilla) and Mad Hatter (veggie burger, I have missed you).

Our May "freebie" was a random take out night where we got Elizabeth's Pizza and I had my favorite Chicken Caprese Salad. 

Now, for the meals we did split...

A night of pizza where our family of 4 split a pizza, and Chad and I got side salads...

 
A Sunday night meatloaf wrap and Filling Station salad. YUM!

One of our usual Sunday night Moe's beef burritos...

Not pictured: Moe's Chicken Burrito 5/3/15

So, all in all, 7 meals out and 4 were split.

I would call May a success.

Whew.

April Update: #splitaplatelosesomeweight

Ok- a quarter of the year down....three more quarters to go!

Y'all, I'm not gonna lie. April was tough.

We went on two vacations (well, that wasn't the tough part), but TRAVELING on this plan is TOUGH. And traveling just means so many more meals out. We tried really, really hard but I think we may have slipped some.

Here's a re-cap.

April had two "holidays"- my birthday and Easter. Instead of using those as freebies, we "banked" them for the vacations.

Birthday dinner was at Villa Rosa, and they do an amazing job of splitting, so we split, and I forgot to take a pic before I devoured it.

We also split one of our favorite Mexican dishes later that week.

Easter Sunday was at Panera, but we split the "you pick two" and each got a half salad.

Then we started traveling...

Now airport food is so expensive, but they do give you a lot...so we split a panini in the Raleigh airport.

In California, we went to this yummy place called the Mess Hall Kitchen and split a burger and fries.

...and a Thai Chicken pizza at California Pizza Kitchen.

In the spirit of all things sharing, Chad and Eric even split a beer at Golden Road (after a few of their own- ha!).

In Disney Land, I chose NOT to share my turkey leg...

And then I "cashed in" my Birthday Freebie at Malo Cantina...

We split another burger at Chili's...

...and did our usual splitting of burritos on the Sunday nights we were home.

We managed to split a panini and a baked potato at McAllisters (though that potato is kind of cheating since it's two).


And we even split a breakfast plate at Biscuitville one morning...

Our second vacation landed us at Outer Bank's Weeping Radish, where Guy from Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives sampled their "famous" reuben. So, obviously I felt like I needed to as well. :-) Unfortunately, Chad gave me a big fat "no thanks" on that sandwich, but my mom split it with me so I feel somewhat less guilty.

Our "Easter Freebie" was the seafood buffet at Captain George's in Kill Devil Hills. Yum. Yum. Yum. #threepoundsofcrablegs

Chad and I did split the shrimp burger at Sam & Omie's in Nags Head....and then helped the kids finish their dinners because it was teenier than we thought it would be.

Brooklyn and I split two blizzards at Dairy Queen, and I actually made Chad split a grilled chicken sandwich and fries at Hardees (food choices are very limited on the way to and from the beach), and he was not thrilled. :-)

Basically, April was TERRIBLE in terms of food choices, number of times eating out, and just overall nutrition. I'm admitting it and laying it all out because you all deserve to know the truth. "You all" meaning the three of you that are following this journey and have read down this far. :-)

The only saving grace? Had we not been #splitaplatelosesomeweight-ing, I would have eaten TWICE the number of crappy calories this month. I guess that's the bright side.

But if you'll excuse me, I need to let my pants out and go hit the gym. The month of May could not get here soon enough.