Beach Retreat

This past weekend (Memorial Day) was our annual Singles Beach Retreat at Fort Caswell. It is such a blessing that Hailey and I get to go and enjoy the retreat with Ryan. It is a double blessing that Ryan's parents get to come as well and take care of Hailey so that I can spend time with our friends.
We left Thursday around mid-day. First we had to play on the playground at church while Daddy loaded up the vans.

 And of course we had some fun with stickers on the car ride down.

Hailey was so excited to see Mimi and Poppi. She had a blast with them. Mimi let her "climb" trees

And Poppi loved to show her how to feed the seagulls. Hailey was absolutely thrilled with the birds were "everywhere"

She got to go to the beach for a little while each morning with Mimi and Poppi and Ryan and I got to go down one day too. Hailey loved the waves and had no fear around them. She loved jumping over them and letting the cold water touch her feet. She liked digging in the sand and looking in the crab holes. She was totally covered in sand.

getting ready for the beach

Sunday night at the retreat there is a dance. This year the theme was Duck Dynasty so there were some fake duck decorations. Hailey had so much fun with them.

She rode them

And even took one for a walk

Her imagination is amazing!
I love this picture of her during our picnic dinner that night.

But this is my favorite picture of the weekend by far.

Hailey now loves for us to give her "hugs" where we hug her at the same time. That's what we were doing in this picture. I love it!
Monday (Memorial Day) was our day to head home. We stopped in Wilmington for lunch and Hailey and I spent a lot of time on the Riverwalk while everyone else was eating.
We saw fish

a huge dog

 and we stopped in a little jewelry store where Hailey insisted on putting on every bracelet in the store. Don't worry, I put them all back in the right places!

The girl loves jewelry!
After we got back to the church Hailey helped unload the vans.

And of course played in the trees a little too. Hey, you can't work all the time! ;)

We had an awesome weekend at the beach retreat! We are so blessed to be a part of Providence!

Rain Boots

So Hailey hates to wear shoes outside. She likes to "put feet in the grass". Whatever. Not a big deal to me; I don't really like shoes either. But I did make the rule that if we're in our yard she doesn't have to wear shoes but if we go into someone else's we do.
So the other day our neighbor was working in his yard trimming trees and his dog was outside who Hailey loves. She wanted to go see Holden (the dog) so I told her she had to put on shoes. The only ones that she agreed to put on were her rain boots, and I'm pretty sure it was only because she could put them on by herself.
Can we say Miss Independent?

Whirlwind Charlotte Trip

Saturday we made a quick day trip to Charlotte. We celebrated my nephew, Tucker's, 4th birthday and Ryan was in a wedding.
We got up early and drove to Charlotte, expecting to hit race traffic but missed it all! We went straight to the birthday party and were able to help with some of the set-up. It was a Nascar theme because Tucker loves racing. They had a bounce house set up, a race track for matchbox cars, and my sister even made some cars out of cardboard boxes for the kids to wear and race.

the birthday boy

Hailey loved racing the cars!

 And of course there were cupcakes. My sister let Hailey pick a blue one...but she didn't get any on her shirt!

Ryan said she looked like the Joker

After we left the party we went to my parents house and Hailey took a quick nap before the wedding. When I woke her up we rushed over to the church. Ryan was already there. Hailey did ok at the wedding. The hardest part was that she wanted Ryan and couldn't be with him. When he walked down the aisle during the processional she yelled out "Hi Dad!" It was sweet! Ryan said he didn't hear her say that so hopefully it wasn't too disruptive. We lasted for about half of the ceremony. Not too bad for a two year old.
The fun part was we got to spend a little time with my best friend Jackie and her little girl Charley! We haven't seen them in forever and the girls have spent very little time together...a fact that we need to change. It was sweet to see them interact though.

Hailey and Charley before the ceremony

Hailey had fun coloring at the reception while waiting for Daddy to come in.

And she loved when Caroline took her outside to play in the props from the photo booth. We may have ended up with a few of the beaded necklaces. Oops.

By the end of the night Hailey (and mommy and daddy) was pooped! She was so tired that she just sat and watched a movie in the car most of the way back to Raleigh, which if you know my crazy-active girl is a huge feat. Ryan was carrying her to the car as we left and it was a little windy. Hailey said "I'm chilly Daddy." so he tried to wrap her up in his coat. Sweetness.

Even though it was a busy day, I'm so thankful that we still live close enough to be there for the important moments in our family and friend's lives.

Wedding Weekend and Mother's Day

Hope and Cole's wedding that is...The wedding was in Wallace (about an hour and a half from here) and a Friday night wedding so we called in a reinforcement. Mimi to the rescue! Ryan and I got to have a night away because we had to be there for the rehearsal and the wedding (he was performing the ceremony). Hailey was super excited to have Mimi come! She talked for days about how she wanted Mimi to paint her toenails and play outside. I think Mimi was exhausted by the time she left but she wouldn't have it any other way!
One fun story about the weekend that gives you a glimpse into life with Hailey...So we turned the door knob around on Hailey's door because she loves to go in her room and close the door and we were afraid she was going to lock herself in. She doesn't know how to open doors yet. Somehow Hailey and Mimi were playing in her room and the door got locked and then closed. Remember, the lock is on the outside...Not exactly what Mimi had planned for the weekend. We got a phone call from Ryan's mom asking where the bobby pin was to unlock the door (I had prepared her for this just in case). She found the bobby pin and went to work trying to pick the lock. It wasn't easy and took about 15 minutes. We were actually on the phone with our neighbor to come let them out when she finally got it. I felt terrible! But life is never dull with Hailey around!

So while Mimi was picking locks, Ryan and I got to have a date in Wilmington for the day. We had a quiet, kid free lunch on the riverwalk and then enjoyed walking through downtown Wilmington before going back to Wallace for the wedding fun.

We drove back late Friday night after the wedding so that Ryan's mom could help us plant some flowers before leaving for Charlotte on Saturday.
Ryan saved his boutonniere from the wedding for Hailey and she was thrilled. She carried that rose around all day!

Before we could plant any new flowers we had to make a trip to Lowes. And what little girl doesn't love Lowes?! The "tractors" were the hit today. Usually it's the "laundry clothes" aka washers and dryers.

When we got home Hailey helped me vacuum the car and Ryan and his mom planted flowers, but of course they needed a little help watering them.

Someone learned how to operate the hose this weekend. Let's just say we all got a little wet...
After the planting was done, Ryan and Kathy went to get lunch and picked up a Mother's Day / birthday surprise for me. Rocking chairs for our porch! I've wanted them since we moved in so I was super excited! But I haven't taken a picture yet. Oops.

That evening Mimi had already left and our friends Sarah and James came over for dinner. Sarah and Hailey were playing with stickers and Sarah put one on her head. Hailey thought it was hilarious! And now every time we take out stickers we have to put one on our forehead "like Sarah does". Love my silly girl!

this pic is from a few days later

Sunday was Mother's Day and this is the best pic I could get.

 This was my other option...

We had a great, relaxing day at home. All I wanted after a busy weekend.

We may be busy but I sure do love our life!

Picture Catch-up

A few random pictures from the last few weeks:
Making brownies...someone is a big fan of any kind of batter.

 So one morning David is dropping off Abbie and I was talking and getting the details of the morning and what not...then I look over and see this! What?!

Hailey made a sticker picture all by herself so I told her I wanted to take a picture of it and she says "Look at my picture Grams!"...think I send too many pictures to Grams?

One day last week there were some bad storms in our area with possible tornado warnings so we made it a pajama day. That afternoon the sky cleared and so we had to go splash in some puddles for Mommy's sanity, but we couldn't put on regular clothes because it was pajama day!

Well a few days later her rain boots were still inside and Hailey decided to put them on all by herself. I was pretty impressed. She's never done that.

Since it's getting warmer I thought I'd let the girls have a little water fun one afternoon. I just filled up some tupperware bowls with water and let them go at it. They had a ball! In fact, the next afternoon Hailey brought Ryan a tupperware bowl and asked for "water in it. Go outside." I think we have a water baby!

Abbie loved it too!

Hailey decided to sit in this box and watch TV for like 30 minutes the other day. Whatever works.

 Cool girl in her sunglasses.

 Hailey insisted on wearing this hat (which is from her dress up things) outside to play in the water table. Not a battle I needed to fight.

 Watering the grass.

I hope you enjoyed the picture overload!