Mayhem

May is always a busy month for us.  Aside from the three major holidays; Mothers Day, Lucas' birthday and my birthday, several of our close friends and/or their children also have birthdays in May.  This year we added the Mr. Alamance body building show, a beach trip and Presley graduating pre-school.


First was Lucas' birthday.  We had a community yard sale that day so he got up early and wheeled and dealed with the customers then had to head into work.  His dad did a ride-along with him so that was a bonus to working on his birthday. Then came home to his favorite girls.  We surprised him with "30 things for his 30th birthday".  Half of the gifts were things Presley picked out from the Dollar Tree. Including Irish Spring soap (his favorite), magic cards and a whoopie cushion!  Presley was as excited to see him open her gifts as he was!

                Presley picked the card out herself


Next was the Mr. Alamance show.  Lucas trained for this for 5 months ( most people train for years).  Which basically means he ate chicken, tuna or protein shakes every three hours for 5 months.  That may sound like no big deal but you should try it.  Better yet you should be the wife of someone who is doing it.  Not much fun.  It also means that he spent A LOT of time in the gym.  A lot of hard work and sacrifice on our family but he did great and was an interesting experience to say the least. I for one hope he doesn't do it again for a LONG time.

             But I will admit the results were quite nice!

His fan club

After the show we went to Cracker Barrel with friends to celebrate.  Lucas said he wanted to "take shots" of maple syrup and gravy.  So he did and ate enough to feed a small family reunion!


The next day we left for Carolina Beach. A much deserved break from reality.  Carolina Beach is such a cool place.  There is a McDonald's and a Hardee's, other than that everything is small town mom and pop shops...so cute.  Perfect timing the week before the true season begins which means everything is open but the crowds haven't shown up yet.  One random observation was the Elementary school had tons of little bikes parked outside.  The kids ride their bikes to school! That's precious.

Having a ten month old at the beach is not exactly relaxing but was fun none the less.  Miley enjoyed playing in the sand for about the first ten minutes then became sticky with sun block and sand.  She was terrified of the waves so she didn't really enjoy being rinsed off either.  Fortunately the wind and sun made her sleepy so she took several long naps under the umbrella.  Presley was in heaven!  She rolled in the sand, built castles and surfed the waves.  The battery died in the camera one day and we forgot it another day so I missed lots of great shots but here are a few

Should you ever visit Carolina Beach we highly recommend Jack Mackerels where Lucas continued his binge eating...

And the Sea Whitch were Miley enjoyed sharing daddys sweet potato fries...

Side-note, when we got home Lucas had gained 24lbs

A special thanks to Lisa's boyfriend Todd, whose mom works at the hotel we stayed at for getting us an incredible rate!  Nancy is a sweet sweet lady!  One night we cooked out with them at her home.  Fish cupcakes for dessert made for a happy girl...

Perhaps the highlight of the trip was the boardwalk.  As we were walking up Dora the Explorer was leaving. You have no idea how much money I would have paid to have caught Presley's expression on video.  She ran up and hugged her and gave the biggest, most real, cheesy smile to pose for a picture.  Then she turned around and cupped her hands over her mouth giggling in awe.  It was very cute and sweet and sweet and cute and, well you get the picture...

Of course she enjoyed the rides...

and the games...

She had a blast.  Lisa and Todd were even kind enough to walk around with the girls so Lucas and I could ride the big rides.  We were like high school kids at the carnival!  It was great fun.

On the last day we said goodbye to the beach and drove onto a ferry that took us to Southport and ate at Provision Company and then had ice cream. 

Goodbye beach

Hello Ferry

Sea-side dinning at Provision Co.

Waiting for ice cream at Flava's

We enjoyed every minute.  Thankful for God's countless blessings!

We made it home to watch Presley graduate pre-school.  WHAT?????? My little bitty baby is ready for kindergarten; that makes no sense!  They sang the sweetest songs.  I cried. They walked out to the famous graduation anthem.  I cried.  That sums it up.

Presley and Davis ("handsome Dabis")

Last and most definitely Least; I joined the dirty thirty club.

 My sister had a cookout to celebrate Lucas and my birthdays.  I had not given a whole lot of thought to turning thirty until we got home and suddenly I realized the twenties were history, how

awkward to say out loud "I'm thirty", yuk.

What party is complete without fireworks!

I have had a very blessed 30 years.