Bananas!

Sarah Elizabeth is a banana NUT! She loves bananas. I have to limit her to 2 a day or else she would eat them non-stop. If she happens to see a banana it takes a lot of work to distract her from wanting to eat it. I wish this picture did a better job of showing what it looks like when she eats a banana.

To Eat a Banana Like Sarah Elizabeth

Step 1: Grab the banana and make excited mmmm! noises while kicking you feet.

Step 2: Shove the banana in your mouth and basically swallow it whole.

Step 3: Grab for the other half of the banana while you swallow the first half.

Step 4: Repeat Step 2.

Step 5: Use Sign Language to ask for "More, Please!" while still working on the 2nd half of the banana.

This is Sarah Elizabeth with a mouth full of bananas!

A New Friend

Chris' Assistant Manager (Hatchery Manager) arrived June 5 and because her place was not ready yet she became our roommate for almost 2 weeks. Luckily she is very nice and the girls really took to her. Her name is Nuria and she is from Eritrea, a former colony of Ethiopia.
Grace was sad when she moved out to her own place. Luckily it is right out our backdoor so we can go and visit her. Nuria usually has her hair up in a ponytail, but when Grace saw all her braids down she wanted braids too. She didn't understand why I couldn't put ALL her hair in braids.

Nuria and Grace, notice her ONE braid. She was very proud of it!

Connecticut trip

The girls and I took a quick trip up to Connecticut to visit MeMa and PopPop. With our move we are now 6 1/2 hours away instead of the 16 hours over two days it has been in the past. We are looking forward to more visits. As always the girls had a great time, MeMa and PopPop have added new clothes to the dress up collection, a tire swing to the yard, and a golf cart for trips to the beach or the playground at Lordship School.

During this trip we went to the Beardsley Zoo for the day. I hadn't been there since I was little. Grace had a great time, and Sarah Elizabeth did too. I got quite a workout. MeMa, Grace, and Sarah Elizabeth rode in the wheelchair and I pushed, there were A LOT of hills at the zoo. Both girls got to take a ride on the Carousel. Grace chose a beautiful horse with flowers and Sarah Elizabeth rode a lion. If you look in the picture you will notice Grace's outfit, it is the ballet dress from the dress-up clothes bin at MeMa and PopPop's, with the addition of a walkie-talkie, a map, a canteen, and a tiara. I don't know why I bother to pack clothes for her, she even wore one of the dresses to bed one night.

Grace dressed for our trip to the zoo.

The girls and MeMa in their "ride".

Sarah Elizabeth on the lion.

Grace on the pretty horse.

Grace and Sarah Elizabeth took the inaugural dip in the pool. The pool is now OPEN for the summer. It was a little chilly out after getting wet so they got some snuggles with MeMa.

Snuggle time!

PopPop and Grace took the golf cart down to the beach to collect shells for the base of their new mailbox. Notice the dress on Grace and the flames on the golf cart.

Off to the beach.

Grace had so much fun on the new tire swing. Uncle Jeremy pushed her "so high!!" Later Sarah Elizabeth got to try it by herself and then the girls got on together.

Here are some other pictures of our time in Connecticut.

Sarah Elizabeth "car surfing".

MeMa and her girls.

Summer Days in Quinby

The girls and I are starting to try and establish our Summer Routine. In Wilmington that would have meant going to Sami's pool or the beach. In Quinby we are not quite sure what this summer will bring. So far we have taken a few trips to the beach. We are still adjusting to a 45 minute trip to the beach. Grace's favorite spot is Kiptopeke State Park.

On other days we go to the library or the playground. It's getting too hot to do the playground during the day so our next step is to find a pool to join for the summer. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

It's been hard to be without our friends during the day to day grind of life. I miss them for "mommy support" and Grace misses having friends to play with. But on the positive side the girls and I are getting a lot of time together. And day by day they are growing closer. Although it seems we take 2 steps forward and then 1 step back with the sharing of toys and our attention. Grace truly loves Sarah Elizabeth, she greets her after nap with, "Hello sweetie pie!" Sarah Elizabeth is getting to be a true toddler. She loves to walk around the house hoping for folded laundry to scatter or a cabinet to open and empty. When she isn't doing that you can find her following Grace around. Pretty soon they'll be 2 peas in a pod!

Grace, is she 3 or 13?

Grace took it upon herself to paint her nails. She sat down and applied the coats of polish to her fingers and toes very carefully. Considering that I have not had polish on my nails since our wedding 5 years ago the only explanation can be: this is buried deep in her genetic makeup.

Here are some pictures of the completed task.

Proof that God will place you where you need to be

This past Sunday we went to church for the first time since moving out here. We had a few options to try and we decided to start with Franktown United Methodist. Grace will be going to Montessori Children's House of Franktown in September and they are housed at the Methodist church. We thought maybe some of the families who go to the school will also go to the church- and we were right!

Those of you who are reading this that go to PC3 in Wilmington know how special it is. We knew we would not find anything to replace it, but maybe we could find something else that would be a good fit for us. The service followed the traditional format, which will take some getting used to. I missed hearing the PC3 band, but we did hear a familiar song ("How Great is Our God"). Chris really liked the fact that there is a mandolin player.  At PC3 Mike is so special and God has blessed him with such an amazing gift for speaking, so we knew it would be really hard to find another Mike out here. At Franktown the pastor is Alex and you can tell he has a real connection with the church community, he made  Franktown feel like a big family environment. His sermon was heartfelt and easy to relate to.  During the service there is nursery for the kids (ouch!- no Grow Zone) but after the service there is Sunday School for 3 through adults. Grace went and really liked her teacher Ms. Rae. Grace got to experience Communion with her new class. She said, "I didn't dip my bread in the juice this time, but I will next time."

This particular Sunday the church had a potluck breakfast. We weren't sure if we were going to go, but when we picked Grace and Sarah Elizabeth up from the nursery we started meeting the other moms and dads and ended up flowing with them to the breakfast. The breakfast, as it turns out, was also a discussion about a series the church had just completed entitled "5 Practices of a Fruitful Church". So upon entering the church hall everyone was given a name tag with a colored dot and you had to sit at your color table. (How perfect since we knew no one and could have easily ended up sitting by ourselves). After we ate breakfast Chris took Grace to Sunday School with all the 3 and 4 year olds and Sarah Elizabeth went to the nursery again. Our table group brainstormed ways the church could show hospitality. Then the pastor went around the room to get input from each of the 5 areas (generosity, worship, teaching, hospitality, and mission). It was neat to get an inside look at the church on our first visit.

As far as meeting people, everyone was SO FRIENDLY! When we walked into the back of the church, late for the service of course, I made eye contact with another mom and her smile just made me feel so welcomed. We saw Grace's teacher Gillian in the hallway before church, then we met her sister in line for breakfast (this was the same mom who gave me that first smile, her name is Maggie), then Gillian's dad ended up sitting next to Chris at breakfast. We also met a really nice couple. Their kids are 4 and 2 and will both be going to Montessori next year. Their daughter, Leah (2), and Grace had fun playing together. Phillip, the dad, invited Chris and I to their small group that meets on Wednesday nights at the church. (Note to former small group: we'll be with you in spirit on Wednesday nights at 7). Lori, the mom, is going to get me in touch with a few other stay at home moms and we are going to set-up a car pool schedule for school in the fall.

All in all it was a good experience and left me with the feeling that God will place you where you need to be! I had been stressing about finding the right church for us since we decided to move in February. I have searched the Internet ragged looking for something. If only I was better about trusting in God instead of trying to micro-manage situations to get them to work out how I have planned.

A weekend with the Robertsons

We were lucky enough to get to celebrate Riley's birthday with the Robertson clan. They held her party at Linda's (Damaw's) house in Charles City, VA. That was just a 2 1/2 hour drive away. We even wrapped in a trip to Costco on the way. (We had to make to most of our $24 round-trip Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel toll). The weekend was punctuated by a bout with a stomach bug. It hit Grace, Sarah Elizabeth and I. But besides that, we had a great time.

A twilight cruise on the Pontoon Boat.

Sunset and the Mommas with their babies.

Dinner time, with pops for dessert.

We were all sad to leave at the end of the weekend, although we are getting settled in our new surroundings, it is still not quite home. To help ease our sorrows we stopped in Cape Charles for dinner on the beach. The girls had fun splashing in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and Chris and I rejuvenated ourselves with a dip as well.

New Experiences

Since moving to Quinby the girls have had the chance to do some new things. Most of them were right in our very own backyard.

They helped PopPop build the swing-set and then enjoyed it together with MeMa.

John and Landon helped Chris bring the last load of our things from Wilmington and then Grace got to ride up and down in the dump truck.

Grace flew a kite in our VERY windy backyard.

The girls frolicked in the dandelion patch behind the house.

Grace and Sarah Elizabeth explored the tidal pools in Cape Charles on our first trip to the beach.

Sleeping Beauty Sarah Elizabeth

It seems I have so many pictures of Grace sleeping and hardly any of Sarah Elizabeth. This is her in a deep sleep after a full day at Kiptopeke State Park beach. She and Grace had a lot of fun splashing in the calm waters of the Chesapeake Bay. It's neat to see how they try to play with each other these days. The only problems arise when Sarah Elizabeth doesn't want to play exactly how Grace thinks she should. It will be interesting to see who will be the leader of the the two, they are both quite strong-willed.

Married to a "truck-drivin' man"...

Away he goes...

Chris left this morning to make his first delivery to the Jersey Shore. As the manager he has to be able to do it all, and one of those things is drive the box truck and deliver the Spot to bait shops.

It was a hectic morning. He was up at 5, loading fish 5:30-7, changing out of wet/scale covered clothes and then on the road by 8. They arrived at the bait shop at 3 after a few wrong turns and unloaded fish until 4, grabbed some lunch and are heading back to Quinby as I write this. That makes for a VERY long day! I guess it's what being a fish farmer is all about.

A Fairy Tale in Real Life

Cinder-Grace cleans the bathroom and dresses for a trip to Food Lion.

Grace loves Cinderella. It was the first movie she ever watched. She has watched it so much it is almost worn out. It was her idea to help me clean the bathrooms, complete with the bandanna. And the other day she dressed herself for a trip to Food Lion. My first thought was to make her change (we are trying to make friends- and who knows Food Lion might be the place) but then I thought, whoever we become friends with will have to appreciate Grace in all her finery. When we got to Food Lion Grace decided to leave her dress in the car. I have to admit I was relieved.