The Bentley Family: September 2011

Free Museum Day

Veterinarians at work

Today was "Smithsonian Free Museum Day". Chris was still on his fish delivery to Long Island so I took the girls and we headed across the Bay to Portsmouth for a day at the Children's Museum of Virginia. There were a lot of people there but the girls and I had a lot of fun. Next time we are going to go back with Chris during the week. There were so many cool things to see and do, but with so many people it was hard to spend a lot of time in one area.

SE really liked the puzzle about the life cycle of frogs. In true SE style she did not want ANY help.

Grace pulled herself up on this "pulley chair" in the simple machines room.

Chris LOVED that Grace was into looking at the slides under the microscope,

Not a great picture, but they are inside a bubble.

Tugboat Captain Sarah Elizabeth

Bus Driver Grace

Sarah Elizabeth drove the bus too. She is paying extra attention to the stoplight.

SE checking out her kitty in the Vet Office.

Firefighter Grace

Doctors at work

Just a stop at the local grocery store.

Brushing teeth- fitting since Grace lost her 1st tooth later in the day.

pondering goodies on the shelf in the grocery store

Grace milks the cow

Farmer Grace

Farmer SE

2 big milestones

The girls ave both had 2 big events this week.

Sarah Elizabeth started ballet on Monday. She was very worried Sunday night about her skipping skills because Grace told her she would be doing a lot of skipping in class. In fact she was in tears because she could not skip she could only gallop. I reassured her that Grace didn't know how to skip very well when she started ballet and that she would learn, but she was VERY concerned.
After class on Monday she was ecstatic. The first thing she told me was "we didn't even do any skipping, only galloping".

After her 1st ballet class.

Grace's big moment came tonight when she lost her first tooth. She has been really working on it this week and tonight it was finally ready to come out. She was amazingly brave.
As a mom there are 2 events that I have dreaded: potty training and loosing teeth. Potty training went very well for both girls, so I am hoping I can buck up and handle the wiggling, twisting, pulling, and dangling of loose teeth. Right now all that makes my stomach turn.

1 tooth less

Labor Day week in CT

Heading out for a sail

As an end to our summer we made a trip up to Connecticut. The girls and I headed up after Irene came by the Shore. It was a great week, relaxing and restful. The girls and I hung out in the pool and helped Mema by running errands and making meals. The best part of the week was when Chris got up there and we took the girls sailing. Our summer was busier than we expected and we didn't get to take the girls sailing as we had planned. So we really wanted to take them sailing while we were in Connecticut.
The girls were seasoned sailors, so comfortable in the boat. After we talked to them about what they should do if they fell out or if the boat were to capsize, they wanted to do some practice drills. Chris and I were thrilled when they had so much fun jumping out of the boat and waiting in the water for me to come and pick them up. My dad took some great shots on Sunday of them "overboard". I'll get them up here soon.

They were extra prepared with more than 1 life jacket. Just kidding, they were carrying them down to the boat for us.

scoping out the seas

Grace got her first real haircut while we were up in CT. She was so excited!

Irene who?

There was a lot of talk about the Shore receiving a direct hit from Hurricane Irene in late August. We spent a few days obsessing over the Weather Channel. From our experiences in Wilmington we know how the weather media loves to dramatize any weather event. The difference this time was that our road floods, blocking us in and we live in a double-wide. So, because we didn't want to end up rowing out of Quinby or living the Wizard of Oz as our house got swept away by the wind I took Guinness and the girls and we went to camp out with the Smiths at their house. Grace and Sarah Elizabeth were bummed they didn't get to go out in the eye and that they slept through the short period of time we lost power. As you can see from the pictures, they were ready!

Suited up and ready to go!

Chris and Shabaka had to stay at the farm to run the generator and keep the fish alive. Chris actually spent the night in an empty fish tank. Here are some pictures of their time in the barn.

Command Central- microwave & computer hook up to watch Netflix

Carolina Beach NC 2012

Dinner with everyone

Every summer Chris' family comes together for a "week at the beach". This year the group was a bit smaller than in years past. We missed the Bowers family and Chris A and we can't wait to see them next year. But we got to spend the week with the Loppackers and Mimi and Grandaddy. Since we have been doing our Beach Week at Carolina Beach we also get to see friends. Here are some pictures...