my birthday

do they look like they are having fun or what!? :)

today was my birthday, and it was a sweet relaxing day with the family! just a few pictures to remember the day. :) fun times.

 

 

 

 

my birthday...matt's favorite kind of cake...guess we know who was baking...food lion!! hehe! maybe that explains the expression on my face?? ;)

 

me with my favorite peeps! :)

just a fly

i just thought that claire looked super cute today...i actually got her hair to look nice...in my opinion anyway! :) while i was taking these pictures, this fly kept buzzing around us. normally, i don't think a fly would really bother claire, but i guess the louder buzz noise it made when it hit against the back door made her a bit uneasy. in the little video, notice how the fly keeps getting her attention...it's subtle until the end.

ah, home!

we have had two very fun weeks, but we missed daddy this last week and are so glad to be home in our own beds again! :)

Indiana!

while we were at the beach, i did all our laundry before we left. we got home from the beach saturday early evening, unpacked matt's stuff, then the kids and i headed out sunday morning around 4am to meet my parents, andrea and eli at andrea's house near statesville...we arrived at my cousin michelle's house at 10:15pm that night....long day!! we were exhausted when we got there, but we still stayed up talking for awhile, after we got the kids settled of course.

my slackness in photo taking shines brightly in these random photos i have from the trip, but i still wanted to post the memories!

we visited my grandpa and grandma (mutti's parents) while we were there.

claire and her great grandma nichter

mutt's favorite animal, she told me i needed to get a picture of them...i remembered!!

during our visit we visited the zoo. i remember this zoo from when i was really little. do preschools take field trips? either way, different places triggered old memories here, like the ponys, i remember riding them when i was little...well, probably not the exact same ponys!

eli, the animal lover, said if he saw one more animal he was gonna...zzzzz...
so sweet.

wyatt seems to like zebras and giraffes right now.

our own monkey!

ready to head back to michelle's after a fun day at the zoo.

on the way back, we were hoping the kids would take a nap (it was a little less than a hour drive)...it took a while because claire kept interupting our serenade to get eli to go to sleep. it's almost as if she knew we had hoped it would work on her as well! you can hear her protest as soon as we start singing. the other funny thing about this video, is that i thought i had claire on the video, but i have michelle the whole time, you can hear claire, but you just see michelle giggling!! :)

(...i just realized another funny thing...toward the end of the video, you can hear wyatt saying "cheese" a few times!! because he can see that i have the camera pointing back there!! little ones are too cute and funny!!)

a relaxing morning at michelle's...i think this may have been the only relaxing morning there! otherwise we were always trying to get ready to go somewhere. michelle was so sweet to let us stay with her, and she helped us so much with the kids. thanks michelle!

claire passing the time on the trip to the lake.

this particular day we headed to the lake with michelle, my cousin angie and her two kiddos gracie and austin. we always hear stories about them going to the lake, and were always sad that we never got to do that sort of thing with them, so we are getting to go with them!!!

two lil cuties! (well, ree is too, but she's not quite as small!)

wyatt and austin...playing with something...?

me, claire, eli, ree and gracie. i apparently thought i wasn't going to make it all the way into the picture...
...i was wrong.

beach pictures

another fun renfrow beach tradition is to color coordinate (khaki and white) and take pictures on the beach. i love this tradition as well! john is our main photographer—as you will see...not too shabby!

 

 

 

 

Renfrow/Pollock Family Beach Trip!

wyatt enjoying a traditional renfrow beach treat – a blow pop!

(we had to keep and eye on him to make sure we got it before he reached the gum part!) 

we got to spend the week at the beach with the sweet renfrows and sweet pollocks!! what a fun week that flew by!! the kids just loved playing in the sand, and thankfully not too much of it was eaten!!

 

everyday, mainly by late morning, this is what our "beach camp" would look like. john and ash were usually the first ones out getting the spot...whoever had the little ones would be the last ones out!

 

john and matt competing in a game of ladder ball!

 

this particular day it was really windy. it was so cute how wyatt didn't even seem to notice the umbrella flapping on his head while he was playing in the sand.

 

as a precaution to keeping sand out of her mouth, claire had her paci during sand play time.

 

our two little monkeys were so focused and content in their sand playing that most of the time it was hard to believe we actually had a 3 yr old and 1.5 yr old with us!

lunch time on the beach.

just a cute picture of claire.

 

just a cute picture of wyatt.

 

just a cute picture of the ncrenfrows! :)

 

just a cute picture of the pollocks!

(i am missing an important cute picture...the varenfrows!!)

 

wyatt and claire awaiting another fun renfrow beach tradition is "chicken on the beach". this is the longest day on the beach, we stay out (for the most part) until dinner. then fried chicken is picked up from a local resturant and sides are prepared at the beach cottage and we have a yummy meal on the beach!

 

it's almost time for...

 

..."chicken on the beach"!! it's kind of hard to see in the picture, but it was good! :)

 

claire's first experience with the waves!

 

she loved the water...unlike her brother. wyatt didn't like it his first time and as you can see...

 

...his feelings haven't changed much!

(lil guy in first chair on the left, by himself!)

 

close up of the stinker, sneaking somebody's drink!

sand baby

tomatoes...good!

bathtime at grandma's!

Happy 30th Auntie Ree!!

jason planned a fun 30th birthday party for andrea at the park he used to work at in durham. some of the fun was at her expense...but she's a good sport! :)

Wyatt's Birthday Party

cheese! i'm so excited about my thomas the train cake!!!

today we had wyatt's birthday party with his friends! in the past month or so i've been asking him what kind of birthday party he wanted and although it did change every now and then, he still came back to wanting it to be a thomas party! it's just sort of funny to me because until his actual birthDAY he didn't even have a train and he doesn't really talk about or play with the thomas he has as much as he does some other things. he was really excited about his cake and the little thomas treat bags i was able to find! it was a really fun low key party!

 

  i found a coffee shop/bakery that makes really great cakes. we had claire's lady bug birthday cake made there, so i went with them again! very pleased!! i bought the little thomas the train to put on the cake, but they made thomas look great!

 

wyatt and his buddies!!

(evan, oliver, wyatt, claire and avrie)