OBX round #4!!

We spent the week of July 4th in our traditional and most favorite place...the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This is our fourth year going now and has become such an amazing tradition for the Cleveland family. Tami even surprised us by coming...only my parents knew beforehand that she would be there!!

We had fabulous weather the entire time that we were there which made for lots of fun times at the beach...

Many sand creations were made...

And some big holes were dug!

Lazy days at the beach with family never get old!!

The best part is all the fun time with cousins...

And this now 4-year-old loved the beach this year and had so much more fun playing in the surf. Last year he wouldn't go anywhere near the water so this was a huge improvement!

I had so much fun spending time with my wonderful sisters and their families!!

Maylie was a trooper through it all and probably ate her entire body weight in sand!!

I was so glad that my parents were able to come out and had such a great time. My dad is in the middle of chemotherapy right now and definitely has some rough times but was a trooper through our week-long stay in North Carolina.

Grandma enjoyed lots of time with all 10 grandchildren!

Maylie would often take her morning nap in my arms on the beach and I didn't mind one bit!

We had lots of fun family moments like dancing to the "Bird song"...

Eating lots of yummy foods (each family takes a turn cooking one night and we were very well fed that week!)

The whole group together again...

Grandparents of 10 now!

The kids always enjoy lots of time in our own private pool too...

It is so fun when your cousins are your best friends!

Even the babies joined in the action...

Every night included a fun family activity. One night was a family talent show...

A night all about memories (remembering our past like elephants do)...

A fun skit about colors which included a solo of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Abby!

And Abby came up with a cute little play all about Independence Day that the kids put on together.

We also took an excursion over to Roanoke Island to visit the aquarium again this year.

With all of the recent shark attacks lately, we were grateful that this was our only shark sighting that week! We did see a big pod of dolphins out in the ocean one day which was pretty awesome!

Maylie didn't enjoy being a T Rex's snack!

Petting sting rays is always a fun treat...

Maylie tried out a few souvenir hats too!

Look at that cute little face!

A semi-family portrait (minus Maylie who was in her stroller and Landon who decided to stay at home with Grandma)...

The kids really enjoyed learning how to save and rescue sea turtles too!

On Friday morning we attended the annual parade in Duck which is a fun quintessential Americana type experience...

And on the 4th we enjoyed some firework displays up and down the beach from Kitty Hawk to Corolla!

(not my picture but gives you an idea of how cool it is to watch fireworks over the ocean!)

We look forward to this week so much and it is always a little sad to come back home to the real world again. We already have our reservation set up for next year though so until then...

Somebody is Four!!

We had a little family party the day before Nolan's actual birthday for the newest member of the "four-year-old" club...

He loved opening up all of his cards and presents...

Abby even put together a fun "Superhero" themed party for him. Here we are playing "Pin the cape on the Superhero"...

Bean bag toss...

Musical candy walk to the theme music from "Batman"...

A few homemade decorations were found all around the house...

We even made a craft at the party, some capes that we decorated out of paper!!

Then it was time to show off our superhuman strength by opening up these wrapped boxes with our fists...

Nolan loved his little party and Abby was so sweet to put it all together for him. We spent the rest of the day running errands to get ready for our beach trip the next day. While running errands, Nolan also got to pick out a brand new bike with training wheels for his big birthday gift since he was definitely getting too big for his little tricycle. We ate dinner at Red Robin that evening where they sang a hearty rendition of "Happy Birthday" to our little man and gave all the kids some free ice cream sundaes. 

I cannot believe Nolan is four years old now! He is a pretty little guy both in height and weight but makes up for it with his fun personality. His speech is still kind of jumbled a bit but he talks all the time now and I can understand just about everything he says. He loves playing pirates, bad guys, dinosaurs, and Legos and will sit and read books with me for hours. He loves having his siblings home from school this summer and is quite the little fish in the swimming pool. He is a great big brother to his little sister and overall just a delight to be around. He is super excited about starting preschool in the Fall as well as playing his first organized sport...SOCCER!! He is growing up way too fast for my liking and I am in complete denial that he will be starting kindergarten in just over a year. How did my little baby boy get so grown up?!?!

Happy Birthday Nolan Man!!

Monkey Joes!

Since we would be driving to the beach for our annual Outer Banks vacation on Nolan's actual birthday, I decided to make the two days leading up to his birthday different and special for him. He had never been to Monkey Joes before (a fun bounce house in the area) and when he saw pictures of it online, he was beyond excited to go.

We spent Friday morning there and the three older kids had a blast bouncing all around the place.

I cannot believe this little man is turning 4 years old!!!

Nolan was just barely tall enough to enjoy all of the bouncers and slides and loved it all. Maylie enjoyed watching the commotion from the sidelines, probably wishing she could join in on all the laughter and fun!!

Toad-ally Awesome!

Our neighbors found a toad on their front porch and it provided hours of entertainment for several children in the neighborhood. Landon was my only child brave enough to actually hold the thing and Landon managed to track the toad down after he escaped a couple of times. 

Eventually we took him to a little pond at the front of our neighborhood so he could live out the rest of his days in peace. I'm sure that toad was very relieved to be free again after all those little people and their undying affection!!