tawbubby

We went back to Nags Head with Fafa for a windy, cool October week.  We visited the aquarium and Amelia got to ask some questions to a diver in the shark tank.  “How big is the tank?”, “What is the smallest fish?”, and “What is the black and white stick?” were some of her questions.

We spent most of our beach time in coats. 

Our first two days were marked by 20-30 mph winds.  The strong winds are doing some damage.  Many houses didn’t have beach access because the stairs were broken. 

The power of the ocean and wind is evident.  Our house from last year has been condemned, with many others near it, due to beach erosion.   A house collapsed into the ocean near Hatteras, and many houses are sandbagged (fun for climbing!) or have new bull dozed sand infront for protection.

 We had one day warm enough for bathing suits.

Wind-blown girl!

Daph with a bucket.

Aunt Cheri gave Amelia a “Fairy Houses” book for her birthday.  We built a beach fairy house with stick-grass-and-skate-egg walls, a sea weed flower garden and a pebbly-shell front yard.

She and Daphne each left a penny on the fairy bed (a clam shell) and they were gone the next morning, replaced with a pretty pink rock!

Daphne at Jockey’s Ridge, touching the sky.  She’s getting to be such a big girl!

The neat thing about all the stairs in a beach house is with all that practice Daph is standing up to go downstairs, rather than sliding on her tummy.

All Smiles.

Daphne picking apples this weekend:

She munched on a lot too.

Amelia said “That wiggle worm has a headband!”

They’re sharing a room now.

Amelia slept on an air mattress in Daphne’s room while Aunt Melissa visited for Amelia’s birthday. They really enjoyed sleeping together and didn’t want to be separated back to their own rooms when the guests left. So she’s been on the air mattress for the past week. They wake up talking now, instead of Daphne crying for us first thing. 

We finally moved Daphne’s crib into Amelia’s room last night. This pic doesn’t convey Amelia’s joy, that is equal to what you see here on Daphne’s face.

The big girl is 4.  She is so big, we really can’t believe it.

Didn’t get any good pictures of the pretzel eating contest, but Hooray Emma! She gets bragging rights until next year.
Big moment in a girl’s life when she gets her first…Barbie!

Amelia ignored all her other presents for quite a while and played with just Barbie.  Actually, this year was neat because every present got 1) a few moments of fame at one point or another yesterday or 2) a plan to play with it really soon while we talked in the car this morning.  During previous birthdays, the opening has been the highlight.  This year, the contents have become the highlight.

Caught Daphne peeking at Amelia’s present. When I said “What are you doing?”, she said “Pwesents? Pwesents?”

Daphne did get a few of her own, thanks all.

Amelia and Grandma got a lot of good time together this visit since Amelia can do a lot of things herself now.  They had all day Friday and half a day today together while we were at work.  Grandma taught her a lot of spelling, read many books and played several games with her.  Tomorrow life is back to normal.  Grandma goes home and we all go back to school and work.  Too bad!

Grandma and Aunt Melissa are visiting for Amelia’s birthday (tomorrow).  We saw a parade, went to the library and the park. This morning we went to the Chesterfield Berry Farm for some fun. The barrel train was worth the price of admission, by itself. They loved it.

Daphne cried when she had to get out after one ride, and we went again just before leaving. Amelia jumped in the moonbounce for probably 20 minutes. We drank apple cider, saw lots of farm animals, and went on a wagon ride and got a giant pumpkin.

A rare picture of the four of us!  On a very sunny, very warm October day.

Grandma and Amelia were well matched in the Wii bowling tournament.

(The score is 115-113 if you can’t see it on the screen).

Amelia put the pink sprinkles on her cupcakes tonight.

Daphne is practicing the Happy Birthday song in her crib right now.  :  )

Daphne really loves the dogs. Twice tonight, she said “I squeeze Cadbury” (in her own way of saying those words), and went downstairs to the landing to give Cadbury a hug.

She got a Cadbury kiss in return!