chex 2009

it has been a big year for my parents. they both started new jobs, celebrated their 60th birthdays and last weekend was their 40th anniversary. what an amazing milestone!! so we thought we should have a little family fun to celebrate. how about a tournament with a variety of games that include the whole family, young and old? we called it CHEX.
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the name "chex" stands for "crane house extravaganza." (young madeline and connor named mom and dad's house the "crane house" when they visited while the house was being built and a crane was at work. the name stuck.)

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after much trash talk leading up to the weekend, we finally had to walk the talk...

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we competed individually and as teams....blue v. red.

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the day began with a clever scavenger hunt where we had to follow clues and take pictures with our team at the answer location. here's the blue team demonstrating an "under dog" on the rope swing...

the next event was the much awaited hula hoop tournament. we knew the toughest competitor was madeline...

3 hoops!!!

i couldn't catch her high score!!

grampy also showed some great, and quite unexpected skills with his hula!!now we know where ava got her hip shaking skills...

next was the chipping contest. here's uncle bubby preparing to chip his ball over the tent and into the pool. tricky...very tricky.

then the modified horseshoe contest... the obstacle course started off great...

but deteriorated pretty quickly...

throwing a bucket of water wasn't part of the course!

the final outdoor event was the frisbee bulls eye challenge.

after lunch the little ones snoozed....

and some big kids too...

we had a wii fit competition. preston was the wii fit master with his extremely high soccer score, but connor was the most fun to watch.

then we had a bingo match, a phase 10 card game and an awards ceremony. the competition was pretty fierce, but the overall winner for the day was madeline. check out all her bling...

we all had a great time!!

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happy anniversary mom and dad!!!!!!

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certainly not to be forgotten are those that weren't able to make it to the celebration. uncle duane, aunt robin & william were definitely missed!
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here are some more snapshots from the day:

toddler vision

preston is wearing a polo shirt today with a tiny logo. he asks ava what it is and she confidently says, "a buffalo playing golf."

adoring aunts

last week uncle john and aunt julia came over to play! eli fell in love with aunt julia. he could not stop smiling and giggling while in her arms. even when uncle john was holding him he kept his adoring eyes on julia. could it be her english accent, i wondered? so the next day, in a fussy moment, i tried talking to him in what i thought was a pretty decent english accent. didn't work!

this morning we met aunt emily in chapel hill! both ava and emily will be starting school this fall so we stopped by the old well to sip some carolina luck.

we took a stroll (eli snoozed) around campus to the tune of ava saying, "there's a brick, there's a brick!"
aunt emily fixed ava's flash photography phobia with these magic pink sunglasses!after our stroll we played at the new children's museum on franklin street. on our way to lunch i wanted to drive by the pink house where emily and i lived in college. ava was deteriorating so i got her excited about looking out for a pink house out the windows. we drove by and she starts to get upset again because she doesn't see the "pink cows." another mommy blunder...whups!

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and a quick love note photo to preston (the bench on the left is where he proposed):

i'm so glad you asked...

joy ride

clunker? oh, no. doesn't even qualify.

i have always owned honda accords. my first was a sad-looking 1984 that was a bit ill already, but he was ALL mine and i paid for him MYSELF (a rule that did in fact teach me about responsibility...i'll give that one to ya, dad). this car, rightfully yet fondly called "chip," taught me how to have quick feet because i often had to keep one foot on the clutch and another on the gas while braking somehow or it would stall out.

when katie upgraded from her 1986 accord after graduating college i was offered a sweet "family deal" to upgrade to her old car (i think dad was probably pretty sick of towing "chip" to the shop). this automatic accord was a bit boring after all the toe-tapping i had to do with "chip," but it was a newer body style and the engine was sound(er) so i was happy with the switch.

the '86 was upgraded again a couple years later when i was in college. uncle john bought a new car so he was selling his 1994. it was the prettiest car i had ever seen. a '94 LOADED accord. the sunroof was always open. i had arrived. thanks to another "family" priced automobile i was set for a while.

"a while" is now the present. it's still rolling. today was a big day for my 1994 honda and i drove it solo. but have no fear, my blog friends because you were there with me in spirit and i thought you might like to enjoy the ride with me. jump in...

**no children could have been harmed in the filming of this movie**

always singing...

boom boom pow (radio edit)

can't get enough...

of all the berries, blueberries are my favorite. i'm the sucker who pays $5 every once in a while for a small handful during the off season. so now that they are in season i feel like a squirrel stockpiling for winter. i've found a local farm where i can pick my own...it's becoming an addiction!!

our most common form of feasting is by the handful, but we've also had: blueberry cobbler (three different versions), blueberry crisp, blueberry nut muffins, blueberry banana bread, blueberry pancakes (of course), blueberry waffles (one berry in every block is perfection!), blueberries on cereal, blueberries in yogurt, blueberries in granola, blueberry frozen yogurt pops, blueberries on ice cream, and blueberry fruit pizza.

i think preston's blueberry enthusiasm is waning, but ava and i are still going strong!

eli be nimble, eli be quick

eli is 5 months old!

he rarely stays put anymore so i was really pleased to get these pictures.

happy 5 months, mr. hammock!!

hot zoo

the nc zoo is now advertising a giraffe feeding deck. very cool, right?

we jump in the car, crank up raffi's "going to the zoo" and head out.

what we didn't realize is that it's going to take a while for the giraffes to acclimate to being fed by ogling humans, large and small.

as we were strolling to the deck in excited anticipation, we hear the giraffes stampeding away. they had gotten spooked. this is how close we got...

not quite what we had hoped for.

yet we didn't give up because we were optimistic other fun animals would be at play.

no animals.

they were all hiding in the shade.

so we settled for riding the carousel...a huge hit with our tot. she rode both an elephant AND an ostrich.

eli was a trooper but he made it clear he would rather not spend that much time in the heat.

we were trudging to the exit when we decided to stop by one more exhibit in hopes that we didn't go all the way to the zoo to ride the carousel. we found the polar bear taking a dip in his arctic pool. he was so graceful and pretty cuddly looking as he swam laps. worth the trip!!

we'll plan our next zoo visit when it's a little cooler...maybe give those giraffes time to get used to eating from people's hands.

eating kisses