Sailing the Eagle

The USCGC (United States Coast Guard Cutter) Eagle was in port today!  It is a 295 foot barque (we learned what that is today - it is a sailing ship that has 3 or more masts for sails) known as "America's Tall Ship."  It is the only active commissioned sailing vessel and was built as a German training vessel (named the SSS Horst Wessel) in 1936 and used by the Germans during WWII.  At the end of the war, it was taken by the US as war reparations.  It just arrived today and sails out Monday morning, so I grabbed the kids (and talked my neighbor into coming with us) and headed out to see her!

All the sails were up today since she's in port, but the pictures of her with all of her sails down and blowing in the wind are really something.  I'm sure that is quite the sight to see in person!

The kids loved taking turns "steering" the ship!

Great way to spend the first weekend after the start of school!

Riley's Turn!

I took several pictures of Riley with her cone, only to find out after the fact that my camera was in the wrong setting and they all came out blurry!  Boo!

Anyway, after Riley watched L and T open up their cones on Monday, she has been VERY patiently waiting for her cone which arrived today on her first day of Pre-K!

Our elementary school doesn't have a Pre-K program, so I enrolled Riley at an elementary school ~10 minutes away.  She will go M-F from 12:30-3:10, which is perfect because that is when Ella is napping, so 1) I can actually have a minute to get something done (like document on my blog!) and 2) Riley and Ella have become such good buddies that it made sense to put Riley in school while Ella was napping so they can still play together all morning.

She is super excited, super ready and I'm so happy for her!  Love you, Riley Jane!

First Day

Keeping up with our Cone Tradition (It is tradition in Germany, where Dave started school, for each child to receive a cone on their first day of school filled with new school supplies and small treats/toys).  While the kids don't necessarily look forward to their first day of school, they ALWAYS look forward to their cones!

Mom, hurry up and take my picture so I can bust into my cone!

Ella and her boyfriend Dominic waiting for all their big siblings to have their pictures taken.  These kids crack us up!  They are just 4 1/2 months apart in age and LOVE each other.  They are the babies of the court so we all get a kick out of them chasing each other around and Ella constantly calling out for "Dom Dom" and him constantly calling out for her.  

Our annual court picture.  There are 11 kids in our court, so we get a picture of them together on the first day of school every year.  We moved into this court 4 months before Lacey started Kindergarten, so this has been a fun tradition.  This year another friend joined in (4th from right), so there are 12 in this picture but tradition nonetheless!

Lacey and her best friend Sophia.  They're not in the same class this year (Boo!) but thanks to proximity, they still see each other daily.

Good friends Katie and Keelie.

Verdict:  Tanner said school was "good!"  Lacey, on the other hand, was in tears when I picked her up.  Apparently her math teacher told the class that they needed to do their homework all by themselves without any help and that scared her to death.  The thought of not being "allowed " (she's a rule follower) to ask her parents for help on a tricky problem and therefore not being able to complete her homework, was so overwhelming to the poor girl, she was in an absolute tizzy about it and was so upset by the time Dave got home that she told him she "didn't want to talk about it and if I do, I'll start crying again."  I think we talked her down from the ledge, but it was, in her words "a little rough" start to the school year.

Rough day for me too..... I survived grocery shopping with a 2yo and 4yo in tow only to discover, when checking out, that I didn't have my wallet.  I had my purse, but I had taken out my wallet and forgotten to put it back in my purse.  Argh!  So, they held all my purchases for me while I raced home, got my wallet, raced back, picked up my food and made it to school just in time to pick up the kids from school!  What a day!  Goodnight.......

One Last Hurrah

Today is our last day of vacation.  We leave to go home tomorrow.

So, we went outside and played at the pools and beach....

ALL DAY LONG!

Ready....

Set.....

Go!

We're so used to having "little kids", we couldn't get over the fact that 3 of our 4 kids can totally hold their own in the ocean now and have the boogie boarding thing down like pros!

Riley actually caught her first wave today on the boogie board and rode it all the way in.  We thought it was a fluke.  After all, she is only 4 and all the other 4-yr-olds were hovering around their parents playing on the sand (which is where she pretty much was at the beginning of the week.)  But I'll be darned if that girl didn't think it was the funnest thing over and ran back out and caught wave after wave after wave.  She boarded all afternoon and had it down pat!  I was impressed!  We dubbed her the BBQ - Boogy Board Queen!

This morning, I announced to the kids that today was our "last hurrah" before going home.  Riley turned to me and said "What's a last hurrah?"

Well, to answer your question Ri-Jay..... this.  All of this.

Good-bye Myrtle Beach.  You were good to us this week!  We will miss you! Especially Miss BBQ!

Aerial View

We've never done a helicopter ride, so when we saw them advertised for a pretty reasonable price, we decided to splurge and experience it together for the first time as a family.  Well, sort of.... there is only room for 4 people including the pilot, so only 3 passengers.  So, we split up into two groups:  Dave with the "older two" and me with the "younger two."  Here we are waiting to board.

Ready to go!

Lift off!

Helicopter selfie!

Riley girl got the lucky seat next to the pilot

The pilot pointing out some of the sites. 

Ella screamed at first, then settled in and just stared out the window, not quite sure what to make of it all!

Lacey the co-pilot!

Beautiful Myrtle Beach

Tan-Man

Once we arrived back on solid ground, we decided to head out for a rousing game of Miniature Golf at the Dragon's Lair.

And then we spent the rest of the day in the ocean having fun in the water and sand we had flown over earlier.  Not a bad way to spend the waning days of summer......