Girls-only Camping Trip

I've been bugging Shawn to go camping for the last year but because the boys are a bit too young - and too uncontrollable, he has been against it. I then had the idea to just take the girls and asked my friend Katrina who has a daughter the same age as Anais and is an experienced camper to join me. She was game so we picked a weekend, organized the gear and food and headed down to the Delaware coast to camp at a State Park near the beach. Although exhausted by the end, I felt the girl-power flowing as we set up and took down camp, dealt with the occasional 4 year old tantrum and enjoyed beachcombing. We found horseshoe crabs, a dead fish and sand crab :-) and climbed to the top of a "princess"/WW2 military tower. Ellen and Anais seemed to really enjoy themselves and keep asking when we are going again.

Dutch Wonderland

Shawn took a day off work and we took the kids to Dutch Wonderland - an Amish Disneyland according to Uncle Rhett. This is actually a very good description. It's on a much simpler scale the Disney and located in Lancaster, PA where horse drawn buggies share the road with SUVs and where you will see a young, bearded man with homemade, overalls tilling his field with a horse just like on Little House on the Prairie. The rides at Dutch Wonderland are geared for the 5 and under set so our 4 had the time of their young lives. Between a "Monster Truck" ride, a hand pedaled/parent-pushed train ride and a theatre show featuring a tooting Thomas, the kids had lots of fun. No doubt we'll be back again soon!

Beach Day!

Jessica and I took the kids to the beach on Tuesday. We ran into some friends in the parking lot so there was a big group of us with lots of 2-6 year olds jumping in the water and building in the sand. Ellen wore her googles and put her head under water where she saw "2 rainbow fish". Nothing like a perfect day at the beach!

The 4th

We took the kids to the local parade on the 4th. It was pretty impressive given that we live in a smallish town. There were several elected officials shaking hands down the parade route including the Governor and a Senator. I decided I live in a VERY small state when I recognized the Lieutenant Governor's young twin sons who go to the same preschool as the girls. A tad bit surreal but not too strange given that it's Delaware!