Changing it up

Well, I'm starting a new blog.  Not long after I started blogging, I decided it would be nice to not have our last name all over the internet.  You know, security and privacy and all that.  But it was kinda hard to change when my last name was in the URL.  So, this little photo limit dilemma gave me the kick in the pants that I needed to go ahead and make the change.

If you'd like to visit our new family blog, please e-mail me at nmwife13 [at] gmail [dot] com and I can send you the link.  Thanks!

My new toy

We got our tax refund and I immediately bought myself a dSLR camera.  Woo hoo!  I am as giddy as my kids are when we go to Chuck E Cheese's!  I obviously still need some time to figure out all the bells and whistles, but here a few of my first shots with it.

Fun!!

I was going to include a couple more, but blogger just informed me that I have met my maximum photo quota for this blog.  Ummmm....what do I do now?  Might have to start a new one because blogging without photos just ain't gonna cut it.  My writing's not that good.

Figure Skating

When my good friend, Jayne, called to see if I would be willing to take some tickets to the US Figure Skating Championships off her hands, I was THRILLED.  Yes. Yes!  YES!  I've never been to anything like that and felt lucky that it was right here in our hometown this year.  I just called this my hometown.  Guess I'm settling in for the next couple of years since Andrew found out we're no longer relocating.  :)

April came with me.

We LOVED it.

We watched the pairs finals and the ice dancing finals.

 We saw the death-defying-lay-down-spin.

Like my skating terminology?

Also saw lots of lifts,

throws,

 gliding,

and jumping.

But the throws were my favorite.

We also saw lots of falls.

But I was too busy audibly gasping to catch any of them on film.

The skaters can thank me later.

B's hoops & W's cheer

For the first time in our family, both older kids are participating in an extracurricular activity AT THE SAME TIME.  Whoa.  Big step for us.  It has gone okay, but I'll happily revert to one-activity-at-a-time when this season ends.

Brandon is playing basketball.  The league we've been playing in for years has practices on Sunday for his age group.  Boo.  So, he's playing at school instead.  The level of competition isn't as strong, but he likes playing with and against lots of friends.

Here are some video highlights from the first half of his season.  Andrew is helping to coach the team, so I'm the camera woman.  And I stink.  Brandon is on the Tarheels, light blue shirt with silver and blue shorts, #4.



And after watching that, I say to myself, "He thinks he's too wimpy for football?  At least he'd have on pads and would be playing on grass!"

A little pregame smile (smirk?) for the camera.

 Practicing layups.

 Taking a shot.

Love his little hop while waiting to shoot free throws.

Little Miss Whitney is a rookie cheerleader and loving it.  She looks adorable, has fun, and is good!  Unfortunately, since she's tall, she ends up on the back row all the time.  Kinda difficult to take pics that way.  Here's her little highlight video.  Her favorite part is when she gets to be a "base" and hold the little girl up during the stunt at the end.

Woo hoo!

Go team!

Gotta love those pom poms.

They have a short season, only six weeks.  And we're halfway through.  Go, fight, win for three more weeks, kids!

Roamin 'round Raleigh

The kids had school off for a teacher workday on a Friday a while back.  We took a little family field trip up to Raleigh for our own educational experience.

First stop:  NC State Capitol

As we walked up, I talked to the kids about how each state has their own lawmakers and that THIS building is where ours work.  And then we went on the tour.  And found out that in NC, the house and senate actually meet in a different building.  Oops.  So it was more of a historical tour than a political learning experience.  It was still good, just not what I expected.

The docent who was giving our tour, taught us about an

artistic motif known as the "Greek key."

And we proceeded to find it all over the building.

It was a little scavenger hunt!

And Whitney was good at it.

We also learned that you can find rocks and debris in the

barrel of old WWII cannons out on the grounds.

Next stop:  Spize Cafe

We don't know our way around downtown Raleigh at all.  The receptionist at the Capitol Building pointed left and told us, "There are lots of restaurants down that street."  So we went exploring and the first place we found that looked interesting was Spize.  I read the kids the menu and they thought it sounded good, so we gave it a try.

It was so yummy.

I got cumin chicken over rice.  

The kids both ate baguettes--shrimp for W, chicken for B.

Caroline ordered rice.

Then refused to eat it.

She nibbled on the chips that came with the baguettes.

Then we visited the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.  We've been there once before and LOVED this second visit.  And...it has FREE admission.  Highly recommend it. 

We learned:

that Caroline fits nicely in a dino footprint,

that baby rats are pretty darn cute,

 that you can order volcanic ashes on the internet 

for your pet chinchilla to roll around in.

But the rodent expert does NOT recommend chinchillas as pets.  

Too bad, because Whit was getting her hopes up.

And that Darwin frog daddies hold eggs in their mouth
then burp their babies out when they hatch.  Nice.

They have a traveling exhibit there right now called "Animal Grossology."  You can imagine it, right?  Blood, poop, slime...the kids LOVED it.  It normally has an additional cost, but our science center membership got us in free.  Great investment.

At the end of this exhibit, there is a submarine with an eel slide.

 The kids went on it over and over and over again.

B-train had fun chasing and being chased by this little girl.

He's growing up.