B and me, in VB

Britton and I spent Labor Day weekend in Virginia Beach, visiting Cammy!  I've never taken Britton to Virginia Beach because we either visited Cammy at Jessica's house or Cammy came to us.  So we decided it was time to get Britton to the beach for the long weekend.  

Upon getting back to Cammy's house from the airport, Britton was instantly in the pool.  This girl loves the water, and having a pool all to herself was her heaven.

Then Cammy went to Taste Unlimited for sandwiches for lunch.  I love Taste Unlimited, specifically the turkey and provolone on french bread, and when I think of the perfect sandwich, this is it.  Jessica and I are Taste Unlimited junkies, and now Britton has experienced it as well!

I don't think Britton has taken a nap in months.  But all the swimming and running after the dog and cats got her tuckered out quickly!  She woke up just before the entire family came over for dinner. Cammy made all my seafood favorites - crab dip, crab cakes, broiled scallops and shrimp, ahhhhhhhhhh, I'm drooling remembering it!

Britton hadn't gotten to see my cousin Stephanie's kids since she was a baby, so it was a real treat to hang out with Alexandria and Gavin.

And I got to see Stephanie and her husband Kevin!  These two are fantastic, and Kevin and the hubs get along splendidly too.  Unfortunately, the hubs and Barrett stayed home for this visit, but next time we will all get to hang out.

My cousin Kristen.  She just graduated from ODU and started her new job this week.  I saw Kristen grow up, so it was a little jarring to realize that she's a full-fledged adult now.  Or maybe it just made me feel old!

Cammy's sister, my aunt Jill, and Gavin.  I was so excited they could all make it over, especially since it was a Thursday night and everyone had to work the next day.  It's great when you get together with family, because you just pick up where you left off the last time you saw each other.

On Friday morning, Stephanie dropped of Alexandria so she could hang out with us.  And our first stop was the beach!  Chick's Beach, the bay, and Britton was in love at first sight.

It was windy, making the water a little choppy, but these girls braved the cold waves and got in.

The recent stormy weather had washed up a ton of horseshoe crabs on the beach, and Alexandria had no fear - she picked up each one to check and see if it was still alive.  None were, and we were all disappointed we couldn't toss them back to their homes.  Then we discovered some "moon jellies" (as Britton called them).  

After going back home to get cleaned up and eat some BLTs (with Cammy's yummy tomatoes), we headed out to the Marine Science Museum.  The Museum has gotten huge since I was last there, as they've added on so many new exhibits.  The Museum was Britton's favorite activity, and she enjoyed every minute of it.

I believe my instruction here was, "Pretend we're in a shark's mouth!"

While I was drooling over the completely-surrounding fish aquarium, Alexandria and Britton were seeking out the sting rays.  Alexandria nabbed a fantastic location, which the exhibit hostess told me is where they stand to feed the rays.  So the rays came right over to Alexandria!

Britton wasn't feeling as brave, and decided she didn't want to touch a sting ray.  She was content to watch Cammy do it.

Then we found the horseshoe crabs (alive! finally!) and both girls loved touching them.

After a quick stop by the gift shop, Britton was the proud owner of a stuffed seal (named "Pokey-Dot") and Alexandria picked up a stuffed hedgehog (named "Hazel Turquoise").  Britton wanted to show the real seals outside her new stuffed animal.

And of course Pokey-Dot got some cuddling at bedtime.  See those 101 Dalmation sheets?  Yep, you guessed it - they were mine as a kid!

We treated ourselves to Krispy Kreme donuts Saturday morning (Britton's first!), then back to the beach.  The clouds were pretending to go stormy, and they must have scared off the beach-goers because the beach was practically empty.

I spied some sailboats down the beach, and went to get a closer look. Britton made friends with a girl, and they went swimming and building sandcastles.  I found some amazing shells on my walk.

I had promised the hubs I would get him some new shirts, so after lunch we went down to the oceanfront to go to 17th Street Surf Shop.  We went past this hardware store, and I had to get a photo of this line of beach cruisers.  A beautiful rainbow!

For dinner, we went out with Jill to Dockside.  I've never been there before, so I followed Jill's lead and got the she crab soup and crab cake sandwich.  Both were incredibly delicious, and if you're thinking I may have overdone the seafood, the truth is I could eat seafood for every meal.  I just love fresh seafood.  We sat outside, and the view was amazing, mostly because I grew up on this river.  It really was like coming home again.  And it more than made up for the perspiring mess I became out there in that sun!

Britton got some new sunglasses at 17th Street.  The crab pinchers flip up!

After dinner, we sat on the deck to digest and enjoy the boats coming in.  

A couple began singing in the bar area, and Britton was intrigued.  She wandered over and watched them, and they even asked her what song she wanted.  They asked her if she likes The Beatles and she said yes (not that she's ever heard The Beatles - she probably thought they meant the bug!) and they sang "If I Fell" to her.  

We got back home this afternoon, and Britton is all out of sorts.  She misses her Cammy, the pool, the beach, and Butters the cat.  In fact, she's asked the hubs about 52 times by now if she can get a cat!

curious george came to town!

On Saturday, Britton and I hit up her annual daycare story time and potluck picnic. Barrett was in desperate need of his nap, so he and the hubs stayed home.  Last year it was Clifford  and this year it was Curious George.  Britton was so excited that she woke us up at 6:56 am Saturday morning, all dressed up and ready to go!

I figured parking would be limited, so we showed up about 10 minutes early, and we were the first ones there!  Luckily though, that got us into the first group to hear "The Man in the Yellow Hat" (Britton's previous teacher, Rosie) read a Curious George story.

Then Curious George joined the party, and Britton wasn't having any of that.  She inherited her fear of furries from the hubs, so she comes by it honestly.  No picture-taking with giant Curious George.

But people dressed up in costumes as other people?  Britton is cool with that.  

We went outside to the book fair and carnival games, and it was quickly becoming hot and humid.  I encouraged any games that had a tent over them, as I was rapidly wilting in that weather!  Britton loved the coin toss, and she figured out that the closer she got to the bowls, the more accurate her throws were.  Prizes were stamps, and she started getting "sleeves" of stamps and temporary tattoos.

Magnetic fishing hole.  Britton got a kick out of this for a hot minute.

One of Barrett's teachers was handling the face-painting.  Britton got hooked up with a rainbow while I scouted out the book fair.  We got some great books for her and Barrett.

Then she visited her teacher Sarah at the tattoo station.  

Then back to the face painting!  Britton wanted a minion, and truth be told - we only just watched "Despicable Me 2" for the first time this past weekend.  I still haven't seen "Despicable Me" - the first one.  Yep, I am way behind on my kid movies, and I can't believe I didn't know how funny these movies are!  Those minions are like the gremlins of my generation - freaking adorable (not the purple ones - I felt sorry for them, all twitching and brain-fried!).

We helped ourselves to the potluck picnic, then headed to Target for some school supplies.  And when we got home, Barrett has just woken up from his nap, so he and the hubs got to hear all about our fun adventure.

Then, on a totally unrelated tangent, we went to put up Barrett's new bucket swing.  And Britton desperately wanted to try it out first. Not thinking anything of it, we let her.  And then, as every other parent who knows better is guessing, she got stuck.  As in, she wasn't getting out of this swing without some major wrestling and pain.  Poor Britton was scared and crying and the hubs unclipped the swing, carried her to the deck, and went in search of a tool that would get her out.

Dremel tool to the rescue!  That swing is now in the trash, and currently holds the record for the fastest demise of any kid toy we've ever owned.  By our estimates, Britton got a good 45 seconds of fun out of that thing!  Luckily, she was fine and didn't get hurt at all. 

christmas [tree skirts] in august!

Ok, I didn't let Halloween have all the fun!  I found myself in between quilting projects, and I can't rush from one project to another.  Quilts are hugely time-consuming, so I've got to love the pattern to dive in.  I thought that maybe this was the time to tackle a tree skirt!  I've wanted to make one this year, something I can use year after year and not tire of easily.  I hunted the internet, and when I stumbled upon this pattern ("The Hood" by Brioni Greenberg), I knew I'd found the pattern!

Without further ado, here's my adorable tree skirt!

And I couldn't make just one, so I also made a smaller version for Memaw and PawPaw.  They have a skinny tree, but not a lot of floor space for a traditional tree skirt.  

I had a lot of fun with the fabrics.  I started out with every single Christmas fabric I have hoarded, then also added any red or green fabrics that coordinated.  I wanted the houses and trees to be varied enough to be kitschy and bright, but not obnoxious or glaring.  Each window is fussy-cut and specific - the bumble bee (below) for Britton, the anchor because I love the sea, you get the idea.

And both tree skirts got one house replaced with an RV!  The RV was Britton's favorite part, and she even helped me with picking out the fabrics and elf in the window (she said the elf was PawPaw).  

I added some random stars around the tree opening, and would have added more if they had been easier to cut out.  The stars are small - less than two inches across.

See Santa on the chimney below?  Love it!  This is Memaw's tree skirt, and I used the very last of the ladybug fabric I had.  That ladybug fabric is my favorite fabric of all time, and it came from Memaw's mother's stash.  The window is a cursive "b" for our last name.

Another Santa chimney!  I did my loopy free-motion quilting in the white area, and even mimicked smoke coming out of the chimneys.  I then bordered all the appliqué pieces of the houses and trees.  Once it was finished, I added sequins to the trees to look like ornaments and some to the houses to look like Christmas lights.

I went with a red and white polka dot for the backing, and a very Christmas-y striped binding.  I then added three straps across the back to secure the skirt together, and used velcro instead of buttons so that it would close securely.

Britton spilled the beans to Memaw, so I went ahead and gave her their Christmas tree skirt.  I can't blame Britton one bit for being excited - I was looking for an excuse to show them to Memaw because I knew she'd love it.  And she did!