Easter photos

To the shore!

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves... we hit Atlantic Beach for a couple days -- and what's a vacation if we can't cram in some educational stuff??? So we did the Civil War-era Fort Macon (super cool, according to Vincent, probably because it had tons of cannons) and the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium (also super cool, probably because of the sharks). 

Dominic's first interaction with the water... seconds before a big wave came and soaked his shorts! Good introduction, Dad.

At Fort Macon, where the upper terraces have no fences. It's a straight 20-foot fall to the ground. I've never gripped the kids so tight!

We also had dinner at a restaurant off a pier and laughed along with the laughing gulls (do you know the difference between laughing gulls and herring gulls, anyone?) and watched pelicans fish. We played on the beach, of course, and determined that Dominic hates the water. He now cries at the sight of the bathtub. Nobody tell him the pool opens in a month! 

Just us and the cannonballs at Fort Macon.

My boys sharing a smoothie

The wave is coming, Dad! Hurry up with the ponytail.

Before & After

With all the recent thunderstorms, Catherine has been preparing "safe houses" for her beloved horses. 

And then along comes Thunderstorm Dominic.

Cary Road Race

Photos from the Cary Road Race. I ran a 20:47, which was above my goal (I'd wanted to break 20), but based on the times I'd say the course was slow. Still, I was very happy with second place, and I came away with new socks and a gift card to a sports store.

Catherine and Vincent sort-of ran the one-mile Fun Run afterward, but I'd say Grandma got the most exercise chasing Dominic away from the lake.

Bridal shower!

 By the number of times she appears in the pictures, you'd think it was Catherine's shower! But congratulations Kristen -- we're thrilled to be welcoming you to the family. Now please stop being so photogenic!

Not wine -- I promise.

Kristen needed lots of help unwrapping presents.

Lying in wait for a chicken wing.

Trying to move M&M's into a cup.

The Smokehouse Birdhouse

Proof that three-year-olds can be unpredictable: Since January I have had the News & Observer's annual Birdhouse Contest marked on the calendar. I figured for sure that we would be making a princess birdhouse (check) and a rocketship birdhouse. But about a week ago, as we were on the way home from the craft store with silver spray paint, Vincent announced he wanted to do a smokehouse birdhouse instead.

His fascination with smokehouses is nothing new. About a year ago we visited the historic Page-Walker Hotel in downtown Cary near our house, which has a smokehouse from the 1860s. Once Vincent learned that a smokehouse is used to dry and smoke meats, he had to know more. We researched smokehouses, looked up youtube videos,visited one in Colonial Williamsburg and made a smokehouse out of popsicle sticks. Trust me, there's not a lot out there about smokehouses. Strange.

So back to the Smokehouse Birdhouse -- we took a bluebird box that was waiting to go up (and house chickadees, no doubt) and Vincent glued balsa wood all around. Then he painted it. Luckily, the natural brush strokes of a three-year-old have a very "rustic" quality to them so his smokehouse birdhouse looked quite old and decrepit. Then we broke balsa wood for roof shingles and he painted it red.

The final touch: Since we couldn't exactly hang smoked carcasses, we hung the next best thing... mealworms, a bluebird's favorite food. I am quite happy to report that he insisted on doing the mealworm work himself.

The result was a fine birdhouse that he entered in the competition alongside his sister's beaded Turkish harem-like bird palace, officially titled "Princess Bird Gazebo." And Vincent took second place in his age category, which can only mean one thing: The judges must not be mealworm fans.