9 yr old portraits

This year for Finley's birthday portraits we decided to hire our wonderful friend Toni to take some very special pictures. . . 

Be sure to watch till the very end! 

Finley turns 9!

Finley's birthday fell on a Friday this year. Instead of taking the day off of school, our recent tradition, Finley actually wanted to go to school since it was Tech Fair Day! The kids get to see all different ways technology is incorporated into different jobs. So Finley's birthday school was a fun one and we sent in donuts for the class.

After school, Finley had his spring tennis ladder. The grandparents all came to watch him play, he won all his matches, and he ended the day in first place! How fitting on his special day!

To celebrate we went out to dinner at Finley's favorite restaurant Salsaritas!

Then we popped over to Cold Stone for some ice cream.

Finley got to open gifts from the grand parents too.

I can't believe my sweet little boy is 9!

The next day was Finley's Laser Tag birthday party!

He invited all of his closet friends which turned out to be girl dominated! LOL!

Here's the gang before entering in the laser tag zone.

They got to play three different rounds of laser tag.

It was hard to document, but everyone had so much fun!

We were able to spy on the kids from outside and keep tabs on the leader board. 

We had a pizza lunch and lemon cup cakes to celebrate!

After filling their bellies it was time for more arcade fun.

The arcade games at this place are expensive and the kids ran through their allotted amount of money quickly!

We finished off the party with a final round of laser tag.

By the end of the party these kids were beat! I am pretty sure they enjoyed themselves though. 

Happy Birthday to my sweet 9 year old!

ACC Barnstorming!

Through the powers of Facebook I learned about the ACC Barnstorming tour. They take all the senior ACC basketball players from UNC, NC State, Dook, and Wake Forest and bring them around to different counties to play high school all-stars.

Given the fact that we are huge UNC fans and that two of our favorite players were seniors this year, Theo Pinson and Joel Berry II, we decided it was worth staying up late for on a school night!

There were two other UNC seniors as well who also played. Yes Grayson Allen was also there (from puke) but it was still a lot of fun.

In addition to a "dance off" won by Theo, they also had a 3 pt shooting contest and a dunk contest. 

The game was mostly flashy moves and showing off and not a lot of defense (kind of like the NBA), but it was still super fun to see some of our favorite players up close and in person! Apparently they have been doing this for 38 years now! I wish we would have known about this sooner! We will have to remember this tradition for the future!

Spring Break with the Cousins!

For our spring break this year we didn't have to travel far to see family and have a great time! We met up with my cousin, Linda, and her family in Chapel Hill for the second half of spring break.

The first night they arrived we headed over to Carolina Meadows, a very upscale nursing home in Chapel Hill, where Mike's grandma Amy lives. She was kind enough to invite us over for a swim in their indoor pool and to eat in their dining hall.

The kids had a blast, but of course, once they tried out the hot tub there was no going back to the "cold" pool. 

Linda and Mike have three children, Claire who is 9 (almost 10), Annie who is 6, and Alex who is four. 

The great thing about cousins is that they are instant best friends! It had been about a year and a half since we had last seen them, but they got on like no time had passed at all!

I especially enjoyed hanging out with sweet Alex. I miss having little ones. 

Mike's grandma Amy will be turning 93 this summer. She is still sharp as a nail and lives on her own in the retirement community. 

Annie is absolutely the most entertaining child I have ever met. She, like me, is a middle child and absolutely hilarious. She is goofy, loves attention, and can burp on command. (She's kind of my favorite...shhhh!)

We had a few warmer days so snuck away to Maple View Ice Cream with the kids! 

It is hands down the best homemade ice cream ever! Alex and Amy are close friends and they are absolutely adorable together. I also love it when he calls her "Great Grandmother".

And it was so good, we went twice in two days! 

Claire enjoyed showing off some of her piano skills and Mimi also jumped in and they had a duet of Heart and Soul. 

On their final full day in Chapel Hill, we headed over to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. 

The butterfly house is always a big hit!

The girls were determined to hold a butterfly and luckily there was one willing to cooperate!

We were even able to take turns passing it around.

The kids really enjoyed running around and the weather was just perfect.

Our recreation of a picture we took when the kids were here last time.

Our best attempts at a group picture minus Linda. We had so much fun at Mimi and Pop Pops visiting with family. We ate way too much good food and didn't sleep nearly enough, but isn't that what Spring Break is about? Can't wait to visit the Adams again soon!