2025-2026 First Day of School

10th, 8th, 5th and 4th this year!

 

Annual Cupcake Challenge

 

Another summer highlight is the Annual Cupcake Challenge with our neighborhood kids in Surf City. This year 10 kids participated. There is a panel of judges - adult neighbors. Judging categories include creativity, presentation, taste.

The 10 contestants with their cupcakes.

Wren made a strawberry jello cake base with fresh whipped cream and a halved strawberry on top.

Benny made red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.

Ella made mocha cupcakes with coffee buttercream frosting. She got 3rd place!

Lily made chocolate cupcakes with cookie dough filling and topped them with peanut butter icing. Lily won first place and gets to keep the trophy until next summer.

Aunt Bekah in NC

Bekah just came for an extended weekend visit. It was a hot one! We hit the beach to cool off and played a lot of games inside.  We always enjoy it when Bekah comes to visit!

Multiple trips to the beach. This week was H O T !

Many rounds of Dutch Blitz were played over the weekend.

The older girls go back from camp one day in to Bekah's visit.

Crystal Pier

Prepping dinner

 

FUGE camp

 

Lily & Ella are back from an incredible week at FUGE camp! Here are some photos from their week.

While the girls were at camp, we had a fun week here at home, with Benny & Wren. Here are a few photo highlights:

Benny did lots of Lego building.

Flip N Fly

We had to clean the beach house a day so we also enjoyed the beach!

Helping Mom cook dinner. Wren's fave is homemade Mac & cheese.

Mom won a 3 day game of Monopoly.

She's driving!

Lily took her permit test on July 9 and passed!

Family Vacation to Surf City

Every year, we block off the week of July 4th for our family vacation in Surf City. This is our favorite week of the year! The slow pace and family time is really wonderful. Also all the friends who come for a beach day + neighbors make it such a fun week. 

I was reminiscing of previous years, as I typed up this post:

July 4th 2022

July 4th 2023

July 4th 2024

Here are this year's highlights in photos:

Jake "caught" a ghost crab.

A sea turtle nest just one access down from us!

Sea turtle tracks

Early Sunday morning Jake & I went for a walk on the beach. We saw the Topsail Turtle Project relocating the nest. The mama laid her nest up under the deck of this house. The Topsail Turtle Project decided to move the nest out from there and up to a better location on the dune, all 130 eggs. We will be watching this nest in 50-60 days - hoping we will see the boil.

Night Swim at the pool

A memorable morning bike ride to Daybreak Donuts & Sunrise Bagels for breakfast. Our neighbor, Maddox, joined us. All 7 of us rode our bikes.

Before we started our trek, Jake made sure all the tires were pumped up. My bike tire wasn't holding air so Jake put a new tube on. I must preface this by saying that our bikes are rather old, rusty and crunchy. The ocean air is hard on metal. All 7 of us made it to our breakfast stop. 

On the way back a few of us rode to the top of the Surf City Bridge. I told Jake that I was concerned that my brakes would not make it. A few times that morning they caught or didn't quite catch until I pedaled around another time. Well, on the way down I coasted and rode the brake. About 1/3 from the bottom of the bridge my breaks were not catching. I tried a couple of times and then decided it was best if I jumped off of the moving bike. It was that or crash on the concrete.  I jumped off successfully, landing on my feet while holding on to the handlebars. This gave me some heart palpitations. So conveniently, at the bottom of the bridge, there was a dumpster and we left the bike there. Biking home Wren rode on the back of Jake's; 7 of us on 6 bikes. Memories were made!

Wren biked with us to the top of the Surf City bridge.

A few other momentous events from the week:

Monday night my phone rang just before 10pm. My friend and neighbor Donna, had just arrived to their home. She stepped off of the bottom step onto a dog bone, rolled her ankle and heard a crack. We made a trip to the ER in Porter's Neck. After a few hours of waiting, the x-ray revealed that she did indeed break the outside bone of her ankle-foot. We made it back to Surf City by 2am.  We did enjoy catching up and no traffic on the roads from 10pm to 2am.

Unfortunately, Lily was having some ear pain midweek. I was sure it was swimmer's ear. I made some homemade drops and gave her Tylenol. She did not get any relief so I took her to a doctor in Surf City on Thursday morning. It was an ear infections - so odd since she had no sore throat, drainage or fever. She is loving the antibiotic and now feeling good!

Until next year, Surf City.

summer days

 

Soaking up the long summer days + family time.

Sunset Slush is served on the beach this year!

All the sunsets

Kids Week at The Bridge Church