Barksdale Beach Week!

July 14, 2013

Barksdale Beach Week!

Last week was our annual beach trip with Brian's family, a vacation that I have been looking forward to for quite some time, even though I've known that it was going to be cut short for me due to work. I had wedding cakes on both weekends of the "beach week," so I knew that those days in between would be savored and I was so looking forward to devoting every minute to my family. No baking, no meetings, no aprons, no running down to the bakement "for one quick minute" (never) on those days. I couldn't wait to let Izzy boss me around all day while holding onto my huggable, smiley six month old every minute my biceps could bear it. Me and the kids. No distractions. Well, unless you count that cute hunk of a hubbie in his usual summer bronze, looking especially hot while making sandcastles with his daughter or attempting to slather sunscreen on a baby (nothing hotter than a shirtless hands-on dad).

Isabelle is now at the age where she understands what it means to go on a trip, and she definitely understands the beach. I don't know how well she remembers it from 1 year ago (isn't a year an eternity for a 2 year old?) but she knew enough to realize this might be one of the best weeks of her life. (It is a short life, afterall.)

An endless supply of shallow water to splash in and run through, acres of sand to build with, 5 cousins (including 3 older cousins who she absolutely idolizes), adoring grandparents, 2 birthday parties (including her own), cake, cartoons on a TV that never turns off, popsicles in the bathtub, late bedtimes....really, what could be better?

We had a pretty smooth ride down (first roadtrip in the minivan) with 2 kiddos, but Isabelle was definitely a broken record. We heard "where's the beach?" over and over and over the whole 4+ hours down to Litchfield. A movie in the DVD player kept her pretty content and she stayed wide awake till we got there late in the afternoon, when we promptly changed into bathing suits and hit the beach!

Pure JOY!

We had some storms and lots of wind roll in the first part of the week, but that didn't dampen our stay. Never a dull moment in a house full of 6 kids and a baby!

Collier did make it out to the beach a few times, but was not a big fan of wind against his face (probably a hazard to those mile-long lashes), sand in his toes or water creeping up his legs.

He got all geared up, but only lasted a few minutes this first try.

Starting to like it more. Flying in the wind!

The cool part about our beach week each year (or at least each year since the births of our July babies) is that we get to celebrate 2 birthdays back to back! Sutton was born one day before Izzy on July 1st, so the celebration began the day after our arrival!

Beautiful mama and her baby girl.

Nice having an interior designer to make sure the house is properly decorated for birthdays!

Isabelle is always happy to celebrate a birthday, even if it's not her own, quite yet.

My silly girl.

Brun checking up on social media during the party.

My ADORABLE boys.

(I love being able to say that in plural form.)

A delicious dinner for the kiddos meant...

Clean Plate Club! So proud.

Happy 2nd Birthday sweet Sutton!!!

Isabelle has a legit a cousin crush on Caden. She sat next to him at every meal and basically stalked him all week.

Collier (as well as many of the littles) was most happy in this amazing contraption in the beach house...a little exersaucer/riding toy that made cool noises and scooted across the spacious hard wood floor.

Last time we stayed at this beach house, this toy was used by little Brooks when he was the same age. A little flashback from 2 years ago when Izzy was 10 months old, trying her best to push and take steps:

Finally the big day arrived, my firstborn was turning three years old! How can it be?!!

Isabelle is so proud to show how old she is turning using her fingers. "I am a-ok!"

Brooksie tattooed his arm with 50 stickers (or are those band-aids?...same thing)

Since we already had quite the celebration at her Wizard of Oz party, I didn't put much thought into her actual birthday. I knew I had to provide cake since that's her favorite thing in the world (quite convenient). I brought some cupcakes and that was enough to make her a very happy birthday girl.
I didn't think to bring any cake candles for her to blow out, so we found a nice big candlestick to put in a cupcake so that she could make her wish, It did the trick! My birthday girl was so happy - see here. She is my precious angel and I love her so!

Time to tackle Uncle Mac!

Having older cousins, Lauren and Caden (both age 9), was such a special treat for our young kids. They couldn't be sweeter (and more entertaining) to their younger cousins and of course the kids just adore them! Now if we can just figure out a way to get them to move down to Charlotte :)

Flashback to 2011 - so amazing how much growing has occurred in 2 years! Little Sutton was in her mommy's belly here and Collier was just a name that we had hoped we could one day use.

The final birthday celebration - America's birthday on the 4th!

I have no idea how we finagled this, but somehow we managed to get all children, awake at the same time, looking at the camera (and happy, for a few seconds at least) together in a photo with their grandparents!

With the way we people constantly take pictures of our kids these days, lollipops are a must. And I thought my dad was a pain when he pulled out the film camera and took a couple shots. Oh, our poor kids!

Aunt Frances getting some baby time.

Oh, how I love these two!!!

The 4th of July was my last day at the beach and I am so glad I decided to splurge on a plane ticket home. The original plan was pack up the car and leave early that day with the kids so that I could get a good start in the bakement that afternoon. But when we found a cheap ticket, I started to think that maybe living in a quiet house and having no distractions would be a good thing for a few days if Brian was willing to keep the kids at the beach. Most enticing was that when all work was complete, having approximately 20 hours alone in an empty house (every mom's fantasy, right?). Even though it was really hard for me to swallow the thought of leaving my entire family at the beach while I came home alone to WORK on a massive wedding cake in an empty house (yes, I was bitter), I am so glad I did.

We all enjoyed celebrating the holiday together and I got to experience great joy and amazement through the eyes of my daughter when she witnessed fireworks for the first time! We decided to let her stay up late and when she heard the first "Pow!" she was bewildered. No going to bed after that! I'll never forget the way she described it in the most excited, cutest, happiest way possible, "It's like stars popping in the sky!!!" And she stomped her feet to mimic the sound.

That was a moment I'll never forget. And it made that $170 flight home worth every penny!

A gorgeous evening to sit out on the boardwalk with cocktails. Awesome the candid photo taken by our youngest photographer.

Betsty Grace and Sutton had an early bedtime. Of course the one night Mac and Libby managed that, the other 2 young ones were frolicking about (never a quiet moment).