ken’s blog

Ashlyn tried body surfing for the first time.

Her last trip to the ocean she was pretty scared of the waves, but this weekend she was jumping right in with me.

How Ashlyn (my 4 year old) sees me

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Tonight there was snow at South Point! Well, not the real stuff… but a nice sprinkling in a controlled area, none on the roads, you know what that does to NC roads.

Tonight was the annual Tree lighting to kick off the holiday season. I do have to say that I think it is a bit to early. But despite that, we had a blast. Ashlyn and Drew both had a good time, but Ashlyn was really glowing with excitement. She enjoyed the music, the dancing, the lighting of the tree, the snow flurries, and most of all Santa!

So I guess it is Christmas time…

Had a good night of trick or treating… the kids had a blast. Drew was a Carolina Hurricane’s hockey player (I loved the shoulder pads) and Ashlyn was a Princess. She has been talking about being a princess all year.

Back from a short family vacation in the mountains. We had a great time! Kids had a blast, and I think Laurie mostly enjoyed it despite getting hit with some nasty allergy attach. We stumbled on this great little lake, trout lake, where it seems people take their horses to ride. Saw some horses trotting out in the water, it was pretty cool.

The North Carolina mountains are pretty amazing, I would highly recommend a visit

So today while I was at work, Laurie took the kids to Spence’s Farm. We have taken the kids their quite a few times, and it is always a big hit. Well today was a little different, Ashlyn was going to learn a little about riding a horse.

It sounds like they have a great perspective there. They started out by teacher her that she has to do something for the horse, before she can expect the horse to let her ride him. So, they taught her to brush him. Then they fed the horse a snack. Gave her some instruction on getting on and off the horse, etc… and even had her pick her own helmet. She was responsible for all the details involved in getting out there to ride. She is only 3 (well almost 4) years old, but she handled it well. She really had a great time.

After the ride, he offered to let her “help” him feed the chickens. Basically that was his next chore to do, and let her tag along. Showed her the real responsibility that is found on a farm. I wish I could have gone, I ended up having to watch it all on video.

Anyone that has children, I would highly recommend a visit to Spence’s Farm.

Got a couple junior marketers

Yesterday was Drew’s 1st birthday, today we had a big party with lots of friends and family. Had a really great time, Drew smeared cake all over, and smerp slayed the dragon! We rented one of the giant inflatable house that looked like a dragon. The kids loved it, and it was so worth it. porkrynde seemed to like it the more than any of the kids, and smerp tried it out too. That was interesting…. smerp managed to get over on his back down in a corner cutting off the air flow, which deflated one side… and the dragon took a big dip. All the kids ended up on top of him and he couldn’t get up… We had to lift the corner to get him out, and he said something along the lines of “Help, help, help, this is not a drill”. It was funny…. especially since I wasn’t the one trapped in there.

All and all it was a great day. The weather was perfect, good company, and good times!

So yesterday, April 28th, Drew turned 1! He is getting so big, nearly walking and eating nearly everything we eat. He also easily out eats his older sister. We don’t know where it all goes… but he sure likes his grub.

We had a nice little family dinner and cake last night, today is the bigger party