Just a few extra pics from the end of April! We didn’t arrive back to our house until the afternoon on Easter Sunday, but the kids were still eager for some sort of egg hunt so we pulled the eggs out of the basement, filled them, and hid them! Always a good time.

The following weekend (4/23) Sarah participated in a local chess tournament at the novice level! She did so well, we are so proud of her for participating and competing with kids who were in 4th and 5th grades!

I think I took this pic because the kids were proud that they’d done all (well most) of the work to make pancakes one morning.

Lastly, I took this one because I was feeling nostalgic after hearing the sad news that our friends will be moving at the end of the summer to Abu Dhabi! Blaine’s been friends with Sami since Kindergarten and he is really going to miss him next year. This little piece of paper has been on his door for years.

I was cleaning out my phone and found this pic from when they were in 1st grade, which is when I think they put the sign there. They were forming a company called the “B.S Corporation” and the sign reads “We are doing important work DO NOT OPEN DOOR” haha.

For Spring Break this year we planned a trip down south so that we could join Great Grandmommy for her 100th birthday celebration!

We started our trip with a night in Great Falls visiting Gram and Grand-dad! Sarah was excited to show Gram what she has been learning in her piano lessons.

We spent some time outside on the playground and then had a delicious dinner, followed by Gram’s famous persimmon pudding! So much tastier than my attempts on the last two Thanksgivings. 🙂

The next day we were headed to Charlottesville for the big birthday party, but en route we visited Luray Caverns, one of Andrew’s favorite attractions when he was a kid. The caves were beautiful!

After the caves Blaine insisted that he wanted to go on the ropes course, so I went along with him! No pictures, but he did great! I guess he does not have a fear of heights.

We stopped at a Mexican restaurant for lunch on our drive to Charlottesville, then when we arrived we checked into our hotel and got dressed up for the big celebration.

The party was at the Mill Room restaurant at the Boar’s Head resort near Great Grand-mommy’s nursing home. We had a private room with plenty of space and quiet to celebrate with Great Grand-mommy (of course) as well as Gram and Grand-dad, and Great Aunt Jody and Uncle Dennis. There were beautiful flowers, delicious food, and it was followed by a delicious cake to mark the occasion! We were so happy to be there with Great Grand-mommy to celebrate such a rare and wonderful event.

I tried to take a group picture but the kids were getting wiggly and this was the best I could manage! Oh well.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel with Gram and Grand-dad, and then we took a walk around the pedestrian mall in downtown Charlottesville and to a nearby park.

We stopped for lunch at Citizen Burger on the mall.

Then we went to visit with great Grand-mommy in the afternoon at her apartment in the Blake. She has a beautiful spacious balcony overlooking the inner courtyard which already had lots of spring blooms.

That night we went for dinner on the mall at Bizou.

The next morning we had breakfast at a place called the Nook, and then started our drive to the Outer Banks.

We stopped around lunchtime at a market that received high marks for its fried chicken! We were encouraged when we saw the volume of people going through ordering just that. We took our lunch to a nearby playground to eat and move around a bit.

We’d rented a VRBO in Nags Head, NC. After arriving that night we unpacked and relaxed and Andrew cooked some burgers and we dined on the porch.

The next day we drove down to the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge for a short hike. We saw lots of turtles!

I like this pic because it illustrates the perfect constant wind which drew the Wright brothers to this exact area for their work.

After the wildlife refuge we went to the beach nearby, which was empty and beautiful. But the wind posed a slight challenge, as it persistently blew a spray of sand over us as we lay on the beach. 🙂 By the time we decided to leave we were all completely covered in a fine layer of sand.

That night we went out to dinner at the Blue Moon Beach Grill, our best meal on this leg of our trip. The restaurant was packed so we were told the wait would be 45 minutes, but they had a little arcade with pinball and foosball and the kids were thrilled! The food was top notch.

The next day we had breakfast on our porch and then headed to another beach nearby called Jennette’s Pier, I believe.

The wind was just as strong and steady as the day before! But this time we were not the only ones braving the constant spray of sand, there were other beachgoers doing the same thing. The water was freezing, so no one was swimming! We all just sat with our backs to the wind and tried to keep the sand out of our eyes. 🙂 I imagine this can’t be the standard for the whole summer or else it wouldn’t be such a desirable beach destination.

Eventually we gave up on the beach and went to check out the pier.

There were lots of people fishing and we got to see a few people catch skates and throw them back.

The pier also had some little aquarium fish tanks inside.

After that we went mini-golfing!

I took a picture of this display to show Grand-dad, who’d told us this story about pirates using horses to lure boats into crashing into the shore.

The highlight of the trip for the kids was that Duck Donuts was founded in the Outer Banks (in Duck, to be precise). We didn’t make it to the actual original location, but this location near our VRBO was just fine, and the donuts were warm and delicious!

After mini-golf we went to the Wright Brothers Memorial, which was the highlight of the trip for me. It was a tiny little museum dedicated to the first flight and explained their engineering process over the course of many years to successful flight. It was very well done — highly recommended.

Outside you could see the field where they had conducted the first flights with markers showing how far the first, second, third, and fourth runs had gone.

The next day we went to another interesting historical site, the lost colony of Roanoke Island. This was where a group of 100+ colonists established a colony, earlier even than Jamestown (which we’d visited on a previous trip). However, the colony was not to last and disappeared completely without a trace. The exhibit included a film and exhibits with various theories but no one knows for sure.

We went to lunch at the Lost Colony Brewery! Then we went to the nearby Aquarium on Roanoke Island which had a nice exhibit on sea turtles including an area where they were caring for rescued sea turtles to return to the wild.

We had a great time during our trip to the Outer Banks! Lots to see, despite the less than ideal beach conditions. Favorite parts were the Wright Brothers memorial and Duck Donuts. Sarah also really liked this hammock at the VRBO.

On Saturday we started our long drive back north to NY, but we’d planned to stop about halfway to spend the night in Chincoteague. On the way we listened to the audiobook of Misty of Chincoteague, which I had never read. We also drove across this really long bridge!

In Chincoteague we’d reserved a boat trip to see the island of Assateague where the wild ponies live. We also saw a lighthouse and lots of birds.

We stayed at a Hampton Inn which had won awards for being the best Hampton Inn in the country! The staff was incredible and attentive.

We had dinner next door at Don’s Seafood and got some yummy oysters from the local oyster farm we’d seen from our boat tour.

Then we capped off our trip with some delicious ice cream at Island Creamery.

The next day was Easter Sunday and we drove home to Larchmont. It was a wonderful spring break, especially memorable for including a 100th birthday celebration!

Sarah started playing lacrosse this Spring! Lacrosse is really big around here so they have this large rec league divided by grades. The 2nd and 3rd grade girls field 8 teams and they meet every Friday for a big group practice followed by games on Saturday mornings. Sarah’s team is called the Pumas; here they are on the first day of practice.

Signs of Spring: our Magnolia tree blossomed.

On April 3 we celebrated Andrew’s birthday! He wanted it to be totally stress-free so we ordered a cake from Seth Greenberg’s Just Desserts. It was simple but amazingly delicious! Such a treat. Blaine snuck in and blew out the candles so we needed a re-do! We had the cake for afternoon snack, followed by presents, and then dinner out at Shoyu Sushi in Scarsdale.

April 5 was Great Grandmommy Dorothy’s 100th Birthday! We were pretty excited to go down to VA to celebrate with her the next weekend. The other reason for celebration that day was that the long awaited 15th book in the Wings of Fire series was released! Blaine was so happy.

Sarah’s lacrosse team, the Pumas, after their first game! Sarah’s 3rd from the left.