to answer katy's question...

no, neither little man or m1 went to pre-k 3. but this precious girl is another story...

we think m2 might need a bit more socialization with children her own age. that way she can boss them around, tell them that everything is hers, yell at them, wrestle with them, hit them and demand things to go her way NOW.

then the school will kick her out after a few weeks and when we re-enroll her in kindergarten that behavior is out of her system and it will not go on her permanent record.

melt. my. heart.

daddy: would you like to go to school one day a week next year with little man and m1?

m2: no

little man: it would be fun, i could walk you to your class.

m2: no

m1: you could play on the playground.

mommy: i might be lonely with all of you gone.

m2: daddy, daddy, could you, daddy, could you, could you, stay home with mommy while i go to school so hers not lonely.

...dude...

these statements are snippets of a conversation little man had with dwp (his most favorite cousin) on the phone this afternoon.

• dude, grammy told me about the kayak race... but dude, did you hear that they are going to grease up a watermelon and we are going to have to catch it?
• dude, you are a little bit better paddler than me. why don't you go first and we will get a big lead and then i will finish the race.
• dude... i wish you had the same amount of time out for summer break that we do.
• aww, dude....
hey dude, i am bringing my legos...
yeah, my mom is the girls kayak coach..... no dude, my dad is announcing the race, your dad is the boys kayak coach
dude, i gotta go... dinner time here, okay, hey dude, see you tomorrow.
how many "dudes" was that? i wonder if sister was listening and laughing on her end. love the relationship that those two boys have!

lighthouse trail

early the next morning we headed back to the refuge to walk the lighthouse trail... this time we did our bug spray process back at the hotel. i don't think it worked! i could not get any pictures of little man or m1, they were running the trail to get back to the car ~ the bugs would not leave us alone! don't know if you can tell from the picture below but m2 is covering her eyes, very sad she was crying the bugs were so bad. and yes, we had on the same clothes from yesterday cause i figured that they were already covered in bug spray and that would help.

playground time

we ate our lunch at a nearby playground. i was surprised at how much energy the children had after riding bikes for nearly 7 miles and walking some distance along the beach. i facebooked their p.e. teacher and he was very proud!

sunset on the beach

after dinner we went back to the beach to watch the sunset. the same horses we saw on the beach were walking along the road... there was a back up of cars snapping pictures.

horses on the beach

while casually walking along the beach and collecting shells ~ and asking mommy if we could please take the horseshoe crab skeleton home? ummm, no! ~ we spotted horses in the distance. seriously, this is why you come to chincoteague. it was so neat to be able to walk right up and take pictures.

i loved the misty of chincoteague books and lots of other horse books when growing up. each night during the trip, we read a few chapters from my misty book that i have kept to pass down to them.