First, they got instructions and the rules.

Then they got to jumping. For an hour non-stop. I have never seen them so sweaty.

After a while of practice, maybe they can be as good as this guy.

This is what Thing 3 looked like at the end.

Last night, I woke up to strange sounds. At first, I thought it was Thing 4 crying because she has been sick this week and waking up a lot during the night. I finally realized it was muffled voices and saw the lights were on downstairs. It was 3:15 am.

I went downstairs and found Thing 2 on the couch, all the lights on, and the TV was playing. All of this actually isn’t that surprising for Thing 2. He said the crickets woke him up. But what was unusual about it was what he was watching. The replay of Jay Leno and the Tonight Show. He is six years old.

SuburbanMommy made them endure the yearly ritual of hair combing, collared shirts, and lots of pictures.  One day they will thank her.

Thing 3 and Thing 4 eagerly watched their brothers from the front door.   Thing 3 started pre-K today.  New teachers, new friends, but he adjusted  well and enjoyed playing with all the dinosaurs in his new classroom.

Thing 4 was feeling a little left out, but she felt better once she found a backpack so she could be like one of the boys.

SuburbanMommy: “It’s really crazy there”

Thing 2: “We like it crazy”

Indeed.

Thing 1 got comfortable in a reading chair in his second grade (wow!) classroom.

Thing 2 tried his desk out in first grade.

Is it Thing 1, who breaks into tears and has crazy endurance for a 7 year old?

Or is it Thing 2, a master at deception who and is continually entertaining us?

Or maybe you think it’s Thing 3, with his bumble bee dreams and unique style?

What about Thing 4 who is full of determination and tries to do everything her big brothers do?

Put your guess in the comments.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 were very excited to be at the beach.  Here they are bright and early our first morning, bathing suits on, showing off their booties.

Suburban Grandpa joined us for the first few days.  Here he is enjoying a game of Chutes and Ladders with Thing 3.  Note the glass of wine by his side.

Thing 3 normally walks around with little to no clothing.  But at the beach, it seemed to take on a whole new appeal for him.

With four kids, you don’t just get up and walk to the beach.   There is at least an hour of preparation, packing, applying sunscreen, with many false starts due to forgotten items, and then, finally, lugging all the gear across the sand.

Keeping Thing 4 on her nap schedule was not easy.  We’ve learned over the years to take advantage of nap times whenever and where ever they may occur.

There was a lot of boy bonding and surprisingly little fighting.

We all climbed to the top of the Currituck Beach Lighthouse.  Well, all of us except Thing 4 who I carried to the top.  As if walking up 214 stairs in the brutal heat weren’t enough, try it with an extra 24 lbs in your arms.

Speaking of brutal heat, the temperature hit 110 on the deck of the pool one day.  The heat put a damper on some of our daytime activities, especially for Thing 3 and Thing 4.

At the the end of the day we took in the ocean breeze and a swing.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 played some mini-golf.

Probably the best part of the week for the kids was the daily ice cream.   We relaxed our dessert rules and often had it before, instead of, or as a meal.

Unlike the way he sleeps at home, it was no trouble getting Thing 3 to sleep.  He even slept in a bed with a blanket.

We were lucky to have Suburban Babysitter and her boyfriend join us for a few days.  He was a very good sport and let Thing 1 and Thing 2 bury him in the sand.

The drive back home is always the worst part of any trip.  It took 7 hours to get there but almost 9 hours to get back home because of traffic.  The boys took it well with almost no whining or complaining.  But by the 8th hour Thing 4 wanted O-U-T and the last hour was filled with crying.

Who could have done it? There were only three prime suspects. Thing 4 was off the hook because it was higher than she can reach. And at 16 months she doesn’t know how to write letters. For that reason, we ruled out Thing 3 because the letters were too nicely written for a four year old.

That left Thing 1 and Thing 2. Luckily, there was one really strong clue that made it pretty obvious. There were only two letters, written twice each, as the start of the same word. Not a lot to go on, except they happened to be the first two letters of Thing 2’s name. When confronted, he wisely confessed rather than try to deny it, because, fortunately for us, he is one of the world’s worst liars. He will not have a bright future as either a poker player or a criminal mastermind.

For example take this birthday present Thing 2 received from Suburban Aunt and Uncle. We’ve seen commercials for the Super Soaker on TV and usually hear comments like “that’s awesome!”.

Not so awesome when I got blasted in the face when i wasn’t looking.