Easter in Charlotte

We know two fabulous familes living in Charlotte, NC, so we thought that if we invited ourselves down for Easter this last weekend, that at least one of them would certainly not only put us up, but feed us a ham dinner as well. Lucky for us, they know each other so we got to spend time with both families, see a few sites in Charlotte, have a fantastic Easter dinner, and an overall really memorable weekend.

(Duh! I just figured out after-how-many-months how to upload more than one picture at a time. So be prepared for the mini-photo essay! It's my substitute scrapbooking.)

Anywayzzzz, we left Thursday night after Adam got home from work. Note to self for next time: Charlotte is not 6 1/2 hours away as previously thought, but at least 8 hours of solid driving. (Oops...sorry about that Adam...and thanks for doing the lion's share of the driving.) While the kids were awake we listened to Lemony Snicket's The Bad Beginning read by Tim Curry. It was a wonderful recording and Tim Curry is a seriously scary Count Olaf. All of us are really excited about checking out the subsequent books' recordings. And now we've taken to calling Isabel "Sunny" since she most often says no more than "Gak!" but we're certain that she really means stuff like, "I always enjoy a good puttanesca sauce, especially when the capers are fresh."

Due to the initial miscalculation on our ETA, we arrived at Mike and Karen's, at 3am. They let us sleep in and then made us German pancakes for breakfast. Talk about vacation already! They live near downtown Charlotte, so we got to take a peek at urban Charlotte while we went to the Discovery Place museum--and from what I saw, it looks like a pretty nice place to live.
The museum was very fun and the kids were so occupied that they didn't even notice that we hadn't brought them any lunch, nor did we go out to find any snacks until well after 2p.m.

After the museum we went back to their house for Siena's very fun (it had a unicorn theme afterall!) 5th birthday party.

At the party each of the kids got to make these crowns, which Siena, Olivia and Max wore for the rest of the day...even when we went out for dinner later that evening.

We went out that night for Southern BBQ at a place called Mac's BBQ in downtown Charlotte. It was a real biker bar complete with plenty of bikes and bikers in full-on leather. I couldn't help but notice that more than a few of the women (if not in their biker leather) were all gussied up for eating out at a place with picnic tables and paper cups. Is this a Southern "Belle" thing? Oh, but that reminds me of a real Southern thing that I learned (besides the fact that children respond to even simple questions with a "Yes, Ma'am"): BBQ is actually only called BBQ when it is pork; all else is a "cook out." You could never invite your friends over for a backyard BBQ and serve them chickenbreasts marinated in olive oil, lemon juice and basil. No, Ma'am!

Here's Talia giving us quite a show after sucking on a lemon. (The bike in the background is not a decoration.)
The BBQ was finger lickin' good and we sampled lots of fried foods. We really liked Hush Puppies, but mostly I liked that Max called them "Sleepy Puppies" when trying to remember what they were.

On Saturday morning we went out to Matt and Carrie Burton's house. They have 3 kids, each the same age as our kids, but in opposite genders as ours, so the matchmaking is already complete. Actually, wouldn't it be so great to pick out your kid's spouse mostly so that they get some really awesome in-laws. Think of the combined family vacations we could all have!

Carrie packed everyone a picnic lunch and so we all went to eat our lunch at the Historic Latta Plantation that is just outside of Charlotte and near the Burton's house.

(Little side thought: they have Civil War reenactments at the Plantation--which side do you think wins in the reenactment?)

After the plantation we went back to the Burton's to enjoy a little slice of surburban paradise. They live in a charming little community and have a (stocked) pond out just beyond the backyard. We spent the afternoon in gorgeous spring weather in the back yard having some smooth sippin's, playing catch with the kids, lounging on the lawn (which is actually already green in NC), and letting the kids "fish" in the pond. It was great.




Sunday morning the kids woke up to some pretty cool Easter baskets (thanks, Carrie!) and a little mini-chocolate egg hunt around the house. We wore our finery to church and attempted at some family photos (well, actually, I never got around to buying any new Easter dresses for the girls--it kind of sneaked up on me this year). Look whose family is a wee bit better at the photogenic/posing aspect of picture taking.

Oh well.

We had to leave that evening to be back for work this week, and now armed with a more accurate driving time, Adam insisted that we leave at 4pm. So after church we tried to squeeze in some Easter egg coloring, a pretty enormous egg hunt, and a delish dinner (with cream puffs for dessert!). We got on the road at 5pm., but I didn't feel bad about the one extra hour at all because it was hard enough to leave then. Oh, and, a big thanks for doing all the driving again, Adam.

A future engagement photo?










Thanks guys. I hope you don't mind when we invite ourselves again next year!