Category Archives: Fall

4 Years

Lucy’s spring was jam-packed, as she took her first trip to Great Wolf Lodge near Charlotte with her friend Sam. She spent Mother’s Day picking strawberries (a Flinn family tradition).

A school year’s worth of Thursday night dance lessons culminated in her class’ recital at Rolesville High School. Her class danced one ballet number and one tap number and both were received with great applause. Lucy’s school classmate and neighbor Elizabeth came to show her support.

Just in time for summer Lucy got her first big girl haircut, getting several inches cut off. In lieu of visiting Chautauqua for the Fourth of July, Lucy spent the holiday with friends and family in Maryland swimming, celebrating, and making s’mores. In between trips we visited the sunflower fields and Dix Park. Her next trip came later in July during her first visit to Ocean Isle Beach, about three hours from home. Proximity to the beach was a big plus for Lucy, but her hands-down favorite part of the week was the golf cart that we used!

At the beach and at the Wendell Falls pool Lucy put into practice the swimming skills that she’s been learning at the lessons she takes every Sunday. By the end of the summer she was confident in jumping into the deep end of the pool, swimming out to touch the lane divider, and coming back to the wall.

Early August brought Lucy’s first day of school in the Dragonflies class at Central Baptist. She also began playing Tiny Basketball twice a week with friends and classmates at the Wendell Community Center and taking weekly gymnastics classes at Knightdale Gymnastics.

In the fall Lucy supported her dad playing music locally in Wendell, visited Hillridge Farms to buy “Choo-Choo” the pumpkin, and successfully made her first trip to the dentist. With October came the Flinns’ yearly trip to the mountains, this time to Blowing Rock and the famed Tweetsie Railroad. Lucy loved the steam-driven train ride, but her favorite part was the “Tweetsie Twister.”

As Lucy’s fourth birthday neared, she decided on a Star Wars-Frozen “mashup” theme for her party, with Elsa and Yoda on hand to delight her friends and family with stories, sing-a-longs, and face-painting. In lieu of gifts she collected food bank donations, collecting enough food for 65 meals! She also had a smaller party on her actual birthday at Wine and Beer 101 in downtown Wendell, this time with her best friends.

3 1/2 Years

Lucy celebrated her third birthday last October with friends and family as well as Dan the Animal Man and a porcupine, snake, owl, and tortoise (the last one she even got to ride!). Her favorite birthday present was a Power Wheels Jeep from Aunt Christine and Uncle Josh, complete with a Frozen theme and a “radio” that plays songs from the movie.

She was very excited to dress up as Daniel Tiger for Halloween, and her Mimi transformed Lucy’s wagon into Daniel’s trolley.

While Kevin performed at Wendell Falls’ Grounds Café for the first time, Lucy accompanied him with some interpretive dancing.

Lucy’s holiday schedule was jam-packed: she got to see the Rudolph musical in downtown Raleigh, see Disney on Ice at PNC Arena and participated in the Knightdale Christmas parade; she hung out with Mrs. Claus at Pullen Park’s Holiday Express; and saw the Chinese Lantern Festival in Cary with her entire family while they were in town for Christmas.

The New Year brought snow to Wendell and Lucy went sledding for the first time. After getting over some initial fears, she loved it and can’t wait for the snow to come back.

She’s been taking dance classes at Heather’s Dance in Knightdale, and the studio held a daddy-daughter dance in early February. While Lucy was one of the youngest girls there, she had a great time and made a few new friends.

February also saw a candy-tastic Valentine’s Day party at Lucy’s school, Central Baptist, as well as a cookie decorating party that Lucy and Allison hosted at our house in Wendell Falls. At the end of the month Lucy spent a week at Grandma and Coach’s house in Key Largo, and loved the pool and a bumpy glass-bottom boat ride.

Following tradition, she attended the Raleigh St. Patrick’s Day parade with her friends Nevin and Shay and were visited by her Mimi and Grandma for Easter, where she took part in several egg hunts.

3 Years

Lucy had a very busy and exciting summer, as she moved into her new house in Wendell Falls. (Her one request was pink walls for her room.)Our annual Mother’s Day tradition continued with strawberry picking at Vollmer Farm, and Lucy again visited Coach and Grandma on Lake Chautauqua for the Fourth of July. She even got to ride a miniature horse!

Lucy spent the month of July with her daddy, and they spent lots of time at the community pool and the Wendell public library. She loves Wendell Falls’ community cafe and its specialty, grilled cheese and potato chips. At the end of July she got to spend a couple days at Wrightsville Beach before her first day at her new preschool, Central Baptist, in Wendell.

In August Lucy watched the eclipse at the Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh and began taking two classes every Thursday–soccer at school and ballet/tap at Heather’s Dance in Knightdale. Unsurprisingly, she loves both!

September saw Lucy spending time with Mimi while her parents went to Charleston for a long weekend, and in October the whole family went to Mt. Airy in western North Carolina for mommy’s birthday weekend. As her third birthday neared, Lucy returned to Vollmer Farm’s pumpkin patch to play in the corn and catch an outdoor screening of The Lion King.

2 Years 3 Months

The holiday season was full of family, friends, and fun for Lucy. In November she attended her first horse show at the North Carolina state fairgrounds, had Thanksgiving dinner with her friend Sam Erikson and his family, and attended the Raleigh Christmas parade (which had much nicer weather than the previous year). She even took part in a Thanksgiving song at her school and was one of few kids who actually sang!As December dawned, Lucy helped pick out a Christmas tree and enjoyed the Holiday Express train ride and carousel at Pullen Park, but she still isn’t much of a fan of Santa. Even though she talked about him daily, for the second year in a row she cried on his lap. Her extended family came to town for Christmas and Lucy truly got into the holiday spirit this year–she baked cookies, opened gifts, started the annual tradition of singing Happy Birthday to Jesus (her idea), and couldn’t get enough of the neighborhood lights.Lucy loves cooking in her play kitchen and in the real kitchen with mom; the play pizza set she got for Christmas makes for a daily pretend feast. She is a frequent visitor to Ravenscroft, where dad works, and gets high fives and hugs every time she comes around. She loves finger painting, using ink stamps, and coloring. As the new year rolled around, she experienced the first snow of the year, transitioned into her big girl bed and is excited about visiting her grandparents in Florida in a month.

Happy Halloween!

In the days leading up to Halloween Lucy attended Brews and Boos in North Hills and was featured on the local news’ website. That same day she also attending a pumpkin carving party.

She went trick-or-treating for the very first time with mom, dad, and Mimi. With her neighbors Avery and Malachi, Lucy walked around the neighborhood, collecting candy and pretzels. While she didn’t have much interest in the candy she received, she loved sorting our own leftover candy.

Two Years

As Lucy’s two-year birthday neared, she had plenty of opportunities to practice the “Happy Birthday” song at school and for her Mommy’s birthday. (Other songs in Lucy’s growing repertoire are the ABCs, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and “Rock-a-Bye Baby.”)Since she began going to Harps Mill Creative School in August, Lucy’s been picking out her own clothes (sometimes) and counting the stairs as she goes up and down, often going all the way to 15!Lucy’s other “firsts” included her first bus ride, her first time in a movie theater, her first time at the zoo, and her first fall festival at school. She also had a few notable “seconds” as well—she went to her second Durham Bulls game, visited her new favorite hangout Jumpin’ Jojo’s for the second time, and saw her Daddy play music at Ravenscroft’s annual Fall Festival.Taking a bus ride to the Destination Dix Festival.Seeing Minions in the movie theater.Checking out the animals at the zoo.Fall Festival at school.Watching a Durham Bulls game over Labor Day weekend.Jumping at Jumpin’ Jojo’s.Watching Daddy perform at Ravenscroft.

As fall progressed she spent a weekend with her Mimi and Pop-Pop and enjoyed her new activity tower (thanks Grandma and Coach!), which she uses to help her parents cook and color.

Happy Halloween!

While Lucy was two weeks old at Halloween last year, this year was her first in costume. She went as a crazy cat lady with her sweats, glasses-on-a-chain, and cat purse (and of course, a number of stuffed kittens stitched to her clothes). While her movement was hindered by all that gear, she didn’t seem to mind and was a good sport about indulging her mom and dad. She didn’t trick or treat (maybe next year), but she helped hand out candy!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Lucy celebrated her first birthday at home, surrounded by friends and family. She didn’t have much interest in cake this time around, but we figure that’ll change in the future.