This tiny ball of a firecracker turned 5 last week. I’m not really sure where the time goes but it does goes by quickly. It feels like Kelsey had just called me to tell me that she had delivered Yoshi and that she was much tinnier than her older sister.

Unlike with her big sister it took Yoshi a little bit longer to warm up to me. I was also living and traveling around for the first year. I got to meet her when she was two months and then didn’t see her again until she was 8 months old. Then after she had turned one I moved out to Asheville.

Yoshi was a mommas girl through and through and she reminds me a lot of Kelsey and from the stories that I have heard of what Kelsey was like as a toddler and as a child Yoshi is her tiny little version.

I will say this if you didn’t know your best friend as a child wait until they have kids and you will get an idea of who they where.

Yoshi though is her own little bright ball of fire. Unlike her parents with their logic and straightforwardness Yoshi lives in this magical world with dragons, fairies, dinosaurs and mermaids. She burst out in a song and start dancing moving with whatever song is in her mind.

But don’t think for a moment that just because she is the little ballerina oh no you make her mad enough and she will tell you she will make her dragon friend come out and eat you. Gobble you up whole after roasting you with the fire out its nose.

And that is Yoshi. What would life be like with out her? Honestly I can’t remember anymore.

Last week I was able to fly out really quickly for Yoshi’s birthday and spend a couple days with the family.

For Yoshi’s birthday we had originally planned to take the girls to the waterpark and then to the beach but well when your birthday is after Labor Day all the fun water activities close down and it also decided to be rainy on Thursday. So we changed plans and looked to see what other fun activites we could do.

We then decided to head down to Wilmington and take the girls to The Children’s Museum of Wilmington. The girls loved it and Aspen remembered all the rooms from when we had all lived in Wilmington and the girls went every week.

The Museum is more of a big indoor play area hands on for creativity and a slight bit of teaching. Each room as its own theme. The rooms either have a theme on health or something specific to the Cape Fear region.

We took our time and went through each room letting the girls explore and play. By the time we were getting the girls gathered to leave we had been there for two hours and the girls where not excited about leaving. I am sure we could have been there another two hours and they still wouldn’t have wanted to leave.

After the museum we went down the road to head to The Peppered Cupcake. We each picked out a cupcake to take back to the house. Then because we were there Kelsey and I had to stop at Candles etc. for the local candle company The Old Wilmington Candle Co.

My favorites- North Carolina Mountains, Wrightsville Memories and Wilmington Rain also Southern Nights.

We walked around downtown for a little bit before starting our way back to New Bern but not before stopping off at Fermental Beer & Wine. They have a great outdoor area where there is always a local band playing in the evenings.

Fermental was for the adults though the girls have fun running around and playing in the back as well.

With love,

Jess