Teacher's Comment

Mrs. Worrell's comment today said "I am so impressed.  Lily is not attention-seeking for her good behavior, and she seems so humble."  Lily may be humble, but as her mommy, I am not.  We have such an awesome, sweet girl in Lily!  I am so proud of her!

Gymnastics and School

1. Lily started gymnastics last week.  Little Gym asked her to join their advanced 5 and 6 year old class.  Ryan was able to watch a lot of her class last week, and he said they were really doing gymnastics; in her class last Spring, it was very casual while they learned to do somersaults, walk on the beam, etc.  Now they are really focusing on the technical side of it while still keeping it fun.  They are also throwing a little bit of kid-friendly strength building and cardio workout in.  Last week after class, Lily told me "I'm not sure I like this gymnastics class."  When I asked why, she replied "Because I don't know how to do it all; it's hard."  I explained that this was a great chance for her to learn new skills and that with practice, she would get better; in a year, she will be able to look back and think "that's all easy stuff now."  She seemed content to hear that and was very excited to go back today.  The first thing she said to me afterwards today was "I learned to do a cartwheel!"  She is so very proud of herself right now, and I have to say, she's doing a good job.  I tried reinforcing that she was learning something new and with practice she will continue to get better.  Well, she is having a great time practicing all around our house (and trying to teach Mia too).  She has decided that now, she loves gymnastics!

2. Mia also started gymnastics last week.  She is in the 3 and 4 year old class.  It's true that she won't be 3 until November, but she has been watching Lily for over a year now, and the teachers agreed she could handle it.  Well, in their first class they were working on somersaults.  Mia can already do a really good somersault after practicing so much with Lily last year; some of the big kids in the class can't even do them yet.  Ryan also said that she was practically running across the balance beam (she doesn't walk anywhere) while bigger kids were timidly scooting across.  I am by no means trying to put the other kids down because they are just learning, but I am saying that I'm really glad Mia is in this class; she's loving it and doing a great job.

3. Lily is still thoroughly enjoying school.  Her conduct grade (commenting on behavior, conduct and obedience) each day so far has been either Satisfactory (which the teacher said means it was a good, normal day and is to be expected most days) or Excellent (meaning the child did something extra great that day).  Today, in addition to receiving a Satisfactory grade, there was a note saying she needs to work a little on her self-control of her hands during chapel and story time.  I talked to Lily about that before bed time tonight, and she said "But Mommy, I get so excited and can't help it."  I explained that moving her hands around a lot can be distracting, so we practiced sitting with her hands still in her lap while I read a book.  Hopefully we will see this improve.  Her work ethic grade (commenting on diligence, neatness and effort) has been Excellent every day.  I can't say I'm surprised by that.  If you ever watch Lily while she is doing any kind of art project, you will see this work ethic come through; she will concentrate so hard to make sure she is following the directions to make everything just right.  This is one of the many qualities I love about her.  I have asked Lily a few times what is her favorite part of school; each time she has replied "carpool line."  I'm not really sure what to think of that!  She has also commented that she has fun on the playground, and she is convinced it is her new shoes that make her fun fast.  On the way in this morning, she put her shoe up in front of me and asked "Mommy, what's on the bottom of these that make me run so fast?"  When I told her I thought maybe it was her feet that made her run so fast, she said "Maybe, but what if there's a little machine inside the shoe?  What if it's a little mouse that runs on the machine to make little wheels turn to make me run fast?"  She's thinking about a hamster's wheel because at Chuck E Cheese they have a huge hamster's wheel for kids to run in.  Whatever it is, she loves to run!  We are so pleased at how well these first few days of school have gone.

4. We went to Mia's new school for Sneak-A-Peak today.  She starts the Wednesday after Labor Day, and she'll go 3 half-days a week.  We met her two teachers, Mrs. Mara and Mrs. Parker; we also got to see her room and meet a few of the other kids in her class.  I believe Mrs. Mara said there will be 9 kids in the class, so that is a good number.  Her room is very cute.  They have a nice size library and reading corner in it which Mia loved.  We probably looked at two dozen books before leaving; that was about half of the ones on the shelf.  They also had lots of good chunky puzzles and building blocks.  I liked that their room is right next to the playground, and she commented that they will go outside to play for awhile every day.  The room was decorated to show all the fun things they will learn.  They will spend the first few weeks working on basics like learning everyone's names, the weather, days of the week, etc.  Then they start with a different letter of the alphabet each week and all the projects will focus on that letter.  They will also spend some time on Spanish each day; I think Mia will like that because she loves to count to ten in Spanish (thank you Lily for teaching her that!).  They also have a little music class each day which I know she will love.  I think this will be a great experience for Mia, and she cannot wait to go to school!

A Great First Week

Just a quick update to mark the end of Lily's first week of school before we get started again tomorrow.  She loved it!  She has told me about two new friends that she has made, Jill and Avery.  There are only 11 kids in the class, so I have a feeling I will hear about all of them at some point.  This week they worked on the short sound for the letter "i."  They made an igloo by turning a styrofoam cup upside down, cutting a little door on it and then gluing mini-marshmallows on to it.  It was really cute!  I have a picture, I just haven't uploaded it yet.  They also studied indians to get that "i" sound.  Next week they will work on the short sound of "u."  Mrs. Worrell sends a little note home each day letting us know how our child's behavior and work ethic work for the day; Lily did awesome each day.  Mrs. Worrell commented that she is "kind, patient and considerate."  She also noted that "she is a great listener which is why her igloo turned out so well."  On Wednesday, Lily told me about using sidewalk chalk to make giraffes; ever since then she has been teaching everyone how to draw giraffes.  She really enjoys playing teacher, and I have to say, she's pretty good at it!  We are absolutely thrilled with how well Lily's first week went, and we're looking forward to all the fun ahead!

Lily Starts to School!

I cannot believe that today was Lily's first day of Pre-K!  Where has the time gone? 

We are absolutely thrilled that she will attend Atlanta Classical Christian Academy five half-days a week.  We discovered this school a couple of years ago, and we have been nothing but impressed with them.  We love the classical method of teaching, and we are very pleased that this is also a Christian-based learning system.  Lily has been so excited for a couple of weeks, ever since we bought her school supplies.  Lily loves to learn, so she couldn't wait for school to start.  

Last Thursday, we attended the Pre-K Open House where we had the chance to meet Lily's teacher, Mrs. Worrell, see her classroom, meet other kids in her class (and their parents) and drop off her supplies.  There were two rows of small tables which have up to three children at each at them; there are 11 total kids in her class.  Everyone found their seat, and they looked around the room to find their name elsewhere: on their cubbies, coat hook and on the wall.  Lily was so excited when she looked around her room.  They have tons of great books, stuffed animals (Lily said the giraffes were her favorite part), craft supplies and a pretend kitchen.  She and Mia had fun making a railroad track out of connectable blocks.  There was a lot of space for everyone to move around in, and there's a little bathroom connected to their classroom. Of course, the room is decorated so cute too with lots of bright pictures showing the ABCs, months, days, left versus right; all the fun stuff you work on in Pre-K! 

Lily standing in front of the growth chart holding her table name tag.

 The hallway outside of her room is decorated so cute too!

 Lily with Mrs. Worrell.  The headmaster told Ryan that she is "the girl you want your girl to grow up to be."  We have heard great things about her from other parents too, so we are thrilled that Lily is in her class.

 Today was the big day, so I made Lily a special Happy Face breakfast which consisted of strawberry eyes, scrambled egg nose, granola cheeks and a bacon mouth.

Ready to go in her adorable uniform!  This is her "standard" uniform that is worn most days though she has a couple of color and style options on the shirt.  On Wednesdays, which is chapel day, all the girls wear a plaid jumper over a white blouse.  They are so precious!

 Showing off her new book bag. 

 Ryan and I walked her in this morning.  In a couple of days, we'll let her go through the carpool line, but I'm not ready for that yet!  Here she is about to walk into her class.  Though she gave us each a big hug and a kiss, she was very brave and didn't cling to us.  Yet another sign that my little girl is growing up!

 In her seat and ready to go!

She was so excited to get started this morning, and we couldn't wait to pick her up and see how her first day went.  When she climbed in, we asked how the day was and she said "Good."  We asked what she did, and she told us about playing a funny way of Duck, Duck, Goose where you say your name instead of Goose.  They also drew shapes (circles, squares and rectangles; she used red).  She also really enjoyed hearing Mrs. Worrell read a book called "Corduroy Goes to School."  Lily always loves a good book.  Of course, they had snack time too where I was informed that she liked her pretzels but she did not eat her grapes because she does not like grapes (forget the fact that she ate a dozen with dinner last night). 

We decided to head to Chick-fil-a for lunch and a special milkshake treat.  Ryan and I had fun sitting with Lily, and just listening to her talk about her day.  At one point, I asked if she wanted to wear her blue shirt with her uniform tomorrow.  She said she liked this shirt better because it was more pink than the blue.  She likes her uniforms though (and I can't help but say she is adorable in them). 

We are so proud of this little girl!  Overall, she had a fantastic first day, and she is excited about returning tomorrow!

Two Funnies

Two quick stories:

While driving down the road the other day, here is the conversation between Lily, Mia and myself:
L: Mommy, what are you going to be when you grow up? I'm going to be a chef.
A: A chef is a great choice.
L: What are you going to be?
A: Um, well...
M: I know what I am going to be! 
A: Oh really? What are you going to be when you grow up Mia?
M: A pirate!  Arrrr!

My mom took Lily on a Granna-Lily date while Mia was at camp on Wednesday.  They went to The Swan House for lunch.  Absolutely one of my favorite places, so I was quite jealous!  Lily loved it too.  She told me later she had four pieces of bread (granted the girl loves bread, but please know these are bite size muffins being served), some chicken fingers and french fries.  She was also thrilled to have "rainbow ice cream" (aka rainbow sherbet) for dessert.  After lunch, they visited the gift shop which is just wonderful, and they found a cute book for Mia and a neat princess mirror decorating kit for Lily which they came home and put together.  She had a blast!  I'm so glad she and Mom were able to have a fun date together!

Another Fun Date

Lily and I had another fun Mommy-Daughter date earlier this week.  I treated her to lunch at The Sundial which sits on top of the Westin Downtown.  The coolest thing about this restaurant is it turns a full 360 degrees in an hour.  When you are 72 floors up on top of a hotel, that gives you a pretty great view!  Lily is always happy to have a date with me, but she was very excited when I told her how the restaurant spins around.  She couldn't wait to see this for herself!

Here she is on the elevator ride up.  Both going up and coming down, she stood right against the glass to watch where she was going. 

 They sat us right by the window which I really appreciated.  We started right above the Georgia Aquarium, so Lily recognized where we were.  Her face would light up when we would come up on a place she knew such as Turner Field, 1-20 (the way to Birmingham) or Phillips Arena where we saw Disney on Ice.

 After a delicious (though slightly overpriced) lunch, we walked up one more floor to the observation decks.  Here's Lily looking up 75 trying to find our home.  She was certain she saw it!

Fun, Fun

Here are a few things happening over the last week:

On Monday evening, Lily and I had a Mommy-Daughter date to Bluepointe.  We had a blast!  We parked across the street at Phipps Plaza, and Lily thought it was fun to cross the huge intersection and admire the large Dale Chihuly piece in the atrium.  She loved sitting in the big, plush, velvet chair across from me.  She remembered to use her manners too which I greatly appreciated.  We really had a lot of fun just talking about all sorts of things; she is such a fun kid!  She absolutely loved eating her lemongrass shrimp which was sauteed in black pepper, dried pineapple and coriander with chopsticks; she thinks chopsticks make any meal more fun.

 

 After we enjoyed a wonderful meal together, we decided to go back across the street to Phipps for dessert.  Right as we walked outside, it started to sprinkle, so we started walking quickly to our car.  By the time we got to the intersection, it was pouring; we ran as fast as we could to the car.  I haven't laughed like that in a long time, and Lily was cackling too!  We went to River Street Sweets and Lily was very excited to get the "stick lollipop."  This was such a fun evening, and I can't wait for another one!

 Lily and Bama wrote out a few recipes the other day.  Lily dictated to Bama and then colored the picture underneath.  It's a little difficult to read, so here is Lily's cupcake recipe:

1. Get holders out.
2. Put holders in pan.
3. Put ingredients in holders.
4. Cook them up in the oven.
5. Let them rest and get cool.
6. Then the things on them. (I am assuming she means the frosting, sprinkles, picks, etc.).
7. Eat them.

Here is her pancake recipe:
1. Spray the pan.
2. Do the mix.
3. Add the eggs and milk.
4. Stir it up.
5. Pour out of bowl to pan.
6. Get cookie thing out to make Mickey Mouse.
7. Flip it and eat it.




For the record, not all our of meals are mixes, but I don't let either of them handle raw things since both suck their thumbs.  These are just some easy things we make for fun; looks like Lily has the recipes down pat!

Speaking of recipes, both girls helped me with dinner tonight which is always fun.  I realized that by giving the food a fun name, they are much more likely to try something.  We made recipes out of Lily's cookbooks (each one is either princess, mermaid or fairy themed), and they loved it.  They helped a lot with the pineapple cream cheese dip ("Tropical Dip") for our carrots and strawberries.  Then they wanted to watch a cartoon, so I finished up the unicorn calzones (turkey and cheese rolled and baked in a croissant), blueberry biscuits (biscuits with a blueberry, nutmeg, almond extract filling), jello jigglers and mermaid smoothies (orange smoothie poured with a cherry smoothie).  I will have to try to get creative and change food names more often!

After dinner, I gave the girls a bath and got them ready for bed.  As I was cleaning up the kitchen, Lily came in and said "Mommy, Belle is on tv in your room.  Daddy, Mia and me are watching it, and I thought you might want to too.  Will you?"  How could I resist that?  We watched about the last 30 minutes together, and Ryan and I loved every minute of it.  While the movie was on, the girls cuddled up right with us; I love times like this.  During the commercials, we had fun tickling and playing.  At one point, Ryan picked up on a game from yesterday.  He was cutting our grass yesterday morning, and we took some Gatoraide to him.  While standing on the front porch, Lily asked why the light wasn't on; Ryan said it was magic and he could blow it on and off; he counted to three, blew and then the light came.  Lily was amazed!  Of course, she couldn't see my hand just inside the door flipping the switch.  Well, this evening as we were lying in bed, he grabbed our light and fan remote, hid it and did the same thing.  The girls couldn't believe it!  Each commercial break, they would say "1, 2, 3" and then blow as hard they could and sure enough, the lights would come on and off!  It was hilarious to watch!  To top it off, Lily then jumped out and ran to each room trying to blow the other lights on and off; for some reason, it wouldn't work anywhere but in our room.  What a fun way to end the evening.

Thankful for Good Friends

I would like to sincerely say thank you to our friends Shane and Adrienne Gary.  Last Wednesday while we were at the beach, I became engrossed in a book (Between Sundays by Karen Kingsbury; pretty predictable but I couldn't put it down).  I stayed up until 1:15 Thursday morning reading it because I wanted to get to the end.  As I was turning off all the lights and getting ready to head to bed, Ryan came out of our room holding his cell phone and said "that was the alarm company; our burglar alarm has gone off, and they have dispatched the police."  Let me just tell you, that is not a good feeling.  We waited a few minutes to hear back from them to see what was going on.  We tried calling our neighbors, the Mayos, to see if they could tell us anything (it went to voicemail).  After about 20 minutes, Ryan called the Smyrna non-emergency line, and they confirmed a policeman had confirmed the perimeter of the house was secure, and it appeared all was alright.  This was such a relief; Mom and Dad had a squirrel chew through a wire while they lived there, so we assumed it was the same thing.

We were heading back to bed when a few minutes later, Ryan's cell rang again; the alarm had gone off a second time and police were being dispatched again.  We didn't know what was going on.  This time, they gave us the officer's cell number, so Ryan called, and they talked through a few things.  Again though, it appeared everything was alright.  As we were lying in bed a few minutes later though, and we received a call that the alarm had gone for a THIRD time, we knew something needed to be done; our neighbors were going to hate us!  We asked the alarm company to set it to test mode so it wouldn't call us or the police every time it went off (and by this point, we were sure it would go off again).  The alarm company also told us the alarm was being triggered by something inside our house; it was not a perimeter alarm.

After a quick debate, Ryan called Shane because he knew that Shane slept with his cell phone on and near him.  Sure enough, he answered, Ryan immediately apologized and explained the situation to him.  Shane graciously agreed to go over and see for us what was going on; keep in mind, he lives about 25 minutes away from us and at this point, it was about 2:30 in the morning.  Because their kids are in Florida visiting their grandparents this week and to keep him company, Adrienne agreed to go with him. 

They drove over, Ryan explained how to get inside, they found the culprit: the balloons we got to welcome Ryan home from Alaska the week before had been left on the kitchen counter, and as they ran out of helium, they dropped down in front of the beam...whoops.  They assured us that all was fine.  And they did it without hesitation or making us feel any more guilty than we already did.  We cannot fully express our gratitude to them.  Shane and Adrienne are already an amazing couple for many, many reasons, but this is just a quick example of why we are so thankful for them.

New Smyrna Beach, Part 2

This was one of the many sunrises that Liz got to see this week.  She shared a room with the girls, and she was gracious to get up with them each morning, regardless of how early.  Dad helped with this too since he is an early riser.  All I know is I cannot tell you how much Ryan and I appreciated having these mornings to sleep in and rest some.  Thank you so much!

 On a side note, Liz was up and heard the two sonic booms that came when the shuttle came back to Earth.  She grew up watching the shuttle launches in Florida, so I'm glad she was awake and heard (and saw on tv) the last shuttle return home.

On Wednesday morning, we were all ready to head back out again!

 We played at the beach a long time.  Here, Lily and Mia played in the sand with Zac, Francie and Molly.  It's so much fun having lots of kids around!

 After some beach time, we headed up to the pool.  The girls had lots of fun with a boogie board that was floating around; we never figured out who it belonged to.  They would take turns laying on it and letting the other person pull her around.  This was their way of "surfing!"

 We did a lot of jumping into the pool this afternoon!

 Lily gave it her all!

 Fun times in the condo before nap time.  Here's hide and seek with the big basket.

 Mia fell in love with this little area of the kitchen; she could pull out one of the cabinet doors and it would turn just right so she could have her "own kitchen."

 Showing off her hat.

 Wednesday afternoon brought one of my favorite days of the year: hot dog day!  We all crowd into Jodi and Michael's condo for the best hot dogs you can imagine.  In addition to Meme's hot dogs (with chili if you wish), we enjoy her delicious fresh fruit salad (peaches, cherries and pineapple), chips, cookies, etc.  Delicious and lots of fun!  Here's the line that has formed as everyone is excited.

 After everyone eats, we try to take a few pictures.  Getting everyone looking at the same camera is like herding wild cats, but we try.  Here are most of the great-grandkids (the generation under mine).  We're missing about five of them, but it's the majority.

 I love getting kisses from my girls!

 The big family picture!  Again, we're missing several people (a couple of families weren't able to make it this year), but it was still a fun crowd!

 We tried getting a picture of Meme with the girls afterwards, but Mia wouldn't have anything to do with it; she was so exhausted, so we headed upstairs for a nap.

We didn't take any pictures on Thursday, but it was another fun day.  Meme made breakfast with her three boys for their families.  So delicious!  Biscuits, gravy, sausage, bacon, grits, eggs, country ham, tomatoes and cantelopes...what a great way to start the day.  After breakfast, we changed clothes and headed out to the beach and then the pool.  After nap time, Mom and I took Lily and Molly to Bubba Gump's for dinner.  In 2004, Ryan and I discovered Bubba Gump's in Maui while on vacation.  Seriously, the best fried shrimp I have ever eaten (and the strawberry lemonade is a plus too!).  When we found out there was also one in Daytona Beach (a short drive from New Smyrna), we couldn't wait to go.  We went for several years until Mia came along.  That summer, Ryan stayed at the condo with her, and Mom, Lily and I went to enjoy it.  Since then, it has grown to include one or both of my nieces too.  It is so delicious, and we have a fun time hanging out "just the girls."  What a yummy evening!

We couldn't believe when Friday arrived; it was our last day again!  We decided to pack as much fun in as possible.  Liz helped Mia (and Lily who just wasn't in this picture) make a wet sandcastle.

 Mia finally tried Zac's boogie board; she didn't like it a whole lot in the ocean.

 Molly and Lily had a lot of fun playing together, as usual.

 Lily jumped over hundreds of more waves.

 Mia had fun rolling all around in the water.

 By the end of the week, Lily was pretty brave too.  She had a great time playing in the ocean though one of her favorite games was to hold my hands, let her feet go out from under her and float as the tide pulled her in and out.

 Who am I kidding?  Splashing was her favorite game!

 She also tried out this big float that Joseph and Benjamin brought down.  Mia had tried a smaller boat float the day before, but she got scared as it went over the waves, so she refused to try this float.  She kept saying it was "too scary."  However, she liked holding on to the side and spinning Lily around.

 We had more fun in the pool too.  Mia told Granna exactly where to stand to catch her when she jumped.

 Throughout the week, Lily had a lot of fun going all the way underwater and then popping back up. I loved the face she would make as she would come out, so I snapped this picture of it. I love how big her eyes got!

On Thursday, Lily started jumping into the pool and swimming over to someone with her backpack on.  We could see her confidence growing some each day.  On Friday, she decided to take the backpack off and try really swimming.  She did it!  We were so proud of her!  She started by going just a few strokes, but by the end, she was swimming from the side of the pool over to where the stairs were (half the width of the pool).  We rewarded her bravery with gummy bears and a new Ladybug Girl book (Ladybug Girl Dresses Up if you're wondering).  It was so awesome to see her truly swim; she was holding her breath well, and she remembered to kick and paddle instead of flail about.  Yea Lily!  Here's a picture of the big moment! 

 Towards the end of the day, we were able to grab a picture of Meme's 11 great-grandchildren who all happened to be in the pool swimming at the same time.  Aren't they adorable?

 We enjoyed beautiful weather until about 6:40 Friday evening, and then a big thunderstorm settled in, so we called it quits for the day and week.  Here's a sunset that wrapped up our week for us.

Another great week in New Smyrna Beach with our family.  A big thank you to Mom and Dad for letting us all stay with you again this year and for all the help you provided with the girls.  Liz, we're so glad you joined us, and we appreciate all of your help as well.  We had a great vacation, and we're already counting down until next year's trip!

New Smyrna Beach, Part 1

What a great week!  We just returned from my family's annual vacation to New Smyrna Beach, FL.  I haven't heard an official count yet, but we're guessing there were about 60 of us again.  We had such a fun-filled week (read: lots of pictures!) that I broke it into two blog entries.  So, here is Saturday through Tuesday...

The four of us always stay with Mom and Dad on this vacation, but this year we were so excited that Liz was able to join us too.  By having Liz and my parents there, Ryan and I had a great vacation!  She helped make the ride down on Saturday go very smoothly.  The night before we left, she made "goody bags" for the girls which included folders with hole-punched coloring books, Color Wonder sets and stickers.  I added some new toys and books for the girls; mix in their DVD's, and the ride down went pretty well.  We made it down in about 8 hours.

Some friends of ours were in New Smyrna a couple of weeks ago, and they said it was some of the worst weather they had seen there (their family goes each year too), so we were prepared.  We brought a few extra toys than usual, plus we had a list of things to do if it rained so we wouldn't get couped up.  Lucky for us, the picture below shows what we saw all week, well, until Friday evening.  It was a beautiful week!

 We got in pretty late in the afternoon on Saturday, so we brought everything down and admired the view from our balcony.  As Mia walked out, she pointed to the ocean and exclaimed "I like that big swimming pool!"  We ate a quick dinner (Ahh, Manny's greek salad...I have been dreaming of you for days), and the girls, Liz and I went down to the beach just to play for a few minutes.  We hadn't unpacked any bathing suits or the camera, so we just went as we were.  The girls didn't mind one bit!  After playing for a little while, it was time to head on back up for bed.  Mom surprised the girls with new coordinating pajamas.  They were turquoise and lime green; perfect beach colors!  Both girls loved them and wore them all week!

 

 Granna also read the girls a new book (Ladybug Girl Goes to the Beach) before bedtime.  We love the Ladybug Girl series, and this was a perfect fit.

On Sunday morning, the girls couldn't wait to get ready and head out.  This is where we found Lily a lot of the time...just staring out Mom and Dad's window, dreaming of the beach!

 We decided to head to the pool first.  The water felt great!  Even though the girls have been taking swim lessons each week for about 6 weeks now, they still aren't proficient swimmers, so we had a little floating backpack for each of them.  They had used them at the Henderson's house a few weeks ago and did great with them.  They were thrilled to use them down here!  It gave them a little bit of confidence as they were "swimming" and helped the rest of us feel a little better about having them both in the pool.  They had a blast all week with these.  In this picture, Lily couldn't wait to show Granna her new skills!

 Mia was having a lot of fun watering Daddy.

 Both girls absolutely adore McKayla, and rightfully so; she is such a great big cousin to them.  She is so sweet and considerate when they are around.  We all love McKayla!

 Ryan had a lot of fun all week with his "noodle cannon!"

 Of course, Mia loved being tossed high into the air by Daddy!

 Lily couldn't wait for her turn too!

 At some point, we decided to head to the beach.  Here were some of their tools of choice for playing in the sand.  Mia also loved a huge toy shovel, and both girls enjoyed the little bunny sand mold.

 Lily got busy making a starfish village.

 Mia helped too.  This was after she took off running right into the ocean water.  This little one knows no fear!

 Mia also enjoyed loading up Zac's dump truck with sand and moving it around the beach.

 Holding hands and watching the waves.  I love this picture.

 We came back out after lunch and a nap.  Lily and Papa took a little walk to find seashells. 

Lily was obsessed with shells.  On this first day, she really didn't have any discretion on what kind of shells she picked up.  Later in the evening as we were all settling down, Lily brought her bucket to Ryan and me and said "I found crabs!"  While that wasn't exactly true (thank goodness!), you could totally see and hear her shells moving around.  I can't remember what they are called, but the shells were filled with those little slimy things that bury themselves into the sand.  They were starting to come out to look for water...gross.  Thankfully, Liz was willing to pull out only the good shells so we didn't have those things all around.  After this evening, Lily was a lot more careful about what shells she picked up.  She probably ended up with around 50 to 60 shells that we brought home with us.

Mia and Zac had a great time playing together on Sunday afternoon.  Zac had his boogie board everywhere with him; he said he was "surfing" anytime he pulled it behind him.  These two were having fun in and out of the water this week!

 So I am usually very careful when it comes to sunscreen.  I have such fair skin that I know can get burned so easily.  Unfortunately, when I reapplied the spray sunscreen on Sunday at the beach after the pool, it mostly blew into the wind.  My shoulders, chest and upper back got ridiculously burned; I was so mad at myself!  Thankfully, even though the girls got more sun than they should have, they didn't burn.  Regardless, on Monday morning, Ryan and I went out and bought SPF swim shirts for the girls and me (Ryan already wears one).  It made a huge difference the rest of the trip.  We will definitely keep these for future use.

Given the extra sun we had on Sunday, we wanted to be extra careful on Monday.  So after returning with our new shirts, Ryan and I surprised the girls with a very special treat: a visit to the local movie theater to see Winnie the Pooh!  This was Mia's first time to see a movie at a theater, and she did great.  During a preview for the new Muppets movie, Miss Piggy bangs her head on a desk; Mia yelled "Don't do that! It will hurt!" which made Ryan and me laugh quite a bit.  She seemed to be enthralled with the movie.  She and Lily shared a pink lemonade and some popcorn which thrilled them both.  Lily also seemed to take great satisfaction in pointing out that this was Mia's first movie but her second theater.  Sibling rivalry folks...so fun.  It really was a cute little movie.  Lily asked if we can buy it after it comes out of the theater because she enjoyed it so much.

After the movie and a nap, we headed out to the beach for the evening.  Lily liked her new pink swim shirt.

 Lily started to get a little more brave with the ocean.  I think it is because she saw how much fun Mia was having.  She had a lot of fun jumping waves as they came crashing in.

 Mia and Zac had fun running back and forth in and out of the ocean, squealing most of the way.

 The girls were so happy to have Bama with them too!

 Papa is always great to play in the ocean with the girls.  I will add this picture makes me think of pictures I have seen of my Pop taking his grandchildren out to the ocean too.

 Mia loved to jump HIGH!

 From the ocean looking back towards the shoreline and the condos.  You couldn't ask for better weather!

 On Tuesday, we drove over to Lakeland to visit and have lunch with Grandpa Hooks and Lois.  The girls were a little shy at first, but they thoroughly enjoyed exploring their home.  They especially loved the bright red chair in the kitchen that they could climb on.  After they warmed up and turned into their regular silly selves, Grandpa showed them a "trick" with his arm that fascinated the girls.  They both laughed like it was the funniest thing they had ever seen, and then of course, they wanted Grandpa to teach them how to do it.  Here's a picture of Mia trying to get the hang of it with Grandpa.

 Lily finally figured it out and was happy to smile with Grandpa!

 After visiting at their home for a bit, we all headed over to Grasslands Country Club where they treated us to a delicious lunch.  It was so wonderful getting to catch up with them.  Hopefully we'll be able to Skype with one another soon to keep up with each other a little better.

After we drove back to New Smyrna, we dropped the girls off with Liz, and Ryan and I headed up to Saint Augustine to The Conch House.  We met up with his cousin, Emily and her adorable 17-month-old little girl, Kate; she is so precious!  We sat in a tiki hut on the water and enjoyed a wonderful meal with them.  Ryan and I wish we lived closer to them because we always have a great time hanging out with them. 

This has been a great first half of the week!