Lily's Writing

This picture may be a little difficult to read, but I wanted to share it.  Lily and Mia set up "school" this morning (by dissembling the fort they had built yesterday...love their imagination!), and Lily wrote this by herself for Mia.  Here's the explanation of what's on the picture:

I asked Lily why there were all the "v" letters across the top; she told me those were checkmarks that she gave Mia each time she answered one of Lily's questions.

Under the checkmarks is a joke that Lily wrote out.  Here's how it went:  Knock knock. Who's there? The kid.  The kid who?  MIA

Here is Lily's phoentic spelling of that joke: Ka Nock Hoo ther Cid the cid hoo MIA

Then there are four questions listed out that Lily plans to ask Mia.  Those questions are:

Wut Doo You Doo Wi You Et  (What do you do when you eat?)

Wut Doo You Doo Wi You Ceen  (What do you do when you clean?)

Wut Doo You Doo Wi You Reed  (What do you do when you read?)

Wut Doo You Doo Wi You Play  (What do you do when you play?)

I love that Lily is working so hard on her reading and writing skills!

White Water Fun

We headed back to White Water today with our friends, Julia, Vivi and Claudia Rohan.  Vivi is six and Claudia just turned three, so the girls are at great ages to play together.  What a fun day!  Finally, Ryan and I remembered to bring a camera, so we were able to snap a few pictures too.

Our girls before heading onto the playground.

Claudia having fun on the splash pad.

Vivi (with Lily getting ready to go behind her), Claudia and Mia having fun on the little slides.

Our girls in the wave pool.

Julia with two of her girls (Evelyn stayed at home since she's just over 1) in the wave pool.

Mia was worn out!

This was a great day.  The girls had a lot of fun playing with one another, while the three adults enjoyed catching up.  I hate that summer is coming to a close quickly, and these fun, lazy days will be gone for awhile.

NSB - Other Happenings

I've added a few other pictures from our time in New Smyrna that didn't fit into the last two blog entries.  In addition to all the family, pool and beach time, here's some of the fun we had.

Sid organized a family tennis tournament which Caroline and Brandon eventually won.  There were 18 people who played which made for lots of fun smack-talk!  I didn't play on Monday, but Emily had to leave town early to get back for cheerleading camp, so I took her place and played with Sid against Robin and Michael.  I grew up playing tennis competitively, but I probably haven't played since I was 16...that's been awhile.  I had forgotten just how much fun it is!  Here's a picture Ryan took from the 4th floor grandstands.  That's me on the near court in blue.

Lily made this trophy for me to celebrate our victory.

A picture of all the great-grandchildren in attendance for hot dog day (one of my favorite days of the year).  We had a few families who weren't able to make it down this year for various reasons, so this isn't all the kids, but it's most of them.  Such sweethearts!

Mom and Dad with their five grandkids.

All of us that were there this year.  A smaller group than usual, but we had a great time!

Sweet girls loving on one another.

On Thursday evening, Ryan, Liz, the girls and I headed into Daytona Beach for dinner at Bubba Gump's.  Honestly, Mama's Southern Fried Shrimp is one of my favorite meals to eat, so we took advantage of being so close to one.  Delicious as always!

After dinner, we headed next door to the movie theatre to watch "Ice Age: Continental Drift."  It was a cute movie.  Both girls love the Ice Age series, so we knew we had to go see the 4th installment in the theatre.  This was such a fun evening.

Here's Mia showing off her treasure map that Ryan made one morning and part of the treasure she found: gold chocolate coins!

Lily with her treasure map and coins; both girls loved that Ryan hit treasure in the condo and then had them find it!

One evening, I took the girls out to the beach where they had a great time playing with glow wands from Kelsey's birthday party.  Lily's was pink with a heart at the end while Mia's was blue and looked like a pirate's sword.  They chased each other around while pretending to be Captain Hook and Peter Pan or Wendy.  They laughed a lot when I pretended to be the alligator who chomped after them.  They loved waving the wands around so Bama could see them up on the balcony, especially since she was waving a regular glow stick back towards them.  I love just playing and having fun with these two sweet girls!  Their laughs make me smile!

NSB - Family Fun

While we were in New Smyrna, we seized the opportunity to visit with some of Ryan's family who live nearby. 

On Monday afternoon, we drove up to St. Augustine to visit our cousins, Emily, Brian and Kate.  The girls were so excited to meet Kate, who is 2 1/2 years old.  They loved playing with her toys, and then they were thrilled to get to play in the swimming pool at their house.  Of course, Ryan and I loved watching the girls play together and catching up with Emily and Kate.  We enjoyed dinner together, one (or two) of Emily's oreo cupcakes and then headed back down.  This was such a fun afternoon and evening.  We're working on convincing them to move up to Smyrna so we can hang out together more often!

When we left New Smyrna on Saturday morning, we drove over to Lakeland so we could visit with Grandpa Hooks and Lois.  They both seemed to be doing well, and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  We spent a lot of time talking about travel which is something that excites all of us.  They have taken some amazing trips!  Now if we can just get Grandpa to write that book he keeps promising, so we can learn more about his fascinating life!

I know they loved their visits with the girls, but I think we wore them out!  Several times they noted how much energy these two have!

We were so thankful to have the opportunity to catch up with our Florida family!

NSB - Beach and Pool

July 14th through July 21st was our family's annual vacation to New Smyrna Beach, Florida.  We all look forward to this trip every year.  It's a wonderful time for our family to be together, relax, catch up and, of course, eat lots of yummy food!  This year was a little more difficult though because Meme wasn't able to make it.  Her health hasn't been very good for several months now, and unfortunately, she just wasn't strong enough to make the trip.  We all missed her, but we carried on the traditions she helped put in place.

I have put in a ton of pictures from the week, and they are in no particular order other than when we happen to take them.  We took pictures on some days but not on others.  We had a great time using our waterproof camera in the pool and at the beach!  I have commented on some of the pictures, but most of them just show the fun we had.  Enjoy!

 

 Mia loved using this pool noodle.  She kept saying it was her seahorse.

 Jumping waves is always a favorite activity.

 Love this underwater picture of Olivia and Natalie!

 Molly, Madi, Lily, Francie and Mia played so well together.

 Here's the story on why I love this picture.  Can you see the expression on Mia's face?  She was using Zac's net, and she just kept saying "why won't this catch any water?"  She was getting so frustrated, and it was hilarious!  She just couldn't understand why a net wouldn't hold water for her to run back up to her castle.  She even let out an exasperated sigh at one point and said "Why does this always happen to me?"  For the record, she heard Donald Duck say that once, not Ryan or myself!

 Seashell hunting was also a big activity this year.

 Molly and Lily always have a great time together, especially when it involves taking underwater pictures.

 Molly was very sweet to help Mia dig a big hole in the sand.

 Zac and Mia always have fun together!

 Lily was doing so great with her swimming; her lessons have really been paying off.  Towards the end of the week, she saw Lisa do a cannonball into the water.  From then on, Lily wanted to practice her cannonballs!  She would stand on the side of the pool, adjust her goggles, say "cannonball!" and jump right in.  I honestly think she did this at least 200 times over a few days.  I love that this picture captured her cannonball right as she entered the water!

Mia tried to imitate as well which made us smile.  She would get herself ready, say "candonball" (she didn't quite get how to pronounce it), then sit down on the side of the pool and slide in.  Her face wouldn't go in the water which was good because I didn't want it to wipe the huge grin off of it!

Mia was very proud of her drip castle.

The girls love their Papa!

Davis was getting some serious airtime when Jason would toss him, and he would come back to the water's surface laughing and grinning from ear to ear!

Lily enjoyed being tossed too!

It took some convincing, but Mia finally let us toss her just a little bit; she didn't want to go high at all.

Another fun trip in the books!  We're already looking forward to next year!