Sunday, July 31, 2011

Buddy's Swim Lessons

We signed Buddy up for swim lessons again this year. It's not that he needs them - the boy is part fish - we just wanted to give him something extra fun to do during his school day.

Of course, he loved every minute of it, especially running and jumping off of the diving board. The teachers didn't even bother to catch him when he jumped since he's such a great swimmer.





The blur in the middle of the pic is my Buddy in mid-air! Great job, little man!!


Friday, July 29, 2011

Tantrum Time

Oh, boy, did Little E have quite a night last week! He's 2, so we expect an occasional tantrum or meltdown, impatience, and hearing "Mine!" a lot.

I'm not sure what set him off this night, but he was upset about something! He ran into the kitchen started throwing every picture and magnet he could reach off of the refrigerator. It was pretty funny to watch! I just let him go for it because it seemed to be a good way to blow off steam.

When he was finished in the kitchen, he joined us in the living room where Sugie, Buddy, and I were building a dinosaur.I quickly hid the dinosaur-in-progress and remaining bones. It's a good thing because our precious Little E started biting the foam packaging. The kids laughed at this, so Little E got more aggressive with it. He ripped the pieces with his teeth and threw it all over the floor.


Just when I was about to call a stop to this mega tantrumming, Little E ralphed on the floor. Nice. I guess that foam didn't taste very good. At least this was the end to his madness!!



I Can't Believe I Forgot...

On July 19, we visited a new snow cone stand after turning in the kids summer reading program progress forms at the library. Sugie made a comment about "16 years". I was so confused as to what that girl was talking about. I never figured it out, so the hubby finally had to tell me that our love story started 16 years ago about 200 feet from the snow cone stand! I worked at a movie theatre, which is now a teen club with foam parties, and he worked a few stores down. We had met each other in Calculus class in college a few months earlier, but this was the first night we really spoke and then went out. Happy first date anniversary, dear!




Buddy and Little E tried out the blueberry snow cone. I've never ever seen a mouth as black as Little E's!! His lips, tongue, and teeth were black!


Even with black lips, he's the cutest baby ever!!



"Gass"

Little E definitely has four favorite things - tractors, big trucks, playing outside, and helping the hubby in the yard. We hear about these things all of the time!


I love how his glasses are upside down! This is how he prefers to wear them.
First, he begs to go outside. Then, he asks to help the hubby with the grass, or "gass". It's so cute watching him use the trowel and then spread the grass seed. I think we have a future farmer!

Summer Fun

Sugie and Buddy have had one heck of a summer. I wish I had their lives!!


The kids and the hubby have been to Holiday World, Gattitown, to see several movies, bowling, out to breakfast and lunch almost every day, and more. They've had all of this fun while I'm working. I was at least able to join Mimi and the kids for a movie one day! Hope you enjoyed your summer kids, because reality is about ready to set in!


Sno Cones!

My little Sugie loves summertime for mainly one reason - SNO CONES!! She always asks to go to her favorite sno cone shack. Always. She even has precious Little E asking for Breeze-E's. That's one smart girl, because who can resist a request from that cute little voice?

Buddy always quickly picks a flavor. There's no messing around with the 100 choices on the board. I like this about him.

Sugie, on the other hand, must read that board 500 times and still can't decide on what she wants. She usually ends up liking her brother's choice over her own.



Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Vacation - Part 3

We had a truly fabulous vacation! It was sooo nice going with another family. Our resort had free DVD rentals, so each night we'd pop in a movie for the kids in a bedroom and then have our fun adult time!! We had several interesting and super funny moments!!! Our last few days at the ocean were great!! The seaweed was further back, so we had gorgeous emerald water to swim in! Despite the clear water, Sugie still didn't venture out into the ocean her own.


Here's a pic of our little beach bum! He was just so cute sitting in his chair. He hollered to us whenever he saw birds or a plane, but otherwise just kept to himself and checked out the ladies!!

This is one of the pools at our resort.

Here's another pool that we played in. The kids liked going after the dive sticks and having swimming races.




One night, we took family pics on the beach. I hadn't planned on this, so we don't have cute coordinating outfits like our friends did.


Isn't this trio just precious?

The big kids

Sugie's finally in the ocean! Of course, she has a death grip on her daddy and refuses to put her feet in the water! She did have a little fun crashing into the waves.


These boys would have played in the ocean 24/7!! We had to pull them out each day to go eat lunch!




There were a lot of kid activities at the resort. One day, they painted ceramics. Sugie painted a surfboard and D made a glittery rainbow whale! I took 3 of the kids on a scavenger hunt around the resort. (The other 2 kids were napping.) It was fun until we had to find random items like a rubber band (we used the one from Sugie's hair!) and bottle caps. The ended up getting to keep all of the treasures and pick out a prize.






My family in the hot tub! I'm not a hot tub girl, but the rest of my family sure is!


On our final night, the kids begged us to go to the Krusty Krab restaurant. (My kids are big Spongebob fans!) It looked a little shady, but ended up being really good. Buddy was so thrilled to order a Crabby Patty. Sugie had Squidward Fingers and Little E tried Plankton, or shrimp.

It was a really really fun vacation! We even contemplated staying an extra night because we were having such a great time. We all can't wait to do it again soon!!

More Fort Walton Fun

Our condo was really great! Each couple had their own bedroom and huge bathroom. (Our shower was seriously ginormous and I loved it!) Little E slept in a crib in our room. The boys slept in bunk beds, which were located in a hallway off of the kitchen. The girls slept on a sleeper sofa in the living room. We had a big balcony with a ocean view. It was perfect for us!
Our resort had two pools, two hot tubs, a lazy river, kids splash park and play area, and was on the beach.

Buddy loved the pirate ship slide in the splash park. That boy sure does love to play! Little E kept venturing over to the play area behind the splash park. Sugie scraped her knee pretty badly one day, so she wasn't a big fan of the kiddie area!!




The main pool had a rock cove and waterfall.

Little E was a total beach bum. He was so content to sit in a beach chair under the umbrella and watch everyone play in the sand and waves. As long as he had a beverage and snack, he was totally happy!

He was uber cute chilling at the beach!

After dinner, Sugie enjoyed the sights at the bar! The bartender guy was making sushi rolls.

We found a boat and shark on our walk to the pier. The kids liked "driving" the boat and ringing the bell.

We walked out onto the pier after dinner one evening and saw dolphins playing in the ocean. It was so neat!

My sweet family!

Fort Walton Beach - Part 1

In mid-July, we escaped the sweltering heat of the Midwest and headed to Fort Walton Beach, FL with our good friends. We went to Waterscape, which is a fabulous resort I've been wanting to go to for several years!! Our crew was 4 adults and kids aged 8, 7, almost 5, 4, and 2.

Upon arriving, we fed our hungry troops at Fudpuckers, which was across the street from our resort.
The kids had their own table, liked reading all of the names/messages written on everything (even the toilet seats), and thought the alligators out back were pretty neat.

After lunch, it was time for the beach! We went in the afternoon and the seaweed was really thick. Sugie was grossed out by it and refused to get in the water. (You'll see her standing on the water's edge in almost all of our beach pics!)
Little E and Buddy didn't mind the seaweed and braved the waves!
Little E liked playing in the sand the first day at the beach, but really wasn't interested in it during the rest of our stay.
Sugie and M were our sand castle builders and mostly played in the sand.
We checked out one of the pools next. My kids LOVE swimming, so they of course had a blast at the pool.
Little E loved that is was a zero entry pool, so he walk in and out as he pleased.The main pool had water fountains, this mushroom, a play center, waterfall, and a rope bridge.

Sugie and D LOVED this rope bridge. There were 3 lily pads they could step on, but it seemed like one was always loose or occupied. You can see Sugie falling from the ropes in this pic.
Little E played with the fountains more than anyone. He liked filling up buckets from these and then watering the surrounding palm trees.