The Wheels on the Bus Go Round n' Round

The girls rode the bus home from school for the first time last week. They were THRILLED!!!! Of course we had to get video of the momentous occasion.

PS. Could I sound any more southern? Geez!

We just love the Olympics!

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A little riddle

What happens when you unlock the van door and not closely watch your children while talking to several family members in the parking lot of a restaurant?

And the tears, they were a flowin'

I've done well this past week. I've not been a blubbering mess like many other mothers I've seen in the kindergarten hallways. Yes - I have shed a tear or two, but they were able to be daintily brushed away without too much ado.

Til today.

Today was our second full day of kindergarten with each girl's full class (they do a whole phasing in process in our county that involves half the class some days, half days on others, twister competitions and cattle prodding - basically MUCH ado). If students get to school early they sit in the gym separated by grade level and are then herded (that's where the cattle prod comes in) to their classrooms when the teachers are ready. The kindergartners sit in the middle of the gymnasium on the mascot's pictures.

I asked the girls if they wanted to sit with the other kindergartners and they were all for it. Ashlyn was already dancing on the mascot's head in the middle of the gym by the time I finished asking them. We sat down with the other kiddies and a few of their parents. After a couple minutes the girls looked at each other knowingly (they do that all the time and it drives me insane as I just KNOW they are using that twin mental telepathy!) and then Ashlyn said to me, "Mommy, you can go now."

Say what?!?

But I wasn't ready to go. I hadn't "let go" yet. I needed them to hold my hand and tell me everything was going to be okay. I need them to hug me and pat me on my back til I calmed down.

Hey wait - who's the parent and who is the child here?

So I stood up, kissed them both and told them I loved them. I walked out of the gym and then watched them march out to the kindergarten hall without them knowing I was still there.

And then I cried all the way back to my van. Big alligator tears. And that's okay.

Yesterday was one of these days

Vacation Boo Hoo Breakfast

I've just recently been downloading pictures from our vacation and editing them to be made into a slideshow at some point (don't hold your breath). I came across these and just had to go ahead and post them.

After we loaded up the truck to leave Seagrove, we stopped by this quaint little restaurant in Seaside to have breakfast before hitting the road. We called it our Boo Hoo Breakfast as we didn't want to leave Florida. So we all made our saddest faces...




(side note: why on earth does it look like my hair is up in some sort of freakish bun. i almost look like a deranged conehead.)

Happy Birthday! (One Day Late)

“Any man can be a Father but it takes someone special to be a daddy.”

-Anne Geddes

Happy Birthday Chris/Daddy!

(Actually yesterday was his birthday and we celebrated last night, but with all the craziness of kindergarten, I wasn't able to update the blog. This is my attempt at creative photography and fiddling with my Photoshop program. We printed out one of these and had it framed for Daddy's desk at work.)

1st Day of Kindergarten

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

Anne Frank

1st Day of Kindergarten Breakfast - waffles and strawberries!

C'mon Mom! We're ready to go!

Anna in her classroom. Yep - that's a bathtub behind her. Cool classroom!

Ashlyn in her classroom. She was ready to boot me out the door at this point.

Now I have to go cry into my Diet Coke.

Bits from the Beach

Ok folks - I'm going to be very choppy with this post as Heaven knows how much time I'll have to myself out here on our deck (overlooking the ocean with the beautiful view and the choir singing Hallelujah and the cabana boys fanning me with palm leaves and feeding me grapes). I'm just going to touch on a few highlights of our trip so far...

Ashlyn has made it VERY clear that she is a beach girl. She loves everything about it and loves to go out surfing with her boogie board each day. She's doing an AMAZING job and is having a ball. Anna has made it just as clear that she is VERY much a pool girl and hates everything about the beach - "Too sandy! I'm scared of the jellyfish! (I can't blame her for that one.) Too icky!" She will do one thing on the beach (build a sandcastle, fly her kite, etc.) for about five minutes and then she is "DONE".

The below pic is from the day we arrived. It was the first time the girls had ever seen the ocean. We had a ball watching their reaction.

This pic is the same afternoon. I can just hear Anna's mind reeling right now - "What the heck is with all this sand in my butt!"

We drove down the 30A (local lingo for the road connecting several of the beach towns in this area) to Seaside. They filmed The Truman Show in this city and it is gorgeous. Lots of little quaint little shops with BIG prices. Nana and I walked into a fusion glass store (apparently that means Crazy Ass Prices in Seaside-eze) where I was playing with a glass globe that would spin around. Yes - it was very interesting. Yes - it looked like someone spent a lot of time making it. Yes - it was $10,000! Holy cow!!!! I immediately backed away and put my hands in my pockets for the rest of our time in that store.

It was a pretty city though and there were a few fun spots for photos. Here's one of the girls with Nana.

They also had a gelato store. I'm not sure if I've ever had a gelato before, but it was darn good. Kind of a combination of sorbet and ice cream. I had a few samples (apparently Chris tried EVERY flavor while we took the girls to the bathroom beforehand - of course - how the heck else would that boy make a decision - I'm surprised he didn't call up Consumer Reports and see if they had some sort of spreadsheet they could fax him at the store so he could make a more educated decision) and then I tried the Blood Orange flavor. YUM! It tasted just like the orange push pops from my childhood.

As you can see from Anna's pic below, she wasn't as big of a fan of the gelato as the rest of the adults were. The girls stuck with vanilla Blue Bell Ice Cream.

On Tuesday night, we went to Watercolor, Florida - an even nicer beachside town than Seaside - and enjoyed a local theatre performance there called "The Stinky Cheese Man". I won't give away all the details of the show, but it was darn cute and fun for the whole family. The girls loved it and it was nice to do something away from the condo for the evening.

The girls wore their new Seagrove Beach "Piranha" shirts to the show (thank you Nana) and we took a couple pics before we headed out for the show. Apparently there was going to be some sort of gang activity that night, as the girls were prepared with their best "homey" stare down poses. Oh - they are such dainty flowers.

And here are a couple more pics of the the girls with some of the actors from the Stinky Cheese Man show as well as the Stinky Cheese Man himself.

Vacation: Day 1

Well, we made it! Over 9 hours after we left Tennessee (three bathroom breaks and an hour lunch at Cracker Barrel sure add some time to the trip), we made it to Seagrove Beach, Florida! Woohoo! I thought we might have to sedate Chris as he HATES to stop on road trips and was a little less than thrilled with us for all the stopping, but his is WAY outnumbered and will just have to suck it up! I swear that boy wears a Depends while driving as he NEVER pees.

The girls were so cute when they first saw the ocean. The immediately wanted to get in the water, but we had to unload the vehicle first. As soon as we were done with that we headed to the beach. The sun was starting to go down, but we were able play in the surf a bit. I was also able to get my first ever jellyfish sting. Ouch! It isn't too bad now, but that sucker stung!!!

We'll have pictures soon, but I'm signing off for now as we are a bit tired and looking forward to a good night's sleep as we let the sound of the waves lull us to sleep.