Thursday, July 25, 2013

Growing up

I need to interrupt the all the vacation pictures/stories because these kids are growing up SO FAST!  Lately so many milestones have been hit by these three that I need to take a minute to write them all down.

First up, Carter boy.  Last summer he desperately wanted to climb trees.  He even went so far as to ask the librarian for a book about how to climb trees.  You can imagine how that went.  But this summer he is a tree climbing machine.  He begs and begs "please mom can I go climb my tree."  His favorite tree to climb just happens to be a big pine tree and when he gets to the top he throws "bombs" down on us. 

 An even bigger revelation for us SWIMMING.  I feel like swimming in the ocean gave him a boost of confidence.  When we returned from vacation he saw a friend at the pool swimming who began teaching him various skills.  I was shocked to watch him put his head underwater and swim a few lengths.  Although the ohio weather is not cooperating, I'm trying to get him to the pool as much as possible to go with this momentum.

Finally, he has a LOOSE TOOTH.  I can't even wrap my mind around this.  Knowing his personality, it's going to be loose for a really long time until it finally falls out on its on one day.

Now, we even have a supply list for kindergarten, only a couple of weeks away.  WOW.

A little reflection:  it's amazing to see how he tackles developmental milestones and it's generally the same approach.  He likes to wait and wait and wait until he can do something perfectly.  He really dosen't like the try/fail, try/fail approach.  He did this with reading, walking, swimming, talking.  Whereas Ava tends to approach problems by trying and then immediately bursting into tears because she can't do it.  


Now, our little Miss Avaroo:



This is the outfit she choose to wear to t-ball.  It was a very warm day, but she committed to leg warmers and did not take them off the whole time.  The sparkle hat did not stay on the entire time though.

She is doing great learning to read.  She has been sound out three syllable CVC words and even read her first sentence recently:  See me read.  Like I mentioned previously the hysterics/dramatics are a frequent companion to our reading sessions but we are working through them.

Preschool is also around the corner.  I think she is going to flourish in this environment, and I'd like to see her make a lot of little friends her age.  

Last up, Dawson boy.  We are on the third day of potty training and he has been in underwear all day long.  We even managed shopping, YMCA and summer camp drop offs/pick ups in underwear.  He was over ready for this, and I feel like waiting has in fact made the potty training process easier for us.  But who knows, we are only on the third day and have yet to have a BM in its proper place.  I'm so excited to have everyone in underwear by the end of summer!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Florida Vacation - Jacksonville Beach

We spent a brief morning swimming at Jacksonville Beach before jumping in the car to drive to North Carolina and then home.  The plan was to enjoy it as a family, but unfortunately Mike needed to take the van for a little brake work.  So I took the four kids down to the beach for the morning.

This hotel also had a pool and I asked the kids if they would rather swim in the pool or on the beach.  I was hoping for the pool because I wasn't looking forward to cleaning sand off four kids.  But unanimously everyone wanted to go to the beach.



Due to the early hour {before  9 am} we had shadow people on the beach.


Jacksonville Beach Pier

A little too far to walk with the kids, but I would have loved to go down there.


Dawson my little fishie


Carter running in and out of the surf


Ava was skipping around and around and around.

I have to say I felt a little like super mom this morning.  While Mike was at the car shop, I took all four to the beach.  Then we came back up to the hotel room where I gave everyone showers and packed up the hotel room, BY MYSELF.  Although, as I pointed out to Mike it's not the first time I've packed up a hotel room by myself *ahem* jay and tiff's wedding. 


We also drove by our old house.  The trees are so overgrown, it looks like the swamp is taking over!

Florida Vacation - Second Day at Crandon Bay

Can you tell that I took a zillion photos on this vacation and I want to document them all?  We spent a second day at Crandon Bay, our favorite beach near Miami.  Once again it was a very relaxing day, the kids played happily at the beach for SEVEN hours.  I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that they were happily occupied anywhere for seven hours.  We were able to spend so much time with our cousins and Aunt Margie on this day.     



Beautiful Scenery Everywhere


Beach Super Heroes


Mike quoting Bobby Hill "There milk in the fridge about to go bad............There it goes."


A thumbs up from Wonder Woman.


And they played......and played......and played.....


Cousins in a sand chair


What a beautiful place to get our yearly couple photo.





Our Family

I love Ava's Flamingo leg in this picture.

I can't wait to go back!  Maybe not this exact beach, but somewhere!

Monday, July 22, 2013

Florida Vacation - One more from St Augustine!

After the Castillo we stopped by a pizza place.  It was conveniently located on our route, and as we walked in it was decked out in Steelers gear! 



Mike was in pizza and beer heaven, despite being surrounded by the Steelers decor.


TERRIBLE TOWEL!!!!!


Roover 

It was so very delicious pizza too!

Sorry, I couldn't help myself!

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Florida Vacation - Castillo De San Marcos

On the way home from Miami we decided to swing by Saint Augustine, FL to visit the Castillo De San Marcos.  I had visited this as a kid when we lived in Florida, and I knew that Mike and the kids would be interested.  

Lots of pictures in this post, there were so many good ones!


Isn't it beautiful?


Outside of the Castillo


The bunk room, don't those beds look comfortable?


Peeking into the prison


There were so many carvings on the wall, this is just one picture.  One carving said Alexander Carter and the other said Cleveland, Ohio 1880.


Nine wooden forts were destroyed by pirates before the Spanish commissioned the building of a stone fort in the 1600's.


Carter and Dawson near the cannons.  Dawson was very upset because he wasn't allowed to climb on the cannons.  Mike was very upset because we couldn't come back the next day to see the cannons being fired.


Mommy and Ava in the sentry house.  Silly Girl!


Very nice re-enactment soldier who posed with us for a picture.


I thought this was such a cute picture of Riley girl!

Mike loved walking through the castillo and he was convinced he was going to get a picture of an orb.  It was a fun place to talk to the kids about history, because it belong to Spanish, British and American forces at one time or another.  A very fun place to visit, and it was great for the kids to run off a little steam after a long car ride from Miami.  After this place we took the A1A highway to our hotel on Jacksonville Beach.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Florida Vacation - Alligator Animal Show

After we got off the air boat we went to a short alligator/animal show.


Scorpion!


Of course I was the person picked from the audience to kiss the ginormous toad.  Luckily the man whispered to me "I won't let it touch you, just close your eyes and be really still."  So I obliged.  Clearly this picture is evidence that the toad did not in fact touch me.


During the show there was a short segment where they jokingly tried to entice kids to play in the sand in front of the alligator with candy.  Brendan busted out of the audience and had his foot up over the fence so fast, before I could even blink.  Aunt Margie had school this day, so I was in charge and all I could think was that I was going to have to bring him home without a limb.  Luckily we all survived.


The kids with the alligator family.

Florida Vacation - Airboat in the Everglades


We also decided to take an air boat ride through the Everglades.  We found a place that advertised kids six and under FREE!  We will be taking advantage of that deal!


For most families, this picture would be an outtake.  I think the look on my face is hilarious, what is wrong with this kid?!?!?!


Dawson liked the air boat when it was going forward, but when we were maneuvering around corners it drifts and spins.  Pretty fun, but for a wee two year old, petrifying   Remember, you can't hear anything with the noise from the boat, and I looked at Mike holding Dawson.  Mike has a big grin on his face while Dawson is screaming his head off.  After some big hugs, he was all right.


Brendan and Riley had big grins on their faces during the ride as well.


Caption from Daddy "Please dear lord, get me off this boat."

Although he was scared at the time, he still talks about the air boat ride as his favorite experience of the entire trip.  On the car ride on the way home he was buzzing his lips going "BRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, da song of da boat."  Mike and I were laughing so hard.


The most active alligator we saw that day, swimming away from our boat.

We saw so many baby alligators that day.


Ahinga or snake bird