Pensacola

Our family ventured to Pensacola on Friday and headed to the beach.   This was the second adventure at the beach for Mae, but the first with her being mobile.   We all had a blast. 

We forgot Mae's hat and so I repurposed her swim bottoms into a bandanna of sorts.  It worked well and kept the sun off her head when she'd wander away from the shade or while out in the ocean.   She loved the water and she especially loved licking her face and tasting all the salt (she is her mother's daughter!)  

Ace once again had a GREAT time running around, chasing birds, running away from the waves, splashing in the water.    And both Loving Husband and I took turns playing with the kids in the ocean and splashing in the waves.   

After about two hours worth of fun we headed to get cleaned up and checked into a hotel which upon arrival we saw would be totally sub par for our needs... 1 queen bed with a family of 4, while some might be able to do it - we can't.  We tried once with just the three of us in a queen and it was a no go.  So LH did some priceline research while I showered and got the kids cleaned up and then we left that hotel and headed back toward the beaches to check into the Holiday Inn.   Which was an amazing hotel!   The rooms were nice, the view spectacular, and the restaurant inside the hotel excellent.     We had dinner and finally got the kids in bed VERY late. 

The next morning we woke up, had some breakfast and then got ready to use the pool.   Loaded up the car and then headed to the pool.   They had a lazy river at this pool and so after some initial splashing around both Loving Husband and I got into our respective inner tubes and each put a kid on our lap and floated down the river.   Ace and LH got out of their tube and went to find his floaties and Mae and I continued to circle the river and she eventually fell asleep.   We probably floated for 20 minutes while she had a nice snooze while I shielded her from the sun.   It was sweet and there was a lot of 'aww's from the other pool guests.  

After Mae woke up we played and splashed in the water - Ace spent a good amount of time swimming all over the pool wearing his floaties and he had a great and tiring time.  Overall about 2 hours of playtime in the pool.    We dried off and changed the kids and then headed to lunch.   Afterwards we dropped of LH at a friend's house and me and the kids headed home for a silent car ride, as they were both out for 90% of the 2 hour drive home.  It was a great family weekend at the beach.  Lots of sun and fun.

Summer Splashes!

 As a part of Ace's birthday present we got him a pool for him to play in, but my inner little kid just couldn't wait until Sunday's birthday party (I know only two days...) and so I got to work huffing and a puffing to blow that sucker up!   Whew let me tell you it wasn't a small feat that was acommplished, but it was certainly worth it. 


"Thanks, mom for getting me a pool, mom!"  You're welcome, sweetheart!



Burn that energy!!

He was having a blast jumping up and down and splashing!

So happy!

Sunset Splashes

Splashing in the sprinkler at sunset...
nothing better in the summer!

The Great Dinosaur Excavation

Ace is a busy boy and busy boys need things to do, and tv all the time just isn't going to cut it and playing in the water (while super fun) just is a bit too wild ALL THE TIME... so more concentrated activities are being sought out to keep Ace entertained, educated and exploring! I've been on the hunt for fun things for him to do and I happened upon Counting Coconuts and came across a post about excavating dinosaurs. I knew that would be a great activity for Ace and so I got to work freezing dinosaurs in layers.

Today was the day! I set Ace down outside at his table after his nap and he was very excited... as you can see. He didn't know what we were going to do and he was wiggly with anticipation when I brought out the frozen bowl of dinosaurs. We talked about the tools we had and how warm water melts ice and how salt can help. I had two kinds of salt to let him experiment to see which worked better. He had a blast.

It was a family affair and we all got in on the fun 'brushing' away the ice and working to get the dinosaurs out. While he was excavating, to keep his attention we read his Curious George book about the Dinosaur Museum. He was so thrilled when he finally could get that first one out, and the excitement didn't wear off. He was a tad concerned and voiced that he didn't want the dinosaur to bite him when he was unleashed from his frozen grip... hehe we had a good time imagining, learning about dinosaurs, learning about ice melting and just having fun! He overall had a great time playing and excavating his dinosaurs for well over an hour.





After they were all lined up, Ace came inside and read another dinosaur book with his dad. He asked when he could do it again, so I believe that we can call this activity a success! And it cost me? Nothing! :)

Busy Boy

Ace is a busy boy and being that he is so busy I am always on the hunt for new and exciting things that we can do together... but that aren't so involved that I can't stop to tend to his sister. It's a delicate balance of one on one attention mixed with watching the two of them. We recently joined the Children's Museum that is here in town and he absolutely loves to run around and see all of those neat and exciting things. His imagination can run wild there and so can he! They have a new arts and crafts project every week and he entertains that idea a little bit. He still in some respects has the attention span of a toddler. ;-) We've been a handful of times and he is never ready to leave when it is time - so I consider that a successful outting. We usually stay about 2 hours.

Living in Mississippi we are blessed with the warm days and evenings that allow for Ace to play in the water pretty much anytime we allow it. It's plenty warm enough from the moment he wakes up until well after sundown for him to just splash away with a hose, sprinkler, or cups of water.

But I want to be able to show him new and exploratory fun this summer. So I've been on the hunt for craft projects, activites, and interactive fun that we can create, explore and discover together. Helping him to learn and discover new things. To soak up more knowledge and have fun at the same time... and to not be a tv zombie... or just a little wrinkly sponge outside in the water all day either. ;-) So stay tuned for the fun that Ace and I (and Mae) will be exploring this summer! I've got lots of fun projects lined up!

Summer is here!

Yipee! Sound the trumpets! Break out the Popsicles! Summer has found its way to the Northwest! YahoO!!! Am I excited? Absolutely! I am done with the dreary COLD weather! Brrr. Done done done! Looking forward to being HOT! Yes, I am! To kick off our summer excitement Ace and I went to pick strawberries. :) Ace had a blast and so did his mom and for $4.60 we got a flat of strawberries, enough to make jam and have plenty to snack on for a day or two.... or an hour or two if Ace has his way. ;-)

While out at the U-Pick Farm we had a great time hunting for berries amid the plants. Ace got the hang of picking the early and ate probably as many as we picked to take home... so a LOT. Nicely they are naturally grown and not covered in pesticides so it's ok.

After we got home, we broke out the pool and the spray bottle... a current giggly favorite. Seriously this kid loves to spray the bottle in his face and just laugh and laugh. It's actually quite adorable.

At one point he fell into his pool, and mom got quite the action shot. He recovered nicely and continued to play - perhaps even cooler than he was beforehand.

Summer Favorites - Swimming

Growing up I recall having swim lessons on a regular basis in the summer time. I remember having a crush on one of my instructors. I remember trying to swim and swim and getting no where because my arms didn't have any strength to pull myself along. I remember often freezing after only mere moments in the water. But more than anything I remember loving swimming!

Which is why I wanted to put my son in swim lessons right away, and that has proven to be a great bonding time for him and I. He is a little water bug in all manners of speaking. Pools, sprinklers, showers, and bathtubs you will find him having a good time in just about any water medium. I'm so happy about that. I am so thankful I don't have a boy that shrieks like the Wicked Witch of the West when he touches the water. He just has a great time and in turn. So do we!

His latest excitement in his swim lessons is that he free swims underwater! Ok don't envision full lengths of pools, he's not THAT much of a Flipper yet. No, he dips underwater and I let go of him and he swims about a foot to the instructor. He already knows how to kick his little legs and does SO well. It's so cute to watch his expression under the water.

Part of our anniversary we went as a family to the pool and allowed dad to see all of our latest and greatest skills. Both mom and dad practiced the dipping to and from and were able to enjoy his expressions and his kicks. We all had a good time for about an hour and I think for the first time in a week - after we got out of the shower Ace was chilly!

Summer Favorites - Our Anniversary

This year we are celebrating our 5th anniversary! It's hard to imagine that 5 years has gone by when I said "I do" to the love of my life. We have enjoyed many celebrations of our anniversary. This next week leading up to our anniversary, I will have a post on each of our five years together.

The below picture is one of my favorites from our wedding day. Mostly because my husband is whispering to me that he hates pictures, but loves me. So my smile in this one is very real.

Summer Favorites - Outdoor Fun!

One of my favorites of summers is the ability to be outdoors. Particularly here in the northwest. There are so many great parks around to go to. They always keep their grass so nicely green and soft, whereas our grass here at home starts to get brittle and brown after while (we're too cheap to keep it THAT green.)

Going to the parks is not only a great way to get out of the house, but also to get some great vitamin D! I have been so excited that Ace can get the real deal and not the drops these last few weeks. And yes we are off today to enjoy a trip to the park! In fact we are off to celebrate my friend's 30th! What fun!

My favorite thing to do in a park was to sit in the shade of a tree and read a book... while I won't be able to do that this season as I am busy chasing a busy boy around, I certainly will enjoy the warm weather! So enjoy the sun everyone! What is your favorite outdoor activity in the summer?

Summer Favorites - Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope you all have a happy and safe experience today. Pray for me, I'm going into a war zone to a friend's neighborhood to watch drunken men who think they know everything about pyrotechnics family friendly folk set off volatile explosives fireworks. I don't like amateur fireworks and you can read all about in last years rant post.

I don't want to pass on my fears to my son, but I my fears have been well ingrained in me. I prefer the professional shows, but sometimes the company and friends win out - so while I will be despising ever second of the pyrotechnic nonsense - I will enjoy the company that I am with. Happy Fourth of July, while the amateur fireworks are not my favorite - I do love this holiday and what it stands for. God Bless America!

Summer Favorites - Vacations

As adults we can take vacations whenever we want as long as we have the vacation time away from work. However when we have kids, at least the school age variety - we get sucked back into the summer vacay-schedule. There has been lots going on in our world the last two years and so we haven't had much of a vacation beyond long weekends.

My favorite vacation by far to date was our trip to Roma. Loving Husband had to go for work and so his trip was paid for. So we just had to get me on a plane and give me a wine budget (haha there was no budget) and we were off for 10 glorious days! You can read about our adventures go here & here.... there are some great pictures in there, but this one is one of my favorite. We had been walking all over the Vatican and were now over at the Castle and I was tired. I just love the smile on my husband's face.

Summer Favorites - Cherry Pie

This summer I thought I'd do a series of "Summer Favorites"... Blogging on the weekends often doesn't happen because well the sun is out - we are busy, time to be out and about! That doesn't mean I can't schedule a summer favorite! This could be anything from what I love about summer - to an old post that is a favorite that I thought I'd share with my newer readers. If you're interested in joining me, simply take the picture and add it to your blog and create your own summer favorites post.

This post, I thought I'd bring to you one of my favorite things of summer. Cherry pie! I know that you can have cherry pie almost any time of the year thanks to freezers and Marie Calendars... but to me it feels like summer is on it's way when the cherries are made available at the stores. I was even more excited when visiting Cheryl at The Coolest Mom on the Block, she had posted about this. I love new kitchen gadgets, I love to find unique (but useful) tools to use in the kitchen and when I saw this one -- you better believe my outing the next day was to Williams-Sonoma.

Home I came with cherries that were 1.99 a pound! Woohoo for Albertson's sales! And my cherry pitter and I made myself some cherry pie. Yes a square pie, I was just in the mood. It was yummy.