Good times in June!

We were so happy to have a visit this week from my brother in law, Ralph, and his two wonderful little girls, Candace and Gillian.  It so happened to be Gillian's 6th birthday.  That child was not out of the car three seconds before she asked if I was maybe going to make her a cake.  Aunt Erin doesn't have time to bake cakes at this exact moment in time, but thanks to her daddy I had the birthday cake already purchased :) 

The classic part was that the flash wouldn't go off for Lewis when we actually sang Happy Birthday and blew out candles so Lewis made her "fake" the whole thing to be recorded!  She was a very good sport and really just wanted to eat some cake...good girl.

A seamstress, I am not.  I wanted to make the girls simple little pool cover ups, but I just did the best I could and they seemed to really like the fact that I had tried at all.  It was late at night and I was also trying to help them make Father's Day cards which turned out to be just a hodge podge of excess stickers I had.  I kind of failed on both but gave them entertainment for a few good hours.  I'm sure Red Grandma can fix Gillian and Candace's dresses...:)  Again these are only pool cover ups, not Sunday best dresses.

We also attended the Ormond Beach Seafood Festival this weekend, which was just begging me to buy some steamed crab from Hull's, but we refrained and just let the girls play for a few hours.  

Anna Kate is officially big enough to be in the bounce house even though I continue to have mini strokes outside while watching the near misses from big kids taking her out.

She and Elizabeth loved this little obstacle course bounce thing and my favorite part was Anna Kate "backing" her way through parts of it.  Yes this is her backing through something, not the tail end of her going through...

 

We didn't experience this last little gem until we were just sweaty messes and exhausted.  It was all worth it though just to see Lew throw her on the velcro wall.

Elizabeth in a velcro suit

and Lewis throwing her on the velcro wall...so funny to watch.

This should be a new form of time out for kids....

Happy Fathers Day!!!

Learning to swim

Is it my turn yet?

I finally had enough of worrying about Anna Kate and the pool at the grandparents house.  We enrolled the girls in aquababies for Elizabeth to make the jump into actual swimming.  She is doing well and getting better day by day.  Last week she actually floated for the first time on her own, real honest to goodness floating no one touching her, that's a big day for me.

Anna Kate is the real dare devil.  She is ready to go in all the time.  Kathy, our instructor is teaching the swim, float, swim method.  Anna Kate will eventually learn that if she falls in the water to stay calm, get on her back and get air.  When she feels ready, flip over swim a few strokes and flip back over for air eventually getting to the edge of the pool.  I think it's amazing to see how against our human nature it is to float and rest.  I hope they never have to use the skills but I know that it is a necessary precaution.  The following is all Anna Kate, real kicks and swimming underwater.

We did have a bit of fun this weekend and grilled out with the neighbors and friends.  Eventually the kdis all ended up in bathing suits, aside from Anna Kate in her diaper.

Love the princess crowns.  Good summer time fun.

The Ballet Recital

Today was the result of months and months of ballet lessons for Elizabeth, which lasted all of 5 minutes on stage but was enough to fill me up with the great feeling of having those precious moments for a really long time.

The production was Cinderalla and Elizabeth was a mouse.  I am eternally grateful that we made it to the dress rehersal and actual recital without ripping off the tail, tearing a ribbon or getting something smooshed on the front of the (very expensive) costume.  I had heard some other mice were not so lucky.

Cinderalla, played by a very special young lady named Grace, had actually been working with them the entire year ( I guess I would consider her an assistant to the instructor) She is super talented and just beautiful to watch.  Grace is on the right jumping into the air.  Elizabeth is dead center and jumping into the air.  Grace also attends the same school where Elizabeth has been in daycare and will be in Pre K this coming year, so she sees her from time to time at school.

The production was so nice and I appreciate the dedication of the staff and professionalism to put on a show of this standard.  All the dancers were wonderful and worked so hard but below are a few pictures of my favorite parts.

Ok and I had to put these up.  Poor Anna Kate, she gets that mad scientist hair thing going on and this Saturday was no exception.  It was a three pony tail kind of day to try to bring it down.  I need to wipe her down with fabric softner sheets.