Watermelon Relays and Fantastic Frog Icecream

Let the summer BEGIN............... Two days before Emma got out of school for the summer, they had a Watermelon Day, complete with sliced watermelon, relay races and ice cream sundaes. Here Emma is waiting her turn to do the egg on the spoon relay.

Her group came in first during the jump roping relay- one poor child( I will let remain anonymous) ran down while making the jump rope go backwards in instead of forward, and kept tripping over his own feet and was like a big gangly puppy, with no coordination and had all us parents rolling on the floor. The rope was tangled around his ankles and he was on the ground more than he was running. Please someone give that kid some lessons.

Fiona and Emma eating their sundaes- apparently Emma is in ice cream heaven with her eyes closed in dream land

Reece's class was called the Fantastic frogs this year. They had a water day and a picnic lunch to end the year. He loved his teachers and with their help came out of his shell and warmed up to socializing in class and enjoying some time away from mom. This is Ms. Susan and Ms. Kate with Reece. I had to bribe him to get him to pose for this picture.

Reece and his best friend Jake- will someone please tickle Jake, I need to see a smile. Once while over at our house, he told Rick that he was a ninja and to refer to him as a ninja not Jake. These two are going to have a blast together over the summer.

As for our summer plans, we make our annual trip up to D.C. to see rick's parents and our nieces. I think we may be leaving on that in a few weeks. Then, possibly to see my dad in Myrtle Beach for some seadoo fun and stay in a beach cottage. I have kept our summer plans regarding the kids pretty minimal, so we could make time for traveling. To all our friends if you are in the area, please stop in, the pool is getting a new patio and that is probably where you'll find us every afternoon.

Fiesta Cha cha

Emma chose the Fiesta Cha Cha for her 2nd grade recital song. It didn't take her long to pick up the beat, but she really wanted to rush through the song and not wait for the rests. Therefore, when her piano teacher( who is also her school music teacher) wanted to play a duet with her, it took them along to get the beat right and have Emma slow down. She sits down a lot and just loves to find songs she knows off the radio or she's heard in church, she'll just do it through trial and error, until she gets a few notes or the chorus. To hear her play, just scroll along and mute my music and then you can hear her.

Chillin

Contemplating life while riding on the Disco Biscuit

We realized that after being closed due to the 2 consecutive hurricanes( Ivan and Dennis), Ft. Pickens national seashore, reopened and we took the boat to the Inter coastal side of the beach and grilled out

There was a great tide pool that the kids found crabs in. The crabs were quick and when cornered would get their pincher's out, ready to grab a toe

Adeline has such a funny expression here, I had to include it. While taking the boat out Monday afternoon we hit a giant thunderstorm that had rain coming in on us sideways. The kids were hiding under the table near the captain's chair and I was holding the plastic wind shield that wasn't doing much to keep the rain off us. The Bimini Top leaked all over us and pretty much we were like drowned rats, cold, miserable and yours truly forgot to bring towels. Rick was smiling like a crazed lunatic and laughing " Isn't this fun kids, like an adventure?!" These are what memories are made of, he kept yelling through the storm. When he finally got back into the car and he blasted the heater, Rick asked us what our favorite part of the storm was, and none of us answered. My favorite part was driving through Starbucks on the way home.

Sunday afternoon by the pool

First Holy Communion

Emma made her 1st Holy Communion on May 3, 2009 and was in a group of 55 kids also making their communion. Here is she is waiting to walk in the church

Grandpa Wojtanik came down for the occasion and was so proud of his 1st grandchild

The 2nd grade girls in Emma's class- one little girl Isabella was in a traditional Spanish communion dress. It had the habit like a nun wears and beautiful embroidered grapes and a big chalice

Jenna and Emma being VERY holy on their holy communion

Emma and Haley during the May crowning of Mary the following morning after mass

Her entire communion class, with the 2 priests and deacon in the last row

We made these communion banners during a parent/child retreat the weekend prior

Celebrating afterwards at the Crab Trap

I made Emma her celebration cake

It cracked Rick and I up regarding her "holy hands!" She kept this pose coming into the church, leaving the church, taking every photo and even held them like this the following morning during the May Crowning. No other children were doing this, just our little saint. I guess she thought she was getting extra brownie points with God. Some pictures I couldn't even see her face in, b/c of the hands. Rick's mother has always been upset we didn't name her after a saint, but who knows, after this display, maybe she's on her way to becoming the first Saint Emma after all.

New Slogan

Emma loves to try on my perfume, makeup and other bathroom goodies, since she's always in there just rooting around. The other day she was just rolling my deodorant on herself and she said " You know Mom I think more people would use this kind, if they had a good commercial." "Like instead of smelling like a dirty trash dumpster, you can smell like our pretty armpit roller." "So stop smelling like a trash can and use this."

Apparently that is what her mother must smell like, so boy I better start using more deodorant and stop smelling like trash.
I think I will call Secret or Ladies Speedstick today and see if they go for the idea

Mother's Weekend

I teasingly started saying on Saturday morning, "It's Mother's Day Weekend" and Rick kept giving me the eye roll and the why don't they just start calling it Mother's Year then, rebuttal. But in truth this weekend really was fantastic and looking back I can't believe how much we packed in.

Disney On Ice came again, so we took the kids to see it since Cars was going to be here this time.

Emma thoroughly enjoyed her $10 bag of cotton candy, at least a hat came with it.

Emma was thrilled to get this flower petal hat with her million dollar cotton candy

I don't see how the drivers of these cars didn't run into one another. At one time they had 7 cars out there on 1/2 a rink of ice

Sunday afternoon we blew up our tube and took the kids as fast as the pontoon would go. Emma wore her fashionable goggles to stop the spray of water shooting up their noses and over their faces. You never could really tell if Reece enjoyed it or not, while riding he was tightlipped and serious( almost seasick looking), but then we would stop and he would yell, keep going, go faster.

In Quiet Water Cove they now have this mega slide to entice kids with, so that poor unsuspecting parents walk over and then the kids dash away before they can be stopped , climb the inflatable ladder and are shooting down the slide, before their parents even have time to ask the price. I thought Reece would be too intimidated, but boy was I wrong. He and Emma had a blast. They may have had slide wedgies, but had fun creating those wedgies.

I'm so thankful to be the mother of these three wonderful kids. They are my sunshines and sanity. I would probably be a bundle of nervous energy with no outlet, if not for my children. I love to listen to their conversations when they think I'm not listening, watch them sleep and sing to them while they sit in a tub filled with bubbles. I think it will be a very sad day when I have no one to make breakfast for while watching cartoons, except Rick. Maybe he'll request fluffernutter sandwiches while he spaces out watching ScoobyDoo. I used to not think Mother's Day was that big of a deal, but now I know better.

Mother's Tea at Reece's preschool, we had cookies and lemonade. He made me a picture frame, a flower vase and a crepe paper flower

The coolest field trip ever

Where is 2nd grade going on their ONLY field trip this year- The Perdido Landfill- in other words the DUMP. As you can see, Emma is siked.

We parent chaperones had to drive our cars into the dump itself and up Mt. Trashorama. It was 410 feet high of trash. The 1st stop along the way, was the recycling area. This giant pile of boxes is hand sorted by only the finest orange jump suit wearing inmates, standing only a few feet from our kids. While a guard with a gun lounged with his feet up on the nearby forklift.

All 33 kids wanted their picture taken in front of the can squashing machine, which the tour guide told us was their version of Wall-E

A Wall-E Cube

Next stop, hazardous waste area. Let's stop for a quick picture girls, before we stick our heads in boxes full of rusty paint cans, live ammunition, yard fertilizer, and boat flares. Again please stand clear of the orange jumpsuit wearing people and stop taking pictures of them. Please stop talking about the smell in front of the employees and what ever you do DON'T call it a dump. Wow, last year's 2nd graders who went to the zoo and planetarium sure missed out on this trip. And wait there's even a goody bag to go home with kids, wonder what's inside............