Vacation!!!

I have finally sorted through the zillions of pictures I took on our vacation~ It took a while to get settled back into real life and I had other things on my plate. Ahem, like studying for my driver's test. Sounds silly, but seriously, I refused to fail. They said that 50% of the people who take the test fail. I was so nervous that would be me! But I passed:) Now to conquer the road test....

Anyway, we had an amazing vacation. We had been debating about renting a beach house and couldn't decide where...and figured that it would be best to head down to Florida where the house is large, beautiful, and has about 1/2 of the things we would have to tote somewhere else. It's right before Florida summer gets too hot, and honestly, it was perfect. We spent every day in the pool, took some field trips, and had a relaxing and really really fun time. Love a successful vacation!!

Here are some pics from our trip....

There was a wildfire in my parent's neighborhood...like a really crazy, spreading, wildfire. A little unnerving since it was super dry. We decided it wasn't quite a pool day when the sky around us turned black/orange and ash was covering everything. Literally couldn't breathe. Solution? Kilwin's Icecream!

We walked out onto a long boat dock....

Winnie was hanging with Papa and looking for her mom.

Thinking...thinking...thinking.....

Winnie's hair blowing in the wind:)

Looking at the buoys.

Sibling love.

They shared a room in Florida and had a blast. I woke up in the morning to giggling and talking. They entertained each other and we had about 20 minutes extra to lay in bed:)

Swimming...Ice pops....that about sums up our afternoons.

Finished!

They loved this baby pool...super dangerous....deflated it after day 2~

Would you mess with her?

Yep, this is where we spent 75% of our vacation. So nice to have it in our yard!

We are so proud of Skyler. The pool made him nervous in the beginning, but by the end, we literally had to d r a g him out. He is now our little fish:)

Sadie and Papa!

One of my favorite swimming partners:)

My other favorite....

She can be soooo girly....

Sitting at Nana's vanity table...

We headed to an art museum in Palm Beach. This is the wall when you first walk in...crazy colors and overwhelming...I loved it!

Discussing art....

Skyler explaining what he sees.

Beach.

Our last day. We woke up and jumped in the car and headed to the beach before breakfast...before it became too hot. It was a tiny bit dramatic but still nice. Sadie is crazy with the water. Can't keep her out of it. Skyler wants to like it, tries to like it, but isn't a huge fan of the ocean. A little too unpredictable for him. But he was a trooper for me:) By the end, Skyler and Sadie had sand stuck to them from head to toe in every crack and fold. Sand and little sweaty bodies are kind of tough to clean!

Friday....

So, it's Friday. The day before we leave for our vacation. And once again, like every day before I leave for vacation, I am SOOO not ready! I have started to pack the kids clothes, but still have laundry and tons of little bitty important things to get together. So, what I am doing? blogging...nothing like living up to my reputation of being a procrastinator!!

I have officially decided that I'm not a fan of people asking me questions about my children. I always give an answer that I'm proud of, and without fail, that very night, things change. I think I am no longer going to answer these questions honestly, but say something that won't be sent swirling out into the universe and bite me in the rear. The other day I had a friend ask me if Skyler and Sadie fought with each other a lot. "Oh no, of course not! They get along so nicely..." I say. MISTAKE! Literally, that night, they started fighting all the time and haven't stopped. It's typical sibling stuff, but still. Sadie whacks Skyler constantly when he does anything to annoy her, which is pretty much everything. OW! is what I hear all day..."Mom, Sadie keeps hitting me!" OW, "Sadie threw a toy at me." OW " Sadie pushed me". OR it could go like this...LOUD and INTENSE screaming from little Sadie who was pushed into a banister by her big brother, "It wasn't my fault Mom." OY...VEY.... Disciplining Skyler, fairly ok...he understands the idea of consequences. Disciplining Sadie?...tough /Time out?...apparently funny. She actually sits on the stairs and pretends to cry with her hands over her face since that is what Skyler does when he's on the steps. I will walk over there to talk and she laughs. Humph.

Something creepy happened today. Something like this jolts me back to reality a bit. The man was most likely harmless. But what if he wasn't? We went to Best Buy today to get Michael's father's day gift. See, we have to wait until the last possible minute because he consistently checks to see the charges. If I buy it any earlier, he will know. SO, off we went and parked next to a work van with a man in it. I registered that the man was sitting in it, but didn't give it too much thought. Unbuckled Skyler, left his door open. Went around to get Sadie, and was putting her in the stroller when all of a sudden he was standing next to me looking at Sadie. He told me he thought she was a newborn and loved new babies. Then went around to talk to Skyler. I panicked. I got Skyler out of the car, locked it, and walked very quickly as the man climbed back into his work van still talking. Now, this man looked fairly grandfatherly...might have genuinely been interested in kids. But let's face it, it's WEIRD that he climbed out to 'see my kids'. Sending a big THANK YOU to the Best Buy guy for keeping an eye out for us when we walked back to the car because the van was still there. The door not completely closed, and he wasn't anywhere I could see him. From now on? I will never park near a car with someone sitting in it. I will never leave my doors open with the kids in the car. And I will always park as close to the store as possible.

Something I Don't Want to Forget....

No pictures on this post. I have been crazy catching up with other pictures and I have to get the memory card back into the camera. But it's been busy...Skyler is almost done with school. One day to go! Can't wait to have him to myself every day for the summer. Yes, I'm serious:) I'm feeling a little nostalgic. I mean, come September, my little boy, whom I have been so attached to, will be going to school from 9 to 3 every day...I'm already getting sad thinking about it. I know he needs more than I can give him at home at this point, but still, this is it for the rest of his school career. I will only have short vacations and summers with him....really? How did this happen so fast? So, yes, I'm really really looking forward to having him drive me crazy all summer:)

About the something I don't want to forget....

Sadie has been having a tough time going down at night. They get each other SOOOOO riled up and it's impossible to keep them calm. All it takes is a laugh and they are off on a crazy tangent. So, she will go into bed and then freak out when she hears me putting Skyler to sleep. Tonight I went in and snuggled (it's so bad that I go in, but I LOVE that short snuggle time). This time she said, "Sadie go see Skyler." SO, I'm a sucker...we went into his room and I laid her down next to him in his bed. He draped his arm over her and we sang some songs together. Than, she was ready to go to sleep and went right down. When I went back to kiss Skyler good night, he said that he loved singing to Sadie in his bed. I swear, they would be happiest if they could share a room together....

Sweet Dreams everyone!

Skyler's 4th Birthday!

The entire Memorial Day Weekend was Skyler's birthday celebration. But his actual birthday fell on the Tuesday after a busy and exciting weekend when everyone had gone home and back to work. This is normally a 'let down' day that is tough for the kids. So, I had to pump it up a bit to make Skyler's birthday special.

Now, we have to understand Skyler. He is just like his Daddy. Serious, smart, and thinks about EVERYTHING. So, his birthday was tough. I have been prepping him for a while to get him to realize that I won't be doing EVERYTHING for him forever...I'm guessing I took it a bit too far... "when you turn 4, you need to learn to put on your own shoes!....When you turn 4, you need to start dressing yourself....When you turn 4..." Apparently, I have overused this phrase and scared my poor child about his birthday. The night before, we asked him if he was ready to turn 4. He said No. He said he was happy being a baby and wasn't ready to grow up. When you think about it, it's a tough transition. They become a real kid at 4. And he knew it. And he wasn't ready. He even woke up in the middle of the night panicking. Well, Sadie and I flew into his room on his birthday and sang to him, jumped all around. And he was just laying very still on his back. I asked him how it felt to be 4...He paused....and then said, "you know what? It feels GOOD!" Happy Birthday to my BIG BOY!!!!!! We love you:)

Our day was special. We went strawberry picking for our mini party with some of our closest friends. Here are some pics....

Our party people:)

King of the crab! Until he fell flat on his face after he slipped off of it. I TOLD him not to do it:)

My boy surrounded by ladies...including his half naked sis:)

We were obviously cooling off in the sprinklers, but the kids had a fun time.

Ok, really? Can we look at these two? They have known each other since, well, before they were born! And it's amazing to me, how every time they see each other, no matter how long it's been, how they are just incredibly comfortable with each other. And cute... Another picture to add to the collection for their wedding collage:)

And another....they already look like a married couple.