Color Me Happy

I love crayons.  I love fun colors.  I love this art project that I came across on my new favorite blog.  This made for a very fun birthday craft for Lily.

Supplies: canvas, lots of crayons, hot glue gun, hairdryer 

 Carefully picking the order they want the crayons to go in

Hot glue the crayons to the top of the canvas.  Then, use the hairdryer (on hot) to make the crayons melt down.

I know, right!  Coolest thing ever.  Here's the link.  You're welcome :)
Seriously though, if you want to make one I would go to the site for better detailed instructions.

Tomorrow we are going to try out her colored rice and make the homemade gummy worms. I'm almost giddy.   Shelly S., thanks for introducing me to the site :) 

Happy 6th Birthday, Lily

Lily turned 6 today.  We had a pretty mellow day.  She woke up and opened a couple of presents.  I had decorated the house in the middle of the night, so she liked waking up to that.  She wanted to go to lunch at Chick-fil-A.  Then, we came home and did a craft that is, in my opinion, worthy of it's own post.  Lily requested salmon for dinner, so we had salmon burgers and green beans, her favorite.  My good friend, who the kids call Aunt Tara, came over to watch Lucy and Harrison while Lily and I went to Back to School Night.  Then, off to mutual for me while the kids all played at home with Aunt Tara.  I came back from mutual and we had cake and sang happy birthday.  There is her day in a nutshell.

Confession. I've been lying to myself for quite sometime about my true feelings towards birthday parties for little kids.  The truth.  I think they are just fine and dandy.  I don't think kids turn into spoiled, selfish, high maintenance adults because their parents let them have some friends over for cake, ice cream, and a pinata when they were little kids.  I think birthday parties are so much fun!  I love putting them together for my kids.  So, stay tuned - more birthday fun coming.

The canvas crayon art project pictures are also from today.  More pictures to be taken this weekend.

1st Day of Kindergarten!

I can't believe the day actually came.  Lily was so excited and so ready to start her new adventure.  I'll never forget hearing the anticipation in her voice as she would talk about all her kindergarten possibilities.  It seemed as though she couldn't sit still on the days leading up to that very first day.  We made all the necessary preparations, such as, buying a backpack, a lunchbox, and a thermos.  We took our very long list of school supplies to the store and had a blast buying things like, 18 glue sticks, 3 big boxes of crayons, 24 pencils, etc, etc.

Lily spent her big morning trying on several first day of school outfits, determined to find the perfect one.  When she was dressed and fed, we headed out the door.  We arrived at the school to find a nicely arranged breakfast for everyone.  They had an assortment of muffins, danishes, coffee cakes, and juices.  This, of course, was all accompanied by many boxes of tissues for the crying parents and children.  Some kids were clinging onto their parents, some parents were clinging onto their children.  Lily went and quietly stood in line with a sweet little smile on her face.  The teachers soon announced that it was time to go inside.  I was doing okay.  I was holding up.  Lily's line started for the door and as soon as she reached the door, she turned back, flashed me a huge smile, waved and said, "Bye, Mom!"  The tears welled up.  They might have even overflowed a little.  I maintained my cool as much as I could and with Harrison and Lucy in tow, we made it back to the car and back home.  As I was wiping my eyes, it dawned on me why so many parents were wearing sunglasses at 9:00 am.

The thing I was most worried about during that day was how she would do in the  huge cafeteria for lunch.  She requested a bagel and cream cheese, cookies, string cheese, and juice for her very first day.  I added a little surprise note that I knew she would love to read.  She did just fine at lunch time.  I got a kick out of the remnants of her lunch box.  I opened it to find 1/4 of an uneaten bagel, 1/4  of an uneaten string cheese, and a completely empty bag of cookies.  Of course.

I couldn't wait to ask lily all about her day.  One of the first things she told me they got to do in this institution of higher learning was watch movies . . . excuse me?  Seriously?  That is a blog post for another day.  Anyway, she had a blast.  She even made a friend.  We are very proud of her and excited to see how she learns and grows this year.

Proudly displaying her backpack

To celebrate this momentous occasion, after school we headed straight for the most divine little cupcake shop.

Starting with her favorite part, the chocolate chips.

What a day.

The Trampoline

We got a trampoline at the beginning of the summer and it turned out to be a huge hit.  I didn't expect Lucy to be such a fan of it.  She would spend all day out there if I let her.

Goodbye Summer!

Lily starts kindergarten next week, which brings us to the close of another fun filled summer.  She is thrilled for school and I'm excited for her.  Here are some summer pictures.  Good times.

Lily mastering her rollerskating skills

Fun with water

If You Give A Moose A Muffin . . .

Lucy is excellent at playing Peek - A - Boo

Lots and lots and lots of fun with Nona

We went to the Berry Patch Farm with some friends to pick strawberries and raspberries.  They were delicious to eat and so fun to pick.  You'll see toward the end that Lucy ended up strapped down in the stroller.  I couldn't keep her from eating all the berries.  She's not the only one, Harrison had a really hard time collecting raspberries.  Those are his favorite and he just wanted to pop them all in his mouth.  We had a great time.  This is actually the same Berry Farm we went to when Lily was very little.  Check it out.

Sleeping on a Sunday afternoon

It was a good summer.

10 Days In Paradise

Note - the picture resolution is being funny.  The smaller pictures look a little fuzzy, but are clear when you click on them.  Weird.

After being married 8 years and 3 kids later, Tag and I felt like we were in need of a little R&R for just the two of us.  In January we decided to book a cruise.  We had never been on one, but heard they were fun so we thought we'd give it a shot.  I had 7 nice long months to sit and daydream about the warm caribbean sun.  The day finally came and after crying many tears while saying goodbye to the kids, I was finally able to get into the car and drive to the airport.  My wonderful mother and very close family friends came to stay with the kids.  We landed in Puerto Rico and stayed a few days there before embarking on our caribbean voyage.
We had a great hotel room that spoiled us with our own patio that led out to the pool.  It wasn't hard to jump right into relaxing.  After talking to a few people very familiar with great places to visit while in Puerto Rico, it seemed we couldn't miss out on visiting Culebra.  It's an island that was recently voted to have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.  We jumped on a small plane - I mean very small plane, and headed out to the island for the day.  It did not disappoint!

Our Hotel

Culebra

Our pilot was the same guy who sold us the tickets, checked us in, and flew the plane.  He was nice to circle to island so we could get a few pictures.

 This is an aerial shot of the beach we went to. 

 Gotta love a small baggage claim :)

On Sunday we boarded the ship and got the news that a tropical storm was forming just around Barbados which was where we were headed.  Captain Karin made some changes to our itinerary successfully keeping us out of harms way.  We amazingly enough still got to visit all the islands we had planned on - just in a different order.  

St. Croix - The Virgin Islands

August 1, 2011

We took a bus across the island to Cane Bay to do some snorkeling.  This made for a pretty great way to spend our anniversary.  Back on the ship that evening we got ready for the first formal night and we even enjoyed being pampered at the day spa by getting a couple's massage after dinner.

Cruising

August 2, 2011

Now that Tropical Storm Emily was headed away from us, we could sail down to some of the southern islands.  The waves were still a little rough and I ended up feeling incredibly sea sick.  Tag took a book to one of the upper decks and read for several hours.  I tried to walk around and get pictures of the ship, but just ended up going back to our room to lay down.  It was nice to be able to lay around and do absolutely nothing.  By dinner I was feeling much more adapted to the swaying of the ship.  We went to one of the shows after dinner.  

Side note - the night before was when the water started getting rough.  I've been known to sleep talk a time or two. Apparently, I had a really bad dream that we were sinking.  I even jumped out of bed and flung open the door in the middle of the night to see if everyone was fleeing the ship.  I do vaguely remember this, but if you want the entire story you can ask Tag about it.  He really likes to tell it :)

Our stateroom attendant would occasionally surprise us with towels twisted into the shape of different animals, here are a couple

On every elevator there is a plate that has the day.  At first I didn't realize how handy this would be.  It is so easy to forget what day it is when you are on a cruise away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Barbados

August 3, 2011

 We booked an excursion that took us out on a catamaran to go snorkeling with sea turtles.  The weather was gorgeous.  The water was so blue and this was by far the softest sand I've ever felt beneath my toes. The turtles were not shy and swam all around us.  It was such a blast.  

This building is actually 8 apartments that run for 15 million a piece!  Crazy.

St. Lucia

August 4, 2011

We booked a land and sea tour that took us out and about the entire day.  I took quite a few pictures on St. Lucia.  This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been - it was mesmerizing.  

I woke up right around sunrise and looked out the window to see this - 

we were just arriving at the island.

Piton Peaks - the second one is hidden by the fog

This picture is for you Monae - you know why :)

The beautiful botanical gardens

We boarded a catamaran to begin our sea portion of the tour

The sand on this beach is black because of the volcano.  It was still very soft and the water felt like a warm bath.  As soon as we arrived on this beach, men in kayaks swarmed us trying to sell their goods.  Tag bought a coconut from one guy, I bought a shell.  Then he tried to sell us what he called "something special" - weed.

 Marigot Bay

Back to the ship

St. John's - Antigua

August 5, 2011

We booked the Canopy Rainforest excursion which was basically a series of 9 ziplines and a couple of suspension bridges.  We had a lot of fun.  They wouldn't allow us to take our cameras in, so I don't have many pictures of Antigua.

 One of the ziplines is behind me.

St. Maarten

August 6, 2011

This was our last port of call.  By this point we were very anxious to get home and see the kids.  Once we got onto the beach though I was able to give in and relax for one more day.  This was one of my favorite ports.  The beach was covered with gorgeous seashells that we had fun collecting for the kids.  The shopping was pretty good too.

A family that was assigned to the same dinner table as us, ended up right next to us on the beach.  It was fun spending the day with them.

Last Night

These are the people we ate with and our waiter and assistant waiter.  We loved our table and made friends with everyone.  We ran into Alida and Fernando almost everywhere we went (the couple next to me).  They were all a lot of fun. 

We had such a great time on vacation!  We enjoyed going to shows, the food, and the use of the ship's gym (which helped me not gain a ton of weight).  There were so many things to do.  It will probably be a long time before Tag and I go and do something like this again, but we are excited for the future vacations we will go on with the kids.  It was nice having time with just Tag.  We had so much fun together.  

I do find myself hoping the assistant waiter, Ceasar, will show up at dinner with his tray of bread rolls.  We were very spoiled.

Before we left I put together a surprise bag for the kids for every day we were gone.  It helped them count down the days.  My mom said they were very good the whole time.  As I had been warned before we left from friends, Lucy was a little mad at me when we got back.  She just kept staring at me and didn't really want anything to do with me.  It didn't take long for her to warm back up to me, but it was kind of funny.  Once she saw me she got this look on her face like she finally realized I had left her for 10 days. Thanks Mom and Tracy and the girls for taking such good care of the kids!  They had a blast!

The kids waiting for us at the airport