Day One of our Beach Vacation

our beach tradition is to let the kiddos go in the
ocean as soon as we get there....in their clothes:)


Kinsey LOVED the ocean as much as she did two years ago:)








my SAND man






love that smile!!












we LOVE to play games and taught the kids Skip Bo and Yahtzee
while we were there


cailey's birthday dinner request: pizza
and ice cream


ice cream on the beach...a MESSY combination!














8/22- sweet birthday girl!!

Last week we went to the beach for our summer vacation. We had so much fun and had great weather!

Team Brazil

she has improved SO much since last year and
really goes after the ball!

cheering on her teammates! when cailey
was out she had all the girls saying cheers for each
other. at one point we heard her lead them with "go for two,
go for two!"...oops...last time she cheered was for basketball:). they
turned it into "go Brazil!"

Coach Rick is so great with teaching them even
during the game!

Cailey had her first soccer game of the season on her birthday....last Saturday! She's loving it and did a great job. It's neat to see how much she's grown since last fall with her skills....most of all it's awesome to see how much fun those girls have!

Preschool

i made an Aa from masking tape so
she could put apple manipulatives and other things that
begin with Aa on it. she also traced it.

She had to trace Aa, and match the right colors in each part of the apple (green for the leaf, brown for the stem, and red for the main part of the apple)

Aa is for apron:)! Cailey teaching her

she cut out this apple (with help), leaf, and stem and
glued it together.




apple printing...we've done this a lot before and the kids love it.
the kids decided to cut them out in the shape of an apple and write
about them too.

I'm doing more of a structured preschool approach with Kinsey this year and she is LOVING it! It only takes about 15-20 minutes each day and on some days Cailey and Braden have been teaching her. It's amazing that after three days of watching me they were all ready to jump in and teach her. We work on a letter each week, do calendar, sing songs, play games, do imaginary play, read a TON of books, do crafts to work on cutting, tracing, gluing, and just have fun! I'll be posting some pictures of the crafts because several people have asked for them.

damage= new do

this is RIGHT AFTER it was brushed...a min later it was like a broom on the ends!

this is what happens when you spend the WHOLE summer
in the pool....dry, brittle, damaged hair:( We tried to 'save' it by
using mayo, olive oil, and egg yolk a few times (yes, it is as gross as
it sounds) but it was too late.

Cailey did NOT want to get her hair cut but we just had to. I REALLY wanted to wait until after our beach trip but it was just too messed up. It was so damaged and they weren't even able to cut it all off. I remember having the same issues as a kid...it's that blonde hair! She's feeling better about it now but still wants to grow it out again. We've learned all sorts of ways to prevent it from happening again so hopefully we won't have this problem next year.

On a funny note, yesterday at dinner Cailey got up to refill her cup and Kinsey (who recently had her stringy locks cut) said, (in her most SERIOUS voice) "Mommy, Cailey STILL have her hair cut!! I can not beyieve it!" It was hilarious....I'm not sure, but for some reason I guess she thought the haircut was temporary.

'Two Wheeled Scooter'

Cailey LOVES her scooter and rides it every chance she gets! I never realized how much she'd enjoy it but I'm so thankful that Nonny and Poppy got her one because it's definitely getting used! The first night she rode it all over the house:).

this is her face after i took over the scooter for a
couple minutes. i couldn't believe how fun it
was and now want one too-ha!


the next morning (Fri) EARLY!

on Saturday morning before soccer
practice she went out for a few minutes and
came back like this:

poor thing...the worst part was her eye


love those daddy hugs


that night...at it again!

i'm hoping she'll heal before our beach pics:)

Thanks for the scooter Nonny and Poppy! As you can see she rides it at LEAST twice a day!

Bok Bok Moo Cow

Guess Who??

We went to Chick Fil A for blue receipt day on Friday. That morning I got an email from Janet saying that she was going to be the Cow that day. (I've heard her say that she'd LOVE to do it sometime on more than one occasion so I was not at all shocked or surprised by this.) BUT since Kinsey is TERRIFIED of the cow I thought it would be a great way for her to get over her fear. We talked about it ALL MORNING....telling her that Mrs. Megilligan (who she LOVES) was going to be wearing the cow costume at Chick Fil A. She was really excited and said that she wasn't going to be scared or change her mind and she was going to give the cow hugs. I kept reiterating that it was Mrs. Megilligan in the COSTUME and Cailey and Braden were super excited about it so I thought that would help too.

When we first got there the cow was on break...so the kids ate their food while looking and waiting for her to come out. Finally she came out just as the ice cream came and Cailey and Braden RAN to her, danced with her, hugged her, and were just beyond excited about the whole thing. Initially Kinsey ran with the other kids for a second and then this happened:

this is the look i'd get EVERY time i suggested we go
say hi to Mrs. Megilligan and she'd shout NO!! I NO WANT TO!!
and shake her head back and forth

At one point Janet started coming towards us and Kinsey just LOST IT and was holding onto me for dear life. Janet was so sweet and just backed off but I was hoping that Kinsey would be ok. I kinda wish I would have gone into the bathroom with Janet and had her pull her cow head off so Kinsey could see it was her. Oh well....she'll lose her fear soon enough:). I'm just thankful that for some reason her fear of costumed characters didn't follow us to Disney last year!

there's that look again a few minutes later

she finished on a happy note...most of all because
the cow went outside:)