1st day of school!

Happy 1st day of First Grade!!!

And here's my sweet preschooler! K-4!

 As you can see, Audrey had a run in with blue toothpaste this morning. I could have changed her clothes, but since I'm not interested in making a good first impression with her teacher - I decided it could air dry. :)

End of Summer

Perhaps the routine of the school year will also have me blogging more often than I did this summer. Perhaps not. We shall see.

Julia had her hair cut this week. She thinks it is super short now! As we ate dinner that night she said, "This is my first dinner with my short haircut!" - a milestone for sure!

And, because I can't take a picture of one without the other hamming it up...

Audrey went to children's choir for the first time Wednesday. They don't meet all year, just in the fall to prepare for a Christmas musical. You can see they were working hard. :)

 

We made countdown to school chains. Tomorrow is the big day! Julia met her teacher, Mrs. Byrd, last week. As for Audrey's teacher, well... that would be me.  I'm thrilled to have her with me this last year she has in preschool. 

 Sorry for the lack of clothes Audrey has on in the picture above and below.  It happens.

All good things come to end...

The last day of vacation is always sad. Thank you, Lord, for a fun week as a family.

We had a clear Thursday, but the rest of the week was full of seaweed... but not a jellyfish in sight!

Good thinking, Julia

Julia mentioned several times this week that she wanted to walk on the pier that we can see from our condo, and we finally went last night for the first time ever. I hadn't been expecting much, but we wound up having a really good time. 

We all saw lots of dolphins, and Matt and I saw some little sharks.

The girls loved these birds (cranes?), especially when they walked the pier right close to us!

We made a new friend who followed us around for an hour or so. He was a nice kid, just lonely and bored from sitting around while his family fished all day.

Hmmm. Is it creepy that we took pictures of a stranger's child?  Let's hope it's not.

I didn't enjoy the part of the pier's floor that looked like this:

Naturally, I made everyone take pictures. Some are better than others. All have some crazy, windy hair happening!

Good idea about the pier, Julia. We'll have to go back.

Back at the Beach

We've been to the condo before, and we love it every time! Old visits are here, here, and here! This is our first visit, though, during the summer. It's been nice to not have to worry about the weather being too chilly, but the tradeoff is so many people are here! Seeing as how I'm selectively social, people aren't typically my thing. :)

This visit has included much time in the lazy river and under the waterfall.

I love the picture below because Julia looks so happy. In reality, she was yelling at Audrey to "get off!" but she kept the smile on her face because she knew I had out my camera!

While the girls and I hung out in the pool yesterday afternoon, Matt grilled. When we returned, we found out he'd also set the table for an outdoor dinner. Yay!  

The girls played their first round of putt-putt this morning. They enjoyed it, despite the heat!

And then, as usual, we made sure to head to Gator Beach. 

 

So far this summer...

We've painted ourselves with shaving cream.

Julia went to a ball game with Matt and caught a ball during batting practice.

We've enjoyed the new city splash pad.

We've rested.

We've rested while curling our hair. :)

First (only??) post in June

Let's go back and talk about the last little bit of school. Julia's zoo field trip was rescheduled (YAY!) but it was rescheduled for the last day of preschool and I hated to miss my last day with my K-4's. I really, really wanted someone to go with Julia and her friends, though, so Matt "volunteered."

 Daddy got a picture of Julia getting of the bus (the highlight of her trip...)

Matt was put in charge of keeping up with these 4 during the trip. The girl on the end is an old friend from preschool who was also in Julia's Kindergarten class. 

Mrs. Mosley passed out animal print sunglasses for the kids. cute, cute!