Our Little Tumblers

In the last post before I can consider myself officially CAUGHT UP, I had to share some pictures and videos of the girls' final night of their first season of gymnastics!

It was quite a night of celebration, beginning with our usual run to Firehouse subs for some delicious meatballs...(the girls' favorite, at least)  During dinner, Mamaw and Papaw met up with us so they could enjoy the "show" that was to come. 

Overall, the night was pretty similar to most nights of gymnastics class.  We started with circle time and songs, some "exercise", and then time to practice our tricks.  The girls LOVED hamming it up, not only for their mamaw and papaw, but also with all of the other spectators who had joined us for the finale. 

We finished the night with a full trophy presentation ceremony.  The girls weren't quite sure what to think of the pomp and circumstance, but they were definitely excited when they figured out that they had a star to take home! :)

This season has been such a WONDERFUL experience for all of us.  We've watched the girls build an enormous amount of confidence in doing basic skills as well as a willingness to try just about any new skill that is proposed.  It's also been quite an interesting "experiment" for Gary and I as we watch their differences.  For most skills, one would almost always "Catch On" immediately.  The other would come close behind, and they'd both always end up working diligently to master their goal.  We have our speculations about who might end up excelling at what sport or skill as they progress, but we're anxious to wait and see.  For now, gymnastics seems to provide an excellent foundation for just about anything that they might decide to pursue, so we look forward to another season starting in the fall!

Fun at Fripp

We've been very blessed this year to have already been on several fun vacations! Our most recent trip was to the beach for a few days to kick back in the sand with Gary's family. We started our trip on Friday afternoon with a stop in Charleston, where we hung out on the boat, had dinner in downtown, then spent a nice evening relaxing on the water.

Saturday morning, as would be expected, the girls were up bright and early, so we made a stop for breakfast, packed up, and headed toward our beach destination , Fripp Island.  On the way, we made the obligatory grocery run and met Aunt Miss to have lunch in Beaufort.  Such a pretty little town!

After lunch, we made our way to the island, where the aunts (Sabrina and Sheryl) and cousins (Haley and Noah) had already arrived, and the fun was ready to begin!!!  The house that Mimi had rented was amazing, and we hardly settled in at all before making a trip across the street to check out the beach!  We expected just to run around a little, then head back in...however, the longer we hung out, the more comfortable the girls became...and despite the fact that they hadn't put swimsuits on yet, before we knew it, they were all completely submerging in the surf.  They had a BLAST!!!  (I think M&M were totally enchanged by their big cousin Haley,so they would have swam with the sharks at this point if she'd told them to! :)

After a while, dinner time was getting close, so we decided to head home and get cleaned up for a "quite" night at the house!   The kids enjoyed playing, and by the end of the night were so exhausted that getting them to sleep in a strange big girl bed together wasn't even a difficult task!

Later that night, the girls' other cousin, Connor (and Uncle Jared and Aunt Tonia) arrived, and the following day, we also got to meet up with extended family (Uncle Art, Aunt Linda, cousins Rachel, Tom, and little Nathan, and Rachel's husband Cory and his family), and it became a full-out family affair!

Over the next few days, we spent as many hours as possible at the pool and on the beach.  We ate a lot, rode around in the golf cart, watched the deer (Fripp is one of the more unique spots that I've visited in that deer roam the streets...EVERYWHERE!), swam, and just hung out and PLAYED a lot enjoying each other's company!   The girls loved every second of it and had SO MUCH FUN with their cousins!  We were sad to have to go home earlier than most of the crew, but were just excited that we had the opportunity to make the trip.  We know that trips like these will make up the best memories the girls will have as they get older!

(More pics in the album here.)

Sunny Florida

It's hard to believe it's been 2 full months since we made our trip to Florida, but we were SO excited in April to FINALLY get a chance to visit Uncle Terry and Aunt Crystal in their beautiful home in the paradise that is Boca Grande! 

We loaded up in the 210 (small airplane) early on Thursday, quite nervous about the FOUR HOUR flight that laid in front of us.  We were equipped with plenty of gadgets, DVD players and DVDs, and lots of snacks.  I'm not sure that even another animal cookie would have fit into the FULL airplane...unfortunately, one thing that we knew we were missing was a potty!  We headed out, I will say it was a long, sleepless ride, and we did manage...with some invented "potty accommodations", which I won't explain in detail.  :)  I will say that everyone was HAPPY when the wheels touched the ground on this trip!

On our arrival, we were greeted by Uncle Terry, Aunt Crystal, Cousin Shawnna, and Jonathan, and we headed to our "weekend home".  The girls were thrilled when they got there to see all of the fun that awaited them.  Swimming pool...

pontoon boat...

kitty cat (well, so we're told...he wasn't all that interested in playing with 2 loud toddlers!), and many "new" things for our curious hands to "explore".

We had a WONDERFUL trip!  We took pontoon rides to dinner and lunch, fished on the dock, swam in the pool, hit the beach...which had the most seashells that I have ever seen...and just enjoyed some awesome QT with the family! 

The trip home went much smoother, since we had two TIRED little girls in tow, but either way, it was worth the effort for such an awesome little get away!  The rest of the album is here.

Many Things to Celebrate

In an effort to catch up, I will probably not give as much detail of the events from the last couple of months, partly because I obviously don’t have a lot of time, and probably more because I’m just so tired these days that my memory has gone into reserve. After Easter, Gary started on another series of trips that kept him out of town for about 13 out of 15 straight days. It was long. The girls and I did ok keeping ourselves busy on the first weekend, with some time spent hanging out with friends, a birthday party for one of their little church friends, and kind of just laying low at home.

The second weekend was another big adventure when Uncle Nathan, Aunt Lauren, and Emmy Cate came for a visit! These girls are CRAZY!!! They had SO MUCH FUN playing and just being silly, and I think this was the first experience where they all truly realized…man, we can do some serious playing and causing trouble if we put our 3 heads together! We are in SOOOO much trouble for the teen years!!

The girls had a blast hanging around the house, taking baths and showers together, and then attending Mamaw's surprise 60th birthday party!

I was a little bit nervous about how long three TIRED little girls would last for a party at a restaurant with a bunch of strangers around, but they did GREAT! We were tucked away in a nice little corner of the restaurant, and they managed to completely entertain themselves for hours! Thank God for balloons and some kind of blow up walker that my uncles managed to find for my mom! It was awesome! I think they enjoyed themselves more than Mamaw!!

The next birthday that we’ve celebrated over the last month was mine! A month ago I was blessed to celebrate my 33rd birthday, and I’m still trying to digest the fact that I’m not a kid anymore! :) Unfortunately, I had a full day at work, but came home to get ready and head over to the clubhouse to have a joint birthday dinner with my “twin”, Mitch…our next door neighbor who shares the same day!  We came home to a quick party, complete with cupcakes, OF COURSE!! Perfect celebration!

The final birthday celebration for the spring was Emmy Cake's THIRD birthday! (intentional misspelling since I’m pretty sure that’s what they think her name is! :))  Gary had to stay home to fly, so the girls and I made a whirlwind trip to good ole GA for some family time.  We started with a late night trip to Mimi and Papa's where we spent the night, had a lazy morning, and then took what was supposed to be a "quick" trip in the boat.  We got to meet up with Uncle Smitty, Aunt Patty, and cousin Angie, and stopped at the lakeside splash pad and met Aunt Sabrina, Uncle Clayton, Haley, and Noah for a little bit of water fun.  After a quick play time, we headed back, hoping to get in, get ready, and head to Uncle Nathan's to spend some time with Emmy Cate and family before the party.  Little did we know, God had other plans, so we ended up stranded on the boat for a couple of hours instead.  Luckily, the girls were angels while we waited...and waited on a tow.  The kids were slightly amused when Uncle Clayton and Aunt Sabrina showed back up and had to tie a rope to us and drag us home.  It was a long and exhausting "quick trip"!  :)

We finally made it to the birthday party, which was at another HUGE splash pad!  Unfortunately, when we got there, the napless girls were EXHAUSTED!!  They mostly just observed for the first hour or so, but then we had cupcakes, and a miraculous second wind hit!  The crowd had dwindled, and the girls got some closer playtime with their cousin, then Haley showed up, and it was an all out cousin fest!  (And don't forget Papaw!)  For whatever reason, with all of the splashy fountains, the main attraction was the shower, and the girls had a blast running in and out of that!  So silly!

After the party, we went back to Emmy Cates where all 4 girls had a wonderful time playing with each other and all of Emmy Cate's old and new toys.  We had a yummy burger dinner, then headed back to Aunt Sabrina's to literally crash.  We had some time to play the next morning, then it was time to head home!  Busy, busy but definitely GOOD TIMES! 

Besides all of the birthdays, we've also passed through Mother's Day and Father's Day.  Since we have 3 generations of mothers to celebrate, Mother's Day started with a trip to Mamaw Eunice's church, followed by a yummy lunch with both Mamaws...lucky for us, Mamaw LOVES to cook, so her idea of celebrating was to cook for US, so that gave us great opportunity to visit and hang out! We had a nice lunch, then just did our best to stay out of the pouring rain! It was a nice family day, and I got to count my blessings for getting to be the mommy for 2 wonderful little girls!

For Father's Day, the girls slept in until after 8am for the first time in their lives, I think.  As much as we loved that, it also mean thtat our time to celebrate with daddy was cut drastically short!  We had time for a quick cereal breakfast, gave him his gifts, then we had to head to church and he had to head to the airport for a long day of flying.  Unfortunately, that meant that we didn't get to celebrate more with him, but fortunately, we did at least get to spend some time with Papaw that afternoon.  We met after church for lunch, attempted to play in another splashpad, but for whatever reason, the girls changed their minds and weren't that interested, then we enjoyed some ice cream before heading home.  It was a nice afternoon, and the girls had fun loving on their Papaw and Mamaw!

We have had lots to celebrate this spring, and are SO BLESSED to have such wonderful friends and family to celebrate!  More birthday fun can be seen here.