Post swim bounce...

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Happy Memorial Day!

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An extra special post about why my heart melted...

Age five has been a whirlwind so far. It seems to be a highly emotional age. It seems to also be an age of great physical growth. Analese can eat so much!! She is still a Daddy's girl. She has been clinging to Lee so much this weekend. Yesterday morning there was a great emotional battle because she did not want me to dress her or to fix her hair for church. She only wanted Daddy. I know she gets plenty of me during the week, and when Daddy is home on the weekend she sticks to him like glue. I try not to take it personally, but sheesh....the emotional outburst was a little much.

This past week we completed all of her kindergarten except for two pages in her math book. I told her that she could complete those two pages any time she wished, then we would be officially finished with kindergarten and she would get her first grade leapster game, as well as the two Spanish leapster games that I got her. Well, this afternoon, she decided to finish those two pages in the midst of our busyness of preparing for a Memorial Day BBQ and pool party. I whooped and hollered and hugged and kissed her. I really was super proud and felt like we had really accomplished something big together. I could tell that she was also quite proud of herself.

As I was getting out of the shower tonight, she brought me this little homemade card in a little envelope. This was really like one of those tearjerker Hallmark commercials.


The card reads: From Analese to Mommy. Dear Mommy, thank you for teaching me to do school.

We officially start spelling for first grade, but I think her little misspellings are just precious. Seriously, I was wiping tears and thanking her for making my heart so happy. I have never felt more appreciated! She told me that she had worked on the card "all night." It was so worth it after several episodes of her being a turd this weekend. Totally made up for all of that shiznit. Yep, she knew the way to my heart! Oh how I love her, and she can do no wrong. OK, she can and will do wrong, but she is such a sweet, smart, beautiful kid!


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Mohawks x 2...

More From Show Day...

The girls had a great Little Gym Show Day once again.

Show Day

More to come. No time tonight, but here is a sample. Good night all.


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Abundant garden

Planting the garden directly in the ground has made all the difference in the world this year. We've already enjoyed lots of peppers, cherry tomatoes, squash (before something killed the squash plants), basil, parsley and rosemary. Earlier in the spring, we were rocking the leaf lettuce, and arugula. Those are cool weather crops, though. I've been making awesome veggie fajitas that star the sweet peppers. Our melon vines are goings nuts. Can't wait to see if we get any harvest there.






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Wordless Wednesday - Piggy Tails times two...

More fun on the new red table...

Today Mariele hosted a tea for her stuffed friends while I did school with Analese. She was so proud of herself! Excuse the messy morning hair. It had been untouched by a comb at that point in the day.

Back to reality...

Reality is pretty fun, though. We are days away from Analese's completion of her kindergarten curriculum, which is really cause to celebrate! The new red table will soon hold the computer that Analese will use for first grade. The girls both wanted to do school on the table this morning. I thought it was cute that Analese was so excited to get "back to school" today. I guess we all miss it just a little on vacation. Plus, she is working toward the special rewards that I have for her upon her kindergarten completion.


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Show me the mommy and the daddy!

Getting ready to step out for date night at the beach!


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Best of the Beach Part 3 (Sisters)

The girls really had a grand time at the beach this year. They played in the sand together. They enjoyed splashing around in the tidal pool. I'm sure they will both remember this fun year at the beach!

Best of the Beach Part 2 (Analese)

Analese discovered the joys of riding the waves on the big tube this year. She was having so much fun! She did this over and over again until she was cold and waterlogged and worn out!

Best of the Beach Part 1 (Mariele)

Mariele became very popular with all of the seagulls on the beach this week as she shared her baby goldfish crackers. Of course, she was delighted by these birds. She just had so much fun chasing these birds, as if she might actually be able to catch one.






She did have a brief unhappy moment when she got some salt water in her "blue eyes." She came running up to me saying, "Mommy, blue eye ouchie! Blue eye ouchie!"



Going to the beach with Mariele this year was so much fun, since she is old enough to really enjoy herself out there.

Sunburned, but happy...

I don't know how the sunburns snuck up on us this year. We did use lots of sunscreen, but it was obviously a fail!


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The most beautiful beach day yet...

Pictures are in my camera still, but today was the most beautiful beach day yet. I sprayed on the SPF 70, but somehow still managed to stay out there too long. This bottle of goo is my best friend tonight.


This evening, Lee took me out to a very nice restaurant called Cobalt. We had patio waterfront seating and live music. We watched the sun go down over the water. The food was very good also.

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Today at the Beach...

Wordless Wednesday - Across the Generations

Today at the beach...

Building a sand castle with Grandpa.


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Today at the beach...

We played a lovely round of pirate miniature golf.


And we went for a walk with a big, strange bird.


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Today at the beach...

We celebrated my Grandmother's 92nd birthday with a piña colada cake.


The girls had lots of sand play time.


And the gulls hovered around begging for cheetos.


I've taken some better photos with my camera, but since I'm fully in the vacay frame of mind, I'm entirely too lazy to dump them into the computer. Oh, how I love vacay!

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Extremely tired right now,

but I'm really not complaining, because I'm here:


First day in to the beach house is always a little hectic. We have to make the dreaded grocery run. Now that the groceries are put away, we can start having fun!

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Friday Randoms

First of all, Blogger ate my Thursday post and wouldn't spit it back out after things were back up and running. I wanted to show the note that Analese left me on the school room wall:


It says,"Go downstairs and go to the couch and look under pillows." We will be working on spelling in first grade. I did as the note instructed me to do, and this is what I found:





Today we are en route to the beach at Fort Morgan, Alabama baby!! Here are my wild ones in bed in our Baton Rouge hotel.


The iPhone flash was a little bright for them. Note to self: No matter how much they beg, do NOT share your tapioca green tea with them. Sheesh!

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