We are Back from the Beach...

We had the nicest beach vacation this year. The weather was nothing but perfect the whole week, and we really enjoyed spending lots of time with our families. I will try to post some blogs over the next several days as I get a chance.

Swimming in a Cloud..

Today was a rainy day. A slow, steady rain. No lightening or thunder. Just pitter pitter pat all day. I was enjoying the cool temperature out on the porch after dinner as the sun was setting. I got the idea that the hot tub would really feel nice. So I turned on the pool and spa lights and heated the hot tub. Around 8 pm, I threw on a bikini and went out there. I dove right into the pool (while the rain came down), and the pool temperature was probably fifteen degrees warmer than the air temperature. Oh, it was so lovely. My family was soon to follow. We had such a nice, spontaneous family time in the pool. I hope my girls will have great memories of times like this. Analese was amazed that we were swimming in the rain. She kept saying, "we are going to get EXTRA wet!" The steam was rising off of the pool and the hot tub, and we were literally swimming in a cloud. I do love my precious family so much.

Mariele napped late today. I was stuck holding her in the bean bag. There are worse places to be stuck, however. She is so sweet and snuggly.




Tomorrow, we are back to school for four days. I worked hard today setting things up for ease and efficiency this week. We will be busy getting ready for our beach vacation, yet we have our school goals to meet before we leave town. It should be an interesting week.

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Bonus Beach Trip

Lee has a continuing medical education class at UTMB in Galveston tomorrow. The girls and I joined him for an impromptu bonus beach trip. I say bonus trip, because one week from tomorrow we are leaving to hit the white, sandy Gulf Shores beach for a week. The girls are fans of any beach, so they enjoyed playing in the water tonight until well past sunset.












Beautiful beach sunset. The iPhone camera does not quite do it justice.



Galveston is truly the only beach I know where children get muddy rather than sandy.









We are happy to be here for some fun and relaxation in the sun.

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Oh where, oh where has my little tooth gone?

Analese's second loose tooth has been hanging by a thread for about a week now. Last night, she was completely icking me out by pushing it horizontal with her tongue.

Today, after lunch, she decided to push the tooth with her tongue. Lo and behold, it was not even there. Now, I have my idea about where the tooth is, but Analese insists on searching the house for it. I told her that would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but whatever. I guess the tooth fairy will understand.



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Life is Randomly Great!

I won't start this blog post with a big apology for not blogging lately. I will just say we have been pleasantly living our lives and completely enjoying ourselves. Analese did art camp this past week, and she was in her own little Analese heaven the whole time. There is nothing that the child likes better than doing arts and crafts. It is her crack. Poor Mariele was not buying into the whole "you must be at least six years old to do art camp" argument. She VERY begrudgingly left with me each day after dropping Analese off. Although I tried to have special one on one time with her, she usually asked if it was time to pick Analese up WAY before it was time to pick Analese up. When we did finally go to pick Analese up at noon, Mariele ran into the building ahead of me, excitedly exclaiming, "Analese, I'm HERE! I'm HERE Analese!!" Those two are very much joined at the hip. Homeschooling does seem to foster a very close sibling relationship. It does warm my heart to watch them. The school year is off to a great start. Actually, we are already about 20% through second grade! Mariele is doing her pre-K. If it was up to her, she would be doing way more, but I am trying to rein her in a bit. Slow down, dear! This was the summer that Analese learned to ride her bike without training wheels and Mariele got her first bike with training wheels. These girls LOVE to go biking now. Not to mention the rollerblading. We are almost ready for the roller derby. Mariele's swimming has tremendously improved over the summer, as I knew it would. She has now reached "fish" status. She loves to dive in around the 6 foot deep part and touch the bottom (or touch Polaris, the pool cleaning robot). She is a very good swimmer now, and I am a more relaxed mommy knowing that my girls can swim well. In closing, I will not promise to blog more frequently, but I will blog when I can...errr when I feel like it :P

   

Analese's Love Poem

My proud mommy teacher moment this week is the poem that Analese composed.  She wanted to do a shape poem, and this is what she came up with.  It is just so sweet to me!  Love that kiddo.

I love you no matter what.  Love tastes like a piece of candy.  It feels like a cozy blanket and smells like fragrant flowers.

The two kids in the illustration are Analese and her best friend Anita.

Did her hair really grow in overnight???

I almost talked Analese into believing that it did!  I just love this picture of Mariele.  I got the elasticized hairpiece for fun.  These girls love to dress up, and Analese is very interested in hairstyles lately.  Can I just say that I actually really like it?  She looks beautiful with or without hair, of course, but the above photo is stunning to me.  Here are the side and back views.

There IS a slight color shade difference, but whatev...