Little fishy

This little goofball has been in love with the water since birth.  She is happy to jump in anytime, anywhere so we needed to teach her the swimming basics so she can be safe.  Lucky for us our neighbors, The Miners, have been teaching swim to toddlers forever.  Bubs and her daughter, Merileigh, have been teaching swim together in their backyard pool with such love and patience and silliness that the children adore it and don't even realize it is swim lessons.

Addison showing off her big girl swim.  Bubs in the foreground has been teaching swim to children for 60 years!  She is 88 and the most fun, vibrant wonderful teacher you can imagine.  

Addison and her buddy, Alex getting a lift from Merileigh.  Every morning Addison would ask us, "Can I go play games with Bubs and Merileigh in their pool?"  

While "playing games" Addison has learned how to swim with her face in, hold her breath for five counts under water, float on her back, swim to the wall (important to prevent drownings in pools) and all sorts of other skills.  These ladies have got this program down.  It was really adorable to watch all these little swimmers.

Addison floating on her back.  We are in a town surrounded by water at every turn, our street is even a peninsula, so it is vital every child learns how to swim and be safe in the water.  

Summer Kickoff

School let out and we hightailed it to Destin to Granny Z's and Big Daddy's house with the Neffs.  Thank goodness they are so good to us and let my whole brood come and stay.  Walking into their house is like walking into a Pottery Barn catalog- airy, cozy, beautiful and oh so relaxing.  The kids lived in the water and on the boat from sun up to sun down and we all had a wonderful time.  Addison kept saying, "I want to stay at Granny Z's forever."  

Addison showing a pin fish the kids caught to use as bait for the guys to go fishing.  They caught lots of fish and even 8 beautiful blue crabs.

Time for more boat fun!  Amelia and Mckenzie even got up on water skis this year!  We were so proud of them.  

We took the boat to Crab Island in Destin which is actually a big sand bar.  It is absolutely gorgeous, clear aqua water and white sand.  

My boys.

These kiddos have so much fun together, I hope they are always besties.

Everyone a little water logged.  By the sight of my hair it is clear to see that the humidity is back in full force in the south.  

Amelia goofing off at Fudpuckers.

That's Amelia and Mckenzie way out there kayaking, they did awesome.  We all took turns kayaking because the dolphins were swimming all around us and under our kayak.  So beautiful.

Addison showing off her new swimming skills.

My only picture of Tommy.

The grand finale of the trip.  Luke's head ran into a baseball bat.  Poor guy, it was a full thickness split (meaning, yes we could see his skull).  Luckily, we had two doctors at home (Daddy and Big Daddy).  We had a nurse too but she flipped out when she saw all the blood and ran away.  (Yes, me, but it was my baby and I couldn't take it).  After I got myself together I was able to help assist getting it stitched up with Dermabond which thankfully Daddy carries with him when we travel so we didn't have to go into the ER.  Luke's first big boy scar!

Greece is the Word

Amelia's Connections class (her gifted/talented class) has been studying Greece.  They learned about every aspect of ancient Greece...including the ancient gods and goddesses.  Here they are acting out a musical called Greece is the Word.  

The grand finale!  Each child chose a god or goddess to portray and researched and wrote a speech about that goddess.  Amelia chose Athena and delivered her memorized speech perfectly!  Way to go Mimi!

What a good big sister.

Mim's and Grandpa got to explore the Greek museum,that the children designed and decorated, together.

Throughout this study the children made ancient Greek artifacts like shields, Olympic torches and discs, Trojan horses, the Parthenon, etc.  So blessed to have this special program for Amelia, her favorite day of the week is Connections Day!

Look at the girly Trojan horse.

Amelia and Ms. Flowers, her awesome Connections teacher.  Love, love, love.

Kindergarten Graduation

My heart skips a beat and tears creep out when I look at this picture of my sweet Luke.  You might not see it, but momma and daddy noticed.  Our sweet, sensitive boy is fighting back tears.  He and his friends were anticipating this day but now that it was here, he realized it was "an exciting day but a sad day too."

Look at him checking out our reaction.  I was smiling and doing thumbs up, trying to will him strength but it probably didn't camouflage the tears running down my cheeks.  

But then they started singing "If I were a butterfly" and he was smiling and dancing with the rest of them.  

Each kindergartener wrote their own speech and read it to a packed church.  We were so impressed with little man.  "Most of all I will miss how much my teachers love me" was my favorite line.  This school has been such an amazing blessing.  The teachers nurture the minds but also little souls.  It is such a special place and Luke absolutely adored being there.

Receiving his diploma.

Graduating class 2012 from The Children's House.

The whole family came to celebrate.

We are so proud of our Luke Michael.  

Luke and his buddy, Grandpa Steve.

Our whole crew.  Addison is tickling Grandpa again.

These two have had so much fun over the last three years.  Good buddies.

A rare hug from Amelia.  

Waterproof mascara at work.  I was happy to see I was not the only parent weeping at the graduation but really, I need to get it together.  What am I going to do when they graduate high school,graduate college, get married???  

Luke's VIP table.  The teachers had each kindergartener write a note to all the other kindergarteners stating what they loved about each child and made it into a book.  Everything was spelled phonetically, just like a kindergartner.  "Luke and mey are plaeng."  "Luke is swet."  It was really precious.  A video set to music played of each child through the years which only continued the tears flowing.   

Proud papa.

Oh Miss Mary Ann how we will miss you in Luke's life.  Lukey made and painted this bird house for The Children's House playground.  Thank you Children's House for loving and enjoying our sweet boy for the last three years.  

Memories

It was a perfect day,Monday, for our favorite after school activity...the boat!  Amelia got off the bus at 2:45, and we were on the boat at 2:50 heading to the island for a cookout.  I loved this picture of "the men" hauling our coolers from our house across the street to our neighbors dock, where out boat was happily waiting for us.  

My girls.

These are the days right?  These are our memories, these moments with our kids.  It's really just the everyday togetherness and fun moments that I need to cherish forever in my heart because the days and years seem to be flying by at warp speed.  So I am really going to try and soak up all these moments, watching all three of them roll and jump in the waves, just being little bitty kids cuz before long, they will be big kids, and then big kids in adult bodies and then adults; and then I am sure I will really wonder where the time went.  That's our job as parents though, raise them up, hug them until they can't breathe,  tell them we love them constantly, pray over them, and then hope they can look back at their childhood and say, "That was so awesome!"

Awesome!

Awesome!

Addison doing her beach boogie.  Totally awesome.

Love this one of Luke going all gangsta' on us.

Daddy cooked us hot dogs on the grill for dinner.

Picnic dinner on the boat.

Roasting marshmallows for dessert.  Not bad for a Monday after school.  

This girl just cracks me up.  She just rocks.