Ocean Again!

Big weekend - we went from "NO OCEAN" to "OCEAN AGAIN"!  The beach was amazing, low tide, no seaweed swimming around in the water and there were hardly any waves.  After watching the entire family enjoy the water, I finally just scooped Ella up and started walking out into the water.  There was a second of hesitation, but she was fine and ended up loving it. 

Here is Ella with Granddad and Meme.  See how smooth the water was??  It was like a swimming pool.  We were probably 50 or so yards out from the shore.  It has been a long time since I went out that far, but it was just lovely.  Another highlight of the weekend was that Grandad and Meme joined us!  

 I have never seen Star swim so much.  She was either enjoying the calm water herself, or freaked out by us being out so far from shore and she was coming to "rescue" us.  She probably swam out close to 25 yards, maybe not quite that much, but close.  And she did it multiple times.  She could reach the bottom close to shore, but was paddling the rest of the way.  Little black spot in the middle of the picture is Star!

 The little boat that has lived under the beach house for a year or so, finally got its 5 minutes of fame!  Dad brought the motor down this trip and the boat is so tiny, Michael and Dad could pick it up and carry it from the trailer to the water.  Addy rode the boat while the carried it, but definitely did not set foot in the boat while it was in the water!

You see that little speck right in the middle of the picture?  That is Dad and Michael in the boat.  I know I was not very optimistic that they'd pull it off, but I should have known that Dad could do it.  Michael mentioned that the waves had more propulsion than the tiny motor on the boat, but the motor turned on and pushed the boat around a bit, so mission complete.  Before the boat even hit the water, there was talks of getting rid of it and getting ocean kayaks - new project for Lee!

 In addition to great weather and great company, we had plenty of great food over the weekend.  Full of fresh gulf shrimp, homemade vanilla ice cream, donuts for breakfast, hot dogs with homemade chili, chicken cooked over a charcoal grill (I forget how tasty it is compared to a gas grill!), and smores!  Smores = messy children 

Happy Birthday Michael!

June is a big month for Michael with father's day and his birthday right together!  With a birthday on a Friday, he had a lovely day at work and then we went to dinner with the family.  

 We have two very helpful present unwrappers these days!

This was the highlight of my night - a little sombrero and happy birthday singing at the restaurant. 

Father's Day

A nice low-key father's day - did a little swimming in the morning and then cooked hamburgers on the grill for dinner.  Unfortunately Grandpa was out of town, so he didn't get to join in the fun, but Grandma, Granddad and Meme were there. 

I somehow managed to not get a picture with Michael and the girls, but got a picture of the dads grillin'! 

 Dad and his girls!

(and this was the best of the 10 we took - not sure why we never remember to take pics until the end of the night when the odds of cooperation are non existent!)

Star Loves The Beach

Ears blowing in the wind, water and sand in the fur - life can't get much better!

Itsy-Bitsy Akavish

Ella was singing in the car the other day and I could tell she was mostly singing the Itsy-Bitsy Spider, but something about it sounded weird and I thought that she was just mixing up songs or something.  Then Addy chimes in and tells me that "akavish" is spider in Hebrew and that Ella was singing the version of the song that they learn at school.  It is mostly English, but they change a few words.  Addy sang the whole song for me and it goes like this...

The itsy-bitsy akavish went up the waterspout
Down came the geshem and washed the akavish out
Up came the shemesh and dried up all the geshem
And the itsy-bitsy akavish went up the spout again.

 

It was super cute to hear Ella sing this rendition, and it was equally as cute that my 5 year old was translating for me! 

 

Slip-n-slide

These are still as fun as they were when I was a kid!  Addy loves it.  And despite the "no adult" warnings, I did it a few times and it was lots of fun.   I was mildly afraid I'd hurt myself, so I didn't do it too many times - didn't want to push my luck.  But Addy has mastered it and the jury is still out for Ella.  She likes to lay on it and you pull her along, but no running and sliding yet.  In due time!

Growing Up

Our tadpoles are really growing up.  Addy has pretty much dropped out of caring for them, but Michael wins the tadpole owner of the year award.  He was on his way to a conference in Vegas and before he boards the plane, I get this message...
"The tadpoles appear to be fine. I put some extra rocks in there today in case any of them want to "emerge" while I'm away. If you think of it, they probably could use some lettuce in the next day or two. Their water is probably fine until I get back. "
Well, take a look at what I saw when I got home from work today...

I am so proud of the little guy, making his debut as a big kid out of the water!  He still has a tail, but he appears to be quite content up on the rock.  Now I'm starting to get a bit worried because they are all getting big and their current home is quite little.  Pretty sure it is going to start getting cramped...I'm not sure the process for releasing them into the wild exactly, but if there is any weaning involved or something, might need to start coming up with a plan!  Maybe we'll just take them back to live in the pond at Dad's house!!    

The Beach

I promise I won't document every single beach weekend, and maybe if I do, I'll just be sure to just cover the highlights!

 

One of the main highlights from this weekend was fishing.  We went down to the water on Saturday with the casting net and Addy and Michael's fishing rods.  The casting net was pretty successful, with this guy being the most exciting catch.  No clue what kind of fish it is, but I called it an angel fish and that stuck with me and Ella at least.  She kept on asking to see the angel fish after we'd thrown the fish back.  

Here is cute Addy fishergirl!

We took the car down to transport all the fishing gear and when Michael 1st got there, Ella wouldn't get out of the car.  I walked down with Star shortly after and Ella was still in the car and wouldn't come out.  Once I sat down and basically ignored her, next thing I knew she'd gotten out and was on the chair next to me.  Shortly after she was running around.  Still shouting "no ocean" when the water came up close, but she was not afraid of the seaweed.  Unfortunately it was still there this weekend, but Saturday it was bearable.  There wasn't a barrier of it between the sand and water.  But when we went down today, it was back with a vengeance and smelled.  Fortunately, Addy accepted the idea of skipping the beach and heading back to the house to play in the kiddie pool.  

 I'm really not sure what is going on here, but Ella was just sitting there reading her book like it was totally normal to be her sister's foot rest.

 Ella is convinced that this is the proper way to wear sunglasses.  

It is somewhat mean that Michael took this picture, but because he did, I'm going to be somewhat mean and post it on the blog b/c this is such a cute face!  Ella leaned back on what she thought was the lounge chair and she found herself on the deck.  She made this face for about 2 seconds and was back up and climbing on me a second later.

Here is the proof, this is seconds after the mishap above.  A rare picture of me, a.k.a the mommy jungle gym.  Why is it that the girls can both be ignoring me 1 second, then someone sits in my lap (this time Addy was first) and all of a sudden both want to sit with me, but they don't want to touch each other.  Next thing I know there is kicking and fighting.  All I know to do is to resort to tickling, hence the giggles above!

Trip to PA

Rewind a bit to the weekend of May 4-7.  Addy and Michael headed off to Pennsylvania to attend Michael's cousin David's wedding.  Why only Addy and Michael you ask?  Think 2 year old on a plane for 3 hours.  Yeah, very early on we knew that Ella would not be making the trip, so in the end Michael and Addy decided to go.  Ella and I missed seeing everyone, but it was for the best.  As I was not there in person, the camera was not there, but thankfully Grandma took plenty of pics for us to document the occasion.

Here is a cute pic of Addy at the wedding (sorry Michael, your eyes were closed so I did a little cropping!)  Michael said she did great during the ceremony, was super excited to see a real wedding.  We both expected her to love the reception, but nope, she had fallen asleep in Michael's lap before they cut the cake and the DJ really got started.  So, it was an earlier night than planned, but still a good time!

 A very exciting part of the trip was getting to see Susan, Jon and most importantly Heidi!  I'm not sure Heidi has an iPad at her house, but no doubt after this trip she wanted one. 

You can't have a trip to Pennsylvania without a trip to the school house.  The last time we were there it was November, and not really boating season.  Weather was much nicer this time and Addy and Michael went for a boat ride.  This 1st picture is Addy getting boating 101 lessons.  By the look on her face you can tell she isn't 100% sure what is going on!

And in no time she is cruising around the pond like a pro.

One of the activities was building a little foot bridge over what is a consistently muddy/wet spot along the pond.  Uncle Bob found this little bridge kit and used some of the extra hands around to put it together.  Addy had fun with this project.  

But this might have been one of the highlights, for multiple reasons.  I'm not sure what this big disk is called exactly, but we'll go with frisbee, although it is big and soft and made out of a foam like material.  Addy had great fun playing with David and Suzanne.  And kudos to them for playing frisbee with Addy - I wasn't there to witness this, but I don't imagine Addy is the greatest frisbee player and David and Suzanne were likely running around quite a bit.  But the highlight was when Addy got hit in the face/mouth with the frisbee.  And normally you wouldn't expect the word "highlight" to be part of a description of getting hit in the face by something...it could have been a complete coincidence, it could be from the frisbee, but after this incident Addy discovered a loose tooth.  Big excitement!!  Granted, it is about a month later and it is still barely wiggling, but the tooth fairy must have us on the radar screen at least.  Now, imagine my excitement when I talked to Michael while they were still in PA and he told me Addy got hit in the face and has a loose tooth.  I envisioned the little tooth barely hanging on, ready to fall out any minute.  Initially I didn't share in Addy's excitement, but fortunately it wasn't nearly as dramatic as I originally imagined!

Beginning of Beach Weekends 2012

We are starting our every other weekend at the beach routine for the summer.  Memorial Day weekend was the first, so it was a nice long break.  It was very relaxing and I even got a little touch-up paint work done in one of the bedrooms.  It was a great weekend except for all of the seaweed.  It was OK the 1st day because it seemed to be really fresh.  Not so fresh the 2nd day, so we only made it to the water twice, but that was fine because there is tons of fun to be had on the deck. 

 While I was totally creeped out by the seaweed, Ms. Addison had no issues and dove right in.  You had to basically clear a path from the clear sand to the water, so here she is throwing the seaweed out of the way.  Yuck!

 Double yuck, yet impressive.   She built a tower of seaweed and climbed on top (as I type this, I am just squirming at the thought of having to walk through it much less climb around in it!)  This tower was literally as tall as she is.

 Ella on the other hand was not a fan of the seaweed, although she still disliked the ocean more.  She didn't scream "no ocean" and try and run back to the house like she did last time.  And she would play around and didn't have to sit in my lap the whole time, but there was no frolicking in the water.  I'm sure she'll warm up to the idea right around August when our beach weekends start to taper off!

 I say I was productive with my little painting project, but Michael was super productive and built a picnic table and bench!  We had leftover wood from the beach railing we replaced, so Michael just whipped it into a picnic table.  The table was just a naptime project that Addy helped with.  I was pretty darn impressed and we put it to use that night - works great for dining al fresco.

 This picture doesn't do the sisterly love justice.  This was after a trip to the beach when we were wet and drying off before going inside.  The girls just sat and snuggled for quite a while.  Ella's eyes are closed in the pic, but I don't think that she was actually asleep.  Although she was calm and still for quite a while.  That is a very rare occurrence.

Here is the table and bench, with the woodworker and his two cute models.  Ella is not a fan of clothes these days, so at the beach she is usually just sporting a diaper.  This likely won't be the last diaper pic of the summer. 

PRE-K GRADUATION!!!!!

We'd been waiting for this for months - the pre-k pandas class of 2012 finally had their big night!  I'm not going to lie, I was totally anti pre-k graduation nonsense until I had a kid in pre-k.  Yes, it is over the top and the caps and gowns might have been a bit excessive, but it was the cutest stinkin' thing I had seen in a long time.  You could tell that both the teachers and kids put A LOT of work into the event.  There were close to 30 kids on the stage that they arranged into small groups so that all of the kids had a chance to come up center stage during one of the songs.  They showed off their sign language skills, sang in Hebrew and Spanish.  Addy even had a solo speaking part that she worked like a champ.  She came right up at the beginning of the night and asked everyone to stand for the pledge of allegiance.  Then she held the flag and started the room in the pledge. 

The best was probably all of the songs they sang.  Each kid was sitting up on stage, singing and boppin' to the song.  I had not heard Addy sing a single one of the songs at home, so I didn't even know she knew the song, but she was singing along.  Ms. Laura had put together a slide show with pictures from the year, so the kids came off stage and sat in the seats to watch that.  It was cute hearing their reaction to the different pics that popped up.  All around cuteness! 

 Here is Addy accepting her "diploma"

 Everybody on stage.  They practiced for weeks in the class and then moved into the auditorium. Even had a dress rehearsal with the gowns - very well executed production.

 Cuteness!

 Addy with Ms. Bari.  Ms. Bari was her teacher when she was 3 and she LOVED Ms. Bari and Ms. Simone's class.  

 Addy loved all of her pre-k teachers, but Ms. Vera was extra special.  

The family 

(minus Ella who had just finished cake and wouldn't sit still for the picture)

Visitor's Day at Dance

It was a wild and hectic day with dance from 4:30-5:30 and then Addy had to be back at the JCC for graduation at 6:00, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see her do some ballet and tap.  With her headed to Kolter next year, I'm not sure what her after-school schedule will be.  Fortunately the JCC will pick her up from school and bring her to the J for any classes we sign her up for.  So lucky to have that as an option. 

Our last dance experience was the recital, so this was much more low-key which was nice!  If you ever get an opportunity to go to watch 5 and 6 year olds do ballet and tap, I'd suggest you go, even if you have no connection to the kids.  It is just fun to see the wide range of talent, mixed in with 5 year old attention spans.  Addy did great, especially considering she wasn't feeling 100%. 

 Why-o-why won't you look at the camera and smile normal my precious girl!

A little shuffling leg in motion action

Last Day of Pre-K

It was hard to believe that Addy was about to go to her last day of school at Bertha Alyce.  It has been 5 great years!  There was a big graduation celebration display outside the pre-k class.  I made Addy stand by her pictures - it was early in the morning and she was half asleep and not excited about it, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  Mean mom.

Little Gym

With the end of the school year comes the end of gym for Ella.  We've been taking classes for a year now and I think we are both a bit burned out.  Here are a few pics to commemorate our time at the Little Gym...

 No question, the beam is one of Ella's favorite activities at gym.  She even got brave towards the end and would try and walk on the lower beam without any assistance.  I'm not sure she ever made it the full length, mainly because she'd get distracted and start looking off and not paying attention to where she was walking, so I'd have to swoop in! 

A close second to the beam was jumping on the spring board.  She could kind of make it bounce herself, but the fun typically involved me jumping with her.   This picture was right after she'd jumped up and she was on top of a mat wanting me to help her jump down.

Third on the list of her favorites was swinging on the bars.  At the beginning she would never hold on to the bar, would grab it for a second and then let go.  But she got to the point where she would hang there and swing for a bit.  Her least favorite thing at gym was anything that was a group activity.  Fortunately they encourage "exploring" and there were plenty of other explorers like her.  Oh, and maybe the all-time favorite was getting stamps at the end of class.  She always wanted one on both hands, both feet and her tummy.  Ella was always excited to show Addy her new stamps when we'd pick Addy up at school. 

Our New Pets

I'll admit I was not a fan of the idea when Dad scooped these out of his pond and said we could bring them home.  But Michael and Addy are great tadpole parents and are taking great care of them.  I figured they wouldn't last a week, but they have and they are growing, and I'm kind of excited to see if we actually end up with frogs/toads from this little science project.  Addy claims that one of them has legs now, but pretty sure that is not the case.  Hopefully the next update will be that they are ready to hop off into the great big world.  We will not be keeping them once they have legs!!

Let The Summer Fun Begin

We've been spending a lot  time outside the past few months, enjoying the nice weather, but now it is time to add water to the mix.  This particular weekend we had backyard splash fun one day, swimming at Grandad and Meme's the 2nd, and topped the weekend off with a swimming birthday party at the JCC. 

 This pic is one of many I think we'll see over the next month or so (or until Ella decides to get wet).  I thought that Ell would be more excited about the squirty ball this summer.  Not yet.  She stayed clear from the water, until something happened and the ball squirted right at the climber.  Then there were shrieks that you could hear down the block!

 Not exactly water related, but we are having lots of fun with the bubbles that Cousin Betsy gave Ella for her birthday.  Lots of fun "bubble pipes" that work really well.

 Addy was one happy camper once she got on Sally the float at Granddad's house.  

 Here is Star standing guard, ready to jump in and save Addy should she have trouble jumping off the diving rock.  Star hates it when anyone jumps off the rock!

Ella didn't get wet this day either.  She hung out with Granddad on the swing watching Addy have fun in the pool. I found the water to be quite chilly, so maybe that is why she didn't want to get in...she loved the pool last year, so imagine she'll be jumping in before the summer is over.