Evenings on the Island

Each evening, on the island, we would head out for an early dinner. After dinner, there was always some form of live entertainment for the kids. There are 2 singing/guitar shows that are quite famous there and have been around for 25-30 years. The kids loved them and they were great for us too. The girls got to go up on stage and sang one night and each show had the kids all dancing and playing games.

Me and 2 girlies before dinner. Don't you love Addison's strange smile? Don't know what was going on with her this trip, but I have about 600 pictures that look just like that. Between her strange expressions and Gracyn being a 2 year old, we don't have many good pictures.

Though she wasn't too thrilled with being photographed, she is getting decent at taking pictures.
Gracyn slept through dinner and the photo session. She did this almost every night. Then, when we would go back to the condo and put all 3 girls to bed in one room she would be super-energized and keep them up for an hour!!!

We were early this night and the girls were stalking the clown, waiting for her to arrive. She was sweet and let them help her set up for the night.

They sure love to get their faces painted.

Waiting for our favorite, "The Shannon Tanner Show".

Both times we went to that show, Tommy got called out of the audience to do the "Sprinkler Dance" for everyone. I guess you can't be the 6'5 person in a stripes and blend in!

Gracyn and Reagan ready for a little dance party at one of his shows.

This was our final night and we went back to Shannon Tanner's show one last time. I had tears in my eyes at the end. I was already so sad to be leaving such an amazing vacation and then Shannon Tanner spotted a group of teenager kids in the audience. He asked them if they had grown up coming to his show and they said yes. He called them all up to sit behind him and then sang, "Your Going to Miss This". My little ones were sitting in front of him and those big kids all grown up were in the back. It was such a reminder of how quickly time goes. Made me happy for vacation weeks were we get to just soak up our family time!

Farewell Mr. Shannon Tanner, I hope we see you next year.

How We Roll

We had a great time cruising around the resort on these bikes. We took Addison's bike with us and rented the rest. The girls especially loved taking turns being hooked on to Daddy. :)

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

We are just getting back from an amazing week long vacation on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. After a lifetime of reading Nicholas Sparks books and loving the ocean and the south, I have always wanted to visit the Carolinas. Turns out Hilton Head is the beach vacation of choice for the people of Cincinnati. I got a few recommendations from friends here and got us all booked. I am in love with the entire area and would move there TOMORROW, if the opportunity arose. It is such a contrast with old, mature trees and beaches all in one place. From the front side of our condo, you could just see forest for miles through the resort. It was cool and shady and under a canopy of enormous trees. Then the backside of the condo, you could almost think you were in a completely different world. It was a mix of large trees with palm trees and more tropical plants. Then just over the sand dunes are beaches for as far as the eye can see. HEAVEN!!!

Here are the girls checking out the patio of the condo just after we arrived. Not bad for 11 hours in the car, beginning at 3am and the clothes they slept in the night before.

We couldn't get to the beach fast enough. We changed and headed that way. They weren't too thrilled to stop for pictures.
I absolutely love stepping on to that bridge and taking in the sights, smell and sounds of the ocean.

She loves it.

The view looking back up to the condo.

Sweet Gracyn, she is getting so big. Traveling with her this time was a real eye-opener that she is not a baby anymore.

My little nature lover got her hands on all kinds of sea-creatures this week. This is a variety of jellyfish that doesn't sting. She loved to pick them up and hold them.

Gracyn loved to be jumped in the waves.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Tommy!!! We are so blessed to be your girls.

Slice of Life

How is that for creative use of a hula skirt? It makes for a great wig. Reagan put this outfit together. I love it.I can't even tell what she looks like?
Tommy always says that life here, since it has warmed up, has been one big party. We are constantly headed to the pool or King's Island and school wasn't even out for Addison until today. Reagan curled up on my bed yesterday and I found her like this a few minutes later.

When Daddy is away, the girls will play. And on this day we did play. After a very full day of activity, we curled up in my bed for a movie night and slumber party.

I recently taught the girls how to play Hang Man. This was the first puzzle Addison ever made for me to guess. "You are my bast frind". Melt my heart.....that is a piece of paper I will be keeping forever.

Yellow Belts

Saturday the girls had their karate tests, to promote from white belt to yellow belt. In order to qualify for the promotion, they had to attend 12 classes, earn all 5 tips required on their white belt and then perform it all during the test on Saturday in front of a panel of judges and spectators. No problem for these little karate experts. They did great! We had to wait in suspense from Saturday afternoon, until their class this morning to see if they passed.

So proud of Reagan. I always have to remind myself that she is hanging STRONG in a class full of kids MUCH older than her. You would never guess, when watching their class that she wasn't the same age as everyone. Her belt test was HILARIOUS! First Sensei asked her to count in Japanese, which she did....FAST. Sensei laughed and said jokingly, "Could you possibly count any faster?". Reagan didn't miss a beat, she immediately began counting again....FASTER! At the end of her test, after she had performed her skills she was answering more questions for the judges. They were giving her rapid fire questions about basic karate, which she was answering in perfect rhythm. Their final question, "Who's stronger, Reagan or Addison?". She never broke tempo, just answered, "Addison!". We got a good laugh out of that and Sensei made sure to tell Reagan that she wasn't so sure about that.

Addison did great at her test, too! She is a definite leader in the group. The girl has some powerful kicks! Two grown men were holding the board that she was kicking for her demonstration, and she moved them back about a foot with each kick! I think she surprised them.

Here is my little white-headed spectator! She does a great job hanging out at the studio every Tuesday. And, she has a jump start if she ever wants to start karate. She already knows how to count to 1o in Japanese and can say several basic words.

Like Reagan, she is still at the age where everything is very literal. We got a good laugh from her on Saturday morning. She had been eating a banana in her carseat. She had 1/2 the banana left over in her hand and much of it smushed all over her face. I handed her a wipe and told her to "Wash off her banana". When I looked back a minute later she had the wipe just scrubbing down the 1/2 banana she was still holding. She never wiped a bit off her face, just "Washed her banana!".

Last Day of Kindergarten

Last time of the bus for my little kindergarten graduate. What a great year!!

Kindie End-of-Year Party

Last week, Addison's class had their end-of-year party in the courtyard outside her classroom. It was HOT, but we had a great time. The little girls and I went up to join the fun. Reagan evened out an odd number group, so she got to play most of the games with the big kids. They had stations set up for bubbles, a relay, water-balloon-toss and hula-hooping. Then they cooled down with Popsicles. After snacks, we headed inside to present Mrs. Egner with a gift and to try out graduation caps. It was a fun afternoon. I am thankful for any bit of time I have at this new school, getting to know kids and parents.

The following day, I headed back with Reagan and Gracyn for field day. I had warned Addison early on that we wouldn't be able to stay too long....Gracyn didn't need to miss her nap 2 days in a row. She got really sad and I started to feel guilty, then she said, "If you leave, who is going to carry my water-bottle?". Little stinker.....she just wanted me their as her pack-mule! Oh well, it was fun anyway.

Pictures, After All

Tommy saved the day at the block party. I forgot he was even taking pictures and then found them on my camera roll. If you are a Riverbrook friend.....not to worry. It was fun, but nothing will ever compare!!!

Reagan's Last Day of School

Reagan finished her first year of preschool last week. The school has been such a blessing to us, throughout this move. It was really the first place we felt at home. We dropped Reagan for her first day there before we had even moved into our house and their welcome to her and the whole family was a tremendous blessing. During her 3 months there, Reagan just fell in love with her teacher and made many new friends. Thursday was the end-of-school picnic and celebration. The children sang songs and recited scripture. We let Addison go to school late that day, so the whole family was there to celebrate with Reagie!

Our little star on stage.....back row, 2nd from the left.

Pretty girl on her last day.
Reagan with Mrs. Collen and Mrs. Megan, who have to be the two sweetest, most loving preschool teachers on earth. They were a gift from God for our family. There instant love and welcoming for Reagan made a hard move just a little easier.

Reagan with her new friend Olivia Bowles. She is a middle sister from a family with 3 girls just the same ages as ours. They live 2 streets over from us, just a few minutes walk. The girls love having them over to jump on the trampoline!

The cutest idea ever.....their class pet, "Gus the Guppy" had babies. He had just enough little stuffed animal babies for each child to take one home.

My sweet girl, growing big too fast.

Such a sweet sight! Three girls, "Talking to God". Her school ALWAYS uses that phrase when the pray. I love it.

Silly girl and her friend Olivia Leslie. This Olivia lives 2 doors down from us and has become Reagan's daily playmate. God sure works in great ways to take good care of us each time we move.

Reagan woke up the day after her last day and arrived in my room at 6:30am. "Is it time for my 4-year-old class?" She asked right away. Sweet girl she is ready....that might make for a long summer!

Memorial Day Weekend - 2011

So, that is the lone picture I took of our holiday weekend! Summer has finally come to Cincinnati, so we were outside soaking it up. King's Island, Swimming Pools, Block parties and backyard fun. We did take a break from the outdoors for a few hours Monday morning, to paint Gracyn's room. The brown is gone and she now has the purple that she had in Colorado. 1 girls' room down, 3 to go. The girls were dying to help, so they did a little work, with dry brushes before it all began. Then I let them each do a tiny patch with real paint! I am happy to have the purple back, it makes me smile!!! For my own memories, I have bullet points of the rest of the weekend.

~Reagan, Graycn and I met Addison at the bus stop Friday afternoon and loaded up for King's Island. Tommy met us a bit later, after work. It wasn't too crowded and we had a blast riding tons of rides. Sadly, Reagan wasn't feeling great, so after a few hours, Tommy headed home with the 2 little ones. Addison and I stayed on until just before they closed at 10pm. She is my crazy girl, so we rode roller coaster after roller coaster. Her fav of the night was "The Beast". It is the world's longest wooden roller coaster. It moves at 65 mph for nearly 5 minutes. We rode it twice, first in the mid-section of the train. She wouldn't rest until she rode in the front seat, so we went back a 2nd time and waited a few extra minutes for the front car! I had a great time hanging out with her. 6 is fun....she is a good little buddy!!!

~Saturday morning Reagan ran errands with me, while Tommy took the other 2 to Addison's soccer. Reagan skipped it, since she still wasn't feeling 100%. We met back later in the afternoon and headed to Lifetime for the grand opening pool party at the outdoor pool. The girls had a great time. They played some games and Addison even won the dance-off. Poor Reagan just didn't have enough energy to dance her heart out!

~Sunday we started on our first Sunday of serving in the children's ministry at our new church. Tommy and Reagan work in Gracyn's class and Addison and I work in a 4-year-old class. We work first service and then all attend 2nd at our respective spots. They are so excited to serve and we have fun doing it with them. That afternoon, we rode bikes to the neighborhood park, cooked out and played in the backyard.

~Monday was painting morning, followed by a neighborhood cook-out in the cul-de-sac, with lots of water fun for the kids and then the gym/pool. Tommy was good, he worked out. I just spent my hour of childcare lying all alone by the pool. He brought the girls out at the end of his workout and we had a great time swimming together. We came home for one last dinner on the grill and got ready to get back to life the next morning.

~One funny thing. At some point during the weekend, we had about a 10 minute time period where I thought Gracyn was upstairs with Tommy and he thought she was downstairs with me. Turns out she was upstairs, but not in the room with him. She managed to find a huge container of Vaseline, which she used to paint herself and several surfaces in my master bedroom. I had some decorative pillows that are a casualty and we are still trying to degrease her hair!!!