VacationTips

Sleep in. Make sure you're comfortable. Use as many pillows as you need...

Enlist your kids to help make breakfast.


After all, it is your vacation. Relax. Go with the flow. Heck, you might even let them dress themselves.


Maybe not.

Playing in the pool

Just last week, Big Sister went swimming for the first time this summer. I'm pretty sure that last year she only had the chance to swim once. Needless to say, she was not exactly comfortable in the water. When she got in last Monday, she needed a lifejacket, a noodle AND someone holding her at all times. I tried to encourage her to try to kick her feet, or blow bubbles, or come off of the steps or LET GO OF ME FOR JUST ONE SECOND... ahem... but it was a slow process. By the end of the day, though, she was swimming on her own with just a life jacket. Success!

Now that we're on vacation, she is really enjoying the pool and becoming quite the little mermaid. She has even moved beyond the jacket to her little yellow "cube." As someone who spent much of my childhood at the pool, I am happy to see her getting more adventurous and experienced in the water.

And I think her daddy is happy to have a swimming buddy.

Sand, salt and sun

This is the life...

Song for Sunday: Where the gulls fly free...

This is a song Big Sis keeps asking me to sing for her. I think it is perfect, even though it is about a different body of water. We're lounging at the ocean and gazing at the breathtaking landscape of the intercoastal, but I am still thinking the same thing. Big, endless, beautiful water...big, endless, beautiful possibilities. The beach is the best place for dreaming!

Just Around the Riverbend
from Pocahontas

What I love most about rivers is:
You can't step in the same river twice
The water's always changing, always flowing
But people, I guess, can't live like that
We all must pay a price
To be safe, we lose our chance of ever knowing
What's around the riverbend
Waiting just around the riverbend

I look once more
Just around the riverbend
Beyond the shore
Where the gulls fly free
Don't know what for
What I dream the day might send
Just around the riverbend

PS- Do my intros for Song for Sunday ever seem to resemble a Mary Katherine Gallagher introduction to anyone else but me?!

Happy Fourth of July!

Last year at this time, Big Sister was just learning about our nation's history. In fact, she had a lot of questions.

Big Sis: Mom! The fourth of July is America's birthday!

Me: Yes it is.

Big Sis: Mom...

Me: Yes, [Big Sister]?

Big Sis: Who's America?

Me: Well, America isn't a person. America is our country. Where we live.

Big Sis: Like we live in (insert cutely pronounced name of our city here).

Me: Sort of. That's our city. It's in (our state) which is in America. And the fourth of July is America's birthday. We'll have a party for America's birthday.

Big Sis: (losing interest) Well, does she like cake?


Every year, we have taken a picture of Big Sister with our giant silly Uncle Sam hat. If we were at home, I'd upload pictures from past years for a cute little growth chart. However, we are some place much sunnier and sandier. But the tradition continues...






Happy Birthday, America!

Celebrations

Last Sunday our church hosted our favorite community event, Celebrate America. I didn't get as many pictures as I usually do, so you'll have to imagine the pony rides, petting zoo, inflatable slides and face painting this time. But I do have a picture of me & Big Sister on the hot air balloon. She looks terrified excited, huh?


The girls' pre-school also has a parade every year on the day before they close for the fourth of July. Here are some cute pictures from this year's festivities.

A big sacrifice...

The other day I was having yet another not-so-successful conversation with Big Sister, trying to convince her that she would have a great time at school. She insisted that she was going to stay at home. When I reminded her that Little Sister would be at "school" and that Daddy & Mommy would both be at work, it didn't phase her.

"That's ok. The dogs will take care of me," she said.

Ha. I bet they will. I quickly put the images of Al-dog herding her around the house while Sophie chewed on everything in sight out of my head and reminded her that she had to have a grown-up with her.

"Call a baby-sitter." Smart kid. Except we are already paying someone to watch you. At school. I'm not going to pay someone else to stay with you and pay tuition so you can stay home from school- and then I said one of my often overused Mommy lines: "That would cost too much money."

After a few questions about how much money ( Two dollars? As much as our car? Is it five dollars?) she finally gave up on that option. "I'll just stay here by myself. I'll be fine. I'm almost four years old."

I was growing tired of this, so I tried to end the discussion as quickly as possible. I told her that I wanted to keep her safe, that she needed a grown-up to look after her, and that she still needed to be a little older than four to stay home by herself. And, even if I thought she could be by herself, it was against the law. Did she want Mommy & Daddy to go to jail?

I had made my point. I got her socks and began to help her get them on. She was obviously still thinking about what I had just said. Then, with a sigh, she said, "I really don't want to go to school...

How long would you be in jail?"

Big Sister, staying at home. (Hence the PJs)