As Promised...

this is Will swimming! Pretty amazing =)! He is so excited to be swimming like a big boy, and we are so proud of his accomplishments in the pool this summer!

A Day of Prizes

At the beginning of the summer, Jack joined the library's summer reading program. He had to read 10 books, record them in a journal, return the journal to the library by August 1, and he would receive a prize.

The ten books that Jack read for the program were:
1. This is the House Where Jack Lives by Joan Heilbroner
2. The Great Snake Escape by Molly Coxe
3. Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff
4. God Loves You Very Much (a Veggie Tales book...actually, it was one of the first books I read to Jack when he was 5 months old)
5. Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
6. Here Comes the Snow by Angela Shelf Medearis
7. Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel
8. The House in the Night by Susan Marie Swanson & Beth Krommes
9. Mouse Soup by Arnold Lobel
10. Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel

Last night, Jack finished reading Frog and Toad are Friends, so this afternoon I picked him up from Art Camp and we headed to the library to claim his prize.

He turned his journal into the librarian, who complimented him on his achievement. She awarded him a certificate and had him write his name on the card of his choice to hang on the summer reading program wall of the library. We also filled out a card for Jack to be entered into a grand prize drawing. And then the librarian handed him a goodie bag. I was a little worried that the gift bag wouldn't be too exciting because at first glance it looked like some play dough, crayons, stickers, tattoos and a bookmark. Once we got to the car, Jack opened up the bag and there were also gift certificates for a free ice cream cone from Bruster's, a free ice cream cone from Chick-fil-A, and a free curly fries from Arby's. Now that is a nice reward! Yay, Library! And surprisingly, that little container of play dough provided lots of entertainment for Jack this afternoon...ya just never know!

Here is Jack, prizes in hand, pointing out his name on the library wall.

Jack wasn't the only one to win a prize. This week, the gym is launching new routines for all of their group exercise classes. At Saturday's Power class, they gave away Power bars and gift certificates for a free Chick-fil-A sandwich to everyone in the class. They also had drawings for other prizes, but I didn't win anything. Today at the Active class, my number was drawn and I won a gym bag! Woo Hoo! And it is a really cool bag =). I think it is too big to be a gym bag (or at least I don't carry that much stuff with me to the gym), but it will make a great overnight or weekend bag. I was so excited because I never win anything like this!

As the saying goes...it's the little things in life!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Tonight we celebrated the 8th anniversary of Brent's 29th birthday! The boys really jazzed up the happy birthday song with a few, well placed "cha-cha-chas"! You just can't deny talent. For the birthday dinner, we had chicken Marsala and roasted asparagus, one of Daddy's favorite meals and then the piece de resistance...BIRTHDAY CAKE!

Just look at the blaze!


Daddy 'needed help' to blow out all of those candles!

Brent got some great gifts this year: new furniture for the deck, sunglasses, a subscription to Consumer Reports, a Starbucks gift card, and a Miami Hurricanes polo (Jack's favorite football team according to Jack. Hearing those words was probably the best present Daddy received...evidence that his brain washing has firmly taken hold!). And even a gift from above, the heavens opened up and we had a nice rain shower this evening. A much needed refreshment for the lawn and gardens!

And have we mentioned that Will loves him some sugar?!?! As we are eating cake, we look over and Will has finished eating his piece and is now eating the icing straight off of the cake with his fork!

See the corner missing the icing? Will has left his mark!


Ahhhh, the sugar high is kicking in!
I guess bedtime will be a bit delayed tonight!

Happy Birthday, Daddy! We love you!

Another Little Fish in the Making?

Big news at our house....Will is swimming! Considering that he started the summer at the pool with a death grip on me, this is huge progress for our little man.

Friday afternoon as Will and I were headed to meet Mom to pick up Jack from his week at Zoo Camp, Brent called to say that after a morning in court, he was headed home for the afternoon. He offered to take Will home and they could go to the pool, so that Will didn't have to spend the afternoon riding up and down the interstate. Wonderful! We met Brent at his office and Will was beyond excited when he learned that he got to ride in Daddy's car. That never happens, so it was a treat almost better than Christmas!

Brent loaded up all of the pool paraphernalia and headed to the pool. At the pool, he realized that he left Will's swim vest at home...uh oh! So Brent says, "Will, today is the day that you learn how to swim!"

A little background on Will: the child doesn't like to get his face wet...AT ALL! He screams when he gets water in his eyes as we are washing his hair! I have to have a wash cloth near by to wipe his face off in the bath. At the beginning of the summer, he wasn't comfortable in the pool at all. He has made progress and gotten very comfortable in his swim vest and has thoroughly enjoyed bobbing around in the pool.

So back to Friday afternoon: Brent put Will on the steps of the pool and held his hands out for Will to jump into them. And slowly Brent backed further away until Will jumped and went underwater. Brent pulled him up and started cheering and praising him saying, "Yay Will! You're swimming! Good Job!" The praise was addicting and Will wanted to try over and over again.

By the end of the afternoon, Will was 'swimming' under water to Brent. Will's swimming looks very much like Jack's swimming did at 2 years old....under water, legs kicking, body wiggling. No pictures of Will swimming yet; we went to the water park today instead of back to the pool. I'll get my friend to take a picture of him swimming this week when we are at the pool. I can't wait to see Will swim myself!

It was a Cajun Invasion....

and we had the best time! We spent the weekend at the lake with Honey, Happy, Aunt Becky, Uncle Mike, L and Z. All 10 of us in a 2 bedroom 1 bath lake house...good thing we're family and we all really like each other ;-). It was the most beautiful weekend, very un-July like. The highs were in the mid-80s, low humidity, and a wonderful breeze! We were outside from sun-up to sun-down and hardly broke a sweat.

Here is some of the crew returning from a boat ride.

Our usual destinations are looking for the goats on Goat Island, watching others jump off Chimney Rock, checking out Martin Dam, and screaming under the Kowaliga Bridge.

And what do we have here?

Happy is working hard at training our next chauffeur. Unfortunately, Will is most excited about blowing the boat's horn. There has been talk about disabling the annoyingly loud horn.

L and Z tubing all over the lake.

The picture doesn't really relay the experience; they were going FAST and the lake was very choppy. Several times they were airborne. It was quite impressive!


And at a much slower pace...

This was Will's inaugural tube ride. He loved it! He wasn't scared at all and wanted to go faster. I guess after watching his cousins zoom around the lake, this seemed pretty lame. But it was fast enough for Mommy. Not bad for a 2 1/2 year old!

Lazin' on the Lake

L and Jack hanging out on the turtle float. Jack talked non-stop to L for an hour. Being the sweet cousin that she is, I am sure L would throw in a "Uh huh" and "Oh, really!" every now and then to keep him going. Jack loves his cousins!

And here I am with my baby!
Will talked our ears off all weekend. He is at that age where he is cute, adorable, and funny without even knowing it.

It was such a relaxing weekend of reading, chatting, swimming, fishing, and boating. Looking forward to the next visit, y'all!

Kudos to Bobby Flay

I am on a mission to lose those extra pounds that followed me home from the beach...before they set up house and stick around for the long haul. Soooo, it is back to the healthy eating!

Breakfast is easy...I love strawberries and fresh pineapple topped with yogurt! Lunch is a bit more challenging. Just the thought of another tired ol' grilled chicken salad makes me want to gag! While we were at the beach, Mom made the best salad! High in protein and more importantly, high in TASTE! I have been enjoying it for lunch this week, and thought I would share the recipe in case you are on the lookout for a tasty, healthy lunch.

Sophie's Chopped Salad

courtesy Bobby Flay

• 3 cups romaine lettuce, finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, diced (I use chopped grape tomatoes)
  
• 1/2 cup canned chick peas, rinsed and drained
  
• 1/2 cup canned red beans, rinsed and drained
  
• 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and coursely chopped
  
• 3/4 cup cubed Monterey Jack cheese
• 3/4 cup cubed white cheddar cheese
• blue corn chips
• fresh chives
  
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 heaping tablepoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Mix together the vinegar and mustard. Slowly whisk in the oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Toss all salad ingredients together in a medium bowl. Dress the salad with the vinaigrette. Garnish with blue corn chips and chives. Serves 4 to 6.

I omitted the cheeses and the chips & the chives garnishes, and didn't miss them one bit. Plus, I used 2 Tbsp of bottled white balsamic vinaigrette, because I just don't have the inclination to make homemade dressing when I have a perfectly good bottle in the fridge!

Bon Appétit!

Internet Gems

I warned you I am addicted to blogs. Came across these lately, and ohhhh, the belly laughs! Just thought I would share the fun =).

http://www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
Be sure to check out the fireman cake...HYSTERICAL!!

http://thereifixedit.com/
You might be a redneck if....

http://failblog.org/
There are just so many, but Tubing Fail gives me pause. We have this same tube at the lake...I hope this isn't foreshadowing for me!

http://www.sexypeople-blog.com/
Ahhh, the 8os....the decade was just a goldmine!

Lots of Fun in the Sun (and Rain)

We had a great vacation! We did all of our favorite things: watched the Harbour Town fireworks from our deck, drank, played in the waves, ate, built sandcastles, drank, flew kites, ate, swam at the pool, read books, drank, posed for the family beach portraits, got our arms and faces painted, ate, rode bikes, drank, rode horses, ate, ate ice cream at South Beach Marina, watched TV and played video games, and just for good measure, we ate and drank a whole lot more! Do you see a pattern here?!?! Well, I brought home the 5 extra lbs to prove that we ate well!

So here is a pictorial recap:

Our beach house is across a sound from the Harbour Town Lighthouse and is the perfect location to watch the 4th of July fireworks.


A little post-fireworks fun with Glo-Sticks! Great idea, Daddy!


Jack is really into Star Wars right now. So here we have an epic battle between two noble Jedi Knights and the evil Daddy Vader.


Playing in the waves....


...and in the shallow pools at low tide.


This year, Jack was learning to ride the waves on his boogie board.

I have waited for this day, the day my child would learn to ride the waves, for a long time. One of my favorite childhood beach memories is of my Dad and I riding the waves right before a storm came in. That day the waves were huge and it was FUN! I can still hear my Dad laughing as he sat behind me on the raft.

Body art compliments of the Salty Dog at South Beach Marina.


The boys each got to ride a horse at Lawton Stables.

This was Will's first time to ride a horse, and he was so proud to ride Chicken Nugget!


Jack is an old pro at riding the horses and enjoyed his turn on Cookie.

This was the first year for as long as I can remember that we had a significant amount of rain. It rained everyday, but not enough for the day to be a washout and the rain did help to keep the temperatures pleasant. During the rain time, the kids would read, watch TV, play with toys, and play in the awesome tent Granddaddy built.


As a little girl, my grandmother taught me, Matt and Laura to make 'drip castles'. And now our children, Grandmother's great-grandchildren, are carrying on the tradition. Here is their work:



We had a wonderful time, which begs the question...why do vacation days go by so much faster than regular days?

We're off to the Beach!

For the past 2 days we have been fighting a summer stomach bug...yuck! Thursday morning, Jack woke up feeling awful. He had bouts of vomiting all day long, and it was hit or miss whether or not he could keep anything down. I was hoping that it was just a 24 hr bug, and he would wake up this morning feeling much better. Didn't happen. This morning he was still dry heaving. Fortunately, around lunchtime, the bug bit the dust and he is on the rebound. He was able to keep lunch, snack, and dinner down. But the real tell-tale sign of recovery was that he was back to irritating the mess out of Will, so officially we are back in the land of the living! I was beginning to worry that we would have to travel with a sick child tomorrow. I have been trying to wash my hands every time I came into contact with him, and trying to keep Jack and Will from breathing on each other (time will tell if I was successful or not). So following Murphy's Law logic, I will be carrying a bowl with us in the car in the hopes that if I have a 'throw up bowl' with us, then we won't need it. Wish us luck!

I told Brent that I was taking my laptop to the beach because I am totally addicted to the Internet and knew I would go into major twitching without my daily (hourly) fix! My plan was to find a Starbucks every afternoon for a little refreshment and some free WiFi. However, my wonderful husband spent a good hour setting my computer up so that I could tether to his blackberry and be able to surf from the beach house! Isn't that awesome?!?!? I just know that he got me all hooked up because he loves me and only wants to see me happy, and surely not because the thought of me leaving him with the two little heathens for a couple of hours every day scared the socks off of him ;-)!! Have you ever seen the Southwest commercial where the frail, elderly grandfather is running down the street babe in arms screaming, "Don't leave us with the babies!"? Totally Brent! But I love ya, babe!

So the car is packed...as in filled to the gills, gassed up, and ready. We'll hit Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts first thing, because really, our weekend hasn't officially begun without them, and then...................................

HILTON HEAD, HERE WE COME!!!!

Check back in for details of all of the craziness. Cause there will be details o'plenty!

Have a wonderful 4th!

My Favorite Summer Drink

We are heading to the beach this weekend for some much needed R & R! I am planning our 'Drink of the Day' specials and just wanted to let you know about my new favorite drink.....

Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka!

This stuff is beyond delicious! My sister-in-law, Blythe, introduced us to Firefly over Mother's Day weekend, and we just can't thank her enough! Just mix 1 part sweet tea vodka with 1 part lemonade and pour over ice. But be forewarned: you'll swear you are drinking a tall, delicious glass of sweet tea...until it hits you! But you won't even care =).

So what is your favorite summer drink? It just might end up on our 'Drink of the Day' list!