Fun In the Sun

This past week we were in Destin with the Jensen family. This is our usual week of vacation that we take each year in September but since Carter will start kindergarten and Ella Ann will start pre-K at a public school in the fall we had to take our trip in May so no school would be missed. Everyone arrived on Saturday afternoon but I drove down with the kids on Sunday because we had a wedding (see previous post) to attend Saturday night. Spencer had to work a couple of days so he flew down Tuesday evening.

We had such a good time spending the week with each other. The big kids, Carter, Ella Ann and Seth, played nonstop for 6 straight days. They loved the pool and all three of them were swimming like fish by the second and third days. Mandy bought a baby pool to keep on the other side of the gate to the pool for the little boys, Ethan and Rane. Ethan loved it but Rane wanted in the big pool since he thinks he's larger than life already! He would just take off toward the pool and walk right into it. Crazy boy. Ella Ann and Rane were not fans of the beach. Ella Ann does not like getting dirty and she especially dislikes having anything on the bottoms of her feet so the sand was not making her day whatsoever. She begged anyone to take her back to the house as soon as we arrived at the beach each morning. She pretty much moped around until someone volunteered to take her back so she could swim in the pool. Rane eventually would walk in the sand but he didn't like it one bit. He was afraid of the water because there were big waves but by Friday we had him putting his hands and feet in the ocean and he would be okay for a few minutes. Every time a wave would wash over his feet he'd say, "Woahhhhhhhh!"

We ate really good food at the restaurants we went to for dinner and we cooked at the house twice. Rane was a handful at the restaurants but that was no surprise. Papa usually had to rescue him and take him outside.

Carter, Seth and Ella Ann slept on the first floor of our three story house. For the most part they slept pretty well together, although by the last night Carter had had enough of Seth and Ella Ann chatting before bed and waking him up WAY too early talking so he slept in Mandy and Zach's room! Gary and Gayla were up every single night, often multiple times, with one child or another's issues since they were in the bedroom next door. Rane slept great in our closet so I cannot complain! He was so worn out by nap time and bed time that he had no trouble sleeping.

We had an easy drive home yesterday and I was so happy to have Spencer with me for the trip. We miss our family terribly and wish we were still there but all good things must come to an end. Ella Ann was not happy at all to be home!

Below are a few of the many pictures I took but if you would like to view all of them click HERE.

Admiring the ocean but not about to set foot in it!

Such a great picture of Spencer and Ella Ann.

Spinning around in circles in the pool. Rane l-o-v-e-d it, as you can see!

We tried but there are zero good pictures of the 5 kids together!

Ella Ann and Seth paraded around the house one morning with bowls as hats.

Craig stepped in for Spencer while he wasn't there and really took care of my kids. He played for hours with them in the pool and I was so very grateful!

Mandy and I had the same outfits for the little boys so one night we dressed them alike. They looked so cute!

Craig being a fantastic uncle to Ella Ann!

Zach and Spencer took the big kids to play put-put one afternoon. It was the first time Ella Ann had ever been and she really, really liked it. Zach took them the next day to play again!

Ella Ann moping at the beach.

Rane about to blow because he wants off the beach so badly!

Wedding Fun

One of Spencer's good friends from residency, John, got married this past weekend. John and his now-wife, Mandy, have been our friends since we moved here. Spencer and I rarely get out together to hang out with his group of friends but when we do we always enjoy our time with them. They are really great people and Spencer will miss them when we move to Nashville, although a few of them have already moved and will most likely move after he is done as well. Anyway, we were so excited to go to a wedding since it has been entirely too long since we attended one! We got a babysitter for the kids, which Ella Ann was extremely excited about, who arrived at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The wedding was downtown at the Biltmore Hotel, which I knew would be super nice and I was looking forward to seeing the historic hotel. The ceremony was very small and intimate, about 150 guests. The room the ceremony and reception was held in was absolutely amazing, as you will see from the pictures below. After the ceremony, the guests were moved to an adjoining room for a cocktail hour with very yummy appetizers like grilled shrimp and crab cakes. After cocktails we were ushered back into the room the ceremony was in for a wonderful sit down dinner. We had Ceasar salad with a cruton ring as an appeptizer and the main course was salmon with a lemon sauce, fillet with Gorgonzola cheese, cheese risotto and vegetables. Dessert was wedding cake, which was red velvet with cream cheese icing and and another layer was vanilla with strawberry marmalade and buttercream frosting. The grooms cake, which was a gigantic golf ball with the Ohio State emblem on it (obviously John is a golfer and since he's from Ohio and went there for college he is a big Ohio state fan) was chocolate with cookies n' cream buttercream frosting. To top it all off was a big candy bar that was the guests little parting gift. We filled clear plastic bags with ALL kinds of fantastic candy. I made a bag for Ella Ann and she was so excited to see that on Sunday!

We stayed until around 9:15 p.m. and then headed home. It was so great to be out on the town (at night without kids!), enjoying a wonderful time with our friends, eating amazing food at an amazing place and celebrating John and Mandy's union!

Cocktail hour.

The ceremony and reception room.

Each table was named for parts of Atlanta. Each table had a beautiful flower arrangement as the centerpiece and each one was different.

One of Spencer's friends (and mine), Karen.

John and Mandy cutting their cake.

Birthday Boy

I mean Birthday-31-Year-Old Man! Spencer left for New Orleans this past Saturday and came home Tuesday night....on his birthday. Ella Ann and I tried to make the most of the two hours we had with him as a family by, hopefully, making Spencer feel special. Ella Ann had on her very fancy birthday party dress by 7:30 a.m. and wore it ALL day...both outside to play in and to run errands. She wanted to make sure she looked festive for her Daddy! I planned a big meal of brisket, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread and a Better Than ? Cake that was, in my opinion, the best cake I've ever made. Not to toot my own horn or anything! Ella Ann made a huge poster that said "Happy Birthday Daddy! I love you!" and she wrote it all by herself! We also wrote "Happy Birthday Daddy" in chalk on the incline of our driveway so Spencer would see it when we pulled in.

The kids were SO excited to see their Daddy! We picked him up at the MARTA station and they were grinning from ear to ear all the way home! Ella Ann was excited to show him her poster she made (with all of our family members on it too) and the gift we had ready for him. After dinner Spencer opened all of his cards and his gift. All in all, I think Spencer had a good birthday and the rest of us had fun too!

Working on her poster for Daddy.

I bought a little (too little) pool for the kids this week and they cannot get enough of it. I throw lots of kitchen utensils in there with them and they have a blast. I cannot get Rane out of it. He will sit there in the freezing water, teeth chattering away and playing to his little heart's content.

Ella Ann enjoyed getting all wet and then slipping down her slide.

I forgot to take a picture of our meal before we started so here's the cake before we ate it! Ella Ann picked out how many candles she wanted on it (12) and then she put them in the cake.

Singing "Happy Birthday."

Don't worry, Rane was in on the birthday fun, only on the floor!

Happy Birthday!

Spring Program

Ella Ann's spring program at school was last Wednesday. Sorry I'm a week late on posting! She was so excited to see us in the audience when she walked in, especially her Daddy. I don't know why she gets such a kick out of seeing him (instead of me....sniff, sniff) when we are in an audience, at her school, ballet, etc. but she loves it when he is there. It makes Spencer so happy to know she cares so much. Rane was a handful, surprise, surprise and was a ham to everyone he encountered. Such a show off. Ella Ann did a fantastic job up front singing and doing all the motions that go along with the songs. After the program we headed down to her classroom to visit one last time with other parents and her teachers. Each child gave their parents their painted hand print on a piece of cloth (it is much cuter than it sounds but I really don't know how to describe the thingy it was on). I love Ella Ann's school and I will really miss her teachers and the parents I have become friends with. Hopefully I can get Rane in for the half a year he will be in the 2 year old class in 2011 before we move. It is like a family there and it reminds me a lot of how my elementary school was. It is a wonderful place but we decided to send Ella Ann to the elementary school in our district for pre-K next year. It is the school she will start kindergarten in so we might as well go ahead and put her there and get her used to it....plus it is from 7:45 a.m. until 2:15 p.m. every day and it's free! I put her name in the lottery in March and the odds were a 1 in 5 chance she'd get in and she did! Yeay! The downside: Big Girl is going to have to ride the bus home because pick up time is right in the middle of Rane's nap. The office secretary assured me that the pre-K teachers walk the students to the bus and the bus drivers know the little ones and will certainly help them out. That still doesn't ease my nerves but I know she can do it!

Hamming it up for the parents before the program started.

Ella Ann is in the center in a turquoise dress.

Ella Ann's class with their teacher, Miss Elaine.

With her BFF, Caroline. I was told by Miss Elaine that usually these two do not play with any one else and have to be forced to be separated so they make them sit by other kids at snack and circle time. They also talk a lot!

Ella Ann and Bennett are also big buddies. The Simpsons' go to the same church as us too so Bennett and Ella Ann have always been in the same nursery class. Bennett sent Ella Ann an email a couple of weeks ago and a drawing in the mail! She was thrilled! I think he kinda likes her (insert wink)!

Visitors

Last week was a blast for Ella Ann. My friend, Andria, is expecting her third child next month and was really needing to organize and clean her house before the baby arrived so I kept Diego and Alexia Tuesday morning/early afternoon. Ella Ann was thrilled to have two of her buddies at her house! The three big kids played exceptionally well together and I didn't have one single issue with any of them. Poor little Rane, though, he wanted to be in on the action so badly but he couldn't keep up and would just end up attached to my leg, as usual. I fed the kids lunch and they took forever to eat because all they wanted to do was be silly at the table! It was really fun to have them and I told Andria we will have to do it again this summer.

On Saturday after Ella Ann's ballet recital I told her that after Rane woke up from his nap we were going to go get Mara Kate so she could spend the night with us. I really thought Ella Ann was going to burst out of her skin....she was so excited! Jana and I had been planning it for a few weeks but I couldn't tell Ella Ann because she would drive me crazy with the questions! Last week when I took the kids to the mall Ella Ann threw a penny into a fountain and afterwards she told me she made a wish and her wish was to see Mara Kate. I nearly teared up because of the sweetness! It was fun to know that her wish would come true in a few days!

It was a busy Saturday because after Ella Ann's recital I had to drop Spencer off at the MARTA station so that he could ride the train down to the airport because he was headed to New Orleans (for work). Once Rane woke up we hit the road and met Kane and Jana halfway for both of us and picked up Mara Kate. The girls sat together in the back of the van and were chatty, giggly and goofy the entire way home. I looked back at Rane at one point and he had his hands on his ears and was moaning....poor thing, he was closer to the noise than I was! As soon as they walked in the door they holed themselves up in Ella Ann's room and immediately dressed up in costumes. I didn't take any pictures of them dressed up because they were half-dressed 90% of the time in old costumes that didn't fit anymore and were not appropriate for the blog!

After dinner I let them play for quite a while and put them down close to 8 p.m. They took a little while to calm down and fall asleep but it didn't take as long as I had expected. They both slept just fine and were raring to go at 6:40 a.m. Sunday. After breakfast I got everyone ready for church and off we went. Several people stared at me with the girls walking in because Mara Kate wanted to hold my hand and Ella Ann held hers so it was just too cute to not make you smile. They had fun in the nursery and several people were happy to see Mara Kate.

After we got home the girls ate lunch and played and played and played! While Rane was sleeping I took them outside and they played with Kayla and Jordan for a while. Ella Ann was in heaven with all her little buddies running around in the backyard! After Rane woke up we hopped back in the car and drove halfway again to meet Kane and Jana. Ella Ann did not want to see Mara Kate go and she cried on the way home. When Ella Ann has to say goodbye to her friends she gets quite angry and it is difficult to deal with her. She was angry the entire way home and I threatened putting her on the roof if she didn't find her happy place. I think a lot of it had to do with being so tired. The girls were go, go, go all waking hours so Ella Ann was exhausted. I promised Ella Ann we would do it again this summer because having Mara Kate spend the night is better than anything to her.

Ella Ann doctoring Alexia and her baby doll.

Alexia was sweet and would come play with Rane for a little bit throughout the morning.

Now it was Diego's turn to get a shot from the good doctor.

They spied something in the ivy.

The girls were wiped out and in some crazy sleeping positions!

This is why I still haven't removed Ella Ann's bed rail! Maybe when she's 16!

Playing after breakfast Sunday morning.

They allowed Rane to play with them for a bit but mostly I heard, "Rane! Go away!" ha!

I gave them popsicles after lunch.

They played a little while in the fort I set up for them.

So happy to be together!