One More Week!

One more week until we begin our trek home to Iowa!  I cannot wait to come back for our first visit, and I am hoping next week will just fly by.  I am sure it will with everything we have to do to get ready for the trip.  Thinking of ideas to keep two kids entertained for 20 hours in the car is my new goal that I am working on right now.  It wasn't too bad when we drove down here last time for the big move, because we broke the trip up into three days, and only spent about six hours or so in the car each day.  This time we are hoping to make the entire trip in just 24 hours, which gives us only about 4 hours of break time during the entire trip.  Fingers crossed both kiddos sleep well in the car, and Eric and I are able to take turns driving all night long. :-)

Not a whole lot of exciting or eventful stuff has happened in the last few weeks.  No Disney trips, no fancy resort stays, no trips to a beach.  We decided to take a few weekends to stay home and work on the house, as it still needs a lot of work.  We painted Ava's room, I am working on painting all the baseboards in the house, as they are horrible, and Eric has started painting the outside of the house.  We had to have our stucco repaired in a couple of spots, and now someone has to paint over all the repairs.  That someone is Eric.  Here are some "before" pictures of what Ava's room looked like:

Just a plain brown color.

 

Here are some "after" pictures:

 

 

 

And a very purple closet  :-)

Sleeping in her new purple room for the first night.

 

Ava is still doing her cheerleading, and absolutely loves it!  She looks forward to it every Monday, so we decided to sign her up for an additional cheer event that runs from August to October.  It is just for three months, but they meet twice a week; once for a practice, and the other time to cheer at an actual flag football game.  So for those three months she will be doing cheerleading three times a week!  At least it is for a short time! :-)

Ava at her cheerleading practice

Silas watching his Sissy. :-)



This week Ava attended Vacation Bible School, and had a blast!  It was great to give her something structured to do all morning as I am often so busy with the daycare, and it helped her week go by super fast.  I took on a new part time daycare girl also that will be with us Tuesday through Thursday every week until school starts in August.  She will be entering kindergarten, so she is just one grade behind Ava.  This was her first week here, and it was nice for Ava to have someone to play Barbies and dress up with, and they gave our pool a good workout, as they were in it every single day.

Taylor Jo and Ava

Jailynn (new daycare girl), Ava, and Taylor Jo

Ava doing a cannonball!

The girls after swimming; dressed up like princesses and ready to watch the new Barbie movie.

We celebrated Silas's birthday a little early with just the four of us, and gave him his birthday present on Friday night since we will not be here for his actual birthday.  We were fortunate enough to actually get this entire train table FREE from our friends down here as their son never used it and they just wanted to unload it. :-)  Silas LOVES it and I think it will get a TON of use here!

 

 

 

We also put in a window air conditioner in his bedroom, because for some reason his room just would not cool down!  Now that it is the hot summer here, his room was like a sauna, consistently running about six degrees warming than the rest of the house.  Here are some pictures of Silas "helping" Eric install it. :-)

 

What a goofball!

 

 

Here is a glimpse of how hot it is here.....I took this picture a little before 10:00 a.m., and we had only been outside for twenty minutes.  By about that time, it is too hot to be outside anymore unless you are by water.

Sweaty boy!

Driving his car. :-)



 

Today, on Saturday, Eric's work had a social outing at a place called Wekiva Island.  It was really a river but had sand for the kids to play in, cabanas to rent, along with canoes.  It was super hot today, especially in the sun, and I am almost positive that Silas did not sit down for more than a single minute.  Literally.  He even ate his hotdog while walking around.  There was nothing to stop him from walking right into the river, as the water was so high that it actually covered the dock.  So when he was walking around on the dock and came to the end, his feet were already in the water, and one little slip off and he would be in the river.  Combine those two things (Silas not sitting still AT ALL and dangerous water conditions) with the fact that Eric was actually in charge of planning and organizing the whole get together, meant that I was left to watch the kids on my own.  Let's just say I am EXHAUSTED!!  But it was nice to get out of the house, and we even got to go for a little canoe ride before I left with the kids.

Silas taking a little break to have a drink.  IT WAS HOT!  This was the one and only time he sat down......and it was only for a few seconds.  :-)

Here is one final picture of Silas just being Silas:

He climbed into the baby's exersaucer and pretended to be a baby. :-)

So much to catch up on!

Wow!  I feel like it is has been FOREVER since I updated my blog, even though it has just been a little over a week.  We have definitely been keeping super busy, and a lot has happened! 

First, last weekend Ava's Girl Scouts Daisy Troop had their end-of-the-year "trip."  We were really roughing it, as we stayed in the timeshare resorts at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. :-)  This was the same resort that we were at as a family just a few weeks ago, and it was even better the second time around!  This time, we explored the property a little bit more, and there was so much to do!  I believe there were about six pools, and probably a dozen hot tubs.  A splash pad, a playground, two slides, and the list goes on and on.  Ava had so much fun, and I did too!  We stayed in a two bedroom "apartment" with two other girls and their moms.  Here are all of my pictures:

She is getting really good at swimming!

Giant checkers board

One of the MANY hot tubs.

Splash pad fun

The girls ready for supper.  Taylor Jo Roberts, Ashlynn Batton, and Ava

My pretty princess!

All the girls from Troop 94

Ava, Ashlynn, and Taylor Jo

Night time swimming

Dance party right beside the pool

Ashlynn and Ava dancing it up!

The girls had so much fun dancing and swimming at night.  They stayed up until 10:30 p.m.!!

Breakfast the next morning.

Ashlynn did not want her picture taken in the morning. :-)

Ava holding a super tiny frog!

Ava and Ashlynn checking out the tiny frog.

Eric and Silas came to pick us up on Sunday, and brought their suits for a little swimming time.

Silas loved the splash pad!

So stinkin' cute!!!

 

 

 

It was SO MUCH fun!!  On Monday it was back to reality for all of us, and it was Ava's last week of kindergarten.  The year went by so fast!  On Tuesday, her teacher  Mrs. Henry, invited all the parents to come to the classroom in the morning to watch a video of pictures that she had put together that showed all the kids throughout the school year.  At first I didn't think I could go because of the daycare kiddos, but Eric saw how disappointed I was and offered to stay home in the morning so that I could go.  What a wonderful guy!!! 

 

Then, on Tuesday evening, we were invited to Narcoossee Elementary School's Art Night because some of Ava's artwork was being displayed.  We are so proud of our little artist!!

She made a sculpture of two bees and their beehive.

The picture Ava drew and painted of a fish.

Isn't it amazing?!?!

 

 

Then on Thursday, June 6th, Ava went to kindergarten for the very last time!  She was super excited to be done with school and start her summer vacation, but I just could not believe how fast she is growing up!  Isn't that what all parents say?  It certainly is true!  Here is my "baby" on her last day of kindergarten:

What a crazy week!  We stayed busy all weekend too, as we decided to paint Ava's bedroom.  I will post some before and after pictures later this week when it is completed.  We did some yardwork, and cleaned up the pool so that we could do our first family swim of the year!  The water was a little chilly at first because of all the rain we have been getting, but it sure felt good when this weekend was so stinkin' hot!! 

 

 



Look at our cute pool boy!

Ava helping Daddy clean the bottom of the pool

Silas working hard as well!  They all jumped in pretty quick when they were finished!  Needed to cool off! :-)

 

 

That about sums it up!  It is late on Sunday night, and I need to get to bed before another busy week starts bright and early! Good night all!