Life in the Sunshine State: Last Day of Summer Vacation! :-(

Well, it is Sunday again. And Ava starts 1st grade tomorrow. This summer went by fast as they all do, and I am definitely going to miss my little helper when she leaves tomorrow morning! Silas is really to going to miss his "Sissy" as she plays with him every day. We will all be excited tomorrow when we go to pick her up after school.

Last Sunday afternoon, Ava and I had a "girls' afternoon" where we went shopping for the last of her school supplies, new uniform shirts, and other stuff that she was going to need. We went out to eat, just the two of us, which she thought was pretty darn special!

This was a pretty typical week for us. Daycare kiddos and hanging out at home. Silas enjoyed his first ever experience of finger painting. Took him a little bit to know what to do, but then he had fun!

I took this picture after taking the kiddos for an early morning walk one day:

That is 99 degrees, which isn't really that bad in the summer, but that is the time at the top. It was only 9:32 a.m. and it was already that hot! Supposedly, we are having what is even considered a little heat wave for Florida, as the "real feel" has been about 115 every day for the last few weeks. Ridiculous!! On Wednesday, Ava had two of her friends over to go swimming in our pool. I was more than a little jealous watching them cool off in the pool!

Here are a few cute, random, pictures that I took of Mr. Silas this week. The first one was when he climbed up onto his chair when I wasn't looking, and ate his sister's yogurt before I even realized it. The second one is a picture of the hard manual work that he has to do around here. :-) Just kidding! This boy loves to vacuum, and always runs to take it away from me as soon as I turn it on. Let's just hope that continues when he is older!

Ava is really enjoying her cheerleading that she started this fall, and has fun learning all the new cheers.

Here is a short video of Ava and her cheerleading friends practicing a cheer:

On Friday night, her school had their "meet your teacher" night from 3-6 p.m. As soon as the last daycare kiddo was picked up, I took Ava and Silas up to her school. She was nervous and excited, but really liked her new teacher once she met her.

Ready to go and meet her new teacher!

Ava and her 1st grade teacher, Ms. Johnson. Ava said she was "super nice!"

Ava sitting at her new desk.

We ended the week with a trip to Animal Kingdom on Saturday. Ava wanted to go on the roller coaster, "Expedition Everest," which she did two times. It was too hot for us to stay long, so we just spent the morning there, but still had lots of fun, met some characters, and took in some shows. We LOVE Disney!!

Meeting Minnie and Mickey. Silas is always shy right at first, but then he warms up. :-)

Love this picture! One of the Disney cast members took this for us with our camera. Love that about Disney!!

Minnie was tickling him and giving him kisses.

I was able to get a picture of Ava and Eric as they came out of the mountain on Expedition Everest. It is kind of hard to see, but Eric is wearing the yellow shirt, and Ava is the little girl in pink beside him. She looks so tiny on this big roller coaster!