Busy Weekend

We had a busy weekend last weekend. Mandy, Ethan, and Nina flew in Wednesday. Avery and I went to pick them up from the airport. She loves that. She always says, "Avery ride airplane too." Then Thursday night, my parents came in town for Allie's Birthday party. So we really enjoyed time with all of them. Allie had a party at the Jump Zone on Saturday. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked to. The kids didn't want to slow down enough to get pictures. I can't blame them. Avery can't really climb up to slide by herself. Thankfully Hannah, Erin and Grandma took turns sliding with her, so Chris and I didn't have to slide the whole time. They all had a blast!

Allie with her Hannah Montana cake.


This is the only picture I got of Allie sliding that wasn't blurry. Gracie, Allie, and Emily head first.

Birthday girl

Allie and her cousin Charlotte

A cute picture of Nina. She loved the slides!

Erin and Avery

Hannah and Avery


After the party, we went to a kids event for church. The weather was perfect. The kids got to fish and play outside.

Ms. Sally teaching Allie how to fish. She gave Allie the fishing pole for her birthday.

Allie fishing

Avery and Daddy fishing

Avery holding her fake worm. She kept wanting to put it in her mouth. Yuck!!!

Avery fishing. She would only hold the pole like this. Looks like she needs a lesson from Ms. Sally too.

Allie and Emily

The end of a long day. They were very tired and very dirty, but what a fun day!

Happy Birthday Allison!!!!

Today was Allie's 5th birthday. She is having a party on Saturday, but she took Hannah Montana cupcakes to school today. I picked her and Hannah up after school and we went to Allie's favorite restaurant- Chic-fil-A!!!!! Hannah and Grandma went with us. Chris had class tonight at GA state so he didn't get to go. But he went and saw her at lunch. We came home and had some cupcakes and she got to open a present from us and one from Grandma. I just can't believe she is five years old!!



The five year old Allie this morning before school.


Allie with her cupcake


Blowing out the candle.


Avery said she wanted me to take her picture. Then after I did, she blew on her cupcake, which had no candle, but she didn't seem to mind.



Allie and Hannah with frosting on their nose.



I wanted to post a baby picture of Allie. Then I remembered that I don't have digital pictures of her as a baby. When she was a baby we had no digital camera. Wow! She really is getting old. I think she was not quite 2 years old in both of these. As I was looking through the pictures, I began to see that Avery is starting to look more like Allie.

First Day of School

Allie started kindergarten today. It was a day full of mixed emotions for me. I am very happy for her, but there is a little sadness with each milestone that passes. It seems like time passes so quickly. While I had mixed emotions, Allie was just very excited. She even went to bed early. When I put her to bed she was asking me about the alarm clock and if I was going to set it. I assured her I would wake her up. She said, " No, I want an alarm clock in my room." So I got a travel alarm clock and set it for her. Then, when I got up this morning her lamp was on. When I went in her room at 6:30 she was already awake and laying in the bed looking at the alarm clock . (which had not gone off yet.) She ate breakfast, got dressed really quick, and didn't fuss about anything! It was so nice and I am sure it will not be like that again ever, so I tried to enjoy it today.

She had a really good day. She said her favorite part was the playground. They only had school until noon today, so she really wasn't gone long. We went and picked her and Hannah up. Today was Hannah's first day of high school! We celebrated by having lunch at McDonalds.

The girls with Hannah after school.

On the road again

I took the girls to see my parents this weekend. Chris was going to go, but ended up getting too busy with work. So I just took the girls. They were actually both really good in the car. I don't know if I was just expecting the worst or what. Avery has a bad habit of dropping everything. But this time she did really well. Allie was a good helper. We got to visit with my parents and my brother and his family. My brother has a swimming pool. Saturday we went over there to swim for a while. It was kind of stormy so we didn't get to swim much, but Allie and Avery love playing with their cousins. After the rain, there was a rainbow in the sky. It was so pretty and you could see the whole rainbow. Here is a picture of the kids with the rainbow in the background.

Last week the girls were playing. Allie came out of Avery's room and said Avery was going to sleep. She had put Avery in the doll bed. Avery looks pretty comfortable.

The beach again

We went to the beach again last week. My aunt Connie has a condo in Panama City so the girls and I went with her and her girls. My aunt Donna and cousin Hannah went too. It was fun. We went to the beach and shopping. What could be more fun for a bunch of girls.

Here are the kids on the beach.

Avery relaxing at the beach. (Look at those thighs!)

Allie on the beach. (not happy that I was taking her picture)

This is Allie's idea of a dive. It usually is a belly flop.

Allie and Avery

The kids at dinner one night.

The beach one night. It makes me want to go back.

More Beach pictures

Here are a few more pictures.

Beach

For the past few summers we have been going to the beach with my family. This year Mom and Dad went, along with my mom's two sisters (Connie and Donna) and her brother (Steve) and their families. We had 15 people total. (including the 4 kids and 2 teenagers). It was a lot of fun, although I my blood sugar levels were terrible the first few days. They got a little better at the end of the week and that made it more fun for me. I love the beach and it was much better this year with Avery. She loved the water and didn't care if she was covered in sand. We went to Fort Morgan Beach. It is near Gulf Shores. We have been there once before and we really like it because the beach is not crowded. It is fun to be at the beach with family, because you get to spend a lot of time together. Allie, Emily, and Erin played the entire week. Allie and Emily are only 4 days apart in age. They are great buddies. They would spend two hours on the beach playing in the sand. Then when we went back home for lunch they disappear for hours more playing Barbies. Avery tried to break in on the playing, but they would send her away. Erin was really sweet to play with Avery. Avery loves to play with Erin. My cousin Hannah and her friend Cassie were a great help with the kids. My girls absolutely love Hannah. ( and we do too!) The other best thing about vacation with my family is the food. Since there are so many of us. Each family takes a night to cook. So you only end up cooking yourself one time. We had great food!!! I think I gained 5 pounds. The very best part of the trip was the last night when my Uncle Bobby was baptized in the swimming pool. The women went shopping at the outlet one day. That day Bobby, Chris, Steve and Cheryl took the kids (not Avery) to the water park. Allie was barely tall enough to ride the big water slides. She loved them. The first one she rode she fell out of the boat and I think it shook her up a bit, but she kept going. Chris and Bobby played golf twice. All in all it was a great week. Sorry this post is so long. I still have a few pictures I didn't include.


Chris' birthday was Sunday, so we go him a cake to celebrate. Allie carried the cake in to him and she was so excited.









Ready to go to the beach.





Avery and Chris walking in the ocean.





I think she liked it.




I have about ten pictures very similar to this because this is what Emily and Allie did the entire time we were at the beach. Every once in a while one would get up to get water, but they played in the sand a lot.






Allie getting water for the castle


The girls and Pop building a sand castle.





My dad and Uncle Steve trying to teach Allie how to use her boogie board.




Her she goes. She did it a few times and then went back to the sand.




My dad and Avery



Avery


Our house was on the 8th hole, so I took a picture of Chris from our deck.







Allie jumping in the pool. She started out he week jumping with no life jacket and swimming to Chris, but by the end of the week she would only jump with her life jacket. Who knows why.


Hannah, Cassie (Hannah's friend), Erin, and Avery on the back deck.

I thought this was a cute picture of Hannah and Avery. It would have been better if Avery's fingers were not in her ears. What is she doing?

Avery and her buddy Erin


One night we went to eat at Lamberts "Home of the Throwed Rolls". It was great food. Every once in a while a man comes around and if you raise your hand he will throw you a roll from across the room. It was fun. Avery loved it. She kept raising her hand. Once the guy came by our table and very carefully threw her one. She was so funny. Here she is with her roll.