miscellany monday

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Wow, I went a whole two weeks without posting anything :(  What can I say?  Life is busy.  I have promised myself that I will go back and catch up one of these days.  We have had a great summer and made lots and lots of memories.  I have pictures to prove it!  Today marks the first day of school.  Noah is officially a first grader and Noelle starts 3-day a week pre-school.  Hard to believe that summer is over and we're hitting another milestone.

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I saw my "little" brother in Atlanta last week.  He's a giant.  I'm a midget.  I even had heels on in this picture.  Some things in life just aren't fair!  I wasn't particularly thrilled about being away from my babies for a night but I did enjoy seeing Uncle Kyle...even if it was a super short visit because I went to the wrong Chili's.  He gave me the address and instead of plugging the street into my GPS, I just searched for Chili's in the city he gave me.  Not only did he get the height, he got the brains, too.

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I ran my second post-accident race last weekend.  I have a bum knee right now which made this a fairly unpleasant experience but the kids' run after the race made getting out there worth it.  Noah ran a mile and Noelle ran 100 meters.  They both seemed to really enjoy themselves so I'm excited for this running season since a lot of my races have kids' runs associated with them.

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Noelle changes her clothes many times a day.  Recently, she came out of her room in this ensemble.  I asked her if she was going to Puff Daddy's White Party.  Apparently, I'm the only one in my circle who knows about this annual event!  I had her run in and tell her Daddy she was going to "Puff Daddy's White Party" but he had no idea what she was talking about.  I guess it's a "Hamptons" thing ;)

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We finally took Fourth of July pictures...on August 10th!  I love this tradition and am so happy with the way they turned out.  I will post them all one of these days!

{seks}

There is an area in the mall where kids love to run around.  Thanks to Sarah and Emma for introducing us to this area!  I have gone to this mall for so many years and never thought to let the kids run loose.  This is now one of their favorite things to do and makes dragging them to the mall much more pleasant since they know they get to do this.  Mommy even joined in on the fun last time we were there :)

{syv}

Speaking of Mommy joining in on the fun...


Noelle loves making Mimi go in her princess tent in her room.  Good thing Noelle has a young Mimi who can crawl into the tent!

miscellany monday

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I am addicted to Starbucks Shaken Black Iced Tea.  I kicked my Starbucks hot chocolate habit (550 calories!) and replaced it with calorie-free iced tea so that's a bonus!

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This is the first year that I've signed up for the Track Shack Running Series.  The Track Shack Running Series consists of seven prestigious local road races, offered at the best venues, in distances of 5k, 5.2k, 5 mile and 10k.

There was an option to be a "SuperFan":

Become a SuperFan! Spice it up by participating in the Distance Dare and racing twice in one day at UCF 5 miler & 2 miler, Founders’ Day 10k & 5k and Winter Park Road Race 10k & 2 miler, thus completing all 10 Track Shack Running Series events.

I thought that sounded like a good idea :)  A few of the races have Kids' Runs that I'm hoping Rob will bring the kids out to and get them excited about running!

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I absolutely love this picture.  Sure, no one is looking at the camera and that is usually something that bothers me.  I just think it captures the fun of this moment so well.  I hope the kids always remember how much fun we had during their childhood :)

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One of these days, I will get around to posting pictures of baby Claire's baby shower.  We did a candy buffet for the baby shower and I reused the idea for Noelle's birthday last month.  For Claire's special day, I created a banner that said "Claire's Sweet Shoppe":

I didn't have the time (or energy) to make one for Noelle's party and Noah just wasn't having that.  So, he went to work on creating his own version and taping it the wall:

My OCD-self typically would have torn something like this down but I just couldn't!  I have one of the sweetest kids ever.  He's truly amazing.

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I have to fly to Atlanta this week for a work dinner :(  But, I'm going to turn lemons into lemonade and meet up with Uncle Kyle...aka...best uncle ever!

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My two favorite girls in their matching bathing suits!

{syv}

Best.friend.ever!  I was violently ill this past weekend and nurse Sarah came to the rescue!  I am so thankful to have such an awesome friend :)  I'm also so thankful to be all better because that was downright miserable!

"Give me the stuff!"

The kids LOVE Apple Dippers from McDonald's.  We used to just give them the apples and not bother with the caramel - call us mean!  A few months ago, they somehow found out about the caramel and now must have it (not that I blame them...it makes it such a treat!). 

The other day, we stopped and got Apple Dippers and I tried to pull a fast one and not give them the caramel.  It wasn't happening!  No sooner had I handed Noelle her apples when I heard "give me the stuff!".  I was laughing so hard...

Noelle and her "stuff" :)

Noah and his "stuff" :)

I love that we can get away with stopping at McDonald's for just apples!!

What they do when Mommy is at work...

Noah and Noelle were in for a treat last month when their cousins came to visit and stay with Nana for a few days.  Noah and Brady are only eight months apart and Brooks and Noelle are six months apart.  Nana, Aunt Nikki and Daddy were BRAVE to take this foursome anywhere!  They are a handful at these ages and they feed off each other.  I'm so glad they did, though, because it looks like the kids had a blast.

They went to the character breakfast at O'Hanas.  This is my favorite one for kids because it's served family style and you don't have to deal with buffet lines.  The Mickey waffles are the best!  I was proud of Daddy for taking the camera - even if there weren't too many pictures taken.  I can only imagine the chaos that was ensuing during this meal, ha!  He did get some priceless ones :)

Aunt Nikki with four out of her six nieces and nephews - babies Caden and Bella were missing :(

Sycee loves her Aunt "Ne-Ne" - it's kind of sad that she can say Nikki now...I liked it better when she couldn't!

These two are quite the duo.  I can only imagine the fun they'd have on a daily basis if they didn't live three hours apart!

This was the only character picture on our camera, ha!  Noah looks SO happy.  I'm hoping Nana and Aunt Nikki have the bulk of the pictures on their camera!

The next day, they took the kids to Typhoon Lagoon.  I think this was their bravest move!  Four wild ones in a waterpark...sounds fun!

Rob's sister's boys - Brooks (3) and Brady (5)

Noelle is ALWAYS smiling when she's underwater.  She LOVES the water.

Nana and her grandbabies!

Nana and sweet Brooks - he has the sweetest disposition!

These two are two peas in a pod when they are together.  I can only imagine the fun they had on this day!

Brooksie doesn't look so sure about whatever the older boys were up to - don't blame him!

Nana and her firstborn granddaughter :)

Sycee LOVES the lazy river.  I love how comfortable she looks!  We actually went yesterday and she found out she can touch the bottom of the lazy river at a few points and now she loves it even more.  Her world just got a whole lot bigger!

I love this picture of Daddy and his babies! 

I'm sorry that I missed all of this fun but someone has to pay for it, ha!

Sea World Saturday

I love our Saturdays when we have no plans!  A few weeks ago, I decided to brave the heat and take the kids super early to Sea World to play in the kids' area and see the Shamu show before lunch.  Unfortunately, I didn't know that the kids' area of the park didn't open until an hour after park opening (what's THAT all about?! dumb!).  We had to sit around and wait for a little bit but used this time to take some cute pictures :)

It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise because we were the first ones into the Shamu's Happy Harbor and pretty much had the place to ourselves for a good hour.

We were the only ones riding any of the rides which was awesome!  Noelle is pretty adventurous and, although she didn't meet the height requirement, I figured I'd ask if she could ride with me since it was so empty.  The ride attendant gave her a wrist band that allowed her to ride everything! 

Our first stop was Shamu Express.  Noah and I rode this during his Kindergarten field trip to Sea World so I knew it wasn't too much for Sycee.  She loved it!

So much so, that she decided to let Noah ride it again by himself, ha!  She enjoyed watching from the sidelines during his second ride.

He literally had the whole rollercoaster to himself the second time.  Unheard of for peak season at a theme park!

Our next stop was Ocean Commotion which was a dizzying ride where you just spin around and around.

The kids LOVED it.  We rode this several times without having to get off.

We also got to do Flying Fiddler which Sycee was very apprehensive of. 

She also ended up loving this one!  I know she looks scared to death - this picture was before the ride started.  She's the type of child who has to try something once even if she protests.  I am bad about forcing things on her for a first time because I know that she won't do it on her own but will end up loving it.  So far, this has worked out really well!

I forget the name of the "tea cup" ride (which is why I try to remember to take pictures of the signs, ha!) but Sycee loved having Noah spin her around and around.  I sat this one out!

After we were done with rides, we spent the rest of our time in Happy Harbor at the splash park.

I am so happy that Noelle finally fits this 18 month bathing suit!  It took her until 3 years old to have enough of a waist to keep the bottom up!  I didn't think she'd ever get a chance to wear it.

 My plan was to see the first Shamu show and then head out before we died of heatstroke the park got really crowded.  

For once, my plans worked out!

While we were waiting for the show to start, Noelle said to me, "I'm tired of waiting for Shamu".  I couldn't agree with her more!  It was HOT!

It was a really fun morning and we will definitely do this more in the fall when it's cooler.  I am so thankful to have such a fun thing to do on a Saturday morning in our backyard!  I may not love living here but I do love all of the fun things that our kids get to enjoy on a regular basis.