Gone, but not forgotten

Yes, I know. You've about given up on blog posts since my last post was ohsolongago! I had about given up too. Granted, the last half of the school year was insanely busy. But really, the past six months have included many things I really just did not want to think about, and writing forces me to think about things. So, like any mature adult does, I just ignored the things that were tough for me. I also do really dumb things when I'm stressed, like committing to marathons. I've found that there is mental value in being too physically exhausted to even contemplate worrying about ANYTHING and these huge steps out of my comfort zone give me something harmless to focus my worries on! Nontheless, I'm determined to make blogging a part of my regular schedule. I stink at keeping up with the kids' baby books, I'm not a scrapbooker, so I rely on this blog to document our family activities.

So, who would have ever thought I'd be such an emotional mess about Hayley starting kindergarten? Ugh! There are many positives to this kindergarten adventure. Namely, I get to spend a LOT more time with my little girl. She attended PreK every weekday last year and she'll be going to kindergarten at a community school this year, a decision I have absolutely agonized over. The community school seems like it will be a great mix for us. While technically we'll be considered homeschoolers, Hayley will attend an actual "school" on Tuesday and Thursdays and the curriculum will be guided by a teacher. I will teach her at home on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Todd will also be going to 3 year old preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we actually should have a lot more time together then we did this past year. And I suppose that's good and bad! While both the kids are lost without each other, I've definitely been refereeing my share of knock down drag outs. Turns out Todd isn't nearly as passive as we thought! I "think" we're making the right decision in terms of schools, so I think I'm just having a hard time accepting that my little baby is suddenly old enough for elementary school.

We're into our second week of summer vacation and absolutely loving not having to be somewhere every single morning. I'm finally getting the chance to check off some items on this long to do list. Amazing how carting two kids to half day preschool everyday can completely eat away your day! I've still done my share of chauffeuring, however. Todd ended the school year with two weeks of ISR swim lessons, and when his ended, Hayley started swim lessons at the YMCA. Hayley has become an absolute fish in the water. The child who refused to back float through three years of ISR lessons is now a champ at the backstroke. We'll be starting the next level of YMCA swim lessons in a week. The goal is to get Hayley proficient at the different swim strokes and then possibly move her to a developmental swim team just to keep her comfortable in the water and as a continued form of exercise for her. We've had several practice triathlon runs and she is SOOOO excited to participate in an actual event at the end of July. She really loves to run (and she's good at it) and I'm so looking forward to the day we can do a race together!

On top of swim lessons, Hayley has been taking golf lessons as well. Todd is not old enough, but the golf pros have been awesome at including him in the lessons and both the kids seem to really enjoy them.

I've been doing my usual road race training with the IRunMommies and have been busy running a month long Green Smoothie Challenge for the ladies. It's involved a lot of writing, but has been rewarding to see these moms get so excited about the changes they are seeing in their energy levels and the wonderful healthy changes that are spreading to their families. I figure the more moms and kids I get on board with these green drinks, the less it will make my family look like the weird ones! ;-) It's been brutally hot way before it should be this hot here in Florida, so running in this heat has been a challenge. I'm a tad bit, okay a LOT bit nervous about beginning marathon training in the next few weeks. I've been fighting plantar fasciitis for almost a year now and am finally getting some relief after a few acupuncture sessions. The relief from the severe pain is making me feel a little bit better about getting all those miles in, but I still have a ways to go in order to feel completely pain free.

Brian has been hard at work and after a long day at the office, often has come home to do more coursework for this Advanced Joint Professional Military Education class he's been taking. For the first time in our married life, he actually has vacation time built up. Vacation time that he HAS to take. Not just the kind where he's told he has it, but really isn't allowed to take it. I'm not sure either of us quite know how to handle it, but we're going to try to handle a small (dare I say it) "vacation" to the north Georgia mountains in a few weeks. If we haven't lost all our marbles by now, I'm sure they will definitely be lost after a 9 hour car ride there and back with Hurricane Hayley and Tornado Todd.

Donuts with Daddy Day at school
Graduation Day with Uncle "Wee" (Lee)
A visit from our Kentucky cousins

	Todd was ENTHRALLED with this golf ball collector. He did everything but take it completely apart to figure out exactly how it worked.
1st lesson	3rd lesson, big improvement in form!

December

We've had a super busy December, particularly since it seems that half of Hayley's PreK class was born in the month of December! We spent the first Saturday of the month at Hayley's BFF's birthday party at the uber popular, BounceU.

My adrenaline junkie daughter spent the entire 30 minutes we were in this Bounce room on this slide. Every time she'd go down, a look of complete terror would wash over her. She'd bounce right back up at the bottom just giggling and squealing with delight as she grabbed her sack and raced back up the steps.
While my other two children had a ball in the big bounce house.

Hayley went for a knockout with her BFF, TJ.

After a few punches they were ready for cake. Hayley was super happy to get to sit next to the birthday boy. Hayley and TJ have been in school together for their 3 and 4 year old class years. While they've always been super close, I'm told their relationship has really developed this year and TJ has made marriage plans for them.

The following morning, we met family for breakfast to celebrate Papa's birthday!

Last Saturday, we headed over to Orlando for a day at Sea World!

I gotta say, the Shamu show made Brian and I a tad nervous. The show was really different this year and the trainers didn't get in the water with the whales. The kids enjoyed it nonetheless.

We took the "Polar Express" to the North Pole. Hayley didn't waste anytime telling anyone she thought had an "in" with Santa exactly what she was looking for on Christmas morning.

The whole North Pole/Elf thing reminded Brian and I bit too much of this:

Hayley let Santa know that she expected Tinkerbelle fairies and a see-saw?? to be under the tree Christmas morning. And she also interpreted for Todd, that he expected Thomas the Train on Dec. 25th. I've tried to convince Hayley that a see-saw will not fit in Santa's sleigh, but she's not buying it.

We spent the rest of our day watching the dolphins, penguins, and trying to keep Hayley out of the stingray tank.

She's a comedian...

... at least to Todd. That Cookie the Cat sure is funny!

October Happenings

We played on the computer and apparently Todd joined the Red Hat Society.

We forced the kids to wash the minivan while Brian and I lounged around and ate bonbons.

Hayley quickly realized that manual labor is for the birds and instructed the men to go to work.

But then a random bouquet of balloons floated over from a nearby open house and Brian was flying solo on the whole minivan washing thing. So much for child labor!

And so much for me lounging and eating bonbons. Back to referee duty.

We did some driving.

Todd finally has overcome his fear of the Jeep. Not sure he's quite overcome his fear of his sister's driving.

We once again attended the Creaky Bones race. Hayley competed with her other 3 to 4 year old rivals in the 100 meter dash...



... and Brian successfully defended his third place age group finish in the 5k.

Todd and I spectated... and cheered. I had run 12 miles that morning so opted out of racing. Not sure what Todd's excuse was!

We visited the pumpkin patch.

But the kids were more interested in throwing bean bags at a piece of wood, so Brian picked out a nice pumpkin for carving.


The kids celebrated Halloween by dressing up as a princess and the toad/frog/frog prince (depending on his attitude for the day)! It took me awhile to convince Hayley that kissing the Todd(Toad) Prince would not turn her into a frog. Hopefully I have convinced her that kissing other boys will! ;-)
The kids showed off their costumes at a Halloween party and Trunk or Treating at their school.

And since bobbing for apples seems to have been replaced with the oh so healthy dangling dougnuts game, I at least got some good blackmail material for when the princess is 16.

We attended Boofest on Main Street, because we really thought the kids needed MORE candy.

Todd and Hayley met up with their good friends, Scooby and Shaggy...
... and Hayley showed us that it can be hard being a princess.

We wrapped the month up with some pumpkin carving...

... or rather, Daddy did some pumpkin carving...

... and we'll head out for some trick-or-treating in the neighborhood tonight. Phew!! Since when did Halloween become a month long occasion??

Here's some video of Hayley and her new obsession... singing... this particular song! She heard it on one of her computer games and "practicing" her song occupies many moments of her day!

Disney - Take 2

In case you didn't know, Preschool is stressful. So stressful in fact that after a month, we all needed a vacation. Ha, right! Whoever considers a Disney trip with two preschoolers as "vacation" must be completely crazy. But, we did have a good time and made some great family memories. We headed out to Orlando last Saturday and spent the day at Typhoon Lagoon. Both of the kids swimming skills have improved dramatically since our last visit to the water parks, so our trip was SO much fun. Hayley absolutely LOVED the slides and we felt more comfortable with her ability to do some of the bigger slides by herself.

This trip was pretty eye opening for me in terms of revealing the difference in our children's personalities. Hayley is hands down my dare devil, my child with no fear. Todd on the other hand... bless his little heart.

The kids were so excited to spend the day at Epcot.
We started the morning by taking a journey back in history. This of course, made Todd a bit nervous.
After surviving Spaceship Earth, we spent some time with Nemo. Todd was thrilled to see Nemo!
A soothing boat ride was ride up Todd's alley while Hayley and I waited for our turn to go on the super cool Soarin' ride.

The kids worked up a HUGE appetite and enjoyed lunch as much as the rides!


Todd getting ready to get his "Captain EO" on. Brian was really happy with me for talking him into sitting through Captain EO. Surprisingly, the kids thought it was the coolest show ever. Good 'ol Michael Jackson has a way...
After a few more rides, we returned to the condo to rest up. The flaw in our plan was thinking the kids would actually nap. I'll be darned if Hayley was going to give into a nap and she'd already convinced Todd that he didn't need one either. They were both adamant that they were "not tired." And so... we returned to Epcot for a 9pm fireworks show with our 2 and 4 year olds who had been awake since 6am that morning. Both kids told me over and over that they weren't tired. They danced around all evening and thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic Epcot fireworks show...

... and then did this before we'd even made it out of the park. (The Roberts' kids passed out in their strollers is along the lines of a total eclipse... it only happens once in a lifetime.)
The next morning we headed to Magic Kingdom. The kids battled Zurg.
This trip Todd was totally into driving the race cars.
And he tells us he enjoyed his first roller coaster ride, but me thinks this face tells a different story. As we climbed the first hill, I think Little T was having a bit of remorse!
Hayley more than made up for Todd's lack of adventure. She was biting at the chomp to have her first turn on Splash Mountain. And can you guess what her favorite ride of the whole trip was??

We had many more fun moments and the kids just really enjoyed the whole Disney experience this trip! These Florida kids just have no idea how spoiled they are living this close to The Mouse!