mish mash

Early morning cleanup crew :)

Victoria picked this dress for wear red to school day :)

We had this come to call, we had 4 rooms and the stairs done. The orange smell was awesome! We will NOT have carpet again :(


Yes, I AM a pricess :)

I let her wear this to daycare, no crying at dropoff :) :)
The other little kids were awed by it and her teacher said she kept twirling around, holding her skirt out :)

We had a birthday party to go to today and it was at an aquatic park.
Danny was the first one on this big slide!! He even went on it all by himself!!


Sweeeeetttt watermelon (seeds and all)


Both kids had a ball in the water, they swam and played for hours.


the birthday boy really enjoyed his cake :)


Pinata fun!


Can we eat it yet?


Both kids were sound asleep by 8:00!!! They were exhausted :) :)

Another one bites the dust :)

Danny had a playdate yesterday, actually a pool date. Just before we left he suddenly turned to me and handed me a tooth!!! Man was he excited - he had been playing with this loose tooth for a week :)

Hot Hot Hot!

It has been so darn hot here this week, we had a record high today over 100!!
So we went out and got an inflatable pool, best $99 spent :)

Waiting for it to fill up not so patiently :)


Yah! The pool is full :)


Our compound, the adults need shade :)


We had to buy the doggies a pool too! Lexie does not know what to think :)

The dogs have not used it at all, but the kids have :)

We have been swimming every day :)
It is also great therapy for my hip :)

Happy Father's day to my dad and my hubby!!!
Love you guys :) :)

sickness :(

It seems since we have been home everyone has been sick :(
Besides being tired from the trip there seems to be a nasty cold going around :(
Victoria and Dan have had a hard time getting rid of it. Luckily Ms V does not mind the nose spray which seems to help alot. And as all you wives know there is nothing worse than a sick husband :) You would think they were dying :)
Ms V has not been liking daycare at all! The drive there is tough with the pleading of "don't leave me". The teacher says she is fine a couple minutes after we leave. I have been dropping Danny off first because his crying doesn't help her at all :(
Then to make things worse this past Monday the regular teacher was off so they had a sub helping out. When I got there at 11:50 to help finish up lunch the kids were all done, most were crying laying on their mats and I could hear the teacher telling Victoria is lay down and nap. As I walked in it was so pathetic. She was sitting up on a mat just sobbing, snot everywhere. There was a poor little girl all by herself at the table crying and the teacher was telling her she could not get up till she ate some food. So the noise level in the room was horrendous.
I told the teacher that Victoria does not sleep there and she was like "Really??"
I took Ms V right out the door. It took her over 30 minutes to calm down! I had to hold her hand the whole way home. I called Dan ahead of time to meet us in front of the house to give her lots of sympathy and tell her it was ok. She kept saying that she told the lady she not nap there and the lady would not listen.
When I brought Victoria in this am I made sure it was when her regular teacher was there and I told her what happened on Monday. Her teacher was furious and told me to report it right away. I told her I hadn't since I just wanted to get out of there on Monday. It took Ms V about 5 minutes before she would allow Ms Balery (Valerie) to hold her. Luckily they had a water bounce house brought in for the day so the kids were extra busy. I had to run home to get her suit and towel and when I got back she was happily playing and very excited about it.
I then left her and went to the front desk to let them know what happened on Monday. The lady was really nice, said all the right things and said she would talk to the Director and it would not happen again.
We will see how Friday am goes :)
When I picked her up at 11:50 I sat at her table and helped her finish lunch and talked to her tablemates. They are all so darn cute. Ms Valerie had all the kids say goodbye and wave at us as we left and then her little friend Katy ran up and the two girls hugged :)
Danny has settled back into camp. Their pool is working so he is swimming everyday and this week and next he also has daily swimming lessons!!
Hopefully Dan will start to feel better soon, the pity party is running out :) :)

Vacay!

We headed up North to Massachusetts for Danny's birthday and my niece's graduation. We left last Wednesday and had dinner with Grammy and Grampy:)

Thursday morning we drove around our old haunts, our old house, old jobs and Dan's house he grew up in and then visited with his parents.

Kissing on Dan's parents :)

They cleaned off the stone and then Victoria heard me comment about the lack of flowers and then picked flowers from other people's stones and placed them on top :)

Checking for ducks at the pond


We had lunch with Dan's daughter Tracy and her hubby.

Dan was happy because he got to have seafood :)

Woo Hoo! Our cousins are out of school!!


Victoria and her best bud Nicole together again :)

The crew at Stone Zoo on Friday morning, Danny's Birthday! Thanks Nana!! We had a great time :) Unfortunately so did 12 school buses full of kids :) :)

Taking a walk with Nana


Hanging out in an old wagon

Hanging out in an old mine car:

everyone loves meerkats!

Lots of geese everywhere. We had to stop several times for them to cross the road.

nap time :)

How cool is this bounce house? We had it for the whole weekend and the kids loved it!

Saturday was Danny's birthday party!! Bouncing with daddy

Swinging with my bud, Coley!

Danny did the zip line several times!

Giving Grampy a kiss and sharing my lovey!

Blowing out the candle on his spiderman cake!!

We had a critter crew come out with really cool animals. This was a great way to end the party!! Anything cuter than a chinchilla taking a dust bath??

They all loved the big floppy bunny, kisses :)

The hedgehog finally poked his head out!

Many of the kids actually held the scorpion:

Danny wouldn't let the lizard on him, but Victoria had no problem

The frog taking a slow walk on the turtle

After the kids listened and held the Madagascar hissing cockroach it was time for a snack :)Is there anything cooler than watching a Madagascar hissing cockroach getting eaten? the kids LOVED it!

I can touch this iguana thingy Danny, just watch

Ok, Katie - you hold the corn snake and I will touch it :)

Can I kiss the turtle? I really like it :)

Hey daddy, lay that big ole snake on me!

Alligator-I'll touch it, but I don't want to hold it!

The group photo at the end of the critter show. Danny picked the Chinchilla as his favorite animal for the shot.
This was a great time for all!! Thanks Grampy for the present, Danny and the other kids had so much fun!

Victoria loved her magnet dress up girl, her big cousin Katie helped her out :)
Dan left to have dinner with his son and a bunch of guys from high school. It was nice to just chill out with the kids at my sister's. Eat way too much, with the kids having a great time together.

My girlfriend from way back came to visit. The kids love to play with Auntie M E!! So good to see you kiddo!!

Sunday was our beautiful niece's high school graduation. Dan met up with an old buddy and I had the kiddos. Ms V was under the weather, so we had to stop at T*rget and buy some meds. I did some laundry at sis's and the kids played with the bounce house one last time before we wrapped it up to bring it back. We had a little party at my older sis's house. Great food and great company.

This is the only picture I have as my camera battery died yesterday.
Our musical entertainment :)
Danny was so intent playing his recorder. He loved it! He and Michael played for quite a while :)

Victoria modeling the dress we bought while in Guatemala I wouldn't let her wear it out, but will save it for her :)

Monday was a nice quiet day. We made our usual trip to visit dad and friends at his company. The kids love to visit and get candy :) The ladies love to see the kiddos and how much they have grown. Dan was very happy to get some really good cheese steak :) All of us dressed up to head out for professional photos. Both sisters and families were along too. We had so much fun! There are some awesome photos. Once we get the real ones I will post some copies! This is the first time we have had a professional photo done of our family. Monday night we had leftovers and spent out last night together! Tuesday was an early morning, poor sis had to pick us up at 5:15! Our flight was supposed to leave at 7:00, but we did not leave till 8:00. Then we had to detour around New York because of a big storm. So we ended up getting into Atlanta just as our flight was leaving :( Delta had already changed our flights for us so we sat down and had a great relaxing lunch! Everyone napped on the quick flight to Jax! It was so nice to be back home, our own beds!! It rained the whole time we were away and the sun has been out since we got back! Both kids were asleep by 7:30 and slept till 7:30 am. Danny had camp this am and Victoria went to daycare. Both were so happy to tell about their vacation. We spent the time cleaning the house, laundry, yard work and putting everything away. The dogs were very happy to see us, the dogsitter said they were great!