It's the final countdown! We officially have about 2 weeks left until the end of "summer" and therefore the end of our bucket list. We managed to check something off the list this week. We have just a couple left. There are two things that I do not believe we will be able to do, but I think getting everything but two things done is pretty awesome. We also added on quite a few fun things that I didn't actually add to the list and still have a few more fun things planned over the next 2 weeks. We will see how it all goes.
Anyway, this week has been fun. Tiring. But fun. This was Kenzie's first week of VPK. And let me tell you... she rocked it. She is LOVING it. I know we are only 1 week in but I am still so glad to see her loving school again and doing so well already. I'm not going to recap her first day or most of her first week, but if you are interested, you can check out the post HERE. She did decide to try to wear every one of her new outfits this week. She has a couple things left but I imagine she will be working her way through those this coming week.
Kenzie also had dance this week (as usual) and she loved it. Will really seems to like watching his Sissy dance too so that works out well. He stays pretty busy. I am impressed with all the new things she has learned in just 2 weeks of the PreK 2 level. They are seriously working on positions now and using so much more terminology. It's pretty cool to watch. Also, our ballerina is just adorable. A crazy thing happened this week though. She decided she wanted to go to dance next week with just a leotard or the cool shorts like her teacher and the teaching assistant wear instead of a tutu. GASP! Our kid? Well, whatever works. I know she won't wear the tutus forever anyway so we will see. She needs a couple new leos anyway since the ones she has are getting crazy small (including that one in the pic below... we could barely get it on or off her) so we will go this coming week to get something new and maybe she won't go with a tutu.
Will and I have been having a blast running around town and doing errands as well as just being home together alone at home on school days. We have had a few "picnics" because he is obsessed right now with setting them up in the playroom. We even did a run to Ikea on our own and it was awesome. Haha! Only have one kid that can be contained if need be in a cart, is amazing. He is exerting his independence of course so I am letting him walk more and more but the plus is that when it is just him, I can totally contain him when I need to. Publix just got a whole lot easier. We went to lunch at McDonalds on Tuesday. He was cracking me (and the employees at McDonalds) up by chanting "Nuggets! Nuggets!" the entire time I was ordering. He loved his nuggets, for sure. Wednesday we finally made it back to the library for his age group story time (as opposed to Kenzie's). His is at a less convenient time but he loves it. We chose to do Kenzie's most of the time prior to this because she got a lot out of it and he enjoyed it too. Plus, I knew we would go back to his once she was in school.
Friday Kenzie got quite a treat when Steven rearranged his schedule at work to be able to take her to school and then pick her up. She thought she was so cool. He even took her to McDonalds after he picked her up so he could have lunch. She had already eaten so she just had a hashbrown, but I heard she ate most of his fries too. Not surprising. The kid has been eating everything in sight lately again. Not sure if it's another growth spurt (please, no. I can't keep buying new clothes for this kid...) or just that she is famished after school all morning. They ended up running some errands afterwards too including going to the library and checking out some books. Steven said she was so excited to see him when he got there in the afternoon (even though she knew he was coming) that she screamed "Daddy!" and went running to him. It made everyone laugh at her level of excitement. That makes my heart so happy. She loves her Daddy and he is such an amazing Daddy to these two littles.
We are finding our groove right now having Kenzie in school until 12:45. What seems to be working is that Will and I eat an early lunch and then leave to pick up Kenzie. I always bring him a snack to keep him occupied and awake until we pick up Kenzie. I would be okay with him falling asleep on the way home because I could put him in his bed, but it wouldn't work if he fell asleep on the way there. Anyway, this week we have actually made it home each day without him falling asleep because he is so excited to see his Sissy that he wants to chat with her on the way home and sing the new songs she learns. It is so sweet.
Saturday morning we were up pretty early (though not truly early for us in reality) to head out to the beach (again). Yay! We had big plans for Saturday afternoon with Grandma, Grandaddy, Uncle E, Aunt Juju, and Cousin Evie so we went out to Mantanzas Beach in the morning since it was over that way. We invited Nana to come out and join us. Papa was invited too, but he had some people coming to do some work at their house so someone had to be home. We love this beach because it is calm by East coast standards and has the powdery sand similar to the Gulf side. However, the downfall is the walk over the dunes to get to the beach. It is seriously probably a quarter mile long. Not a problem until you have two small children who just want to get to the beach and you have to carry a tent, chairs, boogie boards, etc. Our goal was to make it to the beach in one trip (except for the cooler because we could go back for that) since it is a 15 minute walk to make a second trip if you need something.
We ended up making it in one trip because we had Nana to help. Thankfully. We set up shop pretty easily and were headed down to the water pretty quickly. We noticed that the water is starting to get cooler already. The temperature outside is definitely not, but the water is. It wasn't bad though. We managed to get both kids in it. Will went in with no issues whatsoever so maybe we are done with that scared thing. That would be nice. We even got Nana in up to her waist. This is a big deal for my Mom. She is terrified of being in any body of water when she can't see her feet. I could see her feet, but my eyes are better. She couldn't. We had to have an impromptu lesson on how to brace yourself against waves or just jump them. She did great. Will thought jumping waves was awesome. Kenzie always thinks the waves are great.
It wasn't long before Eric, Julie, and Evie joined us. We all had a blast hanging out in the water. Eventually Nana, Will, and I got out. He needed a diaper. He wanted to go right back in though. He didn't seem as happy when we returned but we think he was just cold. Getting out and getting a new diaper was a bit chilly and he started shivering. He never ended up stopping so I took him out of the water. Kenzie followed suit at some point and her and Will went on a shell hunt. We came home with so many shells. The two of them were having a blast. After a while, Julie, Eric, and Evie left to go get lunch and we sent Steven to the car to get our cooler so we could eat. We had another picnic lunch and played for a while before packing up and making it (in one trip) back to the car. The only real issue with the entire day was getting the kids cleaned up. This beach has no shower or restroom facilities so we had to brush the sand off of them the best we could and change them. I don't like letting them ride in their seats in their wet suits if I don't have to. Just makes more cleaning for me. With Nana's help though, we got it all taken care of.
Will ended up falling asleep in the car before we were even out of the parking lot it seemed. We ended up driving around a while and he took an hour plus nap. We eventually made our way to Grandma and Grandaddy's house. Julie, Eric, and Evie weren't far behind us and we all changed and made our way over to the pool. The downfall to Grandma and Grandaddy's pool is that the neighborhood seems to consist of snowbirds or just people that relocated from the arctic apparently and they all feel the need to have the pool chilled. It was freezing! Will wasn't super into it and he didn't want to practice any of his swimming like usual. Kenzie was okay with it and did some swimming. Once we moved them out to the kiddie pool (that is shallow and not chilled so it was warm) they were all happy. We spent a while at the pool before heading back to Grandma and Grandaddy's house for pizza for dinner.
The kids ate pretty well, which is no surprise when pizza is served. We then all headed down to the beach. Will ended up stepping on a stick as soon as he was on the sand and that set off most of his evening. He wasn't happy. He was so tired and just cried. And cried. Eventually he calmed down and was okay with digging in the sand, but he still wasn't really himself. Kenzie and Evie had a blast running on the beach though. We ended up flying the kite again and the kids seemed to like it. Kenzie loves that kite. After taking some pictures of the cousins together (though with three kids either crying or running around like crazy... we didn't get anything of them all together and smiling or anything) we packed it up and headed home. We had to wash the kids before we left and put pjs on them because we knew they would be asleep by the time we got home. Surprisingly, Kenzie was asleep before Will. We had been maybe 15 minutes when she said, "I'm sleepy. I'm going to go to sleep now"... and then just did. Will fell asleep maybe 10 minutes after that. They both snored the entire way home.
Sunday we got up and got ready for church. Kenzie and I wore our matching Mommy/Daughter dresses. She thought we were pretty cool.
Steven only made it to the end of church because he had to go to the walk in clinic. Why you ask?? Oh, let me tell you. On Tuesday morning he noticed a painful bump on the back of his head. We initially thought it might be a cystic acne type thing. Then the swelling went down and we noticed it was more like a cluster of small bumps and we thought maybe he had been bit by something and had an allergic reaction. Being that he had this pain for so long and the bumps seemed to be getting better so very slowly, if at all, he decided to go get it looked at. Want to take a guess as to the diagnosis?? I know it was something I NEVER would have come up with. At 34-years-old, my run-down, stressed out husband was diagnosed with... shingles. Freaking shingles. I thought he was kidding when he texted me from the doc's office. Nope. Not kidding. Luckily, none of us can get it. I have had the chicken pox so I already have the shingles virus hanging out somewhere inside me but I can't get it from him and both kids had the varicella vaccine so they can't get it. I actually believe they may never get shingles but don't quote me on that. The only people susceptible to catching it from him are those that are not vaccinated against chicken pox and have never had chicken pox. I'm actually not sure if they would get shingles or chicken pox though. What a weird virus. It is only able to be transferred if that person touches it though. So, we are all good and that is what matters to me.
After church (and a nap for Will), we went down to Disney Springs to meet Nana and Papa. We never did get a chance to celebrate Papa's birthday and they were in town for a meeting thing so we decided to meet there. Apparently the best moment of the visit to Disney Springs was one I missed. Steven ended up taking the escalator down and I took the elevator so I missed this exchange....
Leave it to Joe to be the crazy one. He thought he was so funny. My parents specifically went to Walgreens to buy rubber gloves to mess with Steven and his shingle ridden head. I'm related to crazy people. Anyway, we walked around the Springs for a while. We had Italian ice (which Kenzie did NOT seem to like as she isn't our sweets kid) and later stopped for margaritas. Though, Steven and I had Diet Coke as I didn't want a margarita and Steven wasn't sure about it mixed with his meds. They had a guy singing live which both kids seemed to like.
We also made a stop at the Lego store so Kenzie could make a race car and race it. She actually finished first on her second attempt after some car modifications. Will built with the Duplos and even Papa got in on the action and built a bridge. The best part of that was when Kenzie just reached over and removed part of his bridge because she apparently needed that piece. At least it was Joe and not some random other person that we didn't know.
We also made a stop at the train. The kids really wanted to ride so Kenzie rode with Will and Will officially rode his first ride without Mommy or Daddy. They both loved it. Kenzie thought it was super fun and Will just kept saying "Choo choo train!" "Fast" "Around" and motioning that it went around the track with his hand. It was adorable.
Eventually we made it over to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. The couple next to us warned us that the gorilla above our table would be coming to life shortly and the kids may not like it. We thanked them for letting us know and then elected to leave the kids and see what happened. It wasn't good. Will was okay until the rainstorm started. Then, he lost it. Not a happy kid. I had to remove him from the restaurant to calm him down and then when I came back we asked to switch to a table where he couldn't see the gorilla. After that, he was fine. When the next thunderstorm popped up, I distracted him with my phone. By the time we hit a third one, he had food and no longer cared. Kenzie thought the whole thing was pretty cool. They had some fun fish tanks and Will would yell "Dory!" anytime the blue tang made its way around the tank. It was funny.
After dinner we went our separate ways from my parents as they still had to drive to Miami that night. We made it home with only one sleeping child. The other never stopped talking the entire way. Will was carried to his bed and put to bed in his clothes because letting that happen is better than dealing with waking him up. Kenzie was wired from the weekend and as I write this, she is still awake. Tomorrow we are taking it easy in preparation of another week of school and everything else we manage to squeeze into our days. Next weekend is much more low key. That's good too because apparently we are running Steven ragged. Between our crazy summer and his work schedule, he has just been doing too much. I feel terrible that he ended up with shingles. Hopefully it will pass soon. It's just hard watching him suddenly gasp in pain as the virus messes with his nerves. Ugh.
Anyway, just a couple more weeks of summer. And hopefully some rest time in there for all of our sake.
Anyway, this week has been fun. Tiring. But fun. This was Kenzie's first week of VPK. And let me tell you... she rocked it. She is LOVING it. I know we are only 1 week in but I am still so glad to see her loving school again and doing so well already. I'm not going to recap her first day or most of her first week, but if you are interested, you can check out the post HERE. She did decide to try to wear every one of her new outfits this week. She has a couple things left but I imagine she will be working her way through those this coming week.
Kenzie also had dance this week (as usual) and she loved it. Will really seems to like watching his Sissy dance too so that works out well. He stays pretty busy. I am impressed with all the new things she has learned in just 2 weeks of the PreK 2 level. They are seriously working on positions now and using so much more terminology. It's pretty cool to watch. Also, our ballerina is just adorable. A crazy thing happened this week though. She decided she wanted to go to dance next week with just a leotard or the cool shorts like her teacher and the teaching assistant wear instead of a tutu. GASP! Our kid? Well, whatever works. I know she won't wear the tutus forever anyway so we will see. She needs a couple new leos anyway since the ones she has are getting crazy small (including that one in the pic below... we could barely get it on or off her) so we will go this coming week to get something new and maybe she won't go with a tutu.
Will and I have been having a blast running around town and doing errands as well as just being home together alone at home on school days. We have had a few "picnics" because he is obsessed right now with setting them up in the playroom. We even did a run to Ikea on our own and it was awesome. Haha! Only have one kid that can be contained if need be in a cart, is amazing. He is exerting his independence of course so I am letting him walk more and more but the plus is that when it is just him, I can totally contain him when I need to. Publix just got a whole lot easier. We went to lunch at McDonalds on Tuesday. He was cracking me (and the employees at McDonalds) up by chanting "Nuggets! Nuggets!" the entire time I was ordering. He loved his nuggets, for sure. Wednesday we finally made it back to the library for his age group story time (as opposed to Kenzie's). His is at a less convenient time but he loves it. We chose to do Kenzie's most of the time prior to this because she got a lot out of it and he enjoyed it too. Plus, I knew we would go back to his once she was in school.
Friday Kenzie got quite a treat when Steven rearranged his schedule at work to be able to take her to school and then pick her up. She thought she was so cool. He even took her to McDonalds after he picked her up so he could have lunch. She had already eaten so she just had a hashbrown, but I heard she ate most of his fries too. Not surprising. The kid has been eating everything in sight lately again. Not sure if it's another growth spurt (please, no. I can't keep buying new clothes for this kid...) or just that she is famished after school all morning. They ended up running some errands afterwards too including going to the library and checking out some books. Steven said she was so excited to see him when he got there in the afternoon (even though she knew he was coming) that she screamed "Daddy!" and went running to him. It made everyone laugh at her level of excitement. That makes my heart so happy. She loves her Daddy and he is such an amazing Daddy to these two littles.
We are finding our groove right now having Kenzie in school until 12:45. What seems to be working is that Will and I eat an early lunch and then leave to pick up Kenzie. I always bring him a snack to keep him occupied and awake until we pick up Kenzie. I would be okay with him falling asleep on the way home because I could put him in his bed, but it wouldn't work if he fell asleep on the way there. Anyway, this week we have actually made it home each day without him falling asleep because he is so excited to see his Sissy that he wants to chat with her on the way home and sing the new songs she learns. It is so sweet.
Saturday morning we were up pretty early (though not truly early for us in reality) to head out to the beach (again). Yay! We had big plans for Saturday afternoon with Grandma, Grandaddy, Uncle E, Aunt Juju, and Cousin Evie so we went out to Mantanzas Beach in the morning since it was over that way. We invited Nana to come out and join us. Papa was invited too, but he had some people coming to do some work at their house so someone had to be home. We love this beach because it is calm by East coast standards and has the powdery sand similar to the Gulf side. However, the downfall is the walk over the dunes to get to the beach. It is seriously probably a quarter mile long. Not a problem until you have two small children who just want to get to the beach and you have to carry a tent, chairs, boogie boards, etc. Our goal was to make it to the beach in one trip (except for the cooler because we could go back for that) since it is a 15 minute walk to make a second trip if you need something.
We ended up making it in one trip because we had Nana to help. Thankfully. We set up shop pretty easily and were headed down to the water pretty quickly. We noticed that the water is starting to get cooler already. The temperature outside is definitely not, but the water is. It wasn't bad though. We managed to get both kids in it. Will went in with no issues whatsoever so maybe we are done with that scared thing. That would be nice. We even got Nana in up to her waist. This is a big deal for my Mom. She is terrified of being in any body of water when she can't see her feet. I could see her feet, but my eyes are better. She couldn't. We had to have an impromptu lesson on how to brace yourself against waves or just jump them. She did great. Will thought jumping waves was awesome. Kenzie always thinks the waves are great.
It wasn't long before Eric, Julie, and Evie joined us. We all had a blast hanging out in the water. Eventually Nana, Will, and I got out. He needed a diaper. He wanted to go right back in though. He didn't seem as happy when we returned but we think he was just cold. Getting out and getting a new diaper was a bit chilly and he started shivering. He never ended up stopping so I took him out of the water. Kenzie followed suit at some point and her and Will went on a shell hunt. We came home with so many shells. The two of them were having a blast. After a while, Julie, Eric, and Evie left to go get lunch and we sent Steven to the car to get our cooler so we could eat. We had another picnic lunch and played for a while before packing up and making it (in one trip) back to the car. The only real issue with the entire day was getting the kids cleaned up. This beach has no shower or restroom facilities so we had to brush the sand off of them the best we could and change them. I don't like letting them ride in their seats in their wet suits if I don't have to. Just makes more cleaning for me. With Nana's help though, we got it all taken care of.
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| Kenzie making a Florida snow angle was probably the best moment of the day. Haha! |
The kids ate pretty well, which is no surprise when pizza is served. We then all headed down to the beach. Will ended up stepping on a stick as soon as he was on the sand and that set off most of his evening. He wasn't happy. He was so tired and just cried. And cried. Eventually he calmed down and was okay with digging in the sand, but he still wasn't really himself. Kenzie and Evie had a blast running on the beach though. We ended up flying the kite again and the kids seemed to like it. Kenzie loves that kite. After taking some pictures of the cousins together (though with three kids either crying or running around like crazy... we didn't get anything of them all together and smiling or anything) we packed it up and headed home. We had to wash the kids before we left and put pjs on them because we knew they would be asleep by the time we got home. Surprisingly, Kenzie was asleep before Will. We had been maybe 15 minutes when she said, "I'm sleepy. I'm going to go to sleep now"... and then just did. Will fell asleep maybe 10 minutes after that. They both snored the entire way home.
Sunday we got up and got ready for church. Kenzie and I wore our matching Mommy/Daughter dresses. She thought we were pretty cool.
Steven only made it to the end of church because he had to go to the walk in clinic. Why you ask?? Oh, let me tell you. On Tuesday morning he noticed a painful bump on the back of his head. We initially thought it might be a cystic acne type thing. Then the swelling went down and we noticed it was more like a cluster of small bumps and we thought maybe he had been bit by something and had an allergic reaction. Being that he had this pain for so long and the bumps seemed to be getting better so very slowly, if at all, he decided to go get it looked at. Want to take a guess as to the diagnosis?? I know it was something I NEVER would have come up with. At 34-years-old, my run-down, stressed out husband was diagnosed with... shingles. Freaking shingles. I thought he was kidding when he texted me from the doc's office. Nope. Not kidding. Luckily, none of us can get it. I have had the chicken pox so I already have the shingles virus hanging out somewhere inside me but I can't get it from him and both kids had the varicella vaccine so they can't get it. I actually believe they may never get shingles but don't quote me on that. The only people susceptible to catching it from him are those that are not vaccinated against chicken pox and have never had chicken pox. I'm actually not sure if they would get shingles or chicken pox though. What a weird virus. It is only able to be transferred if that person touches it though. So, we are all good and that is what matters to me.
After church (and a nap for Will), we went down to Disney Springs to meet Nana and Papa. We never did get a chance to celebrate Papa's birthday and they were in town for a meeting thing so we decided to meet there. Apparently the best moment of the visit to Disney Springs was one I missed. Steven ended up taking the escalator down and I took the elevator so I missed this exchange....
Leave it to Joe to be the crazy one. He thought he was so funny. My parents specifically went to Walgreens to buy rubber gloves to mess with Steven and his shingle ridden head. I'm related to crazy people. Anyway, we walked around the Springs for a while. We had Italian ice (which Kenzie did NOT seem to like as she isn't our sweets kid) and later stopped for margaritas. Though, Steven and I had Diet Coke as I didn't want a margarita and Steven wasn't sure about it mixed with his meds. They had a guy singing live which both kids seemed to like.
We also made a stop at the Lego store so Kenzie could make a race car and race it. She actually finished first on her second attempt after some car modifications. Will built with the Duplos and even Papa got in on the action and built a bridge. The best part of that was when Kenzie just reached over and removed part of his bridge because she apparently needed that piece. At least it was Joe and not some random other person that we didn't know.
We also made a stop at the train. The kids really wanted to ride so Kenzie rode with Will and Will officially rode his first ride without Mommy or Daddy. They both loved it. Kenzie thought it was super fun and Will just kept saying "Choo choo train!" "Fast" "Around" and motioning that it went around the track with his hand. It was adorable.
Eventually we made it over to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. The couple next to us warned us that the gorilla above our table would be coming to life shortly and the kids may not like it. We thanked them for letting us know and then elected to leave the kids and see what happened. It wasn't good. Will was okay until the rainstorm started. Then, he lost it. Not a happy kid. I had to remove him from the restaurant to calm him down and then when I came back we asked to switch to a table where he couldn't see the gorilla. After that, he was fine. When the next thunderstorm popped up, I distracted him with my phone. By the time we hit a third one, he had food and no longer cared. Kenzie thought the whole thing was pretty cool. They had some fun fish tanks and Will would yell "Dory!" anytime the blue tang made its way around the tank. It was funny.
After dinner we went our separate ways from my parents as they still had to drive to Miami that night. We made it home with only one sleeping child. The other never stopped talking the entire way. Will was carried to his bed and put to bed in his clothes because letting that happen is better than dealing with waking him up. Kenzie was wired from the weekend and as I write this, she is still awake. Tomorrow we are taking it easy in preparation of another week of school and everything else we manage to squeeze into our days. Next weekend is much more low key. That's good too because apparently we are running Steven ragged. Between our crazy summer and his work schedule, he has just been doing too much. I feel terrible that he ended up with shingles. Hopefully it will pass soon. It's just hard watching him suddenly gasp in pain as the virus messes with his nerves. Ugh.
Anyway, just a couple more weeks of summer. And hopefully some rest time in there for all of our sake.
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