Sunday Funday

This weekend was so much fun and I wanted to take a few minutes to document it. Before I do though, I want to mention that we have finally started making it back to the pool! I'm so excited. I love this time of year. Back BC (Before Children) we used to go almost every evening to the pool after dinner. We haven't done the same since having kids because life is far busier with them around but we are going to be trying to get back into going frequently this summer. Kenzie's first summer (the year she turned 1) I took her alone a lot but we want to try to get there with Daddy more often. More often than just weekends.

Our first visit of the season was last Sunday. Usually we bring out our kiddie pool in the front yard but we thought it might be warm enough finally (at least the water) to chance the pool in the neighborhood. And we were right! It was perfect! It was little windy so getting out of the pool was less comfortable but the water was PERFECT! Slightly cool but not cold and not like bath water yet. Though I must admit... Steven and I don't mind it like that either just because it is what we are used to. The kids had a blast! Kenzie took right back to going underwater and trying some of her swimming. Will stayed on the stairs but that is typical for this age range for our kids. He wanted to venture out some but wasn't comfortable enough to go too far on his own. I've definitely decided that a healthy fear of the water isn't a bad thing. He knows his limits so it's more about being careful. He doesn't try to push too far and farther than his skills allow. We don't have swimming lessons starting for a few weeks so we haven't had a refresher yet. We don't use any flotation devices either as our swimming teacher recommends not using them once lessons have been started so we nixed them entirely last year for Will and Kenzie the year before. That means though that until his comfort level in the water is fairly high, he stays closer to the stairs. Kenzie is tall enough to walk in the shallow end now too so she can go even farther and remain comfortable. The kids are excited to get back to swimming lessons soon though and visit the pool frequently this summer. We also just got our new camera that lets us shoot in the water. We are practicing using it to be prepared for our snorkeling trip and visits to the beach (specifically the Keys) this summer. We loved it. The videos are great. Pictures aren't perfect but it's what we were looking for so it is perfect for us. We tried to make it back to the pool during the week. Steven even figured out how to come home a bit early one day to make it work but unfortunately the chlorinator or something was messed up so it was closed for a couple of days.

Saturday was so much fun. Nana (my mom) came into town in the morning in time to go to Cinderella Tea at our church with Kenzie and myself. It was a tea party put on by Ladies of Grace (the women's ministry) and we RSVPed a couple of weeks ago. We were super excited to go for a time of fellowship and fun with the other ladies in the church. We all got dressed up and headed over to the church. Kenzie insisted that we wear our matching dresses. Kenzie is getting way too tall for hers but she loves matching so we haven't retired the dress yet for her. I'm considering asking my mom to hem it up if possible so that it fits her more like a non-maxi dress. We will see. When we got to the church we were instructed to enter through the main doors and Kenzie was given a crown and wand. She was so excited. Then we were told to go into the sanctuary to get our picture taken. There was a coach to take a picture in front of. Super cute.

Then it was time to go into the cafe for the tea. We were able to spend some time talking to our friends and enjoying each other's company before we started lunch. It was catered in from Panera. Super yummy. I have never had the chicken salad there before but I might have to get it sometime after having it at the tea party. We were read a spoonerism of Cinderella. I had no idea what a spoonerism was before this tea party but it was so funny. I highly recommend looking one up. Specifically, check out Rindercella. We had dessert then before having a devotion which was really great. It was such a good time. I hope this becomes an annual thing. Kenzie has already asked if we will get to do it again next year.

After the tea party we came home. Will was napping. Will and Steven had run an errand and had lunch together at McDonalds while we were at the tea party. Steven said that Will had a great time. He is super attached to me lately again when I am around but if you remove him from my presence, he is happy to be with others. Daddy is a big favorite and although he tends to gravitate to me, he is obsessed with Daddy. He is always concerned about what he is doing or where he is. They had a good time too. Anyway, while Will was napping, Nana, Kenzie, and I ran up to Lowes to pick up the paint for Kenzie's big girl room transition. Nana is coming back again next week to watch the kids while Steven and I go to a Sister Hazel concert (soooooo excited!) and while she is here, we are going to paint Kenzie's room. That is step one to making it a big girl room and once it is done, we can get her new bed and finish her room before her birthday. I will have a post coming up in the next couple of weeks/months about the actual transition and her new big girl room. We are having a blast planning out everything and getting ready to make the change.

Nana left shortly after our Lowe's trip because she needed to get home. We ended up having an early-ish dinner and then heading up to the pool with our neighbors and their daughter. It was a lot of fun. Will hung out mostly on the steps again but we took him underwater a couple of times. Kenzie was back in her little fish ways and had a blast. We tried to get a family selfie underwater but I pushed the wrong button on the camera and it didn't work. We had tortured Will enough taking him underwater so we didn't try again but I definitely plan to get a picture before the end of the summer. Kenzie was super into taking underwater selfies. She even looks like she isn't underwater. Crazy kid. It was bedtime by the time we got back and we knew Sunday was going to be a big day so we got the kids in bed as quickly as we could.

Sunday started normally enough. We had church in the morning and I was in the back in GraceTown with the babies. Steven didn't go to church because he instead took his parents to the airport so they could fly out on their vacation. After church we had an early lunch before heading out to the beach. Technically, we were heading to drop off Grandma and Grandaddy's car at their house in Palm Coast so that it wouldn't sit at our house for the long duration of their vacation and we used the opportunity as an excuse to get to the beach. The drive was uneventful except for a short backup getting onto I-95. I drove my car with both kids and Will was sweet and took a 45 minute nap. Kenzie chatted the whole way. Nothing out of the norm. I was hoping she would sleep to give me some quiet but I didn't expect it. She so rarely, even in the car, takes naps anymore. She used to sometimes fall asleep in the car if we were in it for a long time but now she only does if she has had a really big day or a really bad night. Oh well. I was only a few minutes behind Steven getting to his parents house to drop off the car so we did pretty well. I caught a few more lights than him on the way there. The only thing we were a bit worried about was that as we got about a mile out from their house, it started raining. I was wondering about it as I drove closer and noticed the gray skies but then the rain actually started. It wasn't hard and a look at the radar told us it would be a typical Florida type of rain. It wasn't lasting long. So, we changed into bathing suits and set out for Jungle Hut Beach.

Jungle Hut is the most common beach we hit when in Palm Coast. It still has some erosion issues related to Hurricane Matthew last year but the walkway to the beach was still intact and the bathrooms have been reopened so we decided to risk it. We think the rain drove some people away because while this is never a super crowded beach, there were even less people than normal. One of the reasons we love this beach is because it is never really that crowded. We slathered the kids in sunblock despite it being not super sunny. Floridians know that those types of days are the dangerous ones. The ones when you think no sunblock is necessary but you end up burned anyway if you aren't careful. Easier to just do the sunblock than worry about sunburn. We carted our stuff over to the beach and found a nice spot. The sky was still pretty dark and the wind was pretty strong so after some debate, we elected to put our tent back in the car. We knew we wouldn't use it and didn't want to chance the rain coming in and needing to take it down in pouring rain or anything just in case. Kenzie went straight for the water. The water was rough. It was somewhat because the tide was coming in and somewhat because it was so windy. As usual, on this type of beach, Will was not into the water. I can't wait to get him to the beach in the Keys this summer. He is going to love that and Kenzie is going to be even more excited. Usually we spend enough time at the beach on a beach day to eventually get him okay with being at the water's edge or if it is only slightly rough one of us can carry him out into the water and he will be okay because we are holding on to him but we didn't have that kind of time of this trip and the water was rough enough that it was knocking us over some even in thigh deep water so we elected to not bother him and let him play around in the sand instead. He especially loved driving his dump truck up and down the beach collecting shells. There were a TON of huge shells so he was all set. He dug in the sand while Kenzie and whichever parent was feeling up to it went into the water to jump waves. We had to take turns because she would jump and then hang on whoever was with her so it was quite tiring. Will and I had to take a potty break during our beach visit (He's gotten so awesome at telling us more and not needing to be asked but it was the one time I really wished he would go into the water so I wouldn't have needed to walk him back to the potty... Oh well.) so we walked some chairs back to the car too as the weather still looked iffy. It just meant we would have less to carry if it did start to rain. We spent about an hour and a half to two hours at the beach and right as we were packing up the toys to head back to the car, the sprinkles started. We made it to the car because they didn't last but we weren't sure there for a minute. We decided to go back to Steven's parents house to borrow their bathroom and rinse the kids so we all put down towels in the car and headed back. We rinsed off at their house but the real concern was making sure it looked like we had never been there. We didn't want to have them come back to a messy house. We even brought our own towels to use so we wouldn't leave damp towels. I think we did pretty well.

We decided to head over to have an early dinner at Steak n Shake before driving home. Because of our early lunch at home before we left and afternoon at the beach, everyone was HUNGRY! Both kids demolished their chicken tenders and fries. Steven and I scarfed down hamburgers and fries. Bonus points for the fact that the kids are big enough that in some restaurants they can sit together on one side without either of us and behave so Steven and I can sit together. It wouldn't work in every restaurant but Steak n Shake is casual and they were really good.

We were in the car earlier than I think we planned and on our way. We didn't think either kid would sleep on the way home since we were early so we didn't use the pjs we brought for them. Turned out okay too because they sang Moana songs and talked the entire way. As we were coming up to our house we hit a lot of traffic. Apparently about 4 hours earlier a car with three teenagers was driving down a road near our house and slammed into a major power line pole. Unfortunately, we learned that the driver did not make it. The accident scene was terrible. They had cleaned up a lot but the car was still there along with a lot of officers and the electric people because the hit to the pole had knocked out power to some of the local homes and businesses. It was a sad and scary sight. We knew about it already from a neighbor that texted us hours and hours earlier to avoid the area and the Apopka FB page but we thought it would be gone by the time we got there. It was worse than we realized though. Our prayers are definitely with those families of the children affected. As well as those good Samaritans I read about that tended to the victims until the first responders showed up a few minutes later. I cannot even imagine. It makes you stop and think. Traffic the other direction was being rerouted down the road we needed to take so we ended up being delayed but the kids were awake and still going so it wasn't a big deal. We were able to unload the car and the kids helped us wash out the beach stuff and get the sand off of everything before bedtime.

It was a long day, for sure but so much fun. The beach turned out just fine despite the iffy weather and the kids had a blast. Add that as another beach visit to our growing list. (We are keeping a list of all the beaches we visit this year and the number of times because we are strange like that.)

This week is going to be pretty busy. Kenzie has dance Monday and dance pictures in costume so there is going to be a lot of prep work that goes into getting her to dance that day. This is also her last week of school for the school year. She has VPK graduation on Thursday and a party day on Friday. She is super excited about all of that. Next weekend my mom comes to watch the kids and help paint Kenzie's room like I mentioned. On top of all of that, we have the normal stuff and Steven has been crazy busy at work with a project looming in Melbourne. Say a prayer for us this week. We are going to be pretty crazy and it's definitely going to be an emotional week for us.