the official birth day

six great birthdays deserve another...happy 7th birthday to our sweet little sister!  you were so excited to see us after a week at zoo camp, or maybe you just wanted to finally open your presents!

off to oklahoma

goodbye texas!  no daycare and no mom & dad for a week.  we are off in grandma’s new car to zoo camp! 

little sister’s class is called “we speak for the trees” -  we’ll listen to the swomee-swans, watch the bar-ba-loots play, explore the pond of the humming-fish, and admire the bright colored truffula trees as “we speak for the trees” just as the Lorax did.

big sister’s class is called “animal yoga” - curl like a cat and soar like an eagle. relax with us as we test our balance, flexibility and tracking skills. 

birthday lunch

birthday month is in full swing now.  grandpa came over today with gifts for both girls and treated us to lunch in honor of little sister’s official birthday later this week.  he gave both girls their gifts and “birthday girl” ribbons, which they wore proudly to the restaurant.

 little sister shyly requested that we have the staff sing to her, but when we did, she became super embarrassed.  she is so silly!

happy birthday, america!

ahhhh, the beginning of "birthday month" at our house: the fourth of july...

we got the festivities going early (9 am) at our annual neighborhood parade.

little sister sweet-talked one of the neighbor boys into letting her ride his little go-kart.  no helmet, no shoes, no problem! (?)

we enjoyed sweet treats throughout the day - festive homemade chocolate chip cookies and chocolate-covered, sprinkle-dipped jumbo marshmallows.  little sister crashed early, but big sister did stay up to enjoy the town's firework show, as seen from our backyard.  after an unusually cool week (in the mid 90's) - it was quite a pleasant breezy night without the normal high humidity.  happy fourth, everyone!!

our last day

i think the luster of the beach has worn off, since today we had a hard time getting anyone to go to the beach for more than about 15 minutes.  the kids were content to play at the condo pool, that is after we pried them away from watching disney channel shows.  we ventured to harborwalk village on the wharf in destin, where we ate lunch and watched the boats come in and out of port.  we saw a pirate ship, lots of fishing boats, and watched a storm roll in from the west.  then after some souvenir shopping, we dropped the boys off at a go-kart track and us girls went back to the condo for refreshing homemade milkshakes.  then we did a bit more souvenir shopping, ate dinner, and headed back to the condo to pack up.

waterpark day

today we spent about 5 hours splashing and sliding at big kahuna's waterpark.  big sister mosty hung out in the wave pool and only braved the kiddie slides (guess she takes after her momma) - but little sister was fearless and i don't think there was one attraction that she did not try at least once.

afterward, we went to fudpucker’s (a local kid-friendly restaurant with live alligators) where the kids enjoyed playing at the arcade, feeding alligators and running around freely.  little sister had a great time when she got up on stage and danced with a few other girls, following the moves of the dancers that worked there.  it was like her “wii just dance”, only LIVE!

beach day

because we did not get enough sand and waves yesterday, we spent most of the morning at the beach!  we refueled for lunch, played a bit at the pool, and then went back to the beach again.  it was nice to not really have anything specific planned, other than surf, sand & sun.

little sister gave us the biggest laugh of the day, and possibly the whole trip.  after making her take a shower before lunch to get the sand off, then making her take another after swimming in the pool before dinner, we told her that we would go looking for crabs on the beach after dark, but then we would come back to the condo afterwards to shower before bed.  she responded by holding 2 fingers up and exclaiming " what?!  i already took TWO showers today!"  we compromised, and i let her just rinse off after getting back before going to bed.