Delainey's last day of preschool & Memorial day weekend

Delainey officially completed her first year of school and it was a great one! The amount she has learned over the past year is insane...colors, shapes, numbers, songs, and most importantly the social aspect. When D started school, she could not sit still for more than 2 seconds, couldn't share, couldn't keep her shoes on, and was used to all of the attention. Now she keeps her shoes on (that was a rough one to overcome; especially for her teachers), she shares for the most part or at least knows what is right, sits for 20 minutes to eat lunch, loves to listen to stories or sing songs, and can follow directions now. 

All of the students got achievement awards and of course Delainey was awarded the "social butterfly" award. I laughed out loud when they called her name. She definitely is a social lady who makes friends EVERYWHERE we go and loves to share her opinion on pretty much anything. Onward we move to a new school next year...one with a carpool line, 3 days a week VPK program, and a lot more parent involvement. 

 I was shocked when I compared her 1st day to her last day of school. She is such a grown lady now!

 We kicked off summer with a day at the pool on Friday, a Mommy/Daddy night out on the town on Saturday, and a beach day on Sunday. It was an absolute madhouse at the beach on Sunday since it was Memorial day weekend. I will never try to do the beach again on a holiday weekend! Monday we laid low and just enjoyed some quiet time. Here are some pics from the weekend!

Weekend Getaway with Gram & Pops

This past weekend Pops had a convention in Orlando for 4 days. Even though we had just been down there 2 weeks ago, we jumped at the chance to go back and have a nice relaxing weekend by the pool. It definitely didn't hurt either that Pops was staying at the Loew's Royal Pacific which is a really nice hotel! 

On Friday around noon,  Grammy, myself, & the girls headed down to meet up with Pops. We checked in and immediately went to the pool. Delainey instantly made a friend named Brooklyn and they were off having a blast swimming together. (Lucky for us Brooklyn was there for 6 days so she played with her the entire weekend!) After she swam for a few hours, we walked around the hotel scoping out all the cool amenities. Of course we had to test out the whirlpool in the locker room and take a few extra shampoos and conditioners:) That night we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant and then headed home to sleep. 

The next morning Delainey woke up bright and early and the 1st words out of her mouth were she wanted to go to the pool. So we ate breakfast and headed to the pool for a long day of swimming ahead. We swam at our pool for about 4 hours then we took a ferry ride over to the Hard Rock hotel which is a sister hotel. (The ferry also takes you to Citywalk, which is very convenient and fast!) We played at the hard rock for a while and Delainey went on the huge water slide a few times then we headed home to get ready for dinner.

 We headed to Downtown Disney that evening to walk around and eat dinner. We watched a Dance school perform several dances (of course Delainey loved the hip hop the most), we made & raced cars at the lego store, we touched the dinosaurs at T-Rex restaurant (it moved as soon as she touched it and was terrified!), and we ate dinner at some food trucks.

 The next morning Pops took Delainey swimming again for a few hours while we packed up to check out and I got to squeeze in a workout at the gym (I worked out both days and it was heaven!). We headed home and stopped half way through the trip to eat a BBQ lunch. We unpacked, played with some toys, and then sat down to watch some TV and relax. The picture below is what happened about 2 minutes after sitting down! We had such a fun relaxing weekend but the girls were exhausted from it! Blakely was her usual awesome self...slept great, laid by the pool in her stroller, and just went with the flow. Delainey thought staying at a hotel was the greatest thing ever...who needs a theme park when you have a nice hotel and pool! Thanks Gram & Pops for the fun weekend!

3 Year Old Update - Delainey Marie

Height: 40 inches - 97%
Weight: 33 pounds - 75%
Head Circumference:  Apparently they no longer measure this!
Movement: We are working on some coordination skills these days like jumping jacks and hopscotch. You are a climbing monkey, you run very fast, and can do forward rolls and hang on the bars like a champ. You are also a pretty good swimmer, I think over the next few weeks with some practice I will feel 100% confident letting you swim by yourself. You are 100% a right-handed girl!
Eating Habits/New Foods: Your meals consists of: Breakfast: pancakes, sausage,  yogurt with granola, cereal, fruit,  Lunch: cheese, smoothies, applesauce, fruit or veggies, salami, chicken nuggets, hotdogs, noodles w/ butter, PB & J. Dinner: whatever we are eating for dinner. You have a great palate and eat most things. You don't love spicy foods though. You particularly love steak, noodles, mac n cheese, corn, broccoli, caesar salad, avocado, Snacks: you love pretzels, graham crackers, goldfish, raisins, fruit snacks, snack mix, crackers, and gummies. Your favorite drink is juice...any kind, but we try to limit that and give you whole milk or water instead. You don't drink much milk, but I think we make up for it with all the cheese and yogurt.
Sleeping Patterns: As of recently we have given up naps and bedtime is fantastic again! You wake up between 7:30 & 8 am and we start our bedtime routine around 7ish. We take a bath, go potty, brush teeth, put on PJs, read 1-2 stories, say prayers, and then go to sleep. It is usually around 8 by the time we go to sleep. You sleep through the night for the most part, unless you have a bad dream which happens maybe once a week. You ask us to lay with you and then will fall back asleep after about 15-30 minutes. Since there are no naps, you do a quiet time in your room where you read books and play with your toys so mom can have some free time.
Sounds/Words: You can repeat any word, so this category should now be more about memory and what you are learning. You can pick out all the colors of the rainbow and identify your normal shapes. You are learning lots of scientific things such as how the body works and outer space. (it's very useful having 2 grandmas who are science teachers). You can count to 20, sing the words to plenty of songs, and learning new big words from your Fancy Nancy books as well as others. The one thing you say that is funny, but we aren't changing in "could be's" instead of the word because...it's so cute! You also are amazing at rhyming when we give you a word and lately you have been picking out words that start with the same letter.
New discoveries/accomplishments:
-You have a new best friend AKA your baby sister, Blakely Ann, born on March 28th, 2015.
-You love being a big sister and constantly giving her kisses and touching her. You are helpful with the paci and run to help her whenever she cries
- You are now potty trained 100% during the day and even at night
-You can dress yourself, put on socks & shoes, brush your own teeth, and go to the bathroom all by yourself.
-You went to preschool and learned tons of great things and matured so much over the past year
-You went to Mickey's Halloween party & the Christmas party with the whole family
-You went to Beech Mountain and tried sledding and ice skating for the 1st time
-You got tons of great Christmas presents including a bounce house and a handmade dress up box full of princess dresses.
-You had your 1st dentist appointment and did fantastic!
-You moved up to the older class at My Gym and go by yourself now.
New Friends I've made: You pretty much have continued playing with the same kids. Georgia & Collins are your best friends and Ella Kay is your favorite at preschool.
Places you went/Adventures: You went to Mickey's christmas party with the whole family, you loved all the Christmas activities of the live nativity, christmas eve, meeting your twin cousins for the 1st time, getting presents from Santa, leaving milk & cookies out for him, Dash the elf on the shelf. You went to Beech mountain and sledded & ice skated for the 1st time. You celebrated valentine's day and exchanged valentines at school, you sing on stage at chapel every month. You had lots of mommy/daughter dates before Blakely was born. You met your new baby sister. You went to disney on ice and the circus. You went to Seaworld to celebrate your 3rd birthday!
Things you love:  Dress up, playing with your princess barbies and dolls, puzzles, playing Dr, going to the park or playing at chick-fil-a and making friends wherever you go, going to school, going to the big gymnastics place, and swimming which you do several days a week.
Clothes: You are in 4T sleepers. You do 3T clothes with the exception of shorts we still do 2T. I;m doing some 4T shirts because I like them long on you. We are doing lots of stretch leggings this summer, bc you don't like things thats are "too tight." You also do 2T two piece bathing suits, but have to do 3T if it is a one piece bc you are so tall. These are your current sizes: Gymboree-3T, Target- 3T, Carter-3T , Old Navy/Gap- 3T. Size 10 shoe.

Delainey's family birthday parties

As I mentioned in the previous post, on Sunday we headed back from Seaworld to go to Grammy's house to celebrate Delainey & David's bdays with the Richie family. We enjoyed a lovely italian meal of pizza, meatballs, sausage, and salad. Delainey of course spent some time in the pool and then we sang happy birthday and opened presents. She got some really good gifts! Of course most was princess related like a jasmine costume, disney barbie dolls,  and some magiclip princesses, but she also got a camera and some melissa and doug toys! The next day we spent hours trying out all our new toys!

Thursday night, we celebrated birthdays with the McLaughlin's since they were out of town on Sunday! Dave picked out a steak, pasta, and caesar salad dinner which was delicious and Gammoe made a german chocolate cake for dessert. She got a few more princess barbie dolls, a tinkerbell costume, and the big gift was a humongous dollhouse! It is taller than her and is great for all her barbie princesses. Of course I was recording her reaction, so I don't have a picture of her w/ the dollhouse, but she loved it!

 Finally birthday week (really week and a half) is over and it was fabulous! Now I'm off to do a blog post on my 3 year old big girl!!

Delainey's 3rd Bday trip to Seaworld

Day 1

Saturday morning we woke up and headed down to Seaworld around 8 am. We were there by 10:30 and the adventure began! For those of you who don't know me well, I am a drill sergeant on vacations, because I want to make sure we get every possible thing in that we can. I knew we had 2 days of Seaworld, so we took our time and casually strolled around the park. It was kind of nice not rushing from one thing to another with a written itinerary! Anyways, the 1st day we were there we did all the shows except from Shamu and all the larger rides that Delainey was allowed on. We did let Dave sneak off at one point to ride the Manta rollercoaster too.By 6ish Delainey was starting to fade so we called it quits for the day and left to go have dinner at my favorite burger restaurant Fuddruckers. After dinner, we headed to the hotel to check in. Delainey loves staying at hotels, I think as much as going to theme parks :) She asked to stay at the hotel vs. going back to Seaworld! LOL Anyways when we checked in we realized the pool was heated, so we said what the heck let's go swimming in the dark even though it was past bedtime....we are on vacation! 

Day 2
 The next morning we leisurely snuggled in bed while getting dressed and packing up to check out. We headed back to Seaworld for round 2, but this time we focused on the kid's area and letting Delainey run wild wherever she wanted. Our first stop was at the Shamu show and then to the kiddie area for all of D's rides. The roller coaster was a litttle intense for a 3 year old and she was unsure, but we pushed through it! Delainey was obsessed with the humongous net play area. She played there for over an hour. The best part about the kiddie area is the air conditioned baby station. Blakely and I sat in the AC every 3 hours to feed her and change her diaper. Blakely was a champ the whole weekend! Ate, looked around for a little while, then back to sleep in either the baby carrier or the stroller.

Dad of the year...how many kids can you hold at once

We headed home around 4 to get back for a birthday party for D with the family at 6. I'll do another post about the party, but overall it was a great fun but relaxing weekend spent celebrating my big girl with all my favorite people!