Delainey's 1st Day of Preschool - 3's

Here we go again...another school year has officially begun today for Delainey! We are at our new school and are excited as ever to be back in school and make some new friends. My big 3 year old girl was all smiles as she hopped out of the car and waved goodbye to mom! (PS: It is heaven having a car drop off line!) 

D said she had a great time in class today and especially loved playing on the playground. I didn't get too much out of her on what all she did today, but I did hear about Callie getting her foot stuck in the tree LOL. Kids are so funny in what they remember from the day. Mom & Blakely enjoyed some alone time shopping and hitting up Costco. I think Blakely really missed her big sis though! Speaking of Blakely she has slept for 7 hours straight the past 3 nights. I have died and gone to heaven! She has changed so much this month! I can't wait to do her 5 month post and list all she has done!

 I am off to supper club tonight and the theme is tailgate food so I'll be sporting my fsu attire. I can't wait for college football to start! I was assigned a side dish so I made a pizza pasta salad. It is delicious! I highly recommend this one and very quick and easy to do! (I leave out the olives though since I don't like them). Here is the recipe if anyone is interested!

Also yesterday we celebrated Grammy's birthday by surprising her at school with all her favorite girls, lunch, and some cookie cake! She is the best and we really could not survive without her! We love you Gram Bam!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Delainey's fabulous week!!

Delainey had quite the fabulous week if I do say so myself. On Thursday we got up early and headed to her Preschool Orientation. She met her teachers and new classmates and got to play with them while the parents went to the chapel to hear all the rules and procedures. It just so happens that I already know 3 of the moms who have kids in her class. 2 girls from high school and 1 girl from ballet this summer so it will be fun when all the families get together! Her teachers seemed very nice! I think it is going to be a great year! 

 We had our first ever homework assignment that we completed today! It was fun to do, but big momma is going to have to get over her OCD and let D just do the work however she pleases. Haha I don't want to be THAT parent who obviously did the homework assignment. I just like things so neat and clean!

 After orientation, we headed home to hang out and got a wild hair and bought Delainey and I annual passes to Disney World! We are planning on going for her birthday anyway and I wanted to do another weekend somewhere in the next month or so, so it was better to buy the annual pass than separate single day tickets. We are so excited about it! Bring on the girls day trips to Disney!

On a side note, Blakely is getting so big! I finally got a picture that shows her deep blue eye color. She is almost 5 months :( so I will be back with an entire update on her next week!

Then to top of the already great week, Delainey woke up early this morning and I remembered that the Christian radio station was doing a giveaway for Rock the Universe. It is a christian concert at Universal Studios. (I went last year with Emily & it was awesome. Here is my blog post from Rock the Universe last year.) Anyways the giveaway is only from 7 am - 8 am and kids call in and say why their parents rock. We never are up early enough or have it together enough to call. This morning we had plenty of time and Delainey said she would talk on the phone...so we called. She said "My mom rocks because we have dance parties." She was entered into the drawing and low and behold I got a phone call an hour later saying she won!! We got a 4 pack of tickets to rock the universe and a 4 pack of tickets to Islands of Adventure! So here we come Orlando in 3 weeks for a fun weekend with the family!!

We went and ran some errands today and went to Whole foods to get some groceries. Delainey loves going here because she gets a free snack and her own little shopping cart to push through the store. Genius I tell you! After errands we just hung at the house and played.

Tomorrow I am headed to Tracie's bridal shower, while Dad does some Daddy/Daughters time lol. I hope every has a great weekend...maybe half as great as Delainey's week has been! :)

Play dates & Chocolate tours

Majority of Delainey's friends are a year older and are starting VPK this year. That is the pre-kindergarten class that is paid for by the state, but requires a certain number of hours each week... so all of our friends are going to be in school 5 days a week. It really puts a damper on our play days on Mondays and Fridays, but hopefully we will still get together on weekends or afternoons during the week. So this week we have been doing some last minute fun things with our friends before school starts next week.

Yesterday, we went to my friend Julie's house from Mom to Mom. She is the most creative, fun mom ever. She invited us over for some crafts and had it all themed to the Very Hungry Caterpillar. She read the story to the kids, had them practice their caterpillar crawls around the house and had 3 different crafts for them. Of course most the kids ran around and played in the playroom or outside, but it still was a lot of fun. Mom to Mom starts up again the Wednesday after labor day so it was nice to catch up with the girls since I haven't seen a lot of them all summer.

Today, we went to the Whetstone Chocolates factory in St. Augustine to take a tour and have lunch with Collins, Sadie & Alicia. It was hosted by the Jacksonville Moms Blog so there was quite a bit of kids. The poor tour guide tried to talk over the children, but for the most part we couldn't hear what he was saying. The kids were just more interested in the free samples. After the tour, we had lunch at Mellow Mushroom and then hit up the outlet malls on the way home.

Tomorrow, we will probably do some shopping for Grammy & Lala's birthdays which are next week. Even though I am not sure what we are getting them. I make such a nice detailed list with links and pictures to what I want, but they are not giving me such a lovely little shopping list. Hopefully something will jump out at me.

Thursday we have our orientation for Delainey's preschool. We are switching preschools this year, so I am hoping it is a great experience. Our new school seems much more family oriented, has more fun activities, and is not so intense for 2 & 3 year olds. I already looked through the calendar of events that they sent out and it looks like much more fun activities that family can join in on and some are even at night so maybe Dad will be able to join. We did ballet this summer with several girls in the 3 year old classes so hopefully one of them will be in D's class.

We are sticking with the Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9-1. The #1 thing I am most excited about this new school is that there is a drop off/pick up line! Hallelujah I don't have to get Blakely out of the car and make it a 15 minute ordeal to drop off and pick up. I really think we are going to be happy with our choice this year. Besides the preschool 2 days a week, we are going to continue with Mom to Mom and tutoring on Wednesdays so we are pretty booked up tues, weds, thurs. Mondays we have My gym and Saturdays this fall we have soccer. I am going to leave Friday free to do whatever we want! Which may just be sitting at home enjoying each other. I am excited for all the fun to start! It is going to be busy!

We also have some AMAZING vacations planned for this fall/winter, football season is about to start, colder weather, the holidays, I mean what more could you wish for! Like I say each year September-December is my favorite time of the year! I'll be back with a post on how orientation goes!!

Last weeks of summer

We have been staying busy trying to enjoy the last 2 weeks of summer before D starts school. Next week we are planning on getting back on a routine so truly this week is our last week of relaxation. We started out by doing family movie night on Friday with a pizza dinner and the movie Home. Then Saturday we did some shopping and then left the kids with Gammoe for date night. We try to do a date night once a month, but have slacked the past 2 months so we jumped at some alone time. We went to Hawkers for dinner then had some drinks at the rooftop bar at Blacksheep. It was relish!

 Blakely is growing up so fast! This maniac is pushing up on everything with her feet. She almost pushed herself right out of her bouncer. Blakely is much more interactive and is becoming obsessed with her big sister. They talk and laugh with each other all the time. Delainey is an awesome big sister!

 Monday we woke up and the weather was great so I said why not take a trip to the zoo! It was Blakely's first time and she did great. She is still a little too young to notice the animals, but she was happy to be pushed around in a stroller all day. Delainey loved the splash park and of course made friends with 3 other girls and ran around holding hands with them...she never meets a stranger!

 The tiger was so close I literally could have pet it if I wanted to stick my hand through the fence. There was no one at the zoo, it was so nice I just let Delainey run free.

 Yesterday we went to the pool with Maria and her kids from Mom 2 mom and today we did some shopping at the town center. Tomorrow we are going to meet up with another friend from M2M at Chick-fil-a to do some catching up before it starts in 3 weeks. I hope everyone is enjoying their week.

Blakely Ann - 4 Month Update

Height: 26 inches - 95%
Weight: 13 lbs 14 oz - 38%
Head Circumference: 16 1/2 inches - 50%
Vision: You are noticing things really far away and you're tracking so well. You love laying on your play mat and grabbing at all the toys.
Movement: Dr. Mary said you are so curious about everything that is going on. You are reaching and grabbing everything. You can hold your bottle now. You still haven't rolled over all the way, but I swear it could be any day now if you could just figure out how to move your arm from underneath you. You are starting to put everything you get your hands on in your mouth. Time to be careful which toys Delainey leaves around you.
Eating Habits/New Foods: Not much has changed in the feeding department. You are still doing 3 ounces every 3 hours. At night I am really only getting about a 4-5 hour long stretch so Mama is definitely more tired without a 6 hour stretch. Dr. Mary said no crying it out till you are 6 months and at least 15 lbs. Your little tummy can hold enough to make you go that long at night. I'm starting to eat and pump more so hopefully I'll start making more milk and you will start going longer in between feedings. No food till 6 months!
Sleeping Patterns: You wake up between 8-9 am. You play for a while and then nap around 10 for 1-2 hours. Then you take another long afternoon nap around 2-3 pm for about 1-2 hours and then will do little catnaps in between. Bedtime is at 8 and you wake around 10-11 for your last feeding of the night and usually we play for a little while since Dad hasn't seen you all day. Your large sleep sack is great, but once you roll over, the sleep sack is gone. You are sleeping great in your crib. All naps and night time is in the crib unless we are on the go and you sleep in your carseat.
Sounds/Words: No new sounds or words, just tons of smiles! You also laughed for the first time. It is so cute and has a little shriek when you laugh. I have started doing the milk sign with you and you obviously can't do it, but you definitely recognize it when I do the sign for you.
New discoveries/accomplishments:
-You did an awesome job riding 7 hours in a car to the keys
-You met your cousins Walker & Waylon for the 1st time
-You had your first laugh
-You can sit in your bouncer now and touch with your feet
-You are now able to sit in the bumbo
-You celebrated your 1st 4th of July. It was a crazy hectic day with lots of people over at Grammy's during the day, but we ended with a nice evening watching fireworks with just the fam.
-You went through a little separation anxiety phase with people you usually aren't around. You would be ok one minute then be held by someone new and you would cry hysterically.
Places you went/Adventures: You went to the Keys for your first lobster season, you celebrated your first 4th of July holiday, you spent a night in Amelia Island at the Ritz Carlton, you enjoyed the beach and the sand in your toes,  you had lots of babysitting adventures while mom was out at engagement parties, supper clubs, and dinners out.
Clothes: Where did my baby go?!? your clothes are either 3 or 6 months, and 6 month sleepers and some onesies. Tall like your big sister...1/4 inch shorter! You have just moved up to size 3 diapers. You are a little chunkier than Delainey was...by 8 ounces to be exact! :)
Sister updates: Big Sister is loving that you are more interactive these days. She loves to sit over you and play horsey....it sounds way worse than it is. You actually love it and laugh. You are tougher so I am not as controlling about her touching you. She loves playing with you in the morning when you first wake up. Sleeping in the crib has been very helpful so she doesn't wake you and D and I have some one on one time. You guys are definitely best friends!
Weekly Pictures:

Keys Vacation - Part 2

 Wednesday morning, we woke up at 3:30 am and Delainey was a happy as a clam put on her clothes and out the door we went. We had a good morning until the sun came up and she started to feel sick. She really hadn't eaten any food and the waves from sitting still had started to make her sea sick. She ended up throwing up so I immediately jumped in the ocean and we floated for majority of the day since that is a cure for sea sickness. It was much more difficult getting our limit of lobster this time, but we had all 42 on the boat by 10 am. Dave was a champ and ended up catching majority of them just cause the conditions weren't great...it was deep and a difficult spot.

After we caught our limit, we met up with the other group and a few other boats and just hung out and celebrated a good morning.

We were back to the house at 1 and swam in the pool and cleaned the lobster for a feast that night. 

 Between the 2 boats, we caught 90 lobster that day. Prob my favorite day of the year! (its a close tie with Christmas) There is nothing like lobster legs, tails, and Olio (clams, garlic, red pepper flakes, & noodles)

 Thursday I stayed back with the girls again and tried out a new hamburger joint called Meat that was pretty delish! They ended up catching another 25 lobster so we had a feast again that night.

 Friday, everyone went fishing so the girls and I swam, took naps, & had sushi and wings for dinner at Caps house for our last meal before heading home.

The girls did really well considering we were never following our normal schedule and had to just go with the flow. I drove back Saturday by myself so Dave could stay one extra day and again I couldn't have asked for better behavior. I'm so lucky to have such great travelers. We had a great time playing with all our cousins, but there is no place like home!

I can't believe summer is over and school is about to start up. We had a pretty great summer, but I'm always ready for some fall weather and football!