Catching Up

I'm starting up the ol blog again.  I took a little hiatus - of over 6 months!  It was a lively six months at that.  Where to start, where to start....  I guess we'll start with the summer highlights.  

 It was a good summer for the Adams crew.  We went on vacation, the girls started a new daycare, and our 4th of July was a blast.

We went on vacation again to Hilton Head Island, and it was amazing.  I'm not sure we have had that relaxing of a vacation in recent history.  Every morning we leisurely woke up, had coffee, ate breakfast, and decided what we wanted to get into that day.  There were no time frames or deadlines.  Most afternoons we spent at the beach or the pool.  Laura really loved the waves this year.  She used a boogie board and rode the waves in as they crashed on the beach.  Both Laura and Hannah wore floaties this year at the pool rather than life vests, and it made a huge difference.  Their swimming skills really developed this summer.  To keep up the momentum in that arena, we did two rounds of swim lessons throughout July and August.  Laura is now able to swim completely independent of any flotation devices.  Hannah still needs them, but hopefully by next summer she'll get over the hump too.  But back to vacation, we ate a lot of decadent, fresh seafood, drank plenty of refreshing beverages, and indulged on our share of ice cream.  We took the kids on a pirate cruise, which was one of the highlights of the trip.  They got to dress up as pirates, look for treasure, and shoot water cannons at "Stinky Pete".  They loved it.  I recommend that excursion to anyone heading down to the beach.  In general we relaxed and enjoyed each other.  I won't mention the painful 14.5 hour drive home.  Ouch!

Hannah and Emma started a new daycare in June.  They are now at Primrose, and so far we are extremely happy with the move.  They seem to be better staffed in both number and caliber, have better safety policies, healthier menus, and a much nicer facility.  The kids especially enjoyed Kona Ice Tuesdays throughout the summer, where they got snow cones every Tuesday and the splash pad.  This school has a splash pad that the two younger girls get to use twice a week.  Laura was also there for the summer, participating in their summer camp program.  So she went on a field trip once a week along with all of the other activities.  Figuring out what Laura is going to do this summer already has me a little stressed.  Summers with school-aged kids and working parents are not fun.  I felt guilty leaving them at daycare when they were babies, and the guilt doesn't go away when they older.  I wish that she could have the kind of summer I had as a kid.

I would be remiss to not mention how much the girls enjoyed over the summer and continue to enjoy their "Grammy Time!"  Little Emma gets so excited when she finds out Grammy is coming on a given day to watch them.  She just LOVES her Grammy.  In Emma's world the ranking is 1.  Grammy 2.  Daddy  3.  Sisters  4.  Toys  5. Milk  6.  Mom... only if absolutely necessary.  Grammy watching them has added so much balance and enjoyment to their lives.  We are truly blessed.

The 4th of July was again spend this year at my uncle Marty's and aunt Dena's.  They have a great spot for us to enjoy the outdoors.  The kids swam in the pool, rode on the four-wheeler with Papa and watched as other fished in the pond.  They jumped on the trampoline and generally just ran around wild - a kid's heaven.  We ate, drank, visited and played a lot of corn hole.  Of course the evening was capped off with some awesome fireworks.  The 4th of July is my favorite holiday, and this year was no exception.

On to Fall.  We have been busy as usual this Fall, with Laura in 1st grade, football season and football season.  Our Falls generally revolve around footballs season, and this year has been no exception.  Matt and I went to the Virginia Tech game, which turned out to be a disappointment, but we had a blast anyway.  Stupid Buckeyes.  For Matt and I to get to tailgate without our kids was a treat, and our seats were really good for the game too!  (Thanks Dad!)   Then I went to the Cincinnati game with my college girls, Rachel, Desiree, and Michelle.  We tailgated that game too and had a fun day catching up.  We don't get to see each other too often, so it's more fun visiting than drinking at our age!  (There's our sign!)  Matt has went to a couple of other games, but I have not taken the kids down this year to tailgate as I have in past years.  Emma in this stage in quite challenging.  She is completely fearless and extremely independent, a frightful combination.  She has run away from us a couple of times, one time for about a 20 minute period, which was terrifying.  So in short, I have not been up to taking the kids tailgating, only to be stressed the whole time trying to chase/find/keep track of Emma.  Maybe next year.

First day of 1st Grade

 Tailgating VT game

 Desiree, Michelle and I heading to the stadium for the Cincy game.

Halloween was a great time this year.  We did Boo at the Zoo, which the kids enjoyed.  It was a nice afternoon the day we went, and the kids got to see the brown bears eating pumpkins and do other enrichment activities. This 1200 pound bear walked right up to the glass where Emma was standing, and she didn't even flinch.  I thought that it might scare her a little - nope.  Then we attended a "Halloween" themed birthday party at one of Laura's old friends from daycare.  The girls got to where their costumes and hunt little plastic pumpkins with candy in them.  And they did a pinata and other fun activities.  Then of course the main event was Trick or Treat night, which turned out to be a beautiful night this year.  My parents came down for it, and we walked the neighborhood.  The kids got loads of candy.  They even went through a haunted house that someone had set up in our neighborhood.  It was pretty scary, even for adults.  Even little Emma went through with my mom.

I got to volunteer in Laura's classroom for the Halloween part this year, and it was awesome!


Now we are gearing up for the Holidays, and I am SO excited.  I don't think that I have ever been this excited for Christmas...and Thanksgiving too.  I'm excited to decorate.  I'm excited to shop.  I'm excited for the food.  I'm excited for all the activities, like getting the tree, going to the Nutcracker, going to see Santa and everything in between.

So hopefully I will be better at blogging regularly going forward.  I am going to try to do a link-up for the first time this week, called A Week In My Life #WIML hosted by Kathryn at Team Whitaker.  We'll see how it goes.  Wish me luck!

Here is another fun video of the girls having dance part this morning!