Happy 4th of July

Swim Team

I was thrilled when I found out that Tessa was old enough for swim team this year.  They have a division called Guppies where the little ones can compete on their own level.  They focus on learning to swim and having fun.  The meets have events like noodle relays and kick board races as well as freestyle and backstroke.  It is fantastic!  At practice there are several coaches in the water which takes me back to my own coaching days.  Then, at the meets, the coaches help them swim the long 25 meters as much as is needed.  I am proud to say that, by the last meet, my baby swam freestyle the whole way all by herself.

We had a total of three meets and they had practice every morning in June.  We didn't make all the practices but we made all the meets.  Here is my swimmer lined up for her very first race. 

Swimmer take your mark - isn't that just too cute?!

This is a group shot from the first meet.  Tessa is totally in love with Marshall the cute coach on the back row.  She would usually position herself in his lane at practice so he would help her.  The child knows how to swim but, when he's around, she bats her eyes and acts helpless.  I swear I don't teach her these things!

Since I have already posted a version of freestyle I thought I would post a video of Tessa doing backstroke.  This was at a home meet and Gampa came to watch.  Tessa would swim and then look around for applause and then swim some more.  That's Emily Blake, the head coach, in the water with Tessa.  EB did a fantastic job with all the swimmers, I hope she is back next year.      

Tah-Dah!!!  Part of the fun of Guppies is that they get all kinds of silly rewards like leis, water guns, flip flops etc.  It was a great season and we look forward to our future swim team days.  

Playgroup

When school let out for summer we revived our playgroup.  I had missed this time of chatting with other moms while the kiddos play.  Our SS teachers have offered the use of their backyard pool which is great.  The girls wanted to see if they could all three fit on the baby elephant.  The answer is not for long but they kept trying!

 

Girl's Getaway

In June, the girls had a refreshing and relaxing girl's getaway sans kids.  Our wonderful Sunday School teachers have a beautiful lake house which they graciously offered to let us use.  We were positively giddy on Friday as we packed up and caravanned to the lake.  My child offered no protest at all when I left for which I was mostly grateful.  But, wasn't she going to miss me at least a little?  Ryan had her so pumped about their special daddy-daughter time that she was as excited about this weekend as I was.  Here is a group shot of the girls before we headed out to enjoy our kid free dinner.    

We stayed up late talking and giggling, slept in (like 8:30!) and then soaked up some sun while lounging on the floating dock.  Totally my kind of activities.  We cruised around the lake and even went tubing.  I don't think I have tubed in ten years.  I was laughing hysterically while we bounced around behind the boat.  Having a friend in the tube with you makes it even more fun.  In my head I am still 22, but my sore muscles begged to differ.    

We had such a great time we plan to make this a tradition. 

Father's Day

 Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy! 

And Happy Father's Day to the best Gampa!!!

We kept things pretty low key this Father's Day.  Tessa helped me make a chocolate pie on Saturday.  And on Sunday morning her first question was "Where is the black pie?"  She makes me laugh.  So after church we visited Nanny and all had a piece of our favorite chocolate pie.  Father's Day was a good excuse to buy the new Disney Princess Merida toys including the little bow and arrow.  We like the new books but will not be seeing Brave in theaters, the bears look way too scary for us.     
The real gift was tickets to a baseball game to see the Drive play the Braves.  Get it - Brave and the Braves? 

We like to go to Friday night games because they always shoot fireworks.  We have been having a major heat wave and it was hot, hot, hot at the game.  Tessa was like a little jack-in-the-box popping up every half inning to do something.  First it was to get ice cream, then it was to see the Chick-Fil-A cow, then it was a trip to the playground, then we had to find Reedy Rippit.  We had a blast.  Happy Father's Day!!!

Summer Spectacular

Our church chose the theme "Amazing Adventures" for this year's Summer Spectacular (aka Vacation Bible School).  The kids loved pretending to be aviators flying all over the world.  Every day was jam packed with worship, Bible stories, music, crafts, missions, recreation and the all important snack time.  Tessa had a blast. 

One of the great things about volunteering is that I got to hear the same thing Tessa heard each day.  So when she would come home singing a new song, I could sing along too.  I would also get a peak at my baby in the morning worship time, she would smile and give me a big wave from across the room before I herded my K3 class to their first station.

Each room had a different amazing wonder of the world and the music room was the Matterhorn.  This made an awesome talking point with Tessa because I told her how my grandpa climbed the Matterhorn a long time ago.  I explained Gamma wasn't even born yet, that she was still in Nanny's tummy (opened up a whole can of worms with that one).  While my grandpa was on the mountain, Nanny was worried so she went to church and prayed.  Her prayers were answered because my grandpa made it to the top of that mountain and back down safely, if a tad bit hypothermic.  Tessa's version is "he climbed a big mountain and then Nanny told him to take a bath."  Close enough.

Check out the video Summer Spectacular Highlights, if you look fast around 1:07 you can spot me in the pink shirt playing the sticks in music.  We had over 700 kids attend this year which is incredible.  Our preschool and youth ministers are wonderful and the week was a huge success.  My highlight was when Tessa's missions teacher told me that Tessa would sit quietly and listen each day.  I know she is absorbing what we are teaching.  Just the other day at the pool she would shout "Jesus is AMAZING!" each time she jumped into the water.  VBS was spectacular!

First Dance Recital

Dance recital week-end had finally arrived and I don't know who was more excited, me or Tessa.  She would be dancing to "Lollipop" and I just loved her costume.  For Friday night rehearsal I did her hair and make-up and took pictures before we headed downtown in full costume.  I dropped her off with a kiss and a snack and waited in the lobby since parents were not allowed to watch rehearsal.    

There was a little bit of a scramble when we realized that our class had no backstage moms.  Of course we didn't find this out until after dress rehearsal was over!  I had seen the sign-up sheet at dance class and carefully avoided volunteering to be the adult responsible for our eleven preschoolers.  Apparently all the other moms had the same idea.  Thankfully, two brave women agreed to be the backstage moms for Saturday night's three hour performance.  Next year I will not take any chances, I'll just plan to be the backstage mom.  Tessa loves this idea and I tell myself it can't be that bad.

Tessa had to arrive an hour before recital time and we figured that would give us adults enough time to eat downtown.  We left Ryan and my dad at the restaurant while my mom and I walked Tessa down to the Peace Center.  Oh boy was she excited. 

I really think I was more nervous than Tessa.  Would her hair stay up in it's bun?  Would her bow stay in place?  Would she still have any lip gloss on by dance time?  Would she get stage fright?  But most importantly, would she have fun?  Of course I didn't say any of this to her and we only had one moment of pre-show tears.  She was fidgeting with her costume and complaining about the tight straps.  I don't know what I said or did but she got over it real quick and I breathed a sigh of relief.  After that she was all smiles and excitement as she headed backstage with her friends.   

 

Her number was about half way through the recital and I couldn't wait to see my baby on stage.  She did so good and I was so proud of her.  Please ignore my shaky video and loud cheering, I was holding the camera in one hand and waving like a maniac with the other.  Tessa is the fourth dancer from the left.  The best part was seeing her huge smile, she was having the time of her life up there. 

After the show, we met her in the lobby with flowers and presents.  Even though it was coming up on ten o'clock she was bursting with energy.  We took more pictures, she glowed with happiness and  basked in all the praise and attention.  We are all very proud of our little star.

We have several friends who dance at the same studio and it was fun to see them dance too.  The girls were excited to find each other in the lobby after the recital. 

I love that she loves dance and can't wait for our next year of fun.

Dance Pictures

Siesta Key

This year we vacationed on Siesta Key in southwestern Florida, the official #1 beach in America.  It was absolutely fabulous.  With white sugar fine sand, beautiful clear water, great restaurants, and lots of shopping I could go on and on about how wonderful the whole Sarasota area is.  My great-grandparents and my grandparents retired here and, with any luck, maybe we will too.  For fun, I made a collage of my grandpa with my mom and Ryan with Tessa posing on the very same beach at the same ages.  How fun!     

Tessa is all set to wade into the warm gulf waters.  She ditched the tube almost immediately because the surf is calm and she could swim without being knocked over by waves.  In fact, it was so calm and clear that Tessa started calling the Gulf the "beach pool."  Awesome.

 

We spent hours and hours on the beach each day.  When Tessa wasn't swimming, she would build sand castles.  The sand was so fine it would pack into really great forms, which fascinated the engineer in the family.  Tessa and her daddy would build towers and designate who would live in them.  I think Mickey and Donald were trying to recapture this castle from Pete.  Donald was banging on the "door" demanding to be let inside.  The princesses would use the "steps" because, of course, our sand castle forms have grand entryway steps.  She used her piggy bank money to buy a princess sand castle kit.  So, later in the week we had a carriage that could "park" by the castle.  Her imagination is a wonderful thing. 

When she shops with me, Tessa loves to try on hats (and shoes and jewelry too) but won't actually wear one for more than a minute.  I knew we were going to be in the sun a lot and really wanted her to have a hat, so I offered her one of mine.  I think it's adorable on her but she only wore it for a minute and so I lost the battle.  But we did manage to make it a whole week with none of us getting a sunburn.  It makes me sound a old but I'll say it anyways, spray sunscreen is the best invention.    

Our anniversary was on the Tuesday while we were on vacation.  We wanted to do something special so we rented a boat.  We cruised the inter-coastal waterways looking for dolphins and found several.  Two swam directly under our boat, so close I could almost touch them.  Then we took the boat over to Lido Key and beached it.  Tessa went for a swim while I looked for seashells.

There is a shady park right next to Lido Beach so we played there on the swing set.  They also had the coolest toy, it's a bucket seat that sits on an angle.  Once you get momentum, your body weight swings you around in circles until you are totally dizzy.  Tessa thought it was super fun.

Then we navigated the canals and drooled over the amazing homes.  Bird Key is an especially pretty man made island full of mansions and manicured lawns.  I love all the Spanish architecture and tropical plants.  Tessa's favorite part of boating was going fast and bouncing over the wakes.  She took a pretty good bonk to the head on one bounce but quickly recovered.  Even before the bump though, she wasn't quite her usual perky self.  When I asked her what was wrong, she told me her ears hurt.  After returning our boat, we made a detour to the walk-in emergency clinic, not for the goose egg on her forehead, but to get her ears checked.  Poor thing, she did have an ear infection and she hadn't even complained.  In less than an hour we had a prescription for antibiotics and were ready for more vacation fun.  Time for a special anniversary dinner with this man that I love.        

Lido Key, the island just north of Siesta Key, has a fabulous shopping and dining area call St. Armand's Circle.  We had reservations for the three of us at Florida's oldest restaurant, Columbia House.  The weather was beautiful so we asked to sit outside.  Our meal was delish.   We shared an appetizer of shrimp and crab meat baked with artichokes and Romano cheese and served with Cuban bread.  Then I had skewers of huge grilled shrimp and a steak with chimichurri sauce that was to die for.  Ryan had shrimp stuffed with crab meat and cooked in a lemon butter sauce.  This was seriously good food.  Tessa was sad there was no ice cream for dessert but our waiter suggested chocolate cake, and, when he brought the gigantic slice to the table, she was in heaven.  Then he brought her extra strawberries and she had a new best friend.  We lingered over dinner and people watched.  After dinner we shopped our way around the circle.  Tessa was hilarious wanting to go to another store, and then another, and then another.  We bought a few things and then headed back to the condo.  Happy 13th Anniversary!

John and Mable Ringling, as in Ringling Brothers Circus, built a winter home in Sarasota back in the 1920s.  The gorgeous house is named Ca d'Zan and is open for tours.  There is also an impressive art museum next door and a circus museum.  We spent quite a bit of time checking out the circus memorabilia.  Ryan was intrigued by the complete miniature set of a town hosting the circus.  We spent not as much time admiring the art, Tessa was hot and tired and bored.  But I did get to see the sculpture garden with its bronze casting of Michelangelo's David.  I am surprised that this one looks so much bigger to me than the original I saw in Florence, perspective is a funny thing.

 

We rested for a few minutes on the waterfront patio of the main house.  The stained glass windows are stunning in the bright Florida sun. 

Did I mention that we spent lots of time on the beach?  This is the most relaxing vacation that we have had since Tessa was born.  I read two whole books and Ryan read one too.  We could lounge in our chairs while she played in the shallow water or in the sand.  Tessa made friends with other kids on the beach and she played a lot with one boy in particular.  My child is a natural born flirt, Nyles (what a name!) was totally infatuated with her.  We chatted with his parents and entertained ourselves watching them play together.   

Tessa and I are not morning people so I don't know why I always try to have an early morning photo shoot.  Ryan tried really hard to snap pics of his two grumpy girls but these were the only cute ones.  Next year, to make everyone's life easier, it will be an evening photo shoot.   

I got it in my head that I wanted to rent bikes and ride on the beach.  So, one day after happy hour in the Village, Ryan humored me.  Tessa isn't riding well enough yet to keep up with how fast I thought we were going to ride so, we got a pull behind "princess carriage" for her.  Even though I hadn't been on a real bike in years, I spin twice a week and consider myself to be in pretty good shape so I graciously offered to pull Tessa.  Remember, this is after we had been to happy hour.  I didn't even make it out of the parking lot before I crashed into a storefront window.  In my defense, I didn't realize the bike had kid brakes, the kind you pedal backward to stop.  So, as I was approaching the intersection and trying to stop for traffic, I couldn't find the handbrake and crashing seemed like my only option.  Luckily, I was the only one hurt.  I sported some nice bruises for the rest of the week.  Despite the bumpy start, I was determined to ride on that beautiful beach.

No surprise, Ryan has much more knowledge of rolling resistance than I do and I quickly figured out why he had been less than enthused about riding on the sand.  It was SO HARD!!!  My delusions of riding around the whole island were shot in the first hundred yards.  Riding in the packed sand at the edge of the surf was easier but the princess kept yelling at me to not get her carriage wet.  It was too hot to put her plastic cover down so she was getting hosed every time we went through a wave.  About halfway to the hotel I called it quits and collapsed in a beach chair.  After recovering, we switched bikes and rode on to our hotel.  Ryan is so much stronger than I am and he did way better with the carriage.  I was told to slow down by a lifeguard because, on a bike by myself, I was flying.  We eventually made it back to the hotel.  The next day we rode on the sidewalks back to the village and I towed Tessa.  On concrete in the cool of morning it was the most peaceful and pleasant ride.  We will rent bikes again but I don't think we'll take them back out on the sand. 

Our condo had two pools and even though we spent most of our time on the beach we did swim in the pool a little bit.  Tessa is such a good swimmer.  She would swim the entire width of the pool all by herself.  If we tried to offer a hand, she waved us off or would swim around us.  I am so impressed.

Eventually the time came for us to head home.  It was hard to leave after such a fantastic vacation but we will definitely be going back.     

Dare to Dream

While planning our Florida beach trip, we realized that Disney on Ice would be in nearby Tampa during our stay.  To say that we are HUGE princess fans would be an understatement.  We had been to Princesses on Ice when the show came to Greenville.  But, since that time, Tiana and Rapunzel have been added to the lineup.  I'm so glad it worked for us to see this show, Dare to Dream, because it was incredible. 

As you can see, our princess was dressed like Rapunzel.  She toted her Rapunzel doll to the show as well.  We had front row seats right on the ice (good job Daddy!) so I got some great videos!

Tiana was great too, although Tessa did not like being that close to the bad guy, Dr. Facilier the Shadow Man.  Quick bathroom break during his number and we were all smiles for the rest of the night.

Disney is smart, a rather obvious statement about the marketing genius.  But, I say that because even though this show featured only three princesses, they all make an appearance in the grand finale.  This is good when, at intermission, your daughter is asking for Ariel or Belle or whoever is the current favorite.

And we could not go to Tampa without making a stop at the infamous Taco Bus.  Ryan has been raving about this place since he ate here two years ago while making the rounds of baseball spring training.  It is everything he claimed, I was eating salsa by the spoonful because it was just that good.

Pretty awesome first day of vacation.