Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin' alive, stayin' alive!

Cheesy title, I know, but I did want my (very) few faithful readers to know that I am indeed still alive and kicking. I ran out of blogging energy after the copious amounts of posting I had to do in fulfilling my TOS Crew requirements. It was fun, but I am ready to return to my regularly scheduled blogging. So, here comes a random post, full of insight and wisdom (y'all are believing that, aren't you??).

The school year is winding down and we have entered our first summertime slump. Really, it could be called a springtime slump, because it's not officially summer yet and we've been in a bit of a slump since around the end of April. The slump was quite possibly due to a fun Spring Break, spent at a lovely condo at the beach with my parents. Then, the impending trip we'd planned to Orlando mid-May. I love looking forward to vacation almost as much as I love being on vacation, so my mind has been straying for quite a while now!

The trip to Orlando was absolutely wonderful and refreshing - everything you hope for in a vacation. We spent quality time with some precious friends who will soon be heading out of the country for 3 years, making memories to last a lifetime. Their kids and Ella get along so well, having only seen each other once a year or so for the past 5 years. We had a visit with Mickey and the gang, hung out at the Marriott's pirate-y pool, played several rounds of putt-putt (plus, the adults got in one round of actual golf while the kids stayed with a babysitter!), had a nice dinner out, and generally just lazed around.

We left Orlando on a Friday and drove over to St. Augustine for the weekend. My hubby just HAD to see the World Golf Hall of Fame for himself (yes, it's true...there is such a thing!).


Thankfully, it wasn't as torturous as I'd imagined and Ella and I did survive. The best part was the Bob Hope exhibit on the first floor. His daughter donated all kinds of memorabilia to the museum - his Oscars, Emmys, Presidential plaques, and the like. Some of his best comedy bits played on screens throughout the exhibit, which kept us entertained for a while, before having to move on to the more "educational" parts of the museum (you know you've always wanted to see what a golf club looked like in 1800!). While in St. Augustine, we tooled around the city and viewed some of the historical sites from the comfort of our minivan (because that's how we roll). We did get out to walk around an old fort and watch the boats coming into the port (see, I'm writing a song about the old city, lol!).


School has been on-again, off-again since we got home! Our schedule is much more relaxed at the moment because we're mainly just reviewing what we've learned this year and preparing to move on to 1st grade. Despite our early struggles with reading, Ella has learned many sight words and knows how to sound out and read most CVC words. More than anything, she has developed a love of reading through my reading to her. I can't wait til she's actually reading on her own because I just know she will spend hours at a time with a good book. Math has come pretty easily to her, so the difficulty here has just been knowing how far to go ahead. I would like for her to begin memorizing addition & subtraction facts (she can add & subtract numbers through 20), so we'll work on that this summer. I have concentrated on Bible, reading, and math this year, with science & social studies peppered in here and there. I want to make the other subjects more of a priority next year, so I will be looking for ways to do that. I'm not an outdoors kind of gal (I know that shocks those of you who know me, lol!), so it's been hard for me to incorporate nature studies and fun science exploration in the great outdoors. I need to work on that! Ella loved being outside last year, but now she seems to prefer the A/C. I hate for her to lose that love for God's creation. But, I do have to put my foot down in the hot, humid summer!! The heat index is 100 degrees today, for crying out loud! How can I be expected to get out in such weather?! ;) Ok, so that was my little summary of our school year. We'll be taking some more mini-vacations from school from now until August 24, when we'll officially begin 1st grade.

I will soon post more pictures from our vacation on Facebook, so be on the lookout for those. I will also *try* to regain some semblance of regular posting here, so please come back by and comment to let me know you're still reading!

Stay-cation Finale!

(Please excuse this last pic with me in it! We had been in the hot tub and were in our jammies when Ella said she wanted to take a picture so she could remember our fun stay-cation. Just had to oblige her!)

The last few bits about stay-cation, I promise! Thank goodness we did not go to the Blue Angel show! Right around the time it was to start, the floodgates opened and lightning popped everywhere. My poor family had a time getting in out of the storm, but they were all safe. The newspaper reported that 4 people were struck by lightning and several others were injured by flying debris. It really stinks that they waited all that time to see the show and it wound up being cancelled! We wound up going to see Kung Fu Panda. Cute and funny with some scary parts, it is bound to become one of Ella's favorites. She's been talking about it ever since. We played a few rounds of Uno, then had a frozen pizza for dinner. After church yesterday, we ate at Ella's other favorite place, Wendy's, then just relaxed most of the day away. We did hop in the hot tub last night for a bit. We were sad to see the end come, but it was a very nice week. We now have to go back on our diets and Paul had to head back to work today. It's time to start planning the next vacation.

So, I've decided that I am going to take down my crafty blog. What was I thinking, trying to maintain 2 blogs?? I can hardly remember to post on this one. I will just combine everything here because crafting is just as much part of my life as everything else I talk about here. With that in mind, I wanted to show you what I made last month. I hadn't sewn anything in a while with the move and all, so I was itching to get back to it. For the purse, I used lee's Zip Top Tote tutorial, but I did not add a zipper or any type of closure to the top. I also modified the fabric dimensions so that it would be a smaller purse, rather than a tote. I put in lots of pockets to hold my cell phone, lipsticks, tissues, etc. I just love this bag and have used it every day! I followed Javajem's tutorial for the wristlet. My mom and I walk at the mall 3 times a week and we have needed something to carry a little bit of cash, our keys and maybe a credit card. I made this wristlet smaller than Javajem's and it fits everything just right. I also figure that, if necessary, I can hook my key ring to the tab on the end that was originally made to be a zipper pull. I used the wristlet for the first time today and it is perfect for walking! I made the wallet around Christmas time when I made several for friends, using happyfrog's slotted wallet tutorial. Hopefully you can see it in the group shot. I thought I had taken pics of it when I made it, but I didn't. You can see the others I made in this post on craftster to get a close up.







I've got more to post, but I think that's enough for tonight!

Stay-cation update cont'd

Thursday - The shopping & driving from the day before had worn us out, so we stayed home most of this day. We played a few games, but mostly just lounged. We did go out late in the afternoon for a walk, with Ella riding her bike. Apparently I'm going to have to incorporate lots of physical education into our homeschool routine because my girl is out of shape! She didn't even want to pedal most of the time and she wimped out after our first hill. My mom & I have been trying to get her to walk with us 3 times a week. I guess we haven't worked her hard enough! :) So, after that short outing, we went over to an Italian eatery we hadn't been to before. Ella and I shared a pizza that had obviously been thawed and shoved in the oven to heat, so it wasn't very good. Paul enjoyed his sampler plate, though, that included baked manicotti, fetucini alfredo and chicken parmesan. Ella was still pretty tired, so we came home and had an extended story time before bed.

Friday - Ella had been talking about going to Cracker Barrel all week, so we gave in (it was so hard to twist our arms!) and went there for brunch. Ella and I shared some delicious blueberry pancakes, eggs and bacon. We had heard about an indoor miniature golf place in Orange Beach, AL and we were curious, so off we went. It wasn't the best course, but it sure beat playing in the heat, so we had a good time. Paul's been wanting to teach Ella to play golf, so he has tried to work on her technique each time we've played mini golf. She hit a few good shots, but other than that, she mainly did what she wanted. Sorry Dad. Not sure she'll be the future LPGA star you've been praying for! ;) After the golf, Ella was ready for another swim, so we hit the pool again. This pool had a shallow kiddie area that was separate from the deeper pool. She stayed in the kiddie pool most of the time, but she did spend several minutes in the big pool with her Daddy, swimming back and forth (in her swim vest on, of course!). We wanted to go to Lulu's for dinner and since Paul had been there before, he knew we had to get there early to beat the crowd. It seems that everyone else had this figured out and we still had to wait about 45 minutes when we got there at 4:30! The clouds provided great shade, though, so it wasn't very hot and there was actually a nice breeze. The entree I shared with Ella was good but didn't seem like enough food for the price. Good thing, though, because we had to save room for the homemade key lime pie. It was divine! We walked around for a few minutes, watching the boats come into the marina, then left for home. Paul and I put Ella to bed, then settled in to watch the summer shows recorded on our DVR ("great" shows like "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" - what does that say about the lack of good entertainment these days??).

Today - Well, today, we were supposed to go to the Blue Angel show at the beach with my family, but the more we thought about it yesterday, the more we dreaded it. Sitting in the heat for 6 hours because my family wanted to get there early to beat the traffic was not our idea of a fun vacation day. Plus, we had just seen the Blues in November and we're just plain exhausted! So, we're lounging again - well, Ella and I are lounging. Paul has been working in the yard. Bummer for him. Hopefully he'll quit soon so we can enjoy on of our last days of stay-cation.

Here are a few pictures of our adventures so far:

Stay-cation update

Here's a run-down of our family fun this week. Sorry I haven't been updating every day. It's gone by too quickly and I'm sad to see the week winding down. Ella sure is going to miss having Daddy home with her. He's now trying to find ways to work less - that's a good thing! :)

Tuesday - Ella had Mother's Day Out, so we decided to let her go so that we could go to Wally World (Wal-Mart, woohoo!) together. We came home and vegged in the recliners and then had a quiet lunch at home before picking her up. That afternoon, we went to the UWF pool so that Ella could practice her swimming "skills" (see this post if you don't know her history with the pool). We had bought her a swim vest, hoping that would boost her confidence in the water and it has helped alot! Today, it only took her about 15 minutes to actually get off the steps and into the water, then she just took off!! She must have done 4-5 laps across the width of the pool by the time we were done. She kept "racing" Paul from one side to the other. She even put her face in once or twice. The really cool part was that she was putting into practice the things she'd learned in swim lessons even though she had hardly really participated during the actual lessons (besides just desperately holding onto poor Chelsea each time it was her turn in the water!). Paul and I were SO proud of her! Afterwards, we ate dinner at Ella's favorite place, Chick-fil-A, where she got to play for a little while. We then walked over to Marble Slab for some yummy ice cream to top off a fun summer afternoon.

Wednesday - There are some nice outlet stores in Destin, FL. So, we headed over there, but before arriving at the outlet, we stopped to eat lunch at the Mellow Mushroom where they make the best calzones anywhere!! Once we were sufficiently stuffed, we proceeded to shop til we dropped. Ella was quite a trooper until we reached the toy store, where she was allowed to spend the money her G-Maw had sent her last week. After that, she lost interest in any other shopping we needed to do and was ready to get in the van so that she could play with her new toys. I still needed a few things (especially undergarments, which you ladies know, it takes a little time to find just the right size, etc.), so Paul and Ella waited outside each of the next several stores I had to visit. They survived the apparent torture and we were off to eat at Joe's, where it is so much fun to eat good seafood and watch the singing & dancing waiters/waitresses. It was late when we got home that night, so it was straight to bed for all of us!

I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to finish up this report tomorrow. I have edited most of my pictures and will include them in tomorrow's post. :)

For all you homeschoolers

I don't know if I have any readers who are also homeschooling moms (besides my new friend, Candace), but I thought I'd mention this here just in case. I actually saw this mentioned on Candace's blog! Angela at Homeschooling and Loving It is having a giveaway of The Schoolhouse Planner. All you have to do is leave a comment on the top post here to be entered into the contest. This planner looks great and I have been thinking of buying it, but it does cost $39.00, so it would be even better to win it!! :)

Yesterday was day 4 of our stay-cation. We first made a stop in Daphne, AL for lunch at McAlister's Deli, one of our favorite places to eat (so sad we don't have one here!). We then headed over to the Exploreum in Mobile, AL. It was pretty cool. The new frog exhibit wasn't as great as I thought it would be, but the rest of the Exploreum was really fun. Ella had been there before with her Tio & Tia, so she had to show us around. After that, we went to the Eastern Shore Centre in Malbis, AL where there are some dancing fountains and Ella had such fun splashing and running around in the water. On the way home, we stopped to have dinner, making it a full day! I promise to have pictures up soon!

On stay-cation

Yes, we are officially on stay-cation! Friday was Paul's first day off work and, of course, we celebrated the 4th with a bang. The whole family came over to our house for tons of food and fun games (if you haven't played BuzzWord, find it and play it now!). We then headed over to the fireworks show downtown. Our good friends met us down there and Ella had a blast playing around and "oohing" and "ahhhing" over the "beautiful" fireworks. Yesterday, we took it easy for the most part, but we did go out for a round of bowling, shopping and pizza!

Now for the real reason for this post. After church and our usual family lunch at my parents' house, we headed to the movies to see WALL-E. What a great, beautifully animated, family movie!! I was so impressed not only with the stunning visuals, but also with the compelling story that was told through the eyes of an adorable robot who doesn't even really talk. There are so many positive messages woven throughout the movie that it's hard to know where to begin. The main theme being friendship and love, the plot also explores things like being a good steward of the earth, having a strong work ethic, the dangers of over-consumption and materialism, sacrificing to do the right thing, and having a child-like wonder and an appreciation for life. I cannot say enough about this film. Ella did get a little worried about a few things and some parts startled her, so I wouldn't take a child under 4 to see it. Because the dialogue is limited to very few scenes, this movie might bore some children who like more action and funny banter. But, I was pleasantly surprised at how well Ella followed the story and could figure out what the robots were feeling just by their expressions. As if it isn't blatantly obvious, I give WALL-E a "heart"-y two thumbs up! If you're interested, there is a much more eloquent review by Adam R. Holz of PluggedInOnline.com (the entertainment site affiliated with Focus on the family) here.

Tomorrow, we're off to the Exploreum where there is a new frog exhibit. I'll report back later in the week with some pictures of all of our fun!