Back from Destin

We spent most of last week in Destin with my parents. Dad and Jason played lots of golf and the girls spent time at the beach, pool and shopping (very, very little :( though). Our girls have really not played on the beach much at all before. I don't know that Mollie ever has. In the past, Morgan has not really enjoyed it because her eyes are very sensitive and she doesn't like the brightness, and she has a sister to play with now which made it much more fun. They were so much fun to watch in the sand and getting splashed from the waves...
Here is a sand castle that we made!
Actually the first couple days there were a little cool...in the 60's. Not miserable, just a little cool for swimming. We went to an aquarium type place on Wednesday in Panama City called Gulf World where we saw a ton of animals and shows. That night we had dinner with Morgan's teacher and her daughter who were vacationing in PC. I really didn't think she'd want to see anyone from school while down there, but she pursued us and I think just needed some adult conversation. She came with her 14 year old daughter and her friend!











All I know is that pregnant people should NOT be allowed in the sun!!!! Unfortunately, on Thursday, I got the worst sunburn of my life! We went to the beach and it was in the mid-high 60's with a 20-25mph wind. Mom and I sat there with goosebumps for 3-4 hours watching the girls play. Never once did I feel the slightest warmth from the sun. Yet somehow, when I came in, I had wierd uneven stripes down my arms and legs. I looked like a raccoon from my sunglasses (but I had to see to make sure the girls didn't drown!) and one foot was extremely red. Everything was so unexplainable. I knew my skin was more sensitive, but my burn wasn't on one particular side, etc, just very splotchy. My foot and ankle ended up swelling up so much that it looked like I'd been bit by something and I had to visit the emergency room Sunday night to check my circulation. They simply told me that I had sun poisoning and that my skin was "injured" and the swelling was its way of trying to fight that off. The only thing I could do to help it go away quicker is to elevate my legs! Easier said than done with 2 kids!
I don't have a picture of my nasty swollen foot/ankle and striped legs, but here's my top half!
I tried once again to get some of the beautiful beach pictures that everyone else seems to have, but my camera was having issues!
Mollie was very worried about getting her dress wet and would rather everyone on the beach see her Ariel panties!!!

Last year Mollie wouldn't jump into the pool unless she was holding your hand or at least a finger. She started doing it on her own last week and was very proud "1..2..3..4..5.." jump!







...pretty flowers by one of the pools!

Mollie posing...
Morgan with her goggles that she doesn't want to take off...

Happy Easter

I've lost track as to how many egg hunts the girls have done this year. I know they both had their own at school, we had one at church, in the neighborhood, with our next door neighbors and their grandkids and then our inside one on Easter morning. Jason is dreaming of eggs! Our sweet neighbors, Johnny and Brenda, invited us to join their family for an egg hunt and lunch on Saturday.

Aunt Linda-notice the purple fleece sweatshirts you gave the girls for Christmas! It was a cool day. Here are the girls dyeing Easter eggs!
This is Morgan's class from her egg hunt at school. She is in the pink and brown shirt just to the right of her teacher!
These are of their Easter baskets (or totes-the Easter bunny couldn't find their baskets and decided to be more practical this year!) and of their sweet dresses!!

Easter egg hunt and party weekend

It was another very busy weekend with our church Easter egg hunt Saturday morning, then Morgan had 2 birthday parties to attend. It poured all night and morning, so the hunt got moved inside the church building. It was a little lame with eggs just all up and down the pews and in the songbook racks but the kids still had fun. Mollie filled hers about half-way and said "this is enough!" But they wanted all the eggs picked up so we made her keep going!

Here is Morgan with some of her friends from church.Jason then "sacrificed" and took Mollie home for a nap and I hauled Morgan to a swimming party at the YMCA and then to another at someone's house. I forgot to take any pictures of her swimming, but we'll have plenty this summer! Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we got home.
Then Sunday, after a short naptime, we had our 2nd annual neighborhood egg hunt. It was nice, except we had a little drama! They divided the kids and the field into different age groups 0-3,4-7, and 8 and up and said they were going to let the youngest begin first. So we all went to where Mollie's group would hunt. Before we knew it, I turned and saw Morgan's group already hunting. They were just staggering the starts, not waiting until the little ones were completely finished! My mistake! Well, after running as fast as she could about half a football field, she made it but there were only about 3 eggs left for her! She burst out crying, especially since she had spotted the golden prize egg earlier and didn't even have a chance of getting it!
I'd have felt worse except that both girls have hunts at school this week and were also invited to hunt with our neighbors' grandkids (John and Brenda-the surrogate grandparents) next Sunday on Easter!

Spiderman cake!!

I had to share this funny Mollie story. I told her today that we'd have to call Grandpa tomorrow because it will be his birthday.
Mollie: Oh yes! We'll have to make him a cake!
Lori: Well, we would, but we won't get to see him tomorrow. Maybe Grandma will make him one.
What kind do you think he'd like?
Mollie: I think he'd like a spiderman cake cause boys like spiderman and papaw's a boy!

I was cracking up laughing at her thoughtfulness! As some of you know we took Morgan to the eye doctor last week because of all the headaches she's been having. Her eyes checked out fine. Well, today my call was instead for a stomach ache. I talked her into hanging in there and giving it a chance to get better and she made it through the day. But surprisingly, she continued to complain about the same spot (just below her belly button) all afternoon and evening. We finally figured out that she must have pulled a muscle last night at gymnastics (1st time) and she's also in dance this 6 weeks at school. So between the "bridges" at school and the backbends at gymnastics, I'm almost sure that's the problem. But she's probably never had a sore pulled muscle before so she doesn't realize the difference! It just hurts!

Gymnastics

The girls started gymnastics last night! Both were very excited, and all this was brought on again because Morgan went to a gymnastics birthday party last weekend. I was sad to miss their first week, but it was my Bunco night (my one night a month to go play and eat with the girls) and I hated to miss. Jason assured me that he would get them where they needed to go. He said they both did great and of course, both towered over the other girls in their classes. We are tall gymnasts!!! Mollie even won a contest for being the "best listener" in her class of 4! I'm looking forward to watching them next week. Morgan asked this morning why it was only on Tuesdays! We'll see how long this enthusiasm lasts! Here are a few pictures...

Proud moment as a parent!

Morgan has always been very smart. Since she's known her letters and sounds for years now, I really expected her to read before she started school. She recognized a few words, but wasn't really reading. If we told her to sound it out, she could, but it just didn't happen naturally yet. This year in Kindergarten, she has 3 parts of homework each night. (Remember she goes to a magnet school so it's very accelerated) She always has a page of handwriting practice, a book to read to us each night and then 10 sight words that they have a test on on Fridays. Lately, the books have gotten harder, but I've noticed that she is reading them well earlier in the week. Well, yesterday she came home with a new one for the week, but read it to me with no help right after school before her nap. She felt so good about it that she read it 3 more times last night. I sent it back this morning with a note asking for a different one since she had already mastered that one. Within 2 hours, I got a message from her teacher saying she had tested into the AR program (where they pick and read books from certain levels and then take computer tests on them) at a 1.4-2.4 level. That means that she is already reading between a 1st grade and 4 months to 2nd grade and 4 months level! Her teacher said this is AWESOME for the first time testing! We feel so proud! It all just finally clicked within the last month or so and now she's wanting and trying to read everything!

Snow

Overnight we had about 2-3 inches of snow. It was by far the most we've had in several years (at our house anyway), so the girls were so excited to get to play in it. You could still see the grass sticking up, but there was enough to play in. By lunchtime, it was pretty much all melted, but we still had a morning of fun. Here is Morgan making a snow angel.

This is just Mollie all bundled up and cute!The girls discovered that their slide was very slippery with a little snow on it. So this was the closest thing we got to sledding. Watch how Mollie flies off with her slicky clothes on!

Having trouble !!- Warm weekend...last weekend

This is about the 5th time I've tried to to post within the last week. I've had a ton of trouble trying to share our last weekend. It was beautiful and in the 70's both days. Saturday morning we had pancakes and sausage (Mollie's favorite!) and Daddy even let the girls pull their chairs close to him so they could still watch their show that was on!! What a special Saturday treat!We finally were able to play outside for the first time in a while. The girls colored with chalk, played on the swingset, had golf lessons and rode their bikes. Mollie loves her new bike (a Christmas present that she hasn't been able to practice on much) but Morgan is a bit timid now that her training wheels are off! Check out Mollie riding like a pro!


Jason attempted to give the girls golf lessons. Morgan did very well and really enjoyed it. Independent Mollie, on the other hand, didn't want any help and had to do it herself! Shocker, huh?