Latest & Greatest News, May 2015

Memorial Day Weekend 2015 {Part 2}

On Sunday, we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom. When we stopped at the ticket booth to get our parking pass, the attendant smiled & said, “Have a Magical Day!” — Ya know what? Not to sound totally cliche, but…We really did! It was Liam’s 3rd trip to the park & it was an awesome day. The park wasn’t terribly crowded. For being an {almost} Florida summer day, the weather was great… the storms held off just enough to give a nice breeze & the sun stayed behind the clouds most of the day. We also got to ride all the rides we set out to go on at the beginning of the day. HUGE thanks to my mom & her hubby for the comp tickets they shared with us …can’t beat that! πŸ™‚

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Our 1st ride of the day was ‘Peter Pan’s Flight’ — this was the 1st time both Liam & I got to ride this one. We all loved it!

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Not the greatest pic, but tried to grab a quick selfie before we got off our boat.

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All little man could talk about was wanting to ride the tea cups. So funny because he had never been on them before πŸ˜‰ …he was really excited to go on this one!

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This face says it ALL!!!

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“I wish I could ride Dumbo” — that’s his way of saying he wants to do something or have something. He wishes for it ❀

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Next stop the classic carousel….

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He told me to ride next to him πŸ™‚

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During our last visit to the park, Liam kept asking to see Anna & Elsa from Frozen. All the Disney princesses are now in the Princess Fairytale Hall. If you aren’t familiar, it’s a very long wait & with nothing fun to look at or amuse yourself with, as in other rides {sorry, not sorry, Disney!}. Since we didn’t do it last time around, we couldn’t say no this time. The look on his face was SO worth the wait…..

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He was most excited to meet Anna. She was the BEST with him & very interactive. It was awesome!

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Being playful & trying to get him to not be so shy — completely adorable!

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After we wrapped up meeting the princesses, he wanted to ride on the People Mover. Well, you can imagine the excitement when we stumbled upon Buzz Lightyear hanging out in Tomorrowland! πŸ™‚

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Little dude normally has never been a fan of any characters in costume, so we were beyond thrilled that he was up for this meet & greet. He LOVES Toy Story!

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To top off an already incredibly fun day, we caught the end of the Move It! Shake It! Dance & Play It! Street Party Parade — front & center ….little dude’s tired eyes were wide open once again even as we walked through the gates at the end of Main Street & waved good-bye to the Magic Kingdom ….

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……Until next time.

~H

Latest & Greatest News, May 2015

Memorial Day Weekend {Part 1}

Last week started off as any other week, but quickly went south for me, as I spent a majority of it feeling pretty crappy. I came down with a bug and it threw us all off. So thankful to Daddy for picking up the extra slack while I was down. Me and the fur baby bonded a lot ….as you can see below ❀

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During the week, my heart melted for a minute when the little dude took TimberΒ on a walk solo for the 1st time (in our cul-de-sac) ….he was SO proud of himself. I was, too, & I was proud of Timber for letting his “little” bro take the reigns πŸ™‚ — really was a special moment for these two!

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By Friday, I was starting to feel half-way normal, so we wanted to kick-off our weekend. Let me begin, by first sharing with you this completely appropriate articleΒ I came across for Memorial Day that was posted on The Washington Post & written by a veteran. You can find it here. While many of us (our little fam included) often refer to this weekend as the unofficial start of summer, or a reason to have a cookout — it’s really NOT why we have this holiday. I want to ensure our little one knows about that as we bring him up & we take pause to not forget.

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We all had the day off of work & school on Friday, so Liam excitedly said we were on vacation throughout the long weekend….I was good with that. To get some fresh air for us all, we decided to go out to the beach for a walk. He had been asking for weeks (literally) to go, and since I wasn’t up to a full day in the sand, just yet —- this was the next best thing. The ocean breeze was beautiful, and the water was cool.

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tiny footprints in the sand ❀ …..

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On Sunday, we went to Disney!! ….more about that a little later πŸ™‚

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We enjoyed Memorial Day on Monday with good friends. Barbeque and poolside — couldn’t ask for a better afternoon & end to our long weekend.

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These two above had so much fun pouring cups of water from the pool on each other & their dads — just the little things, ya know? πŸ˜‰

Slip n’ Sliding Fun…..

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More to come tomorrow….stay tuned!

~H

Latest & Greatest News, May 2015

Just Keep Swimming {A Refresher}: Our Little Fish

Little man recently wrapped up his spring swim refresher lessons with SwimSprout. Last spring, and into early summer, we spent about 9 weeks going through his initial lessons, & it was an awesome experience. You can catch up on that here.

With the refresher lessons, we just wanted to ensure he remembered everything that was taught to him last year. We plan to be in the water a lot this summer & the temps are already climbing, so it was definitely a good idea to get back into the pool now. We honestly hadn’t been in the water since September.

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We had lessons with Ms. Katie, again, and that made all of us happy. Consistently is key, especially at this age. She remembered his learning style & we pretty much picked up where we left off last summer. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at Liam’s performance in the water on the 1st day. Given the amount of time spent out of the water, I was expecting him to have forgotten a lot, but I was SO wrong. He got right in & started swimming like we had been in the pool yesterday. It was awesome!

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Swimsprout teaches the basics of ISR, and little man did much better in his 1st week of refresher lessons with his rollback. He has definitely proven to be a strong swimmer and can hold his breath for a significant period of time. That can be both good and bad with learning the ISR technique. We have to remember to make him follow through and roll onto his back to take a breath and flip back over to swim to us and/or the steps or edge of the pool. Sometimes, he tries to power swim…and, that may not always be the safest route.

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At the end of the 1st week, I got in the pool with him & Ms. Katie so we could go over his skills & things to watch out for over the summer.

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Refresher lessons usually last 3 to 4 weeks, according to the info we received at registration. However, little man did so great that we only had to go for 2 weeks! Nice for the wallet, but we were a tad bit sad to not spend as much time with Ms. Katie this time around. She really is the best πŸ™‚ …..Liam still asks at pick up from school if we’re going to swim lessons to see her {so cute!}.

We ended our last lesson with asking him to jump off the pool deck. He knew he had to land in the water by himself without having anyone catch him. He had never done this before, but we knew he was ready! He was a little leery, but went for it — he was terrific and we were SO PROUD!!

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Way to go, Liam!! You are such an awesome little fish! It’s gonna be a great summer of swimming….can’t wait!

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Before I end this post, let me just say that having ANY type of swim lessons does not make a child 100% safe in the water. NOTHING replaces parental supervision (that’s my PSA πŸ™‚ ). Also, everyone remember toΒ use pool gates, locks or alarms on doors / windows, and know CPR. Everywhere you look there are bodies of water….it doesn’t take you personally having a pool for your child needing these life saving skills or supervision. PLEASE be safe ❀

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Until next time, friends!

~H