Beach Trip

We had a week off before Jacob had to head back to work. We always go to the beach and this year was no different. We had a great time with great weather. It was really hot, so the girls did a lot of swimming in the ocean and pool. Here are a few of our favorite pictures.

Mady and KK playing on the beach. There weren't any jellyfish like the week before so that was good!

The pool had a bigger slide and then a kid slide. Mady and KK loved going down both!

Playing at the playground while we were out for dinner one night.

More pictures from playing at the beach. We started every morning out there and then headed to the pool before lunch.

The bigger slide at the main pool. Mady loved it and would slide down, swim to the side, and go back down. Over and over!

Our last night we took the girls to the Boardwalk and let them ride a couple of rides.

We have been busy nonstop since we returned. We spent the weekend at Downtown Disney with some of Jacob's family celebrating our niece's 7th birthday. The girls had a blast and even got the new Rapunzel pin for their lanyard. I am glad that we will be home for the next couple of weeks. Mady is about to finish VBS and then has tennis/swim camp at TCC next week, followed by tennis camp at Wedgewood Tennis Villas the following week. Then we are headed up to St. Augustine for a week at the condo. We are loving summer and can't wait for July when Jacob will be almost finished working!

A Picnic and Some Bowling

Earlier in the week I received a huge picnic basket full of summer fun stuff for the girls from one of my students. All that Mady cared about was the big picnic basket and going on a picnic. We've gone on picnics at Trotwood Park and eaten McD's at Friendship Park, but I decided to take the girls on a real picnic. Jacob was at home doing some landscaping, so it was a perfect opportunity for me to take the girls out. We headed to Lk. Mills Park in Chuluota. I didn't want to take them just to a playground, so this was perfect. Mady loves exploring and all things nature, so we headed over to the park, had lunch, played on the playground, went to the lake, and walked on the boardwalk. Mady and Emily thought they were so grown-up because they led the way!

This summer I signed Mady and KK up for the Oviedo Bowling Center summer program. Basically you pay $15 per kid and they get to bowl 2 games a day and pay only $1 for shoe rental. We've only been to the bowling alley once back in January, but I figured this would give us something to do in the summer, out of the heat. A few of our friends have signed up as well. We had the bumpers up and the girls used the ramp to bowl. Mady helped KK whenever it was her turn and the girls had a blast!

Mady's Pre-K End-of-Year Celebration

I found pictures of Mady's End-of-Year Celebration with Mr. Richard. He sang songs with the students, and then it was their turn to sing songs to the parents. They even had Sra. Fong there to help them sing their Spanish songs. After the performance we had a pizza and cake party. It was so cute watching Mady and her friends sing!

Memorial Day Weekend in Tampa

For the past couple of Memorial Day Weekends we've stayed at Disney, but this year it didn't work out and we let Mady decide what she wanted to do. She loves Busch Gardens and staying at the pirate ship hotel, so that's where we went. We love Busch Gardens because there are so many things for the kids to do there. We always devote one day to the rides and one day to the animals. We try to get there around 9 when it opens and then leave around 1 when it's really hot, and have lunch and go back to the hotel to swim and nap. We love the hotel because it has a huge pool with a separate kiddie pool, as well as an outdoor bar and tons of covered outdoor seating.

The first day we arrived we hung around the pool and let the kids swim. We were so excited for KK and her swimming! She starts another round of swim lessons June 13 and gets to move up a group! After swimming for a few hours we headed out to dinner and then came back for more swimming!

The next day we arrived around 9 am and headed to Safari of Fun. There are tons of kid rides in this area, and Mady does a great job of going on them with Kaitlyn. We also went to the Sesame Street show since Kaitlyn loves Abby and Elmo!

We also saw the Sesame Street show and met Abby, Kaitlyn's favorite! She wanted nothing to do with Cookie Monster.

After spending 2 hours at the Safari of Fun area, we headed to the other side of the park where there are more kid rides and Mady's favorite roller coaster, the Scorpion. You can see Mady and Jacob in the second row!

We left the park around 1, had lunch, went swimming, took naps, and had dinner by the pool.

The next day we headed back to Busch Gardens to see the animals. Kaitlyn was not tall enough to go on Rhino Rally, so we walked through the Edge of Africa, rode the train, and rode on the Skyride. We saw lots of animals and the girls even got to see the hyena being fed!

We left the park around 1, grabbed some lunch and then headed home for a pool party and bbq. We had a great weekend and it was so nice to get out of town for a few days. We are headed to the beach next week and then Mady starts 2 weeks of tennis camp and VBS.