Adulting

It's one of our favorite traditions that every summer, we take the girls to "Camp Grandma" and "Camp Mimi". The kids get to spend several days bouncing from location to location, spending the night in one place, going to the pool at the other place, meeting up for joint playdates and meals, then splitting off again for one-on-one time with the each set of grandparents. It's fantastic and they look forward to it every year.

As do we.

For while the kids are away, the adults can play. Sometimes we have various house projects we work on, like the time we transformed Violet's room from guest room to "big girl" room to make way for Annie's nursery. Or the time we painted our bedroom. Or was it the dining room? But this summer, without any big projects on the must-do list, we just took the time out to relax.

Sushi. Almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

First up, we went out to sushi. Why waste it on kids who won't appreciate it, right? Although Violet shows signs of being a sushi-lover. There is a delicious sushi place called Mori House not far from where we live and we basically just tell the sushi chefs to hit us with their best shot. We sat at the bar this time and as they crafted this masterpiece I was silently jealous of whoever lucky customer ordered it, until they handed over and I realized that lucky customer was me. The attention to detail, the plating... it tasted as good as it looked.

The next day, we headed up to Chateau Elon, the Georgia winery and resort. We were meeting another couple here for a overnight date-night night-golf event. While the rain ended up cancelling our night golf plans, I wasn't overly broken-hearted about it. We enjoyed the pool, headed over to the winery for a wine tasting, indulged at the buffet dinner, and took a morning nature hike.

Pretty!

My hot date.

Thanks for inviting us, Joyce!

We had some generous pours during this wine tasting.

Scenes from our nature walk the next morning! A beautiful day!

The next day, the plan was to go on a 2.5 hour canoeing adventure with the Chattahoochee Nature Center. Alas, the event got cancelled due to poor water quality (again with the cancelled events! Mother Nature was not playing nicely!) But we rebounded quickly with a trip to the "quiet pool" in our neighborhood. We have lived here eight years and I had never once been to this adults-only saltwater pool. See those trees? Just beyond them lies the family pool, full of yelling, splashing kids. But here, do you see that? Just peace and tranquility. We followed this up with a trip to the movie theater to see Baby Driver. Dumb name, great movie! Go see it! So fun!

Ah, the quiet pool.

Shh. I'm at the quiet pool.

The next day we cooked ourselves a breakfast scramble that featured tomatoes, peppers and basil sourced from our own garden (Mother Nature and I were back on speaking terms) and then headed to the race expo to pick up our Peachtree Road Race numbers. We finished our day with a last dip in the quiet pool and then dinner next door with good friends, before turning in early to get ready for The Race! Ah, adulting. It's so nice.

Last Swim Meet

A beautiful day for a swim!

Violet wrapped up her first swim team season in spectacular fashion. I could not be more proud of this girl. At our last regular season swim meet, she posted her fastest times yet in both freestyle and backstroke. I volunteered to be the "shepherd" for her age group, so I had the opportunity to be front and center for all her events as I got the girls lined up on the blocks. With a season of meets under her belt, Violet is a pro. She was even telling me how to do my job! It's nice that she has enjoyed swim so much - I never have to drag her to practice or bribe her through the meets. She's happy to hop of on the block, wait for the whistle and take off for the other end. Even if she gets sloppy in practice and bobs the last few feet to the wall, she turns it on in competition.

So proud of this girl!

After we wrapped up our last meet, we had a pizza party to celebrate all our swimmers and say goodbye to our fabulous head coach Blaire. All the kids won a "paper plate" award, with everything from "Most Likely to Be a Princess" to "Best Attitude" and more. Annie got "best attitude" but I wasn't sure if they meant "best" as in having a good attitude, or having, you know, attitude. Haha! And then Violet... she got Rookie of the Year! I had to explain the term rookie to her, and I don't think it meant much in her mind, but Matt and I were thrilled for her! She did make the comment that at her very first practice, the coaches had to help her reach the other side of the pool, but now she doesn't need any help at all (understatement!)

Rookie of the Year!

But before we could officially retire her swim cap for the summer, there was one last thing we had to do. Violet decided (okay well, Matt and I decided) that she would compete at the county-wide swim meet down at Georgia Tech. She was scheduled for four events, two relays and the backstroke and freestyle. In my head, I knew it would be a little intimidating, but it was still a bit of a shock when we walked in. The place was huge! There were so many swimmers! (We're talking something like eight heats of 7-8 year old girls 25 meter freestyle alone!) I could tell Violet was feeling a little overwhelmed, but she gamely jumped in the pool for warm-ups. When she came out, she was very concerned about the fact that the pool was so deep and she couldn't touch the bottom. She said she didn't like looking down at it. Still, all seemed okay. Until the parent volunteer texted me to say that Violet was on her way up to the stands, where she completely freaked out and started crying, insisting we go home immediately. I think the whole day, waking up at 6 a.m., being too nervous for breakfast, everything just crashed down on her. Poor thing. I basically told her she had to swim the relays because her team depended on her. Her sweet coach came to escort her down and promised to jump into the pool fully dressed if need be, which made Violet crack up and calm down. Watching from the stands, I could tell she was nervous on the block but she didn't hesitate when it was her turn to swim the relay. And that first race seemed to get her over her fear, as the parent volunteer reported that she was all smiles after that. She didn't post her best times at the meet, but it was a great experience and I am just so proud of the fact that she got in the water at all, given her initial fear. Hopefully she'll want to come back again next year!

Getting ready for the county meet!

Kicking Off Summer

BFFs at CAA!

My favorite way to usher in summer is by forcing my kid to wake up early, pack a lunchbox and backpack, and disappear for the entire day. I kid, a little, but honestly it's kind of nice to keep Violet in a routine to help ease the transition to schedule-free days. We headed back to Camp All American (or as I like to say - Six Flags Over Jesus) and once again it was awesome. Violet went for the first time last year, but this year, being both older and having some experience under her belt, she marched in without a look back! I am always so impressed with CAA. The counselors are 110 percent committed to this camp, evidenced by the wrap-up event on Friday. Their energy is amazing and mind-boggling when you consider that they do this ten weeks in a row! Also I get little flashbacks to my own summer church camp experiences (although they weren't nearly as flashy). Violet is already asking for two weeks at CAA next year, and to me it is worth every penny. Camp gives her something to look forward to every day, they make it a blast with pools, games, camp-wide competitions, the always important opportunity to buy candy at the canteen... Violet says next year she wants to do the Wilderness specialty (you pick a different specialty each week to focus on) and wants to eventually do the ropes course.

Yay Jesus!

While Violet was at camp all week, it gave me and Annie some one-on-one time, which happens next to never. Having just one kid at a time, when you are normally used to two (and the whining and competition and fighting that goes along with siblings), is a strange yet wonderful experience. It was nice to be able to focus on just Annie for a bit. She can be so sweet. She was my "coach" during my morning workouts, inserting random helpful statements like "keep going mommy" and "use your strong muscles". Every now and then she would attempt a move, which cracked me up. "Look at my body squats! I'm doing it!" Most days I even got her to take a nap by putting on an episode of Good Eats (she calls Alton Brown her "buddy"). She was a fairly good little errand-runner too.

A no-nap day as we waited to pick up big sister from camp.

We capped off the week with our neighborhood's first Swim-In Movie Night. It was awesome! I was surprised at how huge the screen was! There was free pizza and popcorn and even free floats to use in the water. I don't know how Violet managed to stay awake through the whole thing, after a week of camp plus the swim meet the night before! Speaking of swim team, Violet has continued to rock it, coming in second overall in the freestyle.

Movie Night!

Finally, I got my yearly haircut, and this time threw a little color in the mix just to make things fun for the summer. I love how the ladies at the salon always insist on straightening my hair. It always looks so different! Fear not, it only lasted until my next shower. And even the stylist admitted that it's way too much hair to straighten on a daily basis.

Straight hair, don't care!

Other than swim practice every morning and the meets on Thursday, our schedule is pretty open this summer. Swim runs through June, and the girls are signed up for gymnastics camp in July. But schedule-free summer has officially started. I've got to figure out a way to limit the girls' technology time and habit of asking for snacks every 20 minutes. I also need to figure out what I want to accomplish this summer. So far I tackled the girls' closets. I sorted ALL the clothes into their respective bins (things to save for Annie, things to donate, things Violet hasn't grown into yet, etc) and found a whole tub of baby clothes in the back of Annie's closet that got immediately driven to my friend's house. The faster I can get stuff out of here, the better! I'm sure I could make another pass through my own closet as well. And of course, I'm trying to train for the big race coming up on July 4. I'm sure we'll find a way to keep busy...

Go Orcas!

Suited up for the first meet!

We signed the girls up for our neighborhood swim team this year. It's a great program, but man has it been intense. All through the month of May (only one of the busiest school months of the year) the girls have had practice every evening, Monday through Thursday. It's forced me to be very organized and diligent about not wasting time at school in order to get out the door on time! 

The girls have loved getting in the pool every day. Considering this is Violet's first time being exposed to official swim strokes and techniques, she has jumped right in with enthusiasm, and I've seen major improvements daily. Annie is on the Junior Orcas swim team and is basically receiving swim lessons. There is a head coach and then tons of middle school and high school helpers in the water and she loves jumping into the pool, practicing blowing bubbles and getting her head wet. She's one of the youngest on the team, but even if she doesn't learn to officially swim this summer, it's great for her water confidence.

And they're off!

Thursday, the day before our last day of school, was our first swim meet. All week I had been more consumed with this upcoming meet that I was by anything going on in the classroom, which says a lot. What a crazy day to pick to kick off the swim team season! It had rained and poured all week, and although the sun broke through for the event, it was a chilly high-60s forecast. It was a mock meet, meaning we were the only team, but it was a great practice run for the real deal. Violet swam all four strokes (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly). At first she didn't seem to realize the importance of actually touching the wall - she would stall out about three feet from the end, once the water got shallow enough to stand up. But then her competitive nature kicked in and by the last heat, she hit the wall in first place! Annie also got to participate by jumping in from the diving block to one of her teachers, then "swimming" one lap across the pool. Although both kids seemed to enjoy their 47 trips to the concession stand most of all.

Parents are strongly encouraged to volunteer during meets, and by encouraged, I mean I received three or four emails/texts requesting, asking, and then straight up demanding that I sign up for a slot. I was hesitant to volunteer at first. Being our first time on swim team, I didn't even know what half the jobs were. Bullpen? Shepherd? Concessions seemed safe enough, so I spent my time making popcorn with one ear open for Violet's events to be called so I could dash up to the pool to watch. But there were plenty of other people volunteering and it was a great way to meet other families in the neighborhood. Everyone is super nice and it was cool to see how supportive everyone is of the swim team.

Annie "swimming".

Our first real meet (versus another swim team) is coming up this Thursday. Now that school is out (for kids at least... I'm heading back for two days of post-planning), the girls will have practice every morning Monday through Friday through the month of June. It sounds so time consuming, but honestly my kids are up so early, we'll be itching to get out of house by then anyway. But I might need to invest in some more beach towels!

Fall Break (or just a break)

So.... long time, no see. This is by far the longest blogging drought I've experienced since I started this little online diary. Sorry. I don't really have a good excuse. I got busy, I got behind, then I got so far behind it felt like I would never dig out and it just seemed easier to ignore the whole thing. And truth be told, I haven't felt much desire to come on here and write anyway. The only reason I've been pulled back at all is just the need to establish some type of record that these events happened at all. More for my benefit than for anyone else's (although my mom did ask the other day if I was going to update).

Anyway, let's see what happens. I'll try to throw the big life events up here that have happened in the last couple months, although I'm going to back date them so I don't feel so bad about myself... Wouldn't that be a lovely life feature. Hindsight is 20/20, but now you can actually backdate your events so your life doesn't look like quite a mess... Someone figure out how to do that.

But  back to the show. (I'm a little rusty, obviously.) Fall Break. This year we spent fall break at a lovely condo right on the beach in Ft. Walton, Florida. The place came highly recommended from Matt's  mom, who stays in this very unit each year on her annual girl's trip. We invited both sets of grandparents to join us because, the more the merrier! And honestly, the trip was perfect.

The lovely thing about our location was the easy beach access. I've never stayed quite so close to the beach before, but now I'm spoiled. We only had to climb one flight of steps to get to our unit, and the beach was reached by simply walking downstairs, past the pools, over the boardwalk, and onto the sand. The condo came with two free beach chairs and umbrella, set up for us each day. And being that close to our place meant we didn't even need to drag that much stuff down with us. Hungry? Run inside and get a snack! Tired of the beach? Walk over the pool for a bit! Forgot something inside? Have someone toss it off the balcony to you! Perfect.

The view from our boardwalk.

The girls insisted on hitting the beach the moment we arrived.

Beach babies.

Frame it.

Fall break happened to coincide with Annie's birthday, so we just hauled all the decorations, presents and cupcakes down to Florida with us. Girlfriend turned three in grand style, with her requested Minnie Mouse cupcakes. She got some kitchen stuff, a balance bike (that she promptly refused to ride so Violet happily commandeered) and other goodies. What a sweet girl.

Three!

Ready to cook!

The great thing about having so many people at the beach was that there was always someone willing to do what I wanted to do, and always plenty of people to hang back and do something else. I highly recommend traveling with a large contingency of babysitters and amusement-makers. No one ever felt like they were stuck watching the kids, and conversely, no one ever felt like they were forced to always entertain the kids. Every morning I crept downstairs to watch the sunrise with my mug of coffee and whoever felt like coming with me, and every evening there was someone to take a stroll with. One afternoon Violet and I watched a wind surfer, witnessed a wedding, and took in the sunset.

My brown-eyed girl.

The crew!

About halfway through our stay, I happened to notice a picture on instagram from my neighbor, who happened to be staying only 20 minutes away! We quickly made plans to meet up at the local mini golf place to let the kids play and have dinner after. You'd think we see enough of each other at home, but now that Amy and I teach at different schools, we see far less of each other than we're used to, so it was a lovely little "reunion". And of course, my girls adore those boys.

Ready for putt putt!

Family time!

After my morning yoga session on the balcony.

 Our last night in town, we drove over to Harbor Walk. The girls rode the little train around the plaza and we had dinner overlooking a magnificent sunset. It's funny how quickly life at the beach becomes normal. I had to keep reminding myself that we don't get sunsets like this back home.

All aboard!

Dinner with a view.

Last sunrise.

Goodbye, Fields of Gold

My parents had to head home a day early, but on our last morning we finally remembered to take a family picture by accosting some poor soul who was trying to enjoy his morning coffee on the beach and talking him into snapping a few for us. It was such a great, relaxing trip. And of course, now I'm totally spoiled and will be insisting on spending every fall break this way. Hope the grandparents are up for it!

Best Vacation Ever.

Summer Glass Half Full

Pool pals!

Well, it's July. Summer is half way done. Or, on the other hand, I have half a summer left. Let's be optimistic here. And we're still having a good time. Here are some things we've been up to... Violet had her friend Taylor spend the night. The girls played in the pool for hours. Annie watched them jumping in from the side and decided she was a big girl too, so before I knew it, she had cannonballed right in, totally dunking under before bobbing back up in her floaties. Once I realized she had no fear of going under, I figured she was ready to tackle the waterslide. (Truth: I didn't want to take her on the waterslide myself.) You know, it took Violet years before she was bold enough to do the slide solo. Annie, on the other hand, marched right up the steps, hurled herself into the darkness of the enclosed tube, and came out the other end grinning. She's so bold. She's going to steal my car when she's 13 just because Violet will be old enough to drive and anything Violet can do, Annie is going to do 3.7 seconds later.

Rocking the water slide for the first time.

First King of Pops popsicles at food truck night.

Annie was very sad she could not take a ride.

Foot bath.

So one evening after dinner, Violet was running around barefoot and somehow got a thorn stuck in the top of her toe. Oh, the agony. You would have thought someone was about the chop her toe off, the way she carried on about it. "I'm just so scared it is going to hurt!" she kept crying when I told her the thorn had to come out. It took 10 minutes and her dad's company to convince her to take a warm foot bath, and Matt had to physically restrain her when I approached with the tweezers. I'm sure the neighbors thought we were conducted some type of torture. But it did eventually come out, along with the admission of "that didn't hurt so bad".

A special guest and Madeline's birthday party.

Our neighbor Madeline turned five this summer, with a lovely Frozen Fever-themed bash. Violet wanted nothing to do with Elsa, but Annie was all like "I'm going to sit next to her!" and had no qualms at all about snuggling up to the frozen queen. Little things like this constantly remind me how different my girls are.

Princess Annie!

My pal Jen had a shower celebrating her baby girl!

Leather push button reclining seats, popcorn kids meal... fanciest dollar movie ever!

Cumming Aquatic Center for the win!

I have to admit, this summer has been pretty sweet when it comes to water action. At the pool, I can actually sit in a chair and observe from the sidelines and the girls play in the water. Violet is a strong enough swimmer to make it all the way across the pool and as long as Annie has her floaties on, she's good to go. And they were awesome again at the aquatic center. Annie has no problem taking off on her own, and Violet was able to hang with the big boys. They were so busy it was almost hard to keep track of them all!