YEEYEE

Meet YEEYEE. At least that's what she calls herself.

In the last week Lilly has started singing Baa Baa Black Sheep.

BA BA BACK SCHEEP
HA OO ANIE WOOL
YES SIR YES SIR
THREE BA FOUR

We're home...safe and sound

We arrived home on Friday at 1 AM. We didn't get on the road until 8:45 Thursday night because when Will and I went to pick up the van we found out that our technician had the keys in his pocket. Guess where he was? At home. Ugg. That was a 75 minute delay.

Anyway, we are so grateful to Grancy and Big Daddy for putting up with us for 8 straight days. We had a great time using their neighborhood pool (almost every day) and it's quite nice for the girls to get to know their grandparents. That was, by far, my favorite part and the fancy apricots. yum (look for a blog post about our trip soon)

So now that we're home our crazy summer schedule begins. Last night in the kickball playoffs we won so now we have to play the finals on July 10th. We have a bbq tonight.

On Tuesday Sophia begins her summer dance class at the gym. She's really looking forward to taking another dance class with Haley. It also happens to coincide with a class that I take so I'm thrilled. Sophia also starts swimming class on July 6th. She's doing a week of vacation bible school and she's also doing princess camp again. She's a lucky girl.

Lilly is going to vacation bible school too, but she'll be in the nursery with her church friends. She's also going to have private swimming lessons. Her coach will probably be Will. (smile) She got really comfortable in the pool while we were at Grancy's house. Now we need to get her to blow bubbles. If this strategy doesn't seem to work then I will sign her up for lessons at the rec center.

Will and I have packed weekends too. I mentioned the bbq tonight and we have another one next weekend. The following weekend we have the kickball finals and Sophia has a birthday party. The weekend following we are planning to get together with Will's business partners in Northern VA. The last weekend in July is when my brother and his girlfriend are planning to come down for a visit. The first weekend in August is Claire's baby shower in Northern VA. The second weekend (August 7th) is our 6th anniversary. On August 21st we have a wedding in New York, but I'm not certain we'll be able to go. It's going to be a great summer.

A lemon

We bought a lemon of a car. Our Chyrsler Town & Country minivan, which we've owned for only 19 months, basically broke down last night on our way to Northen VA. Luckily we were off the major highway and on the road to Grancy and Big Daddy's house when our transmission decided to quit working! We barley made it to their house. Will was flooring the gas pedal and the van wouldn't move, but then all of a sudden it would lurch forward and the rpm gage was all the way up to 5. (All the car people that read this blog will understand what I'm talking about.)

We had the stupid thing towed this morning to a dealership so they can fix it under warranty. It only has 25,000 miles on it.

At 23,000 miles, three weeks ago, we had to replace the front brakes. I swear I hear the back brakes squealing now a bit, but I might just be hyper-sensitive.

We also just got a recall notice in the mail to replace the radiator cap. What's next?

Never-ending questions

How come?

Why?

What's this?

What's that?

Sophia is completely curious about everything. I've got to polish up my ability to think on my feet. She wants an answer immediately and I don't want to ever say that I don't know the answer. I want her to think that mom knows everything!

Last day of school

Another year bites the dust. Sophia's last day of preschool is today. It's hard to believe that this year is over. It certainly went faster than last year. She made many strides this year like learning how to write all of her letters, adding numbers together, and dressing herself. She's incredibly smart and she works hard in school. We're so proud of her.

In the fall both girls will be attending school. Sophia will still be going 3 half days and Lilly will be going 2 half days a week. Every single day that we drop Sophia off at school Lilly barges into the classroom and starts to play with all the toys. Mrs. Harden is always so nice to her and makes her feel welcome and I'm the mean one that makes her stop playing and leave the room. She really wants to go to school just like her big sister.

A water week

The girls are going to have a week full of water play. This morning we're headed to the Botanical Sprinkler Garden with Addie. Tomorrow Sophia has to wear a bathing suit to school for a beach party. They are going to play in some sprinklers and have an outside picnic. (She has to bring chips and watermelon)

Tomorrow after school we're going up to Northern VA for a long weekend. On Thursday we're going swimming with my college friend, Courtney, and her 3 kids and on Friday we're either going to Grancy's neighborhood pool or to a waterpark with Christina, Rob's other half.

Not sure what Saturday and Sunday hold, but I bet we could go swimming again at Grancy's pool if we wanted to.

Sophia and Lilly sure are lucky girls. I need to stock up on our sun screen.

A trip to the beach

We went to the beach this afternoon for some fun family time. Will and Sophia spent a lot of time splashing around in the waves and Lilly spent most of her time snacking and hanging out near the blanket. I relaxed a bit in a chair and then had to play in the waves with Sophia for a bit too. We made up a special move - it was holding up a leg as a wave came crashing in. Of course, we were holding onto each other so we could actually balance. It was fun. She's bananas about the ocean. The water was freezing, but eventually we all warmed up to it. Well...maybe just a bit.

We were there for just under two hours, but the sun was so hot it made Lilly crash on the ride home. She didn't even wake up when Will took her out of the car. She went right into her crib, sand and all.

Speaking of Lilly, she's talking up a storm these days. We'll see Grancy and Big Daddy this weekend and I want to find out if they can understand her. I think I may be a bit biased. Each day she seems to acquire tons of new words. She repeats us all the time and commits words to her memory.

Pictures from Hilton Head

Here's a link to all the photos I took while in Hilton Head.

Sophia jumping into the pool

We're back

We're back from our vacation to Hilton Head, SC. It was incredible, but missing one key ingredient: Will. He couldn't make the trip with us because of work. We headed out on a Sunday morning and after 9 hours in the car finally made it to our destination, the Grand Ocean Marriott Resort. We were invited to go on the trip with Haley and Carlie's parents, Mike and Michelle. So our total group consisted of 1 male and 6 females. How Mike survived, I'm not sure. How I survived without Will, I'm not sure either.

Regardless, we had a great time. We alternated days going to the pool and the beach. My favorite day was when we went to the beach in the am and then hit the pool after lunch - the best of both worlds if you ask me. The girls loved playing in the sand at the beach, but they loved the pool even more. After she warmed up to the pool for a few days Sophia became quite a pro at putting her entire head underwater. This is quite an accomplishment for her and we took Will to the pool last night to show him her new skill. She is so proud of herself.

On our first full day we went to the pool in the am and then Aunt Claire came for a visit in the afternoon and went out with us that evening too. We went to hear a guy performing for kids. He played a guitar, sang, told funny stories and encouraged all the kids to get up and dance to the One-eyed, One-horned Flying Purple People Eater song among others. Of course, neither of my girls wanted to get up and dance, but Sophia sat up there for a little bit with Haley and Carlie. Haley actually got picked to sit on his lap and sing a song. It was really cute. He asked her if her mom went "vacation shopping" for her outfit and Haley told him that Sophia went vacation shopping with them even though she didn't. Kids say the most off the wall things.

Throughout the week we did some really fun activities with the girls like celebrating Princess Day (the had a beauty make-up session and had their nails painted), painting ceramic magnets (Sophia picked a horse and a kite. Lilly/Mom picked a seashell), and tie-dyeing t-shirts (fun, but messy. I ruined a white top and my hands were completely blue for two days).

We went to The Salty Dog Cafe, a well-known Hilton Head attraction and had pizza and ice cream. Sophia bragged for days about picking up her whole slice of pizza and eating it that way instead of having it cut up for her. We went into some of the shops and at the end of the night, Sophia's hair had streaks of blue and red in it from Haley's ice cream cone.

I got Lilly an innertube swimming suit for the pool. In theory she should have been able to float on her own and swim around by herself, but she clung to me like she didn't like the water at all. By the end of the week I finally had her wearing that suit and sitting inside a blow up floaty ring and she loved it. I think the extra support made her feel more comfortable.

I will post all the pictures soon.