Bridging From Girl Scout Dasies To Girl Scout BROWNIES

Can you excited?  That's what 12 girls were today at our bridging ceremony. Can you see Sophia's happy face? She was like this for an hour leading up to the ceremony and all throughout. Her excitement even convinced Lilly to become a Girl Scout too. 

Two girls in the troop couldn't make it.  We'll have them bridge over to Brownies at the beginning of next year. 

They ceremony was one of three being held today at Little Island Park at Sandbridge beach - which is one of our favorite beaches. 

The ceremony began with each girl wearing her blue Daisy uniform and walking across "the bridge"that the girls are all trying to stand on in this picture below.  Notice the uniform change to brown.  Well, after tchey walked aross the bridge Carolyn, the troop co-leader, took off their Daisy tunic and replaced it with their Brownie vest. Once they formed a circle I called each girl up and turned her around a few times while I said: Twist her and turn her and show her the elf.  She looked in the mirror and saw.  And the girls said: HERSELF!!!!  Yes, some of them yelled it so it deserved exclamation points.  (smile). Then they each said the Girl Scout Promise while I pinned on their Brownie pin.  It was a Kodak moment for sure. Will didn't come with us so I don't have a picture of Sophia getting pinned. 

He did join us at the beach after the ceremony so he had a free pass to skip. Not every dad was there, but a lot of them were.  Anyway, I digress....after the ceremony we went to the beach and had a fun time playing in the sand. 

These are a couple of super, excited, girls.  All hyped up after eating cupcakes with globs of icing.  

This is a picture of the cupcake cake.

Here's our troop flag. 

Hilton Head Island, Oh how we miss you...

We're still recovering from our fabulous vacation to Hilton Head last week.  We went with friends and all stayed together at their time share resort on the beach.  It was such a nice dry break from the constant rain we were experiencing in Virginia Beach.

It was so much fun to go to the beach in the morning and the pool in the afternoon....or the pool in the morning and the beach in the afternoon.

Lilly bounced around in the water using noodles and her tippy toes until the very last day when she felt brave enough to actually go under water.  She must have done it at least 100 times after she learned how to do it.  I'm so proud of her.

Sophia and Haley had a blast jumping and doing cannonballs into the 5ft deep end of the pool. 

The 101 degree spa was also a favorite among all the kids.  After a dip in the hot tub it seemed like they always wanted a snow cone or a slushy and since the resort had a roaming snow cone stand, that wasn't a problem.

We saw a juggling show at the side of the pool one day and Will was called up to "learn how to juggle".  Since he is quite a pro at it we were all chuckling.  He claims he dropped the ball at first because he was pretending he didn't know what he was doing. (smile).

Will taught Sophia how to play chess on the giant chess board. I watched for a while and I think she was actually catching on a bit.  Will, of course,
whipped her butt.

On the night of Lilly's birthday we ate dinner out and visited a face painter clown while we were walking around outside the plaza.  We stayed late to watch Shannan Tanner, a local performer, check out the pictures below.

One day we took a dolphin-watching boat cruise with another local performer.  I don't have sea legs that's for sure. When I had to get up and walk around below deck with the kids so they could get a snack and a drink I felt pretty awful.

Speaking of awful, Lilly got carsick on the drive home and literally threw up in the recycling bin in the garage when we got home. Sophia came down with a super high fever and had the fever chills and cold sweats for about 15 hours.  I hate when she has fever dreams because it's so hard to calm her down. Luckily Will is really good at holding her tight and taking care of her.

Hilton Head Island is now my favorite vacation spot, well, besides Disney World.

One day we played miniature golf and Will and I tied for last place. Ha ha ha.  The girls darted ahead of us so we didn't keep score for them. 

Unfortunately our camera decided to quit working for a few days and I'm still waiting to get a copy of Michelle's pictures.  She has a really nice one of the four of us.  I can't wait to see it. 

Lilly and Carlie in their ballet outfit

Lilly had dance pictures on Thursday night so she had to wear her hair in a bun and put on some makeup.  She loved that part. 

Here she is with Carlie in their outfit for the ballet and jazz dances.  The tap costume is much cuter, but I didn't get a picture of it this time. 

I'm looking forward to the recital.  Lilly does so well at dance. 

Not to be outdone by her older sister

Lilly, too, received a Barbie house for her birthday.  She got the Malibu House which doesn't have all the bells and whistles as the one that Sophia got, but it's more "her size".  We gave it to her on the day of her birthday party...which was this past Saturday.  

We had it at a frozen yogurt & toppings bar.  If you look closely at Lilly's shirt you'll see an ice cream cone on the front.  I found the t-shirt at The Children's Place and I found the iron on at A.C. Moore and made her shirt.  She was super excited to wear it. 

The frozen yogurt place had a party room so we were able to play a few games before we ate yogurt.  Lilly didn't even want a cake. 

You can see a game that I made hanging on the wall behind her.  The kids liked it....behind each ice cream cone was a hand drawn image and the girls each had to find a matching pair. I had just enough so that each girl could only find one match.  It was actually hard coming up with 11 drawings that I could produce that were (a) recognizable and (b) able to be easily duplicated.  Ha ha ha

We also played my version of pin the cherry on top of the ice cream cone which you can see hanging behind us on the left.   

Sophia's birthday present

We splurged this year and got Sophia the Barbie Dream House for her birthday. 

She's been saving her money up for it and has $48 but it seriously would have taken her forever to reach her ultimate goal.

Lilly and I put it together and set up all the little pieces while Sophia was at school.  When she got home we surprised her by hiding it behind this sheet.  She hugged me harder than she ever has before after she ripped off the sheet cover. She was thrilled to pieces.

She shouted:  JUST WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED!!!!  

The house is literally as tall as Lilly. It has three floors, a working chandelier, a toilet that makes the flushing sound, a working doorbell, and a three-story elevator. 

   

They love to play with play doh

OK.  So I have to admit that I hate play doh.  I hate it because it gets stuck to the carpet and stepped on until it's stuck in between the carpet fibers!  I seriously hate it.  Everything from getting down on the floor and scraping it off the carpet with a knife to it's scent.  Gross. 

The kids on the other hand, especially Lilly, love play doh.  She asks for it every time she sees it and whenever she has had any money in the last few months she always wants to spend it on play doh. 

Recently someone scolded me about not allowing Lilly to play with play doh.  So....here's my proof that I've let them both play with it.  And I bought Lilly a 12-pack of colors and a sweet shop set for her birthday...

Yay, I can't wait!

Sophia's pool party

Words cannot express how excited Sophia has been about her birthday party.  Well, the big day finally came - this past Saturday.  From 1-3 she was "The Queen".  Wait...let me take that back.  She told me she thinks she's "The Queen" from May 9th through My 14 because my/her due date was May 9 and she was actually born on the 14th.  Crazy!  Perhaps a little narcissistic?

It was a fun party.  All of the girls went crazy when we finally got in the pool at 2:00, but before then they played the limbo game and musical dots and were running around the room like insane girls on fire.  They were so loud!  It must be their age.  Actually, I'm reading a book that I picked up at our favorite local used book store and it's all about the 7-yr old personality characteristics, milestones, behavioral trends, etc...  AND - from what the book says, they were all acting like 6-yr olds!  At 7 we can expect Sophia to become more introverted. 

Anyway, like I said, her party was fun.  The girls ate pizza and cake.  Played a few games, swam for 50 minutes.  Changed clothes and then went home. 

We didn't open any presents at the party.  Actually, nobody opens presents at their parties anymore.  Maybe at family birthday gatherings, but not at friends-only birthday parties. 

Here's Will and the girls waiting for the party to begin.  

This is Sophia's friend, Paige.  She's in our Girl Scout troop.  She was the first to arrive.  I took a lot of photos during the limbo game, but upon reviewing them, I was at a terrible angle and none of the pictures are appropriate.  Bummer!

Too many stuffed animals

 

Sophia and Lilly got a kick out of throwing SOME of their stuffed animals over the upstairs banister on Saturday morning while anxiously awaiting Sophia's birthday party.