Birthday Season, Part 1

Every fall, we celebrate three birthdays in the span of 6 weeks. It is always a crazy time in our house, and this year, it was made more so by the start of preschool. For Glenn's birthday, he said he thought he might like to visit Huntsville and hang out at the lake house with Steph, Richard, and Sarah Kate. So we headed down for a four-day weekend and a birthday celebration.

We started off the weekend by riding Sarah Kate's zip-line.

The girls really enjoyed it, and it was great exercise for Daddy, too!

Even Mommy got in on the action.

After a spin on the zip line, we headed down to the boat ramp and threw rocks in the lake. The girls thought it was more fun to jump and splash and play in the water, though.

Hazel slipped on the algae on the boat ramp, and had a blast falling into the water.

Lisey had to follow suit.

Then it was finally time to get on the boat. Safety always comes first. Thank goodness Aunt Stephanie has Hazel- and Lisey-sized life jackets.
It was a beautiful day for a boat ride.

Mommy and Lisey thought so too.

When it got too hot, we stopped the boat and took a dip in the lake. Hazel thought Daddy was taking too long to get in the water.

Lisey loved swimming in the lake.

And Hazel learned that she could swim on her own in the life jacket.

Glenn got to try wake surfing.

And wake boarding.

And Mommy found out that knee boarding is harder than it looks.

The whole family got a tube ride too.

It started to rain, but Hazel had a blast playing on Aunt Stephanie's iPad and snuggling with Minnie.

Then the big girls came to take her out to play in the rain.

When they got back, Hazel helped Aunt Stephanie and Mommy prepare a special birthday dinner for Daddy.

The big girls baked cupcakes for "Uncle Glenn's" birthday.

And by the time we left, Hazel was riding the zip line all by herself.

Trip to the Beach

While the East Coast was battling Hurricane Irene, we decided to head up to Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It was a bit of a spontaneous day trip, but we all had a blast. We drove up Saturday morning, stopped by the Visitor Center, got our National Park Passport stamped, then headed towards the beach. We set up camp near Mount Baldy, had a picnic lunch, then played in the sand and the water for the rest of the afternoon. After 5-6 hours, we changed, packed up the car, and headed home. It was a great day!

Preschool is Finally Here!

Hazel has been looking forward to starting preschool since we signed her up in the spring. And finally the big day is here!

It was such a big day for her. The calendar told us that today was "Red Day" so we went out to find a red "First Day of School" dress. Hazel loved it!

She has to wear a name tag to make it easy for her teacher to learn her name. And she was so excited to finally get to use the backpack that Aunt Stephanie gave her as a birthday present last year.

Momma wasn't technically supposed to get out of the car at the drop-off. Hazel's teacher got her out of the car, but I jumped out real quick to snag a photo. Naughty Momma.

Lisey watched Mrs. Duley get Hazel out of the car...

...and it slowly dawned on her that she wasn't going to get to go with Hazel...

...and then we drove off and left Hazel at school without Lisey!

But then Momma explained that we were going to get to spend all morning together just the two of us, going to the grocery store and sharing snack time together, and Lisey thought that might just be ok.

And even though we had a great time together, Lisey couldn't wait to go pick up Hazel. Here she is waiting for Hazel to come out with her class.

Hazel was responsible for bringing in the drinks for snack-time today, and that meant that she got to be line-leader. Do you see her up there at the front of the line, behind the teacher?

As soon as Lisey saw Hazel come out with her class, she went running up to her and stood next to her until Mrs. Duley released Hazel to Momma.

Hazel said she had a great day! From what I could gather, she played with the cars, walked on the balance beam, showed pictures of our family at show-and-tell, set the table for snack-time, sat on a pink circle for story-time, played dress-up with another little girl named Macy, played in the sandbox on the playground and got to be line-leader all day. She loves school, she says, and wishes she could be there forever.

Disney 2011 (part 3)

On Thursday, the entire gang decided to spend the day at Epcot. We all went on lots of rides and saw lots cool things.

While some of the thrill seekers went on Mission: Space, the tamer croud went and visited Nemo and friends.

Eeeeek! Sharks!

After going on Journey into Imagination, Jillian and Lisey went exploring. We still aren't sure who was leading the way.

It was H-O-T, hot hot hot. We stopped for strawberry icees. Brilliant idea!

While spending time in France, who should we meet? Sleeping Beauty! Hazel was wearing Sleeping Beauty socks and showed her. She was very impressed!

At our fancy French dinner, we were visited by the chef -- Remy!

On Friday, our groups started to head their various directions. However, before splitting, we all met for one more visit to the Magic Kingdom.

Hazel would never have forgiven us if we didn't meet Rapunzel. They had a awesome waiting area with a coloring area!

Hazel and Elise were in awe. Hazel had planned on asking were Eugene (aka Flynn Rider) and Maximus (the horse) were, but froze. Think Ralphie in A Christmas Story when meeting Santa...

Fortunately, I didn't freeze. Megan asked if I could get a picture, and Rapunzel said only if I could give her a good "smolder". I got the picture.

The McCain girls waving as It's A Small World goes below. Good bye Disney World!