Playin' in the dirt

This...

is what was dumped in our driveway bright and early Saturday morning.

And this...

is who helped her daddy shovel it into the wheelbarrow and haul it to the backyard.

Grace's Good Samaritan act did not last long, however, because after one heave she declared it entirely too hot to be outside and that she needed to go in and "cool off."

Bonnie, on the other hand, would have given up all the Cheerios in her Snack Trap to go outside and help.

After 1,125 shovel-fulls, all of the dirt is in place in the backyard. We still have quite a bit of work to do in order to get the new bed along the fence finished, but at least the hardest part is behind us. And by "us" I mean Corey.

Grace's 3 year photo shoot

How could I forget to post these?! To see more of Grace's pictures, visit www.atfirstsightphotography.blogspot.com under the heading Miss G Turns Three!

Hilton Head

A few weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to get to go to the beach with our best friends, The Pittmans. Ceylese's in-laws own various time shares throughout the year, and every summer they spend a week in Hilton Head. Actually, the "kids" spend a week in Hilton Head, and Brad and Ceylese were gracious enough to let us tag along with them this year.

You'd think that 4 adults and 4 kids in a 2 bedroom condo would be an absolute disaster. Not this time! I am still in shock by how well everyone, i.e., the kiddos, got along being in such tight quarters, and we had the absolute best time ever.

Since we got there pretty late the first night, we didn't really do much of anything. That, however, is not at all indicative of how the rest of the trip went. We spent the next morning on the beach. Well, Corey and Grace and the Pittmans spent the first morning on the beach. I made the executive decision to wait until we were on the nice, gritty sand to put sun screen on the girls. You know, because it might rub off during the 2 minute walk to the beach.

My mistake.

Immediately after I applied the lotion to Bonnie, she rubbed her eye. Then stuck her hand in the sand. Then rubbed her eye again. The rest of the story is not pretty.

Needless to say we spent the next 2 hours in the condo. I did, however, manage to get this picture of her playing in the sand...pre-sunscreen and pre-meltdown.

After naps we headed back down to the pool, which as it turns out, is where we spent the majority of the week.

We took a little break to play in the yard...

and relax in the hammock.

I think Ceylese and I took 100 pictures just to get this one!

We also rented bikes, which I'm sure was quite a sight to all the locals who saw us riding them. Grace and Bonnie rode in their very own rickshaw towed by none other than Daddy. Brad and Mackenzie rode on some tandem contraption that had a bum handlebar and I carted Blake around in the seat attached to the back of my bike.

What about Ceylese, you may ask? Oh yes. She rode alone. The seat on Blake's and my bike was too tall for her and there was conveniently no way to lower it. I'm pretty sure that was the one and only time her shortness worked to her advantage :-)

We went to a horse park one day...

had more pool time...

and Grace had a LOT more beach time. She sure has come a long way since the beginning of the summer!

We spent some time in Harbor Town where we ate the most delicious seafood, played in the most incredible treehouse I have ever seen, and of course, ate more ice cream.

We had a blast and are so thankful for such great friends!

Happy birthday to me

What a great birthday! We enjoyed a delicious cookout at my parents' house last night and I got to do a little solo shopping today...what more could a 29-again-year-old-girl ask for?

Now getting to work on my 33rd, er, 29th year! Maybe I'll post the Hilton Head pictures some time this year, too...

Happy 4th of July

We enjoyed a great holiday weekend that followed our fantastic week at the beach! As soon as I have a chance to edit all 214 pictures (yikes), I'll post a few...

For now, happy Fourth (5th) of July! :-)

Ballet Camp

For her 3rd birthday, Grace received her very first Fancy Nancy book from Aunt Stacy, Uncle Dave, and Cousins Emma and Ellison. So it came as no surprise to me that, while getting her dressed for the first day of Princess camp, Grace asked, "Mom, are you going to put my hair up in a chignon?" She said chignon with sort of a French accent, too. That girl LOVES being fancy!

She was super excited to go to camp because she gets to spend the entire week hanging out with Mackenzie. That girl also LOVES Mackenzie!

I picked both girls up from camp on the first day, and since my mom came over to see Bonnie I was able to get away with not having to rearrange car seats; however, Bonnie still rides rear-facing since she is only 10 months old and, unfortunately for Grace, I'm not sure how to reconfigure the seatbelt to turn the car seat around so the poor thing had to ride home backward...sitting "Indian style" because her legs were too long to fit! At one point she even asked me, "Mom, are we going backwards?"

Day 2 and still going strong...

Happy Father's Day

We had the best day today! Not only did the girls sleep until 8:30am, but as a special Father's Day treat, I made biscuits, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and coffee (duh). We can't survive our mornings around here without coffee!

Corey then headed out for his run while Grace and I put Bonnie down for her nap and got all of our pool gear ready. I'll let the pictures take it from here...

Grace was so tired from all the swimming that, for the first time ever, she fell asleep without her night light and sound machine on. At 6:41pm. What a day!

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband and my terrific dad! The girls and I love you both VERY much!!