Happy Birthday Beautiful

This past Saturday, August 23rd, Natalie turned 4! Yes, it's been 4 years since Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, Jean, (and my personal favorite) Hurricane Natalie rolled through our lives. Seriously though it's hard to believe it's been 4 years of fun with her.

We had a hard time deciding how to celebrate her big day this year. She's been talking for months and threating to uninvite anyone she's not happy with to her "special special party." She had a lot of expectations for a grand event. But she just started a new school this past week so she doesn't know these friends very well yet. After thinking we'd do a pool party with some family then changing our minds, (thank goodness we did as we had TS Fay to deal with) we decided to take her to Arabian Nights in Orlando. It's a "fairy tale come true complete with horses" dinner show. As part of her present we decided to take her to Libby Lu's to get a princess makeover before dinner. Valla of course loved this plan.



Even though I knew it'd be a great day, I still felt bad we weren't having a traditional birthday party for her so the night before Jason and I decorated the table with her party stuff. Jason called it my "mom guilt." We celebrated the morning with a few presents and pink pancakes.

Natalieism- My mom called her during breakfast to wish her happy birthday. She asked how it felt to be 4 and Natalie told her it wasn't her real birthday yet. My mom asked when it would be and Natalie said, "after I open my presents."

Natalie's friend Olivia joined us for lunch at Moe's.


If you haven't been to Libby Lu's, think wall to wall glitter, pink, girlie stuff with pop music BLARING. She totally loved it. Emily joined Natalie and Valla in getting glamorous. Here are photos of the transformations.

After they got them all dolled up, the make up girls took the little ones out into the mall and did a dance with them- we had quite a crowd watching them.

On to Arabian Nights
Maria, Jen, Gary, Myra, Niki, Will, Bill, Mary, Jason, Amy
Natalie, Ethan, Emery the doll, Valla, Emily, & Lauren
Here's the whole gang- thanks everyone for joining us on her special day!





After posing with the characters from the show Natalie was thrilled that the Princess had touched her arm and it was "so beautiful and soft!"


Petting the horses after the show.

Our tired princess after a perfect 4th birthday.

Natalie,
You bring so much joy, laughs, & fun to our family. We couldn't be more proud of you and want you to always know how much we love you. Happy 4th Birthday Smiley Goo!
Mom & Dad

Tennessee

We had a great time on our final summer trip. We left Gville (with Daisy) on Saturday at about 8am and arrived at our cabin about 8pm. All the girls did really well. The rest of the crew took the easier route via plane and joined us Sunday morning. All week we enjoyed tubing, riverside picnics, campfires with smores, boulder climbing, yummy home cooked meals, the Wii, and lots of time with family.

Funny story- The cabin we stay at is on a mountain... by it's self...in the middle of the woods. There is NOTHING and NO one for a while. So Niki, Bill, Jason & I had a fun night of Cranium & spirits and headed to bed around 12am. I had a night light on to see L. All of the sudden the power goes out. We hear the air kick off, the night light blackens and it is deafly quiet. I know it's got to be a routine power outage, but just what if someone cut the main line and is on their way in to hack us into tiny pieces?!? We met Niki & Bill in the kitchen who obviously had the same thought cross their minds. After lighting a bunch of candles which totally set the scene of the horror movie, the guys went outside to check it out, again- straight from the script of how many scary shows?!?! They don't find anything but we also can't see anyplace else to know if it's just us. What about our phones you ask? We get no cell service and the land line only has cordless phones which as you probably realize don't work if the receiver doesn't get power. We're on our own. After 10 min or so pass and we're all still alive I feel better but we need to report our outage because no one is going to know we're up here with no power. Niki & Bill drove down the mountain and returned to report the entire valley was dark. We called it a night and the power returned a few hours later. Enough excitement for me!

Natalieism from Tennessee-

• She was really really tired and announced "I only have 1 power left."
• Grandpa Tom was teasing her about a knuckle sandwich and a while later she teased back with the threat of a "bread knuckle."
  

Back to School

Today Natalie started VPK at St. Michael's Preschool. She's going MWF 9-2 and is very excited to have the same teacher, Ms. Mary, that Valla had two years ago. She thinks the same kids will be in her class that were in Val's! Being the outgoing little one that she is, she didn't bat an eye when we dropped her off this morning.

Valla or Vallarie as she's lately asked to be called, was very nervous and excited to start First grade at a new school. Last year, she went to Chiles where I was teaching and this year she's attending the neighborhood school. She's thrilled to ride the bus home and it took her about an hour and a half to calm down enough to fall asleep last night.

Can't wait to see how their first days were. We had a great TN trip and will post later after the house is a little more under control. :)

Summer's End

Well our summer of fun is coming to a close. We moved back up to Gville this past Monday and I still have all the girls' clothes to unpack, but amazingly they still have a ton of things to wear! Living with less this summer has really shown us all how much extra stuff we have in our house and lives. I'm trying to simplify as I unpack and although it's probably not the time to do it, clean out things as I go.

First task I felt necessary to accomplish- cleaning the top and inside of the washing machine- you know the area with wear all the hair, dirt, and splashed fabric softener ends up? Essential, I know. I think seeing the instant result was very gratifying and needed since all the other stuff will take a lot more time and effort to see results!

L is great! Had her shots yesterday, did great and has a low fever today. She's a whooping 9lbs 4oz now. 2 months old already!

Thought we'd have to do our 1st kid ER trip the other night. N fell funny on the trampoline and hurt her arm/elbow. After some ice, Motrin, & tlc she's doing much better.

Natalieism- I was watching Project Runway with V & N, (they love it) and was trying to explain the concept of "green" or eco-friendly clothing and shoes. I told her that they were not using real cows to make shoes and she says honest as can be, "they're going to use pretend cows?"

V is VERY excited to start school and meet some new friends since she's at a new school. She's going to ride the bus home! Today she read Green Eggs and Ham by herself.

Tomorrow or probably more realistically Sat am, we're heading out for our drive to Gatlinburg, TN. Boarding Daisy, our German Shepard, is quite pricey so she might be making the trip too! We're staying at a cabin on a mountain with Niki's family, Mike, Mary, & Tom. We're really looking forward to it. I haven't packed one thing yet!!

We spent the weekend at New Smyrna Beach. It was so great- thanks Mary.
Here are some video of Valla's dive and Natalie's favorite pool activity.

Did you know Natalie can walk on water?! Cool shutter speed huh?

Natalie found the cutest little crab, he spent the night with us, lost a few legs and was returned to the ocean the next day.

High School Musical karaoke on the Wii is quite a hit with our girls.

Lunch at the Beacon.

Boating with my Dad on the St. Johns River.
When I was little, we boated all the time as a family. It was neat to see my girls have similar experiences, but it showed me how little they know about boating- like how to "ride" the wakes. After a while, they were really comfortable and even took a dip into the river to cool off. Braver than I!




Lauren is all smiles at 2 months old!
I didn't comb her hair after her bath so she sported a mohawk.