August 29 - Love this Little Man

I love this little man to pieces!

August 26 - Proud to be a North Pointe Rocket

 Today was a very exciting day-the first day of kindergarten!! Julia is attending the elementary school in our neighborhood called North Pointe. It's a 2013 National School of Character, an honor bestowed on only 29 schools in the US. Schools are recognized for their commitment to character education and for fostering a positive environment for social and academic learning. Julia is proud to be a North Pointe Rocket and even more excited to join her new kindergarten class. Her teacher has 17 years experience teaching kindergarten and they have a class pet, a snake named Chester. Amazingly, the only 2 kids we knew from Montessori are in the same class with her (crazy considering there are 5 kindergartens with 21 kids each!! Small world). I'm the assistant room parent and will help out at lunch the next two weeks since her teacher (Mrs. Bach) is recovering from foot surgery and is a little slow getting around. We all walked Julia to school today (it's nice living so close) and she immediately put her backpack in her cubby and started making friends. Love this girl!!

Super excited to start her new school!

Daddy is excited too!

Julia and Shayne - future class of 2026

August 19 - Ahoy Mateys! Captain Julia is 5!

Ahoy Mateys! Captain Julia turned 5 yesterday. FIVE! How did my little dimpled munchkin become a girl so fast? We celebrated with 2 parties, a school fiesta and party at home. On Friday, we brought in cheese sandwiches (in the shape of butterflies), fresh fruit and cupcakes for her class. The kids were all super cute and very talkative! We celebrated at home on Saturday with a super fun waterslide party and had a blast. Nine of her friends came over and we had snow cones, pizza, cake and lots of fun on the slide. Julia loves Jack and the Neverland Pirates so it was a Jake themed party. Enjoy these pics!

Cupcakes (they had either a character from the show or say 'Julia 5')

Cake (dark picture but Jake and his friends are on top)

Party Favors: chocolate covered gold doubloons (Jake and his friends earn gold doubloons after every pirate adventure-these were a HUGE hit with the kids)

Back Yard set up 

Slide Fun (Hannah is going up, Julia is going down and Evey is in the water)

Party Fun

Mmmm...Luke loves cupcakes!

Thank you for all of the wonderful birthday wishes. Julia had a very special day!

August 16 - Power!

The Clear Lake Sparks danced in their summer recital last weekend and they rocked it!! They had a 'power' theme and wore capes, masks and fabulous tulle hair bows. The girls were all super cute and enjoyed themselves! 

Julia and Evey

Julia, Evey, Emma and Bella

Julia and coach Jasmine

I spent 2 nights making the tulle hair bows for the girls. We had some extras and most of the moms wore them at the recital too. I know they are huge...but it was very easy to spot our team!

Power!! (Julia is front and center)

Happy Friday everyone!!

 

August 12 - Cape San Blas

Have you been searching for a white sand beach with crystal clear blue water? A nice quiet place to relax and spend time with your family? I have just the place for you, a hidden gem located on the Florida panhandle called Cape San Blas. Now many of you that peruse this blog are from Florida but have never even heard of Cape San Blas. It's about 2.5H southeast of Destin and in one word: paradise. It's a small beach town that is not commercialized. It's the perfect place to relax, read, fish, go scalloping, enjoy some peace and quiet. It is also dog friendly so there are lots of furry friends around (unfortunately our condo didn't allow pets). 

We rented a condo (part of a triplex) right on the beach last week for our first ever beach family vacation. Grammie and Uncle Chad rented another condo in the unit and we all had a blast (Uncle Greg and cousin Leah came up for a day). Although JD was really sick with a bad cold/flu the whole time, we still had fun with the kids!! The condos each had 2 bed/2 bath and full kitchens, living rooms and washer/dryer. There was a great deck overlooking the beach and the walkway over the dunes was literally right next to us. Looking at the picture, we were in the building with the red roof, our condo was on the far right. That red tent is ours, you can see how "crowded" the beach was. :)

Our First Night at the Beach

Walkway to Paradise

Daddy and the Kids

Beach Ballerinas

Burying Mommy

Uncle Chad Fishing

Grammie picking shells

Daddy and Julia

Fun in the Sand

Sand Man

Luke had a blast playing with the water hose

Snack time!

Popsicles

Sunset

Gorgeous rainbow our final morning