Swim Team

Emory and Ellie are swimming for their third season on the Fighting Turtles Swim Team. They practice three days a week and have swim meets most Saturday mornings. It's a lot of fun to watch them swim, learn new strokes and progress each week.

Emory diving off of the dive blocks at the start of a race...

Emory swimming freestyle...

Emory with his Heat Winner ribbon for coming in first place. Way to go Emory!

Ellie swimming backstroke...

Ellie and her friend Allie showing off their Heat Winner ribbons from a recent meet. Way to go Ellie and Allie!

How they have grown...

August 2008

When I look back at the pictures from the first day of school back in August when we sent Ellie off on the "big bus" to kindergarten and Emory off to 3rd grade they both looked so young. Just 10 months later look at how much they have grown up by the last day of school in June.

June 2009

Straight A's!!!

We are so proud of Emory and all that he has accomplished in 3rd grade this year. He maintained Straights A's on his report card all year long and scored at the top of his class on his FCAT standardized tests too. Thanks also to his teacher, Mrs. Tipton, for pushing Emory to do his best and keeping him motivated.

We love you so much Emory and couldn't be prouder of you!!!

Young Authors Night

On the evening of June 4th, Ellie invited us to attend Young Authors Night in her kindergarten classroom. This was a very special evening put on by her teacher, Mrs. Welu, where the children shared the stories in their writing journals. All year long, the children had been writing stories then turning them in to be "published" and returned to them to illustrate and put in their journal. This was our first look at Ellie's journal and it was so amazing to see how far she has come with her writing in just one short year.

Ellie reads one of her stories to her daddy. They were each so cute that we couldn't help but smile.

We can not thank Mrs. Welu enough for not only teaching Ellie to read this year but also inspiring her to be such a great author and illustrator too!

Piano Recital

On Sunday, May 31st Ellie had her Spring Piano Recital. It was her second recital, but the first that parents were invited to attend. The winter Recital was held at the teacher's home and it was only for the piano students as part of their Christmas party with their piano teacher, Mrs. Patterson.



The Spring Recital was held at Theresa's Piano Gallery in Jacksonville. Just for these type of recitals, Theresa's has a beautiful grand piano set up on a stage. It was Ellie's first time getting to play on such a beautiful piano and in front of so many people. At the recital, Ellie played two pieces. The first piece she chose to play as a duet with her piano teacher and the second she played all by herself. She did great and both of her pieces were perfect!

Afterwards she was all smiles...

Ellie with Mrs. Patterson after the recital, wearing her piano medal from Mrs. Patterson. Way to go Ellie!

Piper at Two Months

Here are a few pictures of Piper taken during the month of May. We got her in March and she was only 2.5 lbs the night Dan brought her home. By the time that May rolled around, she had almost tripled her weight and grown much taller too.

At the beginning of the month when she was still sleeping a lot, this is where Piper spent her days..."working" in the office with Daddy.

She was about the size of a bottle of wine and small enough to slip easily into the wine rack...

As the month progressed she became much more playful and found her bark...are we in trouble????

When the temperatures started to really heat up, Piper ventured into the pool with us but doesn't quite have the love of swimming that her older brother did. We're hoping that with time it will grow on her.

Her favorite thing to do so far is to go to the beach and play in the sand. After a couple of hours digging, she can always be found snoozing in the sun -- a favorite of our other little guy.

Bugz!

On May 28th Ellie made her acting debut in a play called Bugz! It was directed by her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Welu, and starred children from three of the kindergarten classes at her school.

The play tells the story of a bunch of bugs who are planning to invade a picnic. Each child was a bug and had solo lines to memorize and speak. The children painted all of their own costumes, made the set and sang all of the songs. Here are all of the cute little bugs from Ellie's class.

Ellie was one of the caterpillars that turned into a beautiful butterfly. Here she is ready to go on stage with her class before the show.

Ellie and Nikki, along with four other girls, sang a song about the fireflies. You can't tell in the picture but it was so cute because the stage was dimmed and the fireflies "flew" around the stage with just their flashlights for light.

When her turn came, Ellie delivered her lines perfectly. She was definitely a star...at least to her mommy, daddy and brother! We couldn't have been prouder of her.

Here are all of the butterflies doing their dance right after their metamorphosis. They each painted the most beautiful wings!The props made for the play by the children (and parents) were just too cute!

We have a video of the entire play, so on your next visit we'll pop some popcorn and enjoy the play together. Maybe we'll even be able to have our little actress sing along!

A Very Hot Father's Day...

The kids started the day off cooking yummy pancakes for Daddy and giving him the presents that they had made for him...a book all about her daddy written and illustrated by Ellie and coupons for daddy to redeem for lots of chores from Emory. They were both very cute and unique and made all on their own.

We had planned to spend a day at the beach but it was just so incredibly hot that we never made it out of the pool. We had lots of fun rolling the FunRoller across the yard and into the pool. It wasn't the day we had planned, but it was a really great day to spend with Daddy!

It was even too hot for Piper outside and she went to find a cool spot in the sandbox!

A Wonderful Mother's Day

On Mother's Day we continued our tradition of spending the day together at the beach. This year we headed off to Fort Matanzas across from Crescent Beach. We met our friends the Parke family there and had a great day in the sun.

Piper came with us too and it was her second trip to the beach. She still didn't love the water like we hope that she will one day, but she had more fun than she did on her first trip.

Ellie gave Piper a quick lesson in digging holes and Piper was a very quick learner. It was really cute watching them but we're hoping that Piper won't apply her new skills to the backyard!

At the end of a fun day we headed home to cook out and enjoy a special heart shaped cake that Ellie decorated for me at school for Mother's Day. Thanks for another wonderful Mother's day!

A Really Fun Friday...

Last Friday (almost a week ago already!) was a really fun day. Emory took the day off from school and he and Dan headed down to the Sun n' Fun Airshow in Lakeland, FL. This was their 3rd year going to the airshow and this year Emory's friend Duncan and his dad went with them too. Here's a pic of Emory in front of his favorite airplane this year, a Piper Jet.

Ellie had a great day too because it was her last field trip of the year with her kindergarten class. We went to the zoo and had a great time following her teacher, Mrs. Welu, around and listening to all of the fun facts that she knew about the animals and their habitats. Ellie and I stayed at the zoo for a couple of hours after the bus headed back to school so that we could feed the lorikeet birds who will drink special nectar that you can purchase right out of your hand.