The rest of vacation

I took a bit of a sabbatical from the computer for the last few days of vacation. Here were some other highlights of the trip.


Most of the crew went to the Waterville water park one day. I spent most of the day in the wave pool and the kiddie area with Ellie while Katelyn was fearless on the slides and tubes.

The Calhoun clan spent one morning at the Gulf Shores zoo. It wasn't a very big zoo, but worked for our kids. They had lots of animals that the kids could feed. Ellie especially loved feeding the animals. Katelyn tended to pull her hand back at the last minute, creating animal frustration I am sure.

Family photos

The Girls were wiped out by the last day. Don't they look angelic?

Dolphins

Gulf Shores

We are at Gulf Shores this week having a wonderful time. The girls love the beach and the ocean. Katelyn has been a fish. She LOVES the water. It is actually a little scary because she swims pretty fast and doesn't want to stay that close. She goes underwater and you can't see here and it gives me a little pause. Yesterday we went on a Dolphin cruise and were awed by the beauty of the dolphins. The boats created a huge wake between them and the dolphins rode the wakes it seemed. They kept jumping out of the water and riding along side us. The girls loved it. Today we are off to the waterpark. Being preggo, I am going to park it at the kiddie pool with Ellie and venture to the lazy river. I am sure Katelyn will master the park in an hour.

Thanks to Cole and Gabe for coming by to take care of our furry friends.

Another test of facebook

Seeing if blogger goes straight to facebook.

My brave little climbers

This week at church they are having a Vacation Bible School. It kicked off Monday night with pizza, sno cones, face painting, jumpy things and a rock wall. Katelyn is fearless when it comes to climbing those walls. Ellie had her first attempt at it and did a pretty good job. She got up a few rocks before coming back down.

The Weekend's Festivities have come to a close

The planner that I am, I thought it would be a good idea to have June babies so I could be off all summer with them before heading back to school. Why didn't someone tell me the crazy birthday weekends that would be in store for me with two birthdays so close together. Well we survived the weekend and had a great time at it. It was a tremendous help to have Grandma Karen and Aunt Joyce around.

We had beautiful weather yesterday for Ellie's party at the Splash Pad. It was nice to meet some of the parents of Ellie's friends. The kids pretty much ran around for two hours in the water, occasionally stopping in for food and drink. Katelyn handled it wonderfully given that it was actually her birthday. We ended up grilling out at our house that evening and having a little cake to celebrate Katelyn's actual birthday. Katelyn's big birthday present was a new bike which you can see her so proudly riding. Ellie is the recipient of Katelyn's old Dora bike.

Today we took a trip to Brushfire Pottery for a party with some of Katelyn's girl friends. The girls did a wonderful job and were complimented on by the manager on how well-behaved and attentive they were. We get to pick up their works of art in about a week. That should be interesting. So in summary, I have a new three year old and a new five year old. Where has the time gone? I know it sounds crazy to say they are getting ready to go to college, but I feel like time is moving that fast. So my prayer for tonight is that time slows down so I don't miss all the little things.

Reminiscing some more--Katelyn turning five

On the heals of realizing my baby just turned 3 years old yesterday, I have to come to grips with the idea that I will officially have a five year old in a few hours--one heading to kindergarten this fall. So in honor of Katelyn's birthday tomorrow, here are some pictures from her first year. Poor Katelyn was so beat up when she entered this world. She looked like she had already fought a few rounds. There is also a particularly telling one of her already sucking her thumb vigorously at five months. Katelyn is one who wears her heart on her sleeve--whether you are blessed with her love or are the recipient of one of her looks, she has a passion for life. Happy Birthday Katelyn!!

Ellie's Birthday Part I

So we don't really believe in having one day birthdays around here. The kids' tend to extend for days. So last night we celebrated Ellie's birthday on her actual birthday. Things were low key with a few gifts, followed by cake and ice cream. Check out Ellie with one of her new gifts--an electric toothbrush from Katelyn. Katelyn was actually very proud of her gift since Ellie has been trying to sneak Katelyn's toothbrush for weeks. Katelyn also gave her a Barbie head that you can practice hair on which they proceeded to do for the rest of the night.

Grandma Karen and Aunt Joyce arrived this evening. We had a delicious dinner at Monell's, followed by a visit to the Children's Theatre to watch Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse. The kids found it amusing. Tomorrow is a busy day as we have Katelyn's actual birthday and Ellie's birthday party.

I can't believe my baby is turning three in four hours

It seems like just yesterday that we were introducing Katelyn to her new baby sister. Now Ellie will be three in the morning. We have been having a great week counting down the days for both Ellie (Thursday B-day) and Katelyn (Saturday B-Day.) Today Alan and I each split the girls up and took them to buy birthday presents for one another. They did a very good job and were quite proud of their purchases. So with my reminiscing, I am attaching pictures from three years ago as we introduced Ellie to the world. What a blessing she has been to us with all her smiles, cuddles and "I love You"s.