Summer Vacation

This summer is flying by and we have been so busy, I've really lost track of time. It has been quite a few days since my last posting but, I'm back on it now! We headed down to Florida for a few days of sun. If you can believe this, Florida was 10 degrees cooler than Ohio the week we were gone. It was nice to cool off and enjoy the ocean breeze! We also took in a few beautiful sunsets.

As always, as soon as we get to our hotel, we run to the beach just to feel the sand. This girl loves, loves, loves the ocean and the beach!

The water was extremely warm. It felt like were were going into a hot tub!

The water was so clear we saw reef sharks, eels, stingrays and a lots of fish. In fact, one day the hotel encouraged us not to go in the ocean due to the influx of these creatures. Supposedly there was an excess of algae which causes a lack of oxygen in the water for the fish so they head towards the shoreline to get oxygen. Interesting!!!

Hanging with the teenagers.

Lots of turtles were laying eggs in the sand. They are very protected and always marked off with yellow tape. This one was not laying eggs but, just having a little green snack! We are back home enjoying our last month of summer.

Lemonade Stand

What a beautiful day for a Lemonade Stand! We started by making our signs last week and the cookies and pink lemonade last night. I made some bubble letters for the sign and Dawson did the rest! I noticed a big D and a hand print added to the sign. Of course I made another sign and posted it close by. It included the fact that we would be donating our money to "One of a Kind Pets." This is a local animal shelter we like to visit and play with the kittens!

We had our cash register and pitcher of lemonade ready to go!

Some chocolate chip cookies which by the way, sold quickly!!!!

First, we had to taste the product. Yes, she approved!

Our first customer.......

Putting the cash in the register was probably the best part of the lemonade stand.

And lastly, counting the money. We had quite a successful day! It was surprising how much money we made. We will be taking 90% of the money to the animal shelter this week and putting 10% in the piggy bank. What a great learning experience!!!

Festivities and the Fourth

Happy Fourth of July

It was a busy weekend full of festivities, family and nonstop fun! We spent lots of nights by the fire making s'mores and lighting sparklers. We made the whole weekend the Fourth of July and did sparklers nightly!

Fresh from a bath, we headed outside for some sparklers. As you can see, her hair is still wet.

Grammy likes sparklers too!

Every time we lit a sparkler, Dawson was just full of smiles!

One day, we headed down to a park with our old bread to feed the ducks. There is a playground, kid rides and some hungry ducks!

and, they have a concession stand. This is Dawson's first snow cone. It was a hot day and this really hit the spot!

On the Fourth, we put our hats on and got ready for the golf cart parade...always a hit with Dawson!

After the parade, we snacked on some red, white and blue jello cups. These were really good!

We had some fun with these light up snakes. You light these black pellets and out comes a giant snake made of ashes. She loved doing these in the driveway. Again and again and again!

And when you put two on top of each other, a bigger snake is made! Anyone remember doing these in the past? We did them all the time growing up!

Party Time!!!

After some thought and discussion with Dawson, we decided on a birthday party that was at the Art Studio (her favorite place) with a mini tea party. The perfect combination for a 4 year old party!

As we walked in, there was a beautiful sign hanging at the front desk. Dawson has been taking art classes here for awhile and loves every minute of it. I love it because it exposes her to all kinds of art materials and they provide very age appropriate materials.

The party started off with each child sketching what animal they would like to turn their clay bowl into. Dawson's choice was a kitten.

Next, she had to turn one ball of clay into a bowl and use the other ball for the animal parts.

It was amazing how focused all the children were on their work.

She is now scoring the clay so she can attach the legs to her kitten. Dawson is always so focused when it comes to art. After the animal was done, each child picked paint colors and painted away. This was probably everyones favorite part of the project.

Some of her friends at work.

After the bowls were finished, I scooted everyone outside for some beautiful arm paintings and chalk drawing. While they were outside, I was inside quickly setting up the tea party!

Grace and Dawson were discussing what they wanted painted on their arms. The idea of arm painting instead of face painting is that the child can see what is actually happening and how the picture is created. I never thought of that before but, I like the concept!

Friends

Just hanging out....

Mayna and Grace trying to decide what they would like to have painted on their arms!

The cake....picked out entirely by Dawson was made out of cupcakes. Great concept and easy to serve...mess free!!

Next, came the lunches, premade by me, and the teacups. I, along with my sister in law searched antique stores high and low for a variety of teacups for the past 6 months. We just barely had enough but, we did it! Teacups are harder to find than you think!

Sipping tea...(lemonade).

Loving the cupcake...

and finally passing out balloons and thanking our friends for coming to our party. It was a great 4th birthday!

One very happy girl!

Guatemalan Girls

Our good friends from Guatemala are in town for a few weeks. Yesterday we headed out for a train ride, some sightseeing and dinner. Unfortunately our train ride was cancelled due to bad tracks but, we still had fun just visiting in Peninsula and shopping with the girls. Dawson loved these girls so much she couldn't stop smiling! All three of them are so sweet and of course, beautiful!!!

Diana, Maria, Lucci and Dawson.

Mom and dad were here too! They were very kind to me when I went to Guatemala to pick up Dawson. Gus took us to Antigua shopping and sightseeing while we were there! Lots of fun! If you are wondering how we know these people....Gus was a high school exchange student of my sister-in-law many years ago. Since then, we have all stayed in contact and they have made many visits to the U.S. throughout the years!

Here comes the train we didn't get to ride! We were all a little disappointed the train ride was called off. The girls had never been on a train before!

Just chatting....

Laying on the tracks.....

and some art in the dirt.....