the dog days of summer!!!

We are DEEP into the hot and steamy dog days of summer (August) here...it is VERY HOT...VERY STRONG SUN...AND VERY HUMID!!! We survived the first week of school which is always a busy and exhausting week and we've had another slow weekend at home which we all very much needed!! We are enjoying the heck out of our wonderful swimming pool this weekend and this time of year I always feel like this is our winter as we literally have to head indoors even on nice sunny afternoons because the heat is just unbearable and the sun will sizzle your skin even with SPF 70 on!! We get out early on these days this time of year and we retire inside for naps and ipad time and blog time in the afternoons to avoid the heat of the day. We are gearing up for a long lake Labor Day weekend with Mimi and Papa coming to visit and stay with us at the Lake this coming weekend so we've also done some planning and organizing for that this coming weekend. We attended our club's back to school Friday night poolside party for the kids where they had hired a magician to come and do a show but the poolside show became an inside event due to the heat! Last night Jon and I joined 5 other couples for an end of summer special dinner party that the club held as well and today we have not left our house and spent the day poolside and just hanging out...my FAVORITE kind of day ever!!! Sarabeth starts her pre-school this coming week and Jackson continues with week two of First Grade...I love a good routine and I can tell that the kids do too...summer was fun but it feels good to be getting back into our school time routines. Sarabeth is excited and a bit anxious for pre-school. This year she joins the three year old class and is in the Frog Class. She and I went to a meet the teacher open house Friday morning where she got to play in the classroom and just get comfortable. She is so shy at first, and had a steel grip on my pant leg but after a while she loosened up. I am sure the first day (Tuesday for her this week) will be a bit tough but at the same time I know how much she will enjoy it. Say a prayer for our Sissy Tuesday at 9 am as she bravely embarks on her school year as a member of the frog class! She is just going once again the two mornings a week this year, just enough enrichment and socialization at her age. Happy Sunday all!!

First day of school pics

It was an EARLY morning with everyone in the house up before 6:30 am (including two dogs, a cat, and a cranky little sister that needed her beauty sleep) but we made it to First Grade on time and even snapped some pictures in the driveway before jumping in the car!!! It was also about the most humid morning ever! You will see this in the darn fogged up camera lens pictures. It is just so humid here right now, you step outside and phones, cameras and car windows fog!! Gross! It does not do much for hair either..... Jackson had a great first morning with an early noon dismissal today and a special lunch date with me after I picked him up! He could pick anywhere and he chose Subway...good healthy choice!! He loves Subway and was so hungry after barely eating his breakfast with the excitement of the morning he told me "mom, I need a man sized meal, not a kid's meal...so I ordered him a 6 inch turkey sub, bread and meat only just like he likes it and he said no, a foot long and didn't that kid sit there and eat it all!!!! He loved it and he especially loved having me mix all of the drinks to make his "special soda" to wash down that foot long turkey sub! He cracked up a few old ladies in the store that were also enjoying lunch, they commented on his good manners and vocabulary and gentlemanly looks in his new school uniform! All while he was chowing down on the foot long sub!! Jackson never fails to amaze me, he can really wear you out, or turn on the charm, whatever he is in the mood for!!! This morning when we dropped him off he knew the drill and found his class and they sat down and lined up excitedly high fiving each other and hugging with backpacks on and all. He had 21 in his class last year and they are now FULL with 27. He knows two of the boys joining the class and one is even a buddy who has been with him since his infant days at his old pre-school. I was so proud of Jackson when he told me he saw his buddy and I encouraged him to go up to him and greet him and make him feel welcome and show him where to sit with the class. His friend's mom later thanked me and praised Jackson to me or being so friendly and making her son feel so welcome! As more families arrived you could just feel all of the children's excitement and energy in that gymnasium...I for one was glad I am a lawyer today and was going to my quiet office and not to a classroom filled with 20 something amped up kids!! Sheesh...but their excitement was also a great way to start the day. After a greeting from the principal the entire school said the Our Father and then the Pledge of Allegiance and then after some brief announcements they were off to the classrooms for a few hours on their first day. I can still remember the nervous anticipation before the start of school each year and wanting my mom to walk me into the classroom on the first day...I can remember this wanting to be "walked in" until at leat 5th or 6th grade I think...while I now get to be the walker inner and walk my own child into the classroom...one thing has not changed...I still DO NOT SLEEP WELL the night before school starts. I woke last night around 3:30 am and tossed and turned restlessly until I finally just got up at 5:45 this morning. Maybe someday I will sleep well before the night school starts (even if I'm not the one going to school anymore) but don't count on it!!!!

the night before FIRST GRADE and all through the house....

The night before FIRST GRADE and all through the house...its been a BUSY ACTION PACKED SUMMER...and not a creature was stirring...not even a mouse!!! LITERALLY...WE ARE READY FOR SCHOOL BUT POOPED FROM THE FUN OF SUMMER!!! I felt it was fitting to do a blog post reflecting on the summer and the bit of growth we have experienced between the end of Kindergarten and on the eve of starting First Grade...such a milestone in elementary years! I asked Jon tonight if he remembered his first grade teacher and he did...someone at Frank Elementary he told me the name...I just cannot recall it. I had Sr. Dorothy, a Notre Dame nun and she was amazing while I was at Gesu Elementary. I remember the HUGE transition that First Grade was for me at Gesu as I went to school for the first time ALL DAY LONG and I also wore a uniform for the first time all day long and I remember learning to read in First Grade!!! My how times have changed...I feel like this year will be just a blip on the radar for Jackson as his kindergarten experience was more like what I experienced in first grade with all of the transitions to traditional school day, with a uniform, etc. and heck, he even learned to read in Kindergarten!!! This year he is a pro and already feels at home at his school and walked in like he owned the place for Open House after mass this morning! He will have Mrs. Morgan and his same kindergarten aid, Mrs. Willmot full time this year...their class has grown from 21 students to a whopping 27...the class is maxed out at 1st grade...and the school under-went a ton of upgrades this summer. We had a new principal last year and we love her. She is a fresh breath of air to an old school and is modernizing it day by day. She greeted us with a huge hug at orientation this morning and I truly feel like this is "our school" now and felt so welcomed and at home. We are all looking forward to a great year. We had a very fun summer starting with a 7 day Western Caribbean Disney Cruise, followed up with an amazing double birthday 6 and 3 swim party at the Moorings, followed by the closing on our lake house here in Florida and many weekends of moving furniture and belongings to make this lake home our home away from home. We spent many weekends acclimating to the amazing fresh water lakes in the middle of the state of Florida that are now like home to us, and in between that, we did a lot of work to pay for all of this fun...we squeezed in an adults only trip to D.C. and Georgetown for a college friend's wedding...and Jackson did about 10 different weeks of summer camp from golf camp to art camp...he did it all this summer!!! Sarabeth was a good sport and tagged along for it all. Both kids grew physically in leaps and bounds this summer. Sarabeth really shot up in height and both kids' feet seemed to grow! I cannot keep them in shoes that fit. Jackson really matured as a little gentleman this summer and as of THIS weekend I am happy to report that Sarabeth officially joined the big kid's club and is PACI FREE! She made the turn this weekend with a bit of a nudge from us and has not looked back! So, we are looking forward to this new school year...FIRST GRADE for our BIG BOY and the Frog Pre-School class two mornings a week for our BIG GIRL:) We are in a good place right now with our little family of 4...bring on the school year of 2014-2015!!! We are ready!!!

bathroom re-modeling continues

We have three full baths in our house and currently ALL THREE of them are under-going some level of a re-model. Sarabeth's bathroom which also serves as the guest bath got a full gut re-hab. Jackson's bathroom got a new toilet, new crown molding and a bead board ceiling and soon he will be getting a new vanity as well. Our bathroom is also getting a new vanity, crown molding and a new bead board ceiling as well as new toilet, lighting and paint!! All of this has been happening in stages of course as we are living in the house through it all.....here are some recent pictures of the progress coming along! Sarabeth's bathroom will look clean and glamorous when finished!! The ceilings will be painted with a bright white along with the crown but this is the progress thus far!!!

Pictures for Great Grandma O'Bryant and School Open House!

We got up this morning and dressed for mass and Jackson's school's open house. We wore our special outfits from Great Grandma O'Bryant and will be sending her our pictures soon as well! Mass was a big wiggly but afterwards Jackson was excited to show us his first grade classroom (first grade starts TOMORROW) and to show us around his school and check out all of the new renovations and classroom arrangements they have been working on all summer!! His old classroom is now the school's library and they have two brand new really beautiful Kindergarten classrooms, as well as a new 8th grade classroom that used to be the library, a re-model to the computer lab and science lab, and some touch ups to the gym and school offices as well! It was so great this year to get a hug from the principal and to see the familiar faces of the teachers and staff and to feel like we "belong" at the school now vs. the anxiety I felt at this time last year when everything was brand spanking new and we were also new to the school!! I think this will be a GREAT school year!!!

Blog lock down

Thanks for putting up with us while we "locked down" the blog. I should have some time this weekend while we are home to post some new pictures and updates as we prepare for starting First Grade and the Frog Pre-school class next week as we go "back to school"! I have a big case going on right now for a very public client and I felt it was best to cover all bases and make sure that anyone searching to find out about my background, legal, or otherwise...could not have a personal view of my life and family through this blog! We enjoy keeping the blog as a sort of scrapbook of our lives as well as a way to keep in touch with friends and family near and far but I only want it for friends and family! If you know someone that reads the blog that I failed to include or invite, email or text me and I will get that person's email address and invite them as well so they can stay in touch with us!

Legoland

We visited Legoland for the first time yesterday and it was a really fun little park for the ages of Jackson and Sarabeth right now! Jackson loves legos in general right now so this was really perfect for him. There were literally legos EVERYWHERE....even in the water park when we went on the lazy river, there was a "build a raft" theme with floating water legos that could be built on to both sides of your raft!!! The park was just the right size for a day visit and day trip. There is a large theme park with rides, even a few decent roller coasters. This is no Cedar Point...jackson was tall enough now to ride just about everything. There were also smaller rides for Sarabeth including an entire Duploland! There was an entire side of the park we did not get to see but we will go back I am sure throughout the year a few more times. We bought an annual pass as a Florida resident for only 15.00 more per person so we will be back! The park has a theme park section and then an entire separate water park. We got the pass that included both and boy were we glad...it was SO HOT yesterday. By 1 we were ready for the water park for a few hours! We had a great day at Legoland and it is only an hour drive from our cottage so a good day excursion to break things up when we are here for more than just a weekend. The park and the grounds are very pretty. There is even a water ski show that we did not get to see this trip...we will save that for the next time! My camera was in the locked locker for the water park so I did not get pictures but here are some pictures of the theme park area. Apparently there are about half a dozen legolands across the U.S....I saw there are some out west and one in Atlanta and one in Chicago! Pretty neat place all in all!!