Birthday week at our house...Jackson and Sarabeth do 7 AND 4!!!

It has been quite the week at our house!!! Jackson turned SEVEN (seriously) on Thursday May 28th, we had a double 7th and 4th birthday party at the Moorings Club yesterday with over SIXTY people there and a full pizza and salad buffet and all the fixings and gorgeous weather despite some scary clouds just ahead of the party...typical Florida fashion on the barrier island the clouds and rain blew out west and beachside was gorgeous:) We live, work, and play in paradise sandwiched out here on a barrier island between the Indian River Lagoon inter-coastal waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, I tell you!!! Paradise found for sure!!!! The celebrations continued this weekend as we opened gifts from family and friends near and far and all of the birthday party gifts. The kids were doing gymnastics tonight so we gave SB her big gift a day early...a custom made real gymnastics mat in pink and purple...yes I had to pay more for the special colors but you only turn FOUR once, right??!! Love this girl!!! We have big plans on her real birthday...mommy took a personal day and just Sarabeth and I are driving to Orlando to the ALL NEW American Girl store, Orlando! We have lunch reservations, she and I and her Bitty Baby and she can pick out whatever she wants for her baby:) What a fun week ahead we still have!!! How are these two so big??? In the midst of birthday celebrations, we took a break today to get back to reality to prepare for the LAST WEEK OF FIRST GRADE for Jackson and also to get ready for our trip to BEACHES TURKS & CAICOS next week!!! We are hitting the friendly skies in less than a week out of MIAMI so I had to get the passports and all bags together today and also hit up my favorite place on earth...TARGET for the last minute trip needs. We are looking forward to an amazing family vacation, and then an amazing summer!!!!

Memorial Day Weekend At the Lake

Aunt Megan and her boyfriend, Erik, came to visit us over the Memorial day holiday weekend at the lake! We had picture perfect warm sunny weather and while they arrived whiter than white after a terrible terrible midwestern winter, they went home with some good color. We did a lot of boating, sunning, and even got Erik up on the wake surf board behind the boat! We also did some tubing, thanks for coming down for a visit!!

Sarabeth's First Ballet Recital

We have had another busy week and a quiet weekend to follow, thank goodness! Last week Sarabeth had her first ballet recital. I will post some pictures and hopefully a little video we were able to take here at the end of this post. Jackson completed yet another week of first grade and has only THIRTEEN days of first grade left!! His teacher sent her weekly email out and pointed that out to us all on Friday...where has this school year even gone? He has grown so much in this year and we are looking forward to a break from our daily routine this summer and then the start of second grade before we know it! Sarabeth will complete her year as a frog at her pre-school at the end of next week and so only has 4 days left as a frog between the next two weeks! Summer is calling! I took the kids for their well check ups a bit early this year because with birthdays, school getting out and then a summer vacation we get busy this time of year and the check up documented their growth! Jackson weighed in at just about 60 pounds and Sarabeth weighed in just shy of 40 pounds. Sarabeth grew over three inches in height this year and while she started out such a peanut, at least for this check up she was in the 90th percentile for height and 50th for weight! At her ballet recital she was also the tallest girl!! Jackson is tracking just as he always has, rock solid and not an ounce of fat on him weighing in the 90th % for weight and slighlty over 50th for height. He has always tracked like that nearly exactly and he also grew immensely this year!! Jackson is maturing and at the same time funnier by the day with the things he is starting to understand or trying to put together and how it comes out of his mouth is often comical but not at all funny to him so we cannot laugh or he gets embarrased. He loves music so much and is so much like his dad in nearly every way it is funny. We gave him an old i phone this week, it is not connected, has no sim card, but he can get wifi with parental controls including music and games we approve. He loves the music aspect of it the most! The other day he got out of the pool and said he needed "my towel and my phone"....what a riot. Sarabeth is walking the line in that last bit of pre-schooler to big girl. She still naps daily and really does need her sleep and this nap. If the house is quiet on weekends she will sleep three hours!! Today I had to wake her up but the best part of that is her warm pink cheeks and letting me hold her when she wakes up. Days like this I think I cannot believe our nanny Ann gets to do this with her daily! It is a treat for me on the weekend to get the extra hugs and snuggles. She is growing into such a little lady but still very much enjoyes her place as the baby in the family. Hope everyone has a good week! We will cross the threshold of our TENTH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY THIS WEEK THURSDAY, OMG! How time flys!! I don't know if this will work but the link to try to get the video from her ballet recital is: https://instagram.com/p/2ryWI-lcsl/