Time at the Pool!

Mikayla hops out of the pool for a minute.
Drew walks under the mushroom to get wet!
We were the first to get to the pool on this particular morning and Drew and Mikayla had the pool to themselves. Drew took advantage of it by swimming all around.
Daddy and Mikayla are deep in discussion!

While on vacation, our family stayed in a house in Ocean Lakes Family Campground. One of the great things about Ocean Lakes is that it has a nice sized Kiddie Pool. Normally when we stay there, we do not take Drew and Mikayla's floatie swimsuits because they never ask to get in the big pool. There was nothing different this time. The only pool they wanted to play in was the Kiddie pool which is no deeper than 2 feet anywhere in the pool. Some places are only a little over a foot deep. There are many things for the kids to have fun with in this pool such as squirting devices, water falling on them from various things, etc. Mikayla wasn't real sure about the pool at first (just like with the ocean), but with Craig and I taking turns to sit on the side with her, she got used to it quickly! Drew and Mikayla had a ball at the pool, and more often than not asked to go here instead of the ocean.

Spending Time on the Atlantic Shoreline

While on vacation last week to Myrtle Beach, we spent several of our mornings at the ocean or the "big water" as Drew and Mikayla call it. Mikayla wasn't very sure of this at first and never really got used to the ocean water. Craig tried to get her to put her feet in, and she would only do that a little. I took her out into the ocean about up to my knees and she was fine with that as long as I was holding her. If I went to put her feet in, she would start crying to go in to her daddy. Drew loved it, and if we would have let him, he would have gone waist deep by himself. He did get to go out pretty far with Craig and I (up to our waist), but by himself we would only let him go in ankle deep water. For the most part Drew stayed in the water ( except when building sand castles or bringing me seashells), and Mikayla stayed on the shore.

On Wednesday morning while we were at the ocean, a crowd gathered about ten feet to the right of where we were sitting and they were pointing out into the water. The water was empty except for two ladies floating on a float. About the same time that Craig spotted a dorsal fin out of the water the life guard blew her whistle and motioned for the ladies to come in. The dorsal fin that Craig pointed out to me was only about 5 feet from where those ladies were. They had no idea that there was a shark until the life guard blew her whistle. When they saw what everyone was pointing at, they started paddling like crazy to get to the shore! Three sand sharks were spotted that day in waist deep water. After we spotted them, no one in our family went past their ankles in the Atlantic Ocean. However, as you can tell from these pictures, we still enjoyed our time on the Atlantic Shoreline!

Recital Part II

Okay, so now I will try this again. Blogger was being a booger and wouldn't let me upload anymore pictures to my last post (please see below for the first part of this post). I still had a few more I wanted to add so here we go with Recital Part II. Mikayla during her ballet routine! I wanted to add these two pictures with the one on the blog below, but was unable to for whatever reason! She's the pink flower on the far right!Here all the girls get ready to perform the finale. Mikayla (in the pink) and her friend Abbi (the yellow flower) dance the finale with Miss Haley. They both did a wonderful job. At the end Mikayla finished with her back to us - I wish I had gotten a picture of that, but we do have it on video. It was so funny! Teachers in this picture are (from left to right) Miss Haley, Miss Nicole, and Miss Andrea. Mikayla excepts her first trophy ever for completing one year of dance at Rising Star Dance Company. That's her lead instructor, Miss Andrea, to the right passing the trophies out!


Mikayla has thoroughly enjoyed these last three months that she has taken dance. She loves Miss Andrea, Miss Haley, and Miss Nicole! They were all so helpful with Mikayla and made a wonderful impression on her! We can't wait for September when next year's dance season starts. Mikayla is still dancing her routine, as well as some of the other girls' routines that she learned just from watching the recital!!

2006 Dance Recital

On Saturday, June 3, 2006 at 3:00, Rising Star Dance Company held it's sixth annual recital. Of course this was Mikayla's first recital, and we had been anxiously awaiting this since she first started taking dance at the beginning of March. She has picked up really quickly and has learned a lot in this short amount of time! Mommy, Daddy, Drew, Mimi, and Poppi were all in attendance to celebrate this with Mikayla! Mikayla and I had to be there at 1:30 so I waited until we got there to dress her. I was so afraid that something would happen to her costume since we had a lot of time before recital started. Once I got her changed into her first costume, she went right into the "holding room" with Miss Haley without crying at all. I was about to go check on her about 2:45 when Miss Haley brought her out carying her tights and shoes. I thought she had had an accident, but Miss Haley assured me she had made it to the potty but some had still gotten on her tights. We went back and put some new tights on her and she was good as new - ready to go! Then I went back to the auditorium to wait on Daddy, Drew, Mimi, and Poppi. The recital started promptly at 3:00, and it wasn't long before Mikayla's class danced on stage for her first song.
Mikayla is the one on the far right in the blue. The lollipop stayed in front of her face for almost the entire song. Craig asked "why is she holding that in front of her face?". This was her first time ever for her to be on stage in front of a large group of people. Again, Mikayla tries to do just what the other girls are doing. Some of the steps she could be seen doing before the other girls which helped Mommy realize she was learning the steps, not just watching her friends the whole time! Mikayla dances her ballet routine with the other girls from her class. Again, she is the one on the far right in the pink.

Then we had a little while to wait for the finale so that we could see our little Mikayla on the stage again. We were so proud of how well she was doing - all the girls were doing a terrific job. For most of the girls in Mikayla's class this was their first year taking dance! We were so proud of them all! Blogger is being a pest right now and will not let me upload any more phots, so I will try posting another post showing some pictures of the finale and of Mikayla getting her trophy!

Dress Rehearsal for Mikayla's Recital

On Friday, June 2 at 5:30 we had dress rehearsal for Mikayla's recital which would be held the following afternoon. When we first arrived at the school, Mikayla was very excited! She kept saying "I gonna dance". Even walking the halls in the school to get to the auditoruim did not seem to make her nervous. However, as soon as we stepped through the doors to the auditorium and she saw the stage and all the seats she started crying. She wanted me to hold her, she wanted to go home, she wanted her daddy and her Drew (they had stayed at home) - she wanted anything but this! I picked her up and took her to the stage, the whole while telling her she was okay and I wasn't going to let anything happen to her. I also tried reminding her that this was going to be just like at the studio - she would be dancing with "her girls" and Miss Andrea, Miss Haley, and Miss Nicole - the only difference would be the stage and people watching. She did finally stand on the stage and let me take her picture.
Then as more children arrived and it got closer for them to start with the rehearsal, she became upset again. I was beginning to think that she really wasn't going to do the recital - I mean, she wasn't even going to do the rehearsal when the auditorium wasn't full of people. They called for all the girls to sit on the right side of the auditorium and Mikayla went to sit in Miss Haley's lap. Then, after a few minutes started crying again for mommy. I got her and let her sit in my lap with the other girls. Then they called for all the girls to go back-stage because it was time to rehearse the finale. The whole cast of Dancing Through Oz would participate in the finale. I took Mikayla to the "holding room" which was the room right off the stage. Parents were not allowed in the "holding room" and I thought it would be best if I didn't go in with her then since I wouldn't be allowed back there on Saturday during the recital. All I had to do was get her to go in that room with all of the other girls and the three teachers - good luck. When I opened the door to that room, all we saw were little girls. Mikayla was not about to go into a room with all those little girls, many of whom she did not know. I couldn't see either of her teachers from the door, and I was nervous about leaving her in there without one of them. Then one of the parents who would be back-stage on Saturday was going in the door and she asked if Mikayla wanted to walk around back there with her. Mikayla agreed, and I was ever so thankful. As I walked away from there heading back into the auditorium to watch I could hear Mikayla crying for me. At this point I was still fearing that she was not going to participate. When I got into the auditorium, I could still hear her crying back-stage. The crying only lasted a few more minutes and I was anxious to see if she was going to come out on stage with the other girls. Turns out - leaving her in that room was the best thing I did. Not only did she come out on stage to practice the finale with the other girls, she did everything else just as the other girls did them that night! I was so proud of her!

What a Vacation!!

We arrived home from a week spent in Myrtle Beach late yesterday afternoon. We had just enough time to unpack and to start one load of laundry and we were off to eat supper at Pizza Inn with Mimi, Poppi, Aunt Jennie, and Josh! Mimi and Poppi were so happy to see us (especially Drew and Mikayla), and we were all happy to see them! It was also the first time we had seen Jennie in over two weeks. She was at the beach a week before us, and was coming home Saturday as we were heading down! I will be posting lots of pictures of our trip. We had a wonderful time, and Drew and Mikayla were able to enjoy many experiences while we were there! I will also be posting several pictures from Mikayla's dance recital and her dress rehearsal. Since we left for the beach directly after her recital last Saturday, I have not had a chance to post those yet! First though, I must get some more of our laundry done so I don't get so far behind this week!! Our family had a wonderful time on vacation, and we are so thankful to Nana and Papa Fred, Nanny, Uncle Ovid, Aunt Susan, Uncle Kent, Katie Beth, Rob, and Claudia for the time and memories shared!!

Summer!!

What a week! Our first week of summer vacation. Drew, Mikayla, and I are having a blast spending the days together. I comment all the time about having the best of both worlds. I love my job as a teacher, but I also love being a stay-at-home mom over summer break!! We have been sleeping late, well, later than usual. We have been reading - A LOT (both children's books with Drew and Mikayla and mommy books for me). We've been writing (Drew is practicing to write sentences, and Mikayla is practicing to write her name). We have been relaxing inside, and playing outside! We have been busily preparing for our vacation next week - laundry, packing, cleaning, more laundry. We have Mikayla's much anticipated recital on Saturday afternoon! The dress rehearsal is tomorrow night, and I am a like a teacher the night before the first day of school. I'm nervous, excited, not sure what to expect, etc. I've been told that it is an unorganized mess, and you wonder how in the world it will all work and flow together on Saturday. My source reassured me that it will, in fact, flow together on Saturday. I'm finishing up the last minute preparations tonight - for example, sewing the sequined strap covers over the straps of Mikayla's tap costume. Those of you who know me know that I am not a seamstress, but I love to try. I have also been busy making sure we have everything together in her bag - costumes (with all pieces), tights, shoes, make-up, elastic bands to put her hair in a bun, gel, hair spray, bobby pins, etc. In the midst of all of this I find Mikayla reading to her "babies" and I couldn't resist this picture!

Gymnastics Program

Warming up!Still warming up!
Jumping on the spring board!
Look at that handstand!
Walking the balance beam!

Last Friday, May 19th, I got to go to Drew and Mikayla's daycare to see what Drew has learned in gymnastics this year. If you remember from an earlier post, Craig was not real fond of his son taking gymnastics. When everyone else in his preschool class was taking except him, Craig gave in! I assured him that there would be no leotards, and that Drew would learn coordination and balance. Drew has thoroughly enjoyed it this year. This will be the only time he takes gymnastics as he will not be at preschool next year. Here are some of the pictures from his program. Notice all of the little boys...this definitely helped Craig to feel better about our decision!

Drew's Baseball Banquet

Mikayla with her Aunt Jennie!
Drew walks with his Poppi!

Drew receives his trophy from Coach Tim!

Peyton and Drew have a good time while enjoying their supper!
Mikayla with her Poppi!

On Thursday, May 18th, we went to Fudruckers with the players from Drew's baseball team this year. We were having their end-of-season banquet to celebrate all of their hard work! It was really nice because we had reserved the whole back room and the players could invite as many people that they wanted. We invited Mimi, Poppi, Jennie, Josh, Jonathan, and Jessica to come celebrate with us. We were thrilled that Poppi and Jennie were able to make it. The others would have loved to have been there, but were unable to due to work or other conflicts. It was very nice to have all of our families together to celebrate. We were able to get some dinner, talk about baseball or just our kids in general, and enjoy cake. The team members and coaches were awarded trophies, and the children (and some adults) were able to play some games! We all had a wonderful time at the banquet. It was a terrific season, with all of the players learning a lot! We can't wait until next year!!

Dance Class

This is one of the last dance classes for Mikayla before her recital! (Expect lots of pictures from that!!! We will also be videoing it!) Mikayla practicing her tap routine with her lollipops. If you remember from an earlier post, the theme for this year's recital is "Dancing Through Oz" and her tap routine is danced to The Lollipop Kids. Her once black tap shoes have been spray paited white to match her costume. Yes, I said spray painted. That's what her teacher told us to do and it worked. We will probably be buying her new white tap shoes though for recital as these are becoming a little small on her feet. Our whole family, as well as Mikayla, can not wait for this recital. Craig says she probably won't do anything once she gets on that stage. We shall see!!

Four Generations

While in Greenwood on Saturday, May 13th, we were able to spend time with Craig's mom and his Nanny. While there, I wanted to make sure we got a picture of Nanny, Nana, Craig, Drew and Mikayla. This makes four generations on Craig's mom's side. When we went to Florida back in 2002, we were able to get a four generation picture from Craig's dad's side. GG Pa, Grandpa, Craig, and Drew were all in that picture. I will have to see if I can post that picture later as it is not on my digital camera.

Claudia Grace's Birthday Party!

That's the birthday girl behind Drew in the pink!

Drew first tries skating with "fast" skates. These are not speed skates, just regular ol' skates. As you can see, he hasn't gotten the hang of it yet.

Back on the carpet, Drew is more comfortable using the "fast" skates!Drew sits beside his cousin Rob while eating his pizza!
Mikayla enjoys her pizza while sitting with her cousin Katie Beth!
Craig traded out the "fast" skates for platic ones, and Drew is able to skate by himself with these.
Mikayla tries skating for the first time with the help of plastic skates and daddy!
Mikayla skates with Mommy, although she's still not too sure of this!
Drew puts the "fast" skates back on for the last time. He began to get the hang of it. Sorry for the quality of this picture, but we wanted to show him off!


Last Saturday, the day before Mother's Day, we went to Greenwood, S.C. to spend the day! It was nice because we were able to attend Claudia Grace's (Craig's cousin) birthday party and visit with Craig's mom (Nana), who was also there spending the weekend with her mom, Nanny. Claudia Grace was having her birthday party at a skating rink. I was so happy because this would be Drew's second trip to a skating rink and Mikayla's first. Since I was not able to go with Drew the first time he went and didn't get pictures (if you remember from an earlier post he went with Extra Edition on a field trip), I was pretty excited about getting some pictures of the two of them!

Drew and Mikayla were both pretty funny. They both tried skating, enjoyed pizza, and had some cake and ice cream!

Happy Birthday Claudia Grace!! We had a great time!

Catching Up!

We have been so busy these last few weeks that I have found little time for blogging and scrapbooking! With the end of the school year upon us, and with all of Drew and Mikayla's activities coming to an end for this season, it seems I have lots to blog and scrapbook about just not enough time! I will be using the next few days to catch up, so there may be lots of new things to read about.

I'll start with something that happened two weeks ago that really made Craig and I proud that Drew is our son. At church on May 7th, some of the children that go to Children's Church (4-6 year olds) got up and did interpretive movement to the song I Can Only Imagine! There were five children, including Drew, that participated in this under the direction of our youth director's wife. This was the first time that Drew had gotten up in front of our congregation to participate with his peers! He did an amazing job, and mommy had tears in her eyes! We were so proud of him. I was upset because I had forgotten that this was the Sunday that they were doing this, and I didn't have my camera with me. (They were supposed to do this the Sunday before Easter, but it was delayed due to many families being away that week for Spring Break.) Craig also missed that Sunday due to work, so he didn't get to see it. I did take some pictures using my cell phone so that Craig could see how well Drew did. I do not currently have a way to get pictures from my phone onto the computer, but that is something that we are working on. I hope to have pictures of this on here soon!

Surprise!!!!

Craig definitely got me good today! We are not allowed to have flowers, balloons, etc. delivered in the district that I teach in. I was sitting at my computer working on next week's newsletter while my kids were at their activity and I heard Craig's voice at my door. I looked up and Drew and Mikayla were coming into my classroom each carrying a balloon that read Happy Mother's Day. Craig followed behind them and he was carrying a dozen pink roses! I was so surprised because I had just dropped Drew and Mikayla off at daycare two hours before. Craig went and got them just so they could bring my gifts to me. He is such a thoughtful man. I count my blessings every day, and I thank my Lord that he is a part of my life!!

I was able to have my two balloons and beautiful pink roses that smell so good in my classroom all day! I didn't have my camera at school, but I did take a picture once we got home!!

Recital Costumes

This is her tap costume...I couldn't resist this picture!! With this costume, the girls will be wearing their hair down. She will have nude tights on with white tap shoes. I can't wait!!
Showing off her gloves...still in her tap costume!
This is her Ballet costume! With this, the girls will wear their hair in buns - they will have pink tights and pink ballet shoes.

Today at dance class, we got Mikayla's tap and ballet costume for her upcoming recital! We were thrilled to finally see them, and of course, we had to come home and try them on. Mikayla wanted me to open them before we left the studio. I was able to keep her out of them until after her bath.

Greenville Drive

This is the player that gave Mikayla her ball! Thanks #24!
Drew and Mikayla pose with Turner, one of the players that signed their balls!! Thanks Turner!
Mikayla takes a rest with Cathy! Drew shows off his "professional ball"!

Mikayla and Drew enjoy ballpark food!

Drew and Mikayla were really into this game! The player standing in the coach's box (with the blue jacket on) is the one that gave Drew his ball!


Monday night, a friend of our family sang the National Anthem at the Greenville Drive Baseball Game. Emiline is in the eighth grade and was chosen at an audition where she, along with several (in the hundreds I think) other people were vying for the chance to sing. We were delighted when Cathy, Emiline's mom, invited us to go with their family to support her! Emiline's sister, Tina, and I have been friends for almost 15 years - most of the time I feel like part of the family.

This was the first "big" baseball game that Drew and Mikayla have been to, so we were pretty anxious to see how they would react. When we got to the stadium, the first thing Craig did was buy Drew a blue Louiville Slugger bat and Mikayla a pink one. Who's the softie here?? We were pretty excited when we found our seats with the rest of the group (there were about 20 family members/friends there to support Emiline). They were on the first base line - front row. I must say though that I was a little nervous to see a sign that read Caution - please be alert for foul balls or slinging bats. It also didn't help to hear Craig say "you better be watching...and if I say duck, you better duck". Drew and Mikayla were just excited to be that close to "big" baseball players practicing on a BIG baseball field.

Emiline took the field and did an amazing job singing! Drew watched in amazement as the game began. Mikayla wasn't real sure if she liked this new situation or not and stayed in my lap most of the first two innings. During that time, a few foul balls were hit and some lucky fans recovered a few of them. At the beginning of the third inning we went up top to get something for dinner. While we were enjoying our Papa John's Pizza, Drew managed to get on the big screen as he danced to music that was playing. He also got to dance with two pizza slices (people in costumes). I couldn't believe that I had left my camera down at our seats. A funny side note to the pizza slices...when we were leaving the stadium after the game we were asking Drew and Mikayla if they had a good time and wanted to come back. They both said yes, but Mikayla said "I can't like that french fry". She was talking about the pizza slices - she's not real fond of people in costumes. I laughed until I cried about that!!

When we went back to our seats, the game started getting good. Until this point, the Drive were losing 2-1. During the middle of one inning, Craig told Drew to wave at one of the players standing in the dug out with a ball. Seeing Drew waving at him, the guy decides to come over and give Drew the baseball. This just made Drew's day. He said "I got a professional baseball now!" The player even gave Drew a "high five"! You would know I didn't have my camera ready for any of this, but I did get plenty of other pictures...as you can tell from the top of this post! The Drive finished the game by coming back to win 5-3 and we were all screaming like crazy. Mikayla got a game ball as well when the players were walking by our seats after the game. She was waving at one of them and he pulled a ball out of his pocket and gave it to her. These men were so nice to do such a little thing for my children and it is something neither of them will forget! They even got their balls signed by some of the players before we left! This was a wonderful trip for our family, and I'm sure we will be going back many, many times!!

Our Little Teacher

After Mikayla got out of the bath the other night, she picked up one of her books. There was really nothing unusual about that because she loves her books and she picks them up to read several times a day, especially at bed time. She started "reading" the book to Craig, and then to our surprise started showing him the pictures just like a teacher would. She was holding the top of the book and moving the book around from left to right so that "all of the children could see". I'm sure that she has learned this from her teachers at preschool. Do you think we have a little teacher on our hands? Mommy wouldn't mind that at all!!

Painting Fun

We had to go to Walmart tonight to get Mikayla some new tights for dance class tomorrow.

Before we went, we went over to Mimi and Poppi's house to see Poppi. He had just gottn back today from a golf tournament near Charleston (Wiboo [sp?])where he won first place!!! Yah, Poppi, we are so proud of you!! Poppi had given Drew and Mikayla each two dollars to spend if they wanted to or to put in their banks. While we were searching in the toy area (of course) for something to spend two dollars on, we came to the aisle with coloring books and such. I spotted a Thomas the Tank Engine paint book, and a princess paint book! Once I showed Drew and Mikayla of course they were ready to go. Luckily we had saved that part of our trip for last, so once they decided this is what they wanted we were ready to check-out.

As soon as we got home, they got right to painting! I thought this was so cute. Since they were painting on our living room floor (watercolors), I put a towel down to try to protect the carpet as much as possible! They did a great job, and nothing spilled!!