Kindergarten Leader, Half-Ironman in Training, and the Aquarium!!

On Monday, Maddie was announced as the Kindergarten Student Leader of the Week. Every Monday, there's a school-wide huddle and one child from each grade is selected. Madeline, along with the other five leaders were announced in front of the school and got to run out under a tunnel made by the teacher's arms. She thought this was VERY cool.

Go Maddie go!

Speaking of Madeline, she got a make-up kit from Hudson for her birthday and has been ALL OVER IT. She loves putting make-up on. 

Such a little princess. We went to Rolfe's birthday party at the Bowling alley this weekend. It was Maddie...and 9 boys. But, she didn't sweat it!

In other Maddie news, a little boy was hanging off the bus last week to shout bye to her and proceed to tell her that there dog was SO SO cool. I wanted to yell at the little boy to get back on the bus, but I didn't. Sigh. 

As for my littlest lady, we love our Friday's together. We usually rest or play around the house in the morning and then go to lunch with grandma or a friend. This past week we went with Brooke.

Chik Fil A sillies!

Chris signed up for the half-Ironman and has been pulling many two-a-days. He works out at lunch and then either in the morning or evening. Which means, while I'm doing travel work, I often look over and find him like this. 

Or like this.

 Every.Single.Night.

We've been working on eating better and this salmon with garlicky zoodles was a big hit!

 On Sunday we went to the Newport Aquarium with K and D and had so much fun!

Touching some starfish.

 We saw Dory and Sydney was SO excited.

I almost sat in this cool chair until I saw it weighed you.

 Um, no.

 Looking at Mighty Mike and holding hands...because he was one HUGE croc.

Measuring up to Mighty Mike.

The kids petting baby sharks. Hudson's arm was wet to his shoulder; Maddie and Sydney had one fingers barely in the water. HAHA!

We crossed the rope bridge above the sharks!

And finished with a yummy lunch at Don Pablos!

We went to see Madeline's school play this week - The Thing About Yeti's. Every kid had a line and they sang some songs and made a Yeti craft.

Maddie and her buddy Savannah.

We have been so blessed to get this school and, in particular, this Kindergarten class for Maddie. She is really thriving in school. She loves to read and has made so many great friends. There are several just in our neighborhood! I can't believe this year is almost over and then I'll have a first grader. Crazy!

Wedding Anniversary Fun!

9 years ago, we were on the tropical island of St. Lucia getting married!!

You may recall that we went zip lining before our rehearsal dinner with our entire wedding party. Here's a pic of me coming in above the rainforest.

For this anniversary, I decided to surprise Chris with some different zip lining - in the Mega Cavern!

After a yummy dinner at Jeff Ruby's we headed over to the Mega Cavern.

This was a little bit different than the rainforest! But, it was so neat! We zip lined on 6 zips in a 17 miel underground cavern.

It was dark, it was exciting and it was a fun night just the two of us!

Married for 9, together for 18.

Babies!

We've had a great ride so far! Including two of the sweetest little girls ever made.

These two sisters give us so much joy every day. I snapped this picture last week at their regular weekend sleepover. When I tucked them in they were both facing the right way and fully-clothed. An hour later, they were feet-on-the-pillow and Sydney was naked.

 Just a normal Friday night in our house.

In other news...

My Secret Pal dropped us some Valentines goodies and we enjoyed playing.

On Saturday we went to Connor's Swim meet. He is only a freshman but advance to Sectionals so it was a big meet. He placed 5th (out of 16) in the 200 Freestyle so that was pretty cool! 

We stopped at Pizza King (duh) because, as they say, " When in Indiana..."

  

Me and my grandma!

Tia and Mads. It was H-O-T in the pool area so you can see Maddie's sweat. 

Uncle Greg throwing up the bunny ears in the back. Maddie asked him for a dollar to buy candy...he gave her a five and told her to go wild. She came back with more sugar than I typically let her eat in a month!

This was a great place for me to drop off some March client documents. I have 6 families from the swim team (that's 25 people!) sailing out of Jacksonville for Spring Break. Maddie, who has quickly become my assistant when it comes to preparing documents, helped me deliver everything to the families also at the meet. 

Fun fun fun!

Party Mania!

Last weekend we were invited to four parties! With scheduling we could only make two of them, and we had a great time!

We started off with cousin Adeline's Troll-themed skate party.

Oh.My.Goodness.

Y'all. I hadn't been skating for a solid 20 years so I was wondering how this was going to go. Chris was still sick so I talked my sister in coming with me (THANK GOODNESS!!) and we had a blast!

They had skates in Sydney's size and girlfriend was PUMPED.

They had these skate trainers which basically were a lifesaver.

Sydney preferred being held. 

The girls had fun but really need someone holding on to them at all times so it was great that I had an extra set of my hands with my sister. 

We took a little skate break - I was sweating! - and played some games.

Then we celebrated cousin Addy with a rainbow cake!

We had a blast. I felt like a teenager again! Then I felt 33 the next day when my back was sore.  Ha!

We left the skating rink and headed to Lexington for cousin Quinn's popcorn party and sleepover. Look at these yummy cupcakes!

 

The kids got in their jammies and sleeping bags and had a movie night sleepover! 

One we finally got the kids asleep (WAY past bedtime!) the adults had a really energetic night.

Or not.

 Scrabble for the win!

We got back late Sunday, just in time to prep for our Super Bowl party with some friends. Dave entertained the kiddos while we cheered Brady on to a unbelievable victory!

Early in the week, Chris brought up our new kitchen table. He built this himself and it's great!! (Chairs are from our old table.)

Daddy and little sissy had a date at Five Guys. 

And, he went to "Donuts with Someone You Love" with Maddie.

Here's a funny Sydney story to round out this re-cap. The other day Sydney asked me if she could have an applesauce pouch before dinner. I said yes and went back to cooking dinner. I turned around a few minutes later and saw this.

 She had opened and lined up FOUR pouches, with a fifth on the side. Fortunately, she only had eaten one when I caught her. I closed the other ones and put them in the fridge. She keeps me on my toes and ALWAYS makes me laugh!