Farewell MSP

The girls had their last day of school at Montessori School of Pensacola. I knew when I looked at the school just under 3 years ago this school was special and a perfect fit for my girls, but Friday as we said our good byes that decision was confirmed.

These are the faces of the three teachers as they had to give the girls a hug one last time.

 I am not sure if you can tell in the pictures, but all three teachers were boo-hooing as they gave out hugs. One teacher was even heaving/shaking from tears as she gave me a hug. I will be lucky if I ever find teachers this compassionate about my kids again.

I did get one huge reminder from Reese. I was asking her to give out hugs to her friends and teachers to say good-bye, but Reese just kept coming back and giving me hugs. I was thinking I needed to get her to give hugs, then it hit me...she was giving hugs...to me! I was overwhelmed by ease in knowing that with this move, I will say lots of good-byes to lots of amazing people but I will always have my family by my side. I will always be able to get the best hugs there are, those from my husband and girls. "Home is where the Navy sends us" is a common phrase among us military families. It is true, I may not be in NC but I am HOME with my family.

I had to chuckle to myself though, Reese finally gave one hug to a friend, and I was shocked by what I saw.

This is the same little boy she asked for help on the calendar when she was the leader of the day the previous week.... I think Reese has a crush!

On a side note: I think the girls are unphased by this move. They are looking forward to Disney World and may not quite understand the permanence of the move. Also it helps big time that their best friend from school last year now lives in Virginia Beach. They are super pumped to be back in the same city as her.

Playing Hookie

So my poor Brady girl keeps spiking a fever at dinner time for the last three nights. She is fine all day (constant checking tells me so) with no symptoms and then BAM at 5:00 spikes to 102 fever. School rules (and common etiquette) state that she must be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school. So essentially during the day she feels fine but has to play hookie. So today we decided to make the most of it.

Let's start off with a lunch date (alfresco) with Daddy on base! I am quite pumped about how adorable this quick picture turned out.

So next I asked the girls if they wanted to go to the park or the beach next. Don't look at the picture below to guess their response...they wanted to go to the park. We headed over to the base park, only to be told they would get 10 minutes of play because they were about to spray the sand with chemicals to kill the grass growing. So we walked to the beach to "just play with the sand". Well, just playing with the sand led to "mommy, can we just put our feet in the water" then to "why can you get so much deeper without your pants getting wet mommy?" to my statement "well, there is no one else on this beach so lets break our modesty rules" I will say I felt rather European...or Russian (thinking back to St. Petersburg and kids of all ages stripping to play in public fountains).

They had a blast, the outside weather was 80 degrees but I am pretty sure the water was just as warm!

Elli hung out in her stroller. Her daily antibiotics make her vulnerable to the sun, so she just enjoyed the breeze. See her on the walkway?!?!?!

What a fun day of playing hookie! Why not make the most of a unpredictable fever and living in a state that has only two seasons: 11.5 months of summer and 2 weeks of winter.

360 Pensacola

My birthday was a couple weeks ago. We wanted to do something that everyone could enjoy. Since Elli Dew doesn't do well in heat for extended period, we had a tough time coming up with ideas. The girls wanted to go to a pool, I love the idea, but not feasible with a baby. Lots of ideas were mulled over, but nothing good came to mind....then it hit me!

Pensacola Beach has just built a BIG ferris wheel. It is called 360 Pensacola. The gondolas are enclosed and air conditioned...perfect! It was on my Pensacola bucket list (well, really the only thing on the list...not too sad about leaving this city). 

This is our view as we drove over the toll bridge to get to Pensacola Beach. You can see the ferris wheel in the  distance. It was overcast so it is hard to see.

 The view from the parking lot

 The oldest and youngest rider in our gondola.

 The iconic beach ball water tower in the background.

 The view from the top

 Reese loving it and taking in the views. It was windy that day and the swaying didn't bother the girls at all!

 Brady posing for the camera

 Me and my girly girls

It was lots of fun and we decided we will go again in the fall, when it gets dark earlier and see the sunset during a ride!

As a side note, I didn't let the 'issues' get me down about how to celebrate. Remember this post last year? At that point we were 10 months into trying to get pregnant, so of course I was wishing for that deep down. But I didn't let it stop me from realizing how awesome my life was then. I did think to myself, on this birthday I really do have everything I have EVER dreamed of...I really am lucky to have had and continue to have the best life I could ask for. 

Firehouse Walk

The preschool does a couple 'neighborhood walks' a year. The spring one is to the local firehouse a mile down the street. I was unable to make it to the walk last year, but boy am I glad I made it this year. It was so much fun!

The school asks the parents to come along if they can so that they can lower the adult child ratio. Most people walk with two kids. Well, that puts me needing to be there just to cover my kids ;) I can't believe I am actually going to post this picture, but here is my trio... Maybe a I should say my quadruples since my bottom could count as its own entity.

One of the cool parts about the walk was that we had to cross a very busy road, well that isn't the cool part. The neat part was the police car that is scheduled to stop traffic for our parade of preschoolers.

So after a mile of trotting we finally arrived at Fire Station Number One...just in time for a snack!

After snack, we got to enter the station, where the fireman welcomed us.

Then, after the short introduction, the children got to walk through the fire truck....so much fun.

The tour then included seeing their dining room, sleeping quarters, their heat sensing guns that can spot the fire location (if smoke is too thick) and people, and a mom dressing up in all the gear that weighs about 100 pounds! Can you imagine wearing 100 pounds of gear for your job, WOW?!?!?!

Then they saved by far tejecoolest part (in my opinion) for last. Each kid got a chance to turn a fire hose on and off!!!! They put out a construction cone for the kids to aim at and knock over. I was giddy (and jealous) with how incredibly cool this experience was for the kids.

Well, my jealously was quickly turned into pure joy when they asked if any parents wanted to try....UM YEAH!!!!!

BEST FIELD TRIP EVER!

So I asked the girls later that day what was their favorite part of the field trip. Reese immediately responded "the red light". Nope not what you are thinking, she was referring to the red lit hallway that lead to the sleeping quarters. They make the hallway red so that when they get middle of the night calls their eyes can slowly adjust to light before having to drive around a massive fire truck. So there you have it, after all of that Reese got to see, she liked walking through a 10 foot hallway that was glowing red. Brady said her favorite part was seeing the mom dress up in the fire suit and....the red light! Simple pleasures of preschoolers ;) Later when Brady relived the day with Karl, she told him her favorite part was going through the jungle... other words, walking on a sidewalk with overgrown palms and shrubs ;)

Three-peat

It is the second Saturday in April and you know what that means right? WIENER DOG RACE DAY! I know I know, only in Pensacola...

In case you are new to the blog, feel free to read a brief history of Champion Admiral Dewy of Dayton (AKA Dewy) here for 2010 and here for 2011.

This year was a blast just like the past two years. The girls are older and can interact a little more and we have our system down now. The only let down was we promised the girls we would buy them snow cones again this year, well it would have helped if there was actually a snow cone vendor there....

We got there early this year and got front row seats! The girls were ready and set, expect that we got there 45 minutes early and they started 45 minutes late, needless to say they were very patient.

 Here are some of the initial race heats. I took the picture before all the dogs were listed, but there were about 12 initial races. This year they formatted the races different and grouped by pounds. Last year there were three categories with a range of pounds.

 This was our attempt at a family shot (remember we leave Pace at home since he doesn't like the heat or being on a leash). You see the top of Dewy's head? With my belly he had to sit on the end of my lap ;)

 I bet you can guess the result of the first race...Yep, Dewy didn't let us down! He got first place!

 Well there is one problem with have a fast dog...you have to wait around for the next heat of races. Tough life having a Dewy Dog!

 And it is a tough life if you are that fast Dewy Dog... you have to sit around in the sun waiting for the next heat of races, that is unless you have a master that will hold an umbrella for you!

 The second heat of races was between some of the lighter dogs that had won their individual heats. We didn't get any pictures of this race, but as you may have guessed Dewy was the big winner again. The interesting thing is Karl and I both noticed that Dewy wasn't as into this year. We would slow down before crossing the finish line, not run directly to Karl and just not as into it. But both of the first two races he was the undisputed leader! So after all that racing (which in the past two years that was it) the event held one final race for the top three dogs... we didn't know what to expect, they have never had this race...could Dewy come out on top?

I kneeled at the start line, Karl got the toy in his sights and backed up to the finish line squeaking the toy. This is our method every time and it has not let us down. There was a slight delayed but normally that just gets Dewy more into it. The MC says, "ready set" and then something to Dewy's right caught his attention, he looks right..."GO". I let go of a distracted Dewy who took off with a slight delay.

We walked away from the 8th annual Pensacola Wiener Dog Races with the third place overall title! We are proud of our almost nine year old Dachshund. And yes, Leroy the winner was 3 years old and Dewy only lost by a dog's length...

 

This will most likely be our last time going to these races since we should be moving within the year. I will have to say the races will mark some of our favorite memories here in Pensacola! We are proud of you, Dewy!

Pre-Easter Festivities

We got the chance to participate in so many Easter Egg hunts that I have to make a post separate from the holiday itself.

Our first party we attending was for our playgroup.

 We did a craft of yarn eggs to start off (you pop the water balloon a day later to have beautiful yarn eggs.

 Then the most sought after part...the egg hunt!

 Yes, Reese choose her heart (valentine's) dress to be the 'perfect' Easter dress....

Egg hunts with a small group of friends is always so much more pleasant then the ones open to the public!

We also attended a neighborhood Easter party complete with a bounce house. I decided to not take photograph since I (unfortunately) do not know most of the kids (we have had quite a few move in and out the last 6 months). But the girls had a blast and we really appreciated the neighborhood family who opened their home to us and invited the ENTIRE neighborhood.

Yesterday we attended an Easter event hosted by the Navy. We always enjoy what the base does for the service members' families and love these free events. We also ran into a couple of our friends there which is always a plus!

Here are the girls in their custom Easter dresses and bonnets made by my mom, as I always say, she has so much talent. I love you mom, thanks! The girls loved that the dresses almost touched the ground.

 Father daughter love, enough to melt a pregnant momma's heart!

 Waiting for the three year olds to have a run for eggs.

 Easter fedora?!?!?!

 And she is off....

 She was picky and picked mostly only pink and purple eggs...she could have doubled her egg count.

 Now the 4 year olds turn. Brady brought tears to my eyes as she floated around the field. She held her shoulders back with the sweetest posture, that combined with her dress just got the best of me!

 Craft time with our preschool friend.

 We ended the afternoon with a hayless hay ride! Best hay ride I have ever been on ;) 5 beautiful Easter ladies on a carriage ride, love it!

Spring is such a wonderful time of year and this spring has not let us down at all!