Lost first tooth!

Iris lost her tooth today at breakfast. Her new tooth has almost completely grown in so it's a little hard to tell. She is super excited about the tooth fairy's visit tonight!

Isabella's First Day of 3's Preschool

 Isabella woke up early this morning and was fully dressed (including shoes) with her teeth brushed and her hair fixed by 7:20am.  We didn't have to leave for another hour!  Although she was super excited about school, she was not too excited about picture time...

Taking her outside for pictures seemed to work better. 

 

 I tried to get a few cute sister pictures to commemorate the event as well.  Unfortunately they would not look at the camera.  This is what I got when I said, "look at me with your eyes."  Not good!

 A little better... 

When I pulled up in the carpool line Isabella started jumping out of her seat yelling, "I'm going to too, wait, I'm going to school too."  I think she was worried they would just take Iris out and not her which is what normally happens.  It was too cute!  She was super excited. 

When I picked her up that afternoon her teacher said she had a great day.  However, she only took one bite of her snack ( and apparently that took some pleading) and she did not take a nap and did not take one bite of her lunch---not even the roll.  That's pretty much what I expected though.  She told me she didn't take a nap because everyone kept waking her up and she didn't eat lunch because someone put sauce on her noodles.  How dare them!!  Iris told me she also did not eat lunch because someone put sauce on her noodles.  I tried to explain to them that's how the rest of the world eats their noodles.  They weren't buying it though.  This lunch at school thing is going to be interesting!

Happy "First Days" of School Girls!!  We Love You!

First Day of Kindergarten

Iris had a great first day of Kindergarten today.  She was up early this morning and sitting on the couch with her backpack on by 7:40am ready to go ( we didn't need to leave until 8:15am). Then she was asking if I wanted to take her picture with her new book bag ...

 or without....

She said she had the best day ever, made new friends and ate "half" of her lunch.  Sounds like a great start to me! 

 

You are growing up so fast. Love you Iris!

Iris' 5th Birthday Party!!!

I can't believe my baby is 5 years old!  This year she is into mermaids so of course she decided to have her birthday party at the waterpark- --again!

 "Happy Birthday to you....

 Happy Birthday dear Iris....

.... Happy Birthday to You!!!!"

 After her birthday party we also camped at the James Island County Park Campground for the rest of the weekend.  Here's a look at our campsite...

 

 Birthday dinner....

 and what camping birthday would be complete without S'mores for dessert?

Happy 5th Birthday Iris!!!  WE LOVE YOU!!!!

Beach Day at Morris Island

 

I think it has rained almost every single day this summer. That means we have had very few boating or beach days.  Luckily we were able to squeeze in a few hours of both on Sunday on Morris Island

 The girls did lots of shell hunting...

 and sand castle building

 Here is our finished product.  We actually made several of these but Isabella loves knocking them down more than building them so this is the only one I got a picture of before she came running through it.

 These were the beautiful blue skies to our left...

but this is what was to our right. Crazy how you can stand in one spot and see two completely different types of weather.

 

  So we started the usual dilemma of "should we stay, or should we go?" 

 After taking these few shots we decided to go.  But not before we saw dolphins swim right by our boat (look to the left of the back of the boat)  -- pretty neat!  We got a little wet on the ride home but luckily we made the right decision and beat the storm that came pounding down right behind us.  That's been the typical day here in Charleston.

Swim Lessons

Iris and Isabella have been taking swim lessons.    Iris is now swimming on her own. They were both doing great until they got swimmers ear.  Now we have to take a break for a little bit.  Hopefully we can fit some more lessons in before the end of summer.   Saying "cheese" before practice....

 

 Iris jumping off the platform...

 Then she did the big jump off the diving board.

Hopefully I can get some good ones of Isabella when we start back.  Sorry Isabella, your class isn't jumping quite yet!

Fourth of July at Firefly!

 

We went to the Firefly Distillery and Robert Irvin Winery on the 4th of July.  Yes, sounds like an odd place to take kids but I promise, it's kid friendly.  They had King Pops for the girls to enjoy. 

 

 They even had juice boxes and popcorn for the kids to enjoy while mom and dad had a few tastings.  Isabella immediately found herself a nice seat...

 until Iris decided to join her...

 Daddy trying to keep the crazy kids in check...

 After the tasting we went out to see the cow in the vineyard.  This might be the shortest cow I have ever seen.  The girls liked him until he turned around and knocked Isabella over.  She was screaming  "that cow bit me, that cow bit me."  He did not bite her but he did almost step on her, I had to yank her out from under him very quickly! 

 After the cow incident Isabella insisted  we leave the vineyard area so I was only able to take this one quick shot of the grapes.  Pretty neat though.

Then we had some lunch.  I could watch Isabella eat corn all day.  It cracks me up!

 This one is even better.  Not sure what Iris is upset about.  Both of their expressions are priceless!

 Then they enjoyed some time looking at the other animals and swinging on the tire swing.

 One day, Brad will break down and put one of these in our yard -- right Honey?

Happy Fourth of July Everyone!

June Summer Fun

This summer has been busy and since I'm just getting back into this blogging thing we'll take it nice and slow with lots of pictures but a few short captions. 

 

The kids with their cousins from Ohio--Aaron and Sia. An afternoon spent at Folly and then lunch at Taco Boy. Doesn't get much better than that!

 Iris and Isabella making handprint stepping stones at Wonderworks.  They gave these to Brad for Father's Day.

 We've been doing lots of swimming at Nana's.  Well, at least when it's not raining! Isabella loves anything that makes her float. You can never be too safe!

 Playing at Kiawah...

 Burying Uncle Scott with our other cousins!  Thanks for being a good sport Scott!

 

I found these two like this when the house was too quiet and I went in search of them.  I was only able snap a picture with my I-phone real quick. The picture quality is not good but the contents are priceless!

 Iris is watering our lobsters because she is "worried they can not breathe out of the water."  We had flashbacks of when we steamed blue crabs and our niece Molly (then Iris' age) had a meltdown when her mom snapped off a leg. We were very worried this was going to be a repeat of that night.

 We had to keep reminding her that we were going to eat them and to not become too attached.  She did quite well.  No meltdowns.  Still not sure she understood what we actually did with them.

 Obviously I will never be a food stylist but not too shabby for picking up lobsters at 5:00pm and having no idea what we are going to do with them. Did I mention the tomatoes and basil are from my garden? Yep, I'm awesome!

 Brad put together a playhouse for the girls.  Sadly, it is still under the house because it has been too rainy to get it out in the yard where we want it.

And when we run out of things to do----we whip out the baby pool! 

           These things never get old (I hope)!