Fall Ball

Harrison has had a fun fall season with baseball. He and his teammates have played hard and they had several wins. If we could just get him to focus a little more in the outfield and possibly quit grabbing his crotch so much, we could have a serious player on our hands.

Gettin with he Program

The lazy days of summer have been gone for about a month and we are in full swing of the hustle and bustle of school, activities, and sports. Of course, I only have pictures from their first day of school but since the last post was an overflow of snapshots, I think we can all be ok with that. Let's start with Harrison's agenda. He is back at Pelican Marsh for 1st grade and is really enjoying it...so far. He rides his bike to and from school with his neighborhood buddies and hopefully, doesn't terrorize too many of the neighbors along the way. On Mondays and Wednesdays he goes right into an hour and a half of tennis after school and has improved dramatically since he first started a year ago. Next week he will begin baseball which goes from 5 to 7 on Tuesdays with games on Saturdays. And will be starting golf on Thursdays soon too. Harrison loves dancing and if I can find the right outlet (and time) for him to work on his dance skills, I will sign him up! The man's got moves! He also continues to be one of the most social creatures that walked the planet, so getting him to sit alone and do homework or entertain himself, alone, is still a struggle. But luckily, he is having a much better time with school work this year and is able to do his assignments with much more ease. Basically, we have to threaten him with pulling the plug on time with friends if he doesn't complete his work. And guess what, he gets it done! That is the ultimate take away for him. Harrison has great excitement for anything that interests him whether it is finding lizards, science experiments, legos, dancing, and most recently, hurricane and weather reports. And having just watched every Jurrassic Park movie out there, he is also into dinosaurs. He is very entertaining and I can see how other friends are drawn to his kind, funny, energetic, and sometimes crazy personality.

Brooks also keeps a packed schedule these days and unlike Harrison who I sometimes have to persuade to get ready for sports (he would rather play with friends all day long), Brooks is chomping at the bit to sign up for another activity. Right now she does ballet twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays, and is rehearsing for her Cinderella play for 2 hours on Tuesdays and some Thursdays. Sounds like a lot, right? But guess what, she wants me to add tennis and she might as well be training for the next Olympic gymnast team. She is ALWAYS doing cartwheels, flips, splits and handstands even in the most random of all places. I love her energy. But occasionally, I like to see her calm. Which never happens so, whatever. She is doing great in school and is at Moorings Presbyterian with an AMAZING teacher, Mrs. Frino, who also happens to be the mom of one of my best friends. Her imagination is huge and she will make up songs and pretend play with elaborate detail. She has really found a new fascination in the last 2 or 3 months with baby dolls. However, we can not refer to them as dolls in her presence...they are babies! She really puts her imagination to the test and will spend endless amounts of time changing, talking, singing and feeding her babies. It cracks us up. And if she isn't doing that, she is practicing her gymnastics around the house or coloring. Those are her go to activities.

So, basically, like every other update on these two monkeys, they are busy. And we are only feeding the fire with more activities and ideas, but I guess we enjoy the chaos. So that's what we will continue to do. And I'll keep trying to keep up!

Summer

Well, the summer came and went and just like that, I was without a blog entry. School has now been back in session for 2 week so I have decided to cram all evidence of our summer fun into one post. Our summer consisted of several trips to Jacksonville, a fun weekend getaway with friends to Homassasa for the start of scalloping season, a great 4th of July with friends in Naples, a trip to Wilmington for an art show and to visit family, and two trips to Orlando where we met Daddy on our way home from Jacksonville to hit up the water parks and Animal Kingdom. Harrison did a session of swim team at the beginning of the summer and went to the Conservancy Camp and Scout Camp. Brooks did two sessions of theater camp and both of them had a blast. We spent lots of time with friends at the beach and did quite a few paddle board trips. Clam Pass has proven to be our favorite spot so far. And Nat Nat, Zach, and Davis came in town for a visit. We got to have a sleepover with Davis which was fantastic for the kids!

It has been a wonderful summer. Of course, there have been some bittersweet moments. My mom was diagnosed with leukemia at the beginning of the summer and she underwent some tough treatment. She just recently finished her last round of chemo and is soon to be on the road to recovery. It was a rough journey for her but it did give me some great opportunities to spend a lot of time with her which I know we both enjoyed. So much has happened over the summer and I wont be able to capture everything in one post, but I think I managed to get the highlights. Brooks will be starting her new school, Moorings Preschool, in a week and Harrison just wrapped up a week at Pelican Marsh. I will have a new post on that soon and probably a rant about all their outrageous afterschool activities and how I'm going to lose my mind in all the chaos of which sports to choose...so look forward to that!

Scalloping In Homasassa

4th of July