Swim Lessons

Ava has taken swim lessons at the Atlanta Swim Academy for a little over a year now. Ms. Meg was normally her teacher. She has done SO great with these lessons! When we first got inot the lessons, Ava didn't even like water being poured over her head in the bathtub. My, how things have changed. She is now our little mermaid, doing underwater "torpedos" and swimming strongly.

Normally the classes at the academy have 4-6 kids in them. They try to get them to swim on their own by the end of the Seahorses class, in which Ava was enrolled.

For the longest time, Ava would use a #1 floatie, which was the thinnest floatie they had. These floaties are tied around their waist, with the floatation part on their back. Ava would say that she just couldn't swim without the floatie. Ms. Meg told us that if she got to a #1, that she could do it on her own. She now knows how to swim underwater, kicking her legs, come up for air to take a breath and go back under and swim the remainder to the wall. She does like to try to swim on top of the water more, at this point, but since we've told her it is easier to swim underwater, she seems to be more inclined to go that route.

I know Ava would absolutely flourish in dance classes and gymnastics, but I really felt like we needed to get this "basic" started with her first, before getting into something superfluous like dance or gymnastics.

We decided to take the summer off of swimming, so Ava can have a break and just enjoy the water. Our pocketbook likes the break, as well. :) Liam was such a sport. He would sit on the bench with us, watch the kids swim, eat his snack and play with a small train he brought from home. Thanks for being such a trooper, Liam! Your turn will be here soon.

Check out the link below, which I took with my phone. We couldn't often take a great picture in the pool, as the humidity would fog up the camera instantly, before we could get pictures. Here is Ava in ACTION! :)



Peace, love and lots of chlorine molecules,
Shelly, Doug, the mermaid and the voluntary bench-sitter

Ava: March 2011

Resident Weathergirl

From our resident 4.5 year old weathergirl, upon returning home from school: "The tornado is far north. It's in Woodstock; it's not gonna even touch us."

Peace, love and cyclones,
Shelly, Doug, Weathergirl, Liam

Long-Term Contract

When I told Ava last night that I would always love her, even when I'm old and wrinkly, she asked if she will have to move out then. She says she doesn't ever want to leave. I didn't want to crush her dreams of living with us forever, but somehow I think she'll change her mind.


Peace, love and 40 year-old renters,
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

That's Just How Ninjas Do It...

Today after lunch...Me: Wow, Ava, you must've been hungry; you ate fast!" Ava: "Well, Mom, I guess that's just how ninjas do it." :)


Peace, love and ninja lunches,
Doug, Shelly, Ava and Liam

The Peace Pipe

The other day, I knew something was up in the kitchen, before I even put my feet on the ground in the morning.


While in bed, I heard someone open the freezer door. No one was screaming, so I thought I would see what would happen next. :) Ava or Liam seemed to find a homemade popsicle, which I had made with apple juice. It was hilarious to first hear from another room what they were doing. I waited to go into the kitchen, to see how long this might go on.


When I walked into the kitchen, I found Ava and Liam passing it to each other as if it was a peace pipe. They passed it to each other, would wait patiently for the other to take a bite or a slurp and then pass back it to the other. They were absolutely giddy over their find. It made me proud to see how nicely they voluntarily took turns with each other. My heart smiled.


These pictures were taken of the popsicle-sharing. :-)

 

Peace, love and brain freeze,

Shelly, Doug popsicle finder #1 and popsicle finder #2

Disney Day #3: The Pirate Pool and Downtown Disney

The next day we woke up, packed most of our things and hit the hotel’s pirate pool!  Arrrgh, matey!  Wow, this pool was something else.  It was a beach / gradual-entry type pool that included a shallow end, deep end, water umbrella fountains under which you could stand and a HUGE pirate ship with a slide.  Super cool.  The kids had so much fun swimming.  Ava found a spare noodle floatie and used it to swim around the pool. 

After hanging-out at the pool for a bit, we got ready, checked-out of the hotel and headed to Downtown Disney.  Very cool place!  We saw a dragon made out of Legos in the middle of the lake there.  There is a huge Disney store, where we finally found a nice princess picture frame for Ava.  Liam found a few more sourvenirs.  We took a few pictures in front of some princesses, Toy Story characters and then got some lunch before starting back on our road trip. 

The kids seemed to have a great time.  It was a super fun trip!  I think three days might not have been as enjoyable to them as two, honestly.  There were so many things to see, it’s overwhelming.  I’m sure we’ll be back again.  We were fortunate to keep the sunburns at bay the entire trip, no one had any serious meltdowns, weather was gorgeous, Mom’s knee held up, super nice accommodations, yummy food and of course great company!  Thanks for going with us, Mom.  What fun memories we will have of this trip!

Peace, love and “We’re going to Disney World!”

Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam

Disney Day #2: Magic Kingdom Here We Come!

If Epcot was a ghost town, Magic Kingdom was a mosh pit.

We ate a quick breakfast pool-side at our hotel.  Doug thought it might be nice for the kids to ride the monorail during our visit. So instead of taking the shuttle from the hotel (and being bound to the minimal times the shuttle dropped-off/picked-up), we decided to park at Epcot and take the Monorail over to Magic Kingdom.  I’m glad we did!  When on the monorail on the way to Magic Kingdom, another passenger noticed Liam’s Atlanta Braves baseball cap.  We got to talking and he mentioned that the ferry ride is the way to go, when first heading to Magic Kingdom.  So once we got off the monorail, we got on the ferry to cross the water to Magic Kingdom. 

On the ferry, I told my Mom I felt like I was at Auschwitz and could be on my way to a gas chamber and not know it.  Disney definitely has accommodations for large crowds.  So much so, that I felt like cattle being herded. J  We could a little of the castle as we approached Magic Kingdom.  Once at the park, it looked pretty busy.  I had everyone’s park tickets / cards.  I mistakenly gave the ticket person the tickets from the previous day.  They said “Sorry, that’s not a good ticket.”  My stomach turned and I frantically looked for the right tickets.  Phew!  Access granted.  We took some pictures out in front of the entrance / flowers and headed into the park.  We hit the bathrooms first and then watched as a parade came down Main Street.  Now THIS is where the action is, I thought to myself.  I knew the kids were going to enjoy this park oodles more than Epcot.   

We walked down a very crowded and sunny Main Street, toward Cinderella’s Castle.  Beautiful.  We were all excited.  We tried to snap a few pictures on the way there.  Once we arrived in front of the castle, we watched a show that included Mickey, Minnie, the princesses, Peter Pan, Wendy, Millificent, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee.  Ava especially seemed to enjoy watching the show.  Liam clutched his train while watching the show.  We heard more about “the witch” (Millificent from Sleeping Beauty) from Liam.  She really seemed to spook him.  There were fireworks that went off when she would throw her hands around, her face was painted green, smoke billowed where she stood. 

After the show, we made our way back to “It’s a Small World”.  It was fun to go on that ride, especially remembering riding it in 1990.  Ava really liked it.  Liam did, too.  It’s funny to think how “low-tech” that ride is, yet so many people go on that ride year after year.  We walked across to the Peter Pan ride, but given it’s wait, we decided to do a Fast Pass for this ride and come back later.  We love Fast Pass rides! J

We ate lunch at Pinocchio’s (I think that’s where it was?)  The place was absolutely mobbed!  We were originally told we couldn’t bring our stroller in. Liam fell asleep at some point before lunch, so my arms were getting pretty tired of carrying him around the park.  I wasn’t allowed to sit down until we had our food (their rule).  It was hard to find an empty table.  Once we found one, I asked if Doug would mind going back outside to get the stroller.  They almost didn’t let him in with it, but finally did… I was happy Liam could get some rest in the stroller while we ate.  He continued to sleep after we left.  Mom and I stayed outside by the carousel while Doug and Ava went to the Snow White ride.  When Ava walked out, I happily asked her how it was.  She looked at me as if to tell me it was pretty scary.  L 

We then rode the carousel, which both kids seemed to enjoy.  We went back to the castle to see the “Celebrate a Dream Come True” parade.  I held Liam for the entire parade, so he could see.  Wow, my arms got a work-out during this trip!  Again, he wanted to talk about the “witch”.  To this day, at night when I’m tucking him in, I hear all about the witch.  J

We decided to head over to the area where the Cars characters were.  On the way there, Liam lost his train.  Sensing that he might have a major meltdown, Grandma Pam went into a giftshop and found a plastic train driven by Mickey Mouse.  Phew.  Something to clutch.  ;-)  We then went into watch the Country Bear Jamboree in Frontiertown.  It was nice to relax our feet (tired feet!) and cool off in the air conditioning for a little bit.  The kids really seemed to like the show.  We never did get to the “Cars”  movie characters. 

As the afternoon was winding down, we headed back over to the Peter Pan ride, for our Fast Pass time.  We didn’t even wait five minutes.  Nice!  It was a really cute ride, well done.  We were flying through the sky as if we were with Peter Pan.  Ava absolutely loevd this ride.  We grabbed an ice cream each at that point, in front of Pinnochio’s.  We were hitting some gift shops at that point, trying to find just the right souvenir.  Ava liked a Belle doll that, upon flipping her skirt over, turned into a Cinderella doll.  She got a similar doll for Alana.  Both kids got a t-shirt each, I got one, too.  I got a cool mug for myself and one for Mom, then looked in a different store for a Christmas ornament souvenir.  We looked in quite a few gift shops, looking for a particular princess picture frame.  None of them seemed to have the frame, but we were told to check “Downtown Disney”, which is a shopping area outside of the park, a few miles away.  We got a Mickey Mouse baseball for Liam.  We ran across an entertaining piano player, who let both kids touch a piano key at the end of the song he played.  On the way back from the giftshop near Cinderella’s castle, we went through the middle of the castle.  There are some amazing mosaics on the wall, there!   I’ve heard that there is a suite within the castle that is beaucoup bucks per night.  I’m sure it would be absolutely over-the-top, though! 

It was getting dark out at that point, so we headed toward the Castle for the nightly Electrical Parade.  On the way there, we saw the castle lit up and changing colors.  It was really pretty!  We took some pictures in front of the castle and finally made our way down Main Street, to find a spot for the parade.  Wow, the Disney employees are serious about people staying within certain areas and not standing in the walkway (which is good).  It was kind of annoying that it was so busy and people were “jockeying” for position to watch the parade so early. Regardless, we got a spot where Ava could see while on Doug’s shoulders.  I held Liam and Mom tried to keep our place while we took turns going to the bathroom.  Then the Electrical Parade began.  So worth it!  Each float and the characters are lit up with strings of lights.  The park turns off it’s lights to make it more dramatic.  You can see the floats all lit-up, coming down Main Street.  I looked over, and Ava was wide-eyed and constantly waving at each princess (and Tinkerbell) as they passed, as if they were waving right back at her specifically.  It was magic.  :-)

The crowds were pretty packed-in right after the parade.  I thought the kids might’ve had their fill for the day.  I know my feet had their fill!  There was a new light show that they started doing within a month of our trip, where pictures are projected onto Cinderella’s Castle.  This light show was within 30 minutes or so of the Electrical Parade’s conclusion.  I didn’t think Liam would make it, so I suggested we head out.  We came across a very helpful Disney employee (they are all overwhelmingly friendly and happy!) who told us it was worth sticking around to see this light show projected onto the castle.  We stayed in the town square near the entrance to the park and watched the show.  At one point, the castle appears to be taking off like a rocket, appears to be a birthday cake at a different point, has pictures of people within the park that day projected onto the castle and also looks like it is being colored by crayon.  Very cool.  We watched part of it and then made our way back to the monorail.  Liam was excited about the “train ride” home.  We got to see the fireworks from the window of the monorail. 

Mom’s throat had been kind of scratchy (she probably caught what I had L), so we decided to hit a Dunkin’ Donuts for a smoothie.  Of course the kids wanted some donuts and a smoothie, so we obliged.  J  (Or should I say Grandma Pam obliged?)  Nothing like a smoothie to wash down a doughnut.  Only on vacation, I guess!


Peace, love and saccharin-filled days,

Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam