Back to school!

The kids started back today...on a Tuesday of all days! WEIRD! I know. I must say its been somewhat of a rough summer....kids bickered A LOT and they were bored A LOT. My fault I suppose with that. I really dropped the ball as far as organizing educational; or fun activities for them! So....while all my friends were boo hooing, I was dancing...a little. :) Hey! They were ready too! I am just being honest, mmkay?

I really let go of the reigns this year and was wuite proud that I let them both pick out what they wanted to wear. No coercion. That's a lot for me! I thought they did pretty good. Ella's main goal was to look "fancy". She insisted on wearing a dress and was ecstatic to put curlers in her hair last night. They both had to get new backpacks this year as both of theirs had huge holes in them. Lincoln was oddly attached and just fought me tooth and nail about throwing his old one away and kept saying,"I miss my backpack". What a a funny boy!

What I did not anticipate thought was how sad and left out Quincy would feel. He stood at the end of the driveway with them holding a lunchbox and a granola bar. When he did receive passage on the bus he was heart broken and spent he next 30 minutes begging to go to school and get on the bus. One thing that he has done ALL SUMMER LONG is follow Lincoln around. Even though they have a love/hate relationship, Quincy does everything (and I mean everything) Lincoln does. One great example is at dinner time, Jason or I will ask Link about his day. Lincoln will give us a overly detailed, verbose description in which Quincy imitates as well as he can, being about one to two words behind. Its hard to listen and concentrate. :)

One other thing that I just had forgotten was how much I enjoy going to the grocery store with not four, but ONLY two kids. Its like a vacation! Holy moly! I went to Wal-Mart and Costco. Awesome. I will miss my two older monkeys, but at the same time am glad they are being taught and stimulated! YAY for public school! I hope they have a great day...a mother always worries about the following (at least me!):

1. Will they eat their lunch? Or at least the part that is somewhat good for them (i.e.sandwich!)
2. Will they make at least one friend?
3. What will their teacher's first impression be? Will she be nice!?!?
4. Will they be up to par with the other kids in those first stages of putting them in groups according to "levels"
5. Will people say mean things?
6. Will they be able to find their bus at the end of the day?
7. Will them miss me!?!?!

Most of all I want their first day to be postive. I don't want them to feel overwhelmed or sad!

So...As I was saying....

We went to the Bahamas. Right. That's where I left off when I blogged last time a month ago.
This was another towel animal- an elephant. The kids were so ecstatic over these friends that were in our cabin nightly.

So the second stop on our Bahamas cruise was Nassau. We heard about the beach called Paradise Island (not an island by the way) and were determined to get there. So....we rented two mo-peds. Let me tell you about scary.

1) driving in a foreign country. period.
2) driving on the other side of the road
3) driving alongside maniacs
4) driving in a country where there's not a lot of law enforcement
5) driving a moped (this in general scares me) where if you get in a wreck you are marred for life
6) The roads were an eye sore!!!!!! It was pretty much a collection of pot holes and metal coverings over holes that were too big to be driven on. SCARY!!!!! Plus there were random piles of gravel all over (MAJOR spin out potential with that!)
7) ***(Putting stars here b/c this one is major) DRIVING WITH ONE OF MY CHILDREN BEHIND ME

So...I was kinda a ball of nerves about this whole moped situation. It turned out ok in the end but very very scary for me. I feel like I am being dramatic about this whole situation but when the cruise line urges you not to rent them b/c of the danger (for all of the reasons above) and then a local says -after we had already rented them mind you- "Go return that! People get hurt everyday here driving those!". I am not typically a cautious person so it REALLY was scary.
Just trust me on that.
 And not to mention the Bahamas does not have the best criminal reputation....so there were lots of thugs.

 

 

But.......we found Paradise Island. And it was the most beautiful beach. Ever.

 

You sunk into the sand...the soft, white sand. No shells. No rocks. Just pure, soft sand. The kind you wanna dig your toes into.
Annnnnd, the waves were HUGE. Maybe a little too big even. It was the first time I have actually been into the ocean, jumping waves since I was a kid.

 

Our mo-peds. Don't we look fierce!?!? :)

Oh my gosh. Why am I putting these pics on? Because that's the kind of blogger I am. This one above is me taking the "Micheal Jackson's Thriller" dance class. So fun! Really. It was.
Ella also took a disco dance class (before mine even!) and worked her groove thang on stage. Amongst all adults, the girl showed some serious gumption. People were cheering for her like crazy!

Me participating in a Battle of the sexes game. I was inferior.

Ella wearing makeup on our "fancy" dinner night. She was happy, I just asked her to hold still.

The two guys just adored our little monkeys. Every night Ketu and buddy (can't remember his name?) would bring them whatever they wanted- crayons, desserts, whatever. When the crew would do their little choreo'd dance, these waiters would get Link and Ella up and ask them to dance with them.

 

Did I mention Quincy and Charlotte stayed behind with Grandma? Yup. They loved every minute of Poppy and Grandma's attention. They had nonstop fun. But Quincy was pretty glad to see us.
 And so were Grandma and Poppy. :)
This was the kids the first night of being back. They usually do not sleep together....but they really missed each other.

Bahamas a go-go

We were fortunate enough to get to go o a cruise in May. The kids were sponsored by Grandma and Grandpa Allred and will remember it for the rest of their lives and STILL talk about it on a daily basis saying things like, "Mom, if we could live in a cruise boat forever, I would be like, 'yeah!'(while dancing!)". True. Lincoln said that. The kids had the time of their lives. Highly recommend a carnival cruise where at any time you can send your kids to "Camp Carnival" for free. Yup. That's right. We only sent them twice b/c we were enjoying these little turkeys way too much.

 

 

 

The one night they did go to Camp Carnival (while we enjoyed a show) they made these cute "tail" hats and got a book "Freddy Gets his Sea Legs".

This girl was OBSESSED with Lincoln and will stalk this blog post. She pretty much stalked us on the boat. Lincoln loved the attention of Lindsey. Plus she was in 3rd grade!!! What kindergartener doesn't want the attn. of a THIRD GRADER?
*self-image inflated*

Lindsey and Lincoln even had the chance to dance one night at dinner.

 

One of many towel friends.

On the tender from our cruise ship to Half Moon Cay island.

 

 

 

 

The ECSTACY behind us.

 

Link's stalker. :)

 

 

 

How precious is this? Ella wrote "I love Jason" in the sand. Such a sweet girl. And no one is more fun at a beach than Jason. That I assure you.

 

More to come soon!

Happy Birthday to my old fart of a husband :)

                                                           Jason turned 35 in April.
I like to tease him about how old he is. Being seven years younger (for four months) I am entitled to that.

There is a lot of pics coming...ranging from cute, to funny, to weird. This one- Lincoln is upset b/c he wants to open Jason's presents. Typical. Little did he know I was taking this b/c of the bag behind him. He "wrapped" this present and wrote "too jasen from lincoln". I just thought it was cute.
PS- the correct spelling is J-A-S-O-N ...just to help ya out on that!

 

What every man wants! New clippers so I can cut his hair! They stink. Turns out I need to return them. They might be able to cut other things, but not hair.

Ella made him a "bunny book" (leftover from Easter) and carved a heart in a play-doh Easter egg. This girl will not go to a birthday party empty-handed.

 

The kids' (and Jason's) favorite present- Alligator dentist. So cute! Thanks Mom! You open its mouth and one-by-one push the teeth down and it randomly snaps on someone. Quincy is terrified of it and will only observe.

 

You should've seen the dinner. That's all I gotta say. Yes, I bought him cream puffs for his "cake". This is a man who rarely eats dessert. We had marinated steak and his favorite ranch potatoes and blackberries for dinner. Donchya worry- I treat my man right. :)

 

The assistant candle-blower-outers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is that Charlotte overload? GOOD! Its good for you. Highly recommend it.

 

 

Last Saturday our ward had a primary talent show...Ella showed off her piano skills. She played not one but two pieces. I was shocked at how composed she was. She even messed up but pushed through. This was her first time ever playing in a setting like this. This Saturday is her real recital!