Summer tiiiime

Hayley has been spending a lot of time on this blog recently, reading post after post...giggling every 20 seconds...  One day I think she spent 2 hours sitting at the kitchen table, flipping through stories of the Smith family past.  When she was done reading for the day, she said 

"Mom, I'm so glad you kept this blog and wrote all that stuff."

It was awesome to hear, because that is, and they are, the very reason I ever thought to keep a blog in the first place.  

And what I love, is that it is not the big exciting things we do as a family that they like to reminisce about the most, but the little things that happen in our every day chaotic lives.

For that reason, I was thinking I should probably make this blogging biz more of a regular thing.

(Don't hold me to that, of course.)

I've been trying to work one on one with Ty with some preschool-like things.

I'm not going to lie, it is a struggle.  The girls were so easy and excited to learn at his age, but Ty, after we're only 3 minutes into our 'lesson'  starts begging for a snack...and then there is whining about whatever he can think of to whine about...and then begging to watch 'Jake and the Neverland Pirates' and so on.  I get frustrated, and sometimes we have to take a few breaks from each other throughout the lesson.... But we continue to press forward anyway, because my kid WILL know his stuff by the time he's in kindergarten!!

This is him guessing which items are going to float or sink, and then testing it out.

This activity actually included no whining.

Just smiles.

Win!

My kids will never be known for their good manners.  That is a fact.

The last 2 weeks of 5th grade, I don't think Hayley did anything but party.

This was at the 5th grade dance (which Hayley was asked to by 3 different boys)  

She asked me to be a chaperone and I happily said yes.  You all know I would never pass up a chance to go to a dance in a million years.  ;)

I also chaperoned Tia's end of the year field trip to Brandywine Picnic Park.  It was the first field trip I had ever been on, actually.  They had a blast, and I had the best little group of kids I could have asked for.  The rock climbing wall was a lot harder than Tia had anticipated, but she eventually made it to the top.

Hayley was asked by the 5 th grade teachers to give a speech at her Elementary Graduation.
It was so sweet.

After the ceremony was over, she crumbled into my arms and burst into tears.  

She didn't want to leave all of the people and memories behind.  

 Mr. Manley, Hayley's basketball coach, and one of her favorite people ever.

And here is one of her best buds, Jake.
These two have so much fun together.

My little player, and her cute coach.

Gracelyn is such a little angel. She makes everything so much fun.

Even if it's just sitting on a pool chair doing nothing.

Wish I could say the same for....

;) Kiddinnnnnng

This is an old picture from way back in April.  

April fools day to be exact.  Hayley wrote on Tia's face while she was sleeping.  I didn't realize people could legitimately sleep through something like that....but here's proof.

Trick of the day, most definitely.

Jordan and Hayley on a Saturday morning bike ride.

We took a break from looking at the animals in the Philly zoo for a quick  paddle boat ride around the pond.

It turned into a game of bumper swans with Hayley and Tia.  It was hard to be lady like while pedaling in a skirt, but I did my best.

Jordan got a new phone a few days ago, and we are having the best time playing around with the new camera features.  

Exhibit A.  So funny, right?

This was taken on the Spirit of Philadelphia Cruise Ship.
So peaceful and beautiful.

After the cruise we decided to do a little exploring, so we walked down the boardwalk along the river and ran into the coolest park, we never knew existed.  It was filled with hammocks, and people just layin' around...there was a section of it that had several jumbo sized board games, and building blocks...

It was 10:30 at night and there were little kids up hoppin all around us.  It was kind of strange.
Food stands, and music....  It was like the after party to our party.

Smith family is off to a campground next week. Our plan of attack is to squeeze all 6 of us into a little cabin and hopefully make some good memories.
I have a feeling this trip will produce a few good stories for you to hear next time.
Smith Camping trips always do.

photo catch up

Tia is under the impression that when one becomes a teenager, they lose all ability to speak and act like a normal human being.  (Which is definitely partially true.) This is my girl doing  her best teenager impressions.  I die everytime,  you must see this in person.

J invited me to DiAngelo's restaurant for Valentines day....
which was in our dining room, with him playing the part of DiAngelo.

He even threw a little twist in there, and served me Beef and Broccoli, which is not in the least bit Italian.
So full of surprises, this one.


Ty didn't realize that I caught him on camera stealing one of my strawberries.


And below was our Valentines Breakfast

Lots of love happenin up in here.

Hayley played so great this year.   She ended up winning the Character award as well, so it was a pretty awesome way to end her 5th grade season.

 She keeps me company while I cook.   

Hayley's response when I said: "It stinks in here....who in this room hasn't taken a shower in like 5 days?"

On the very last day of the very last random snow fall (which produced approximately 1 and 1/2 inches of snow, and just so happened to be on the first day of spring)...we took our kids out to do a little sledding.  We had the best time.

Grammy thought she'd be funny and start a snowball fight.

She accidentally hit Ty in the face and he got all mad at her.

He pouted like this for like 20 minutes.

J throwing snowballs at my mom.  No mercy for the elderly. ;)

Eventually we used up all the snow, so then our sled just started tipping.

  

Tia never ceases to amaze me.  She started a 'Service Club' at her school a few weeks ago, for no other reason than she wanted to do something good for the community.  Twice a week, she and her club members spend half of their recess time picking up trash.  She wrote a pledge (which is adorable), and has a set of guidelines to help the club run efficiently.  I thought it would have fizzled out after the first week, but it seems to still be going strong.

We picked up a few cleaning supplies for Ty to call his own, hoping it would give him a little incentive to do his chores.

Best idea I ever had.  ;)

Hayley and her gang at her school's 80's dance

And Tia's gang.  It was a blast watching my girls go all crazy on the dance floor.

Tia turned 9!  

Gracelyn does this pointing gesture, which cracks me up.  It's a simple motion, but she does it with so much intensity.

This was right after I discovered that she discovered how to get out of her Bumbo.
Aaaaah!

The 5th graders had to choose someone to do a report on, and Hayley chose the man who invented Basketball.  James Naismith.    I think she came pretty close, what do you say?

Field Day

We are missing a key part to our blender.  So we make do.

Baby in a blanket

'Guess I'll sleep then.'

Tia made a sign to cheer her big sister on at her basketball tournament.  

She held it up there for the entire game

I found this in the cupboard a little while ago.  It's a good thing I caught it, or it might have strangled us all in our sleep.

Gracelyn and Johnny.  She is so fascinated by this little boy, and can't seem to keep her hands (or mouth) off of him.

Ty and his buddies 

You had to have been there to appreciate how hilarious this picture really is.  Jordan came home from a golf tournament with a really nice pullover jacket on.  While he was telling me all about his day he kept feeling something on the inside of his jacket, so he went to pull it out, and realized that whatever it was, was stuck.  He took off his jacket and turned it inside out and found this.  I almost peed my pants from laughing so hard.  It was the interfacing they used to put the embroidery on the jacket, but apparently forgot to cut it down to an appropriate size.  It's the size of a friggin piece of paper!  I wonder if everyone that got the jacket had the same issue, or if J was the only lucky one.

Just chillin at one of Tia's soccer games.

J swept me away to Orlando Florida for a 3 day getaway, just him and I.  

Mom and Bret took the kids for us...bless them...so we were able to relax and enjoy every single second.

We stayed at a beautiful hotel with everything you could ever want/need...

like an arcade, for starters.  (this was the first thing we checked out when we arrived.  Is anyone that knows Jordan really surprised?) ;)

 I was just trying to take a nice picture here, and J had to go on and try to get fresh. ;)
  I actually think this is the only one we got of the two of us the whole time.

 This pond apparently had alligators in it, but we never did catch any.  ;)  Guess we were using the wrong kind of bait.

In line at Universal Studios for some of Harry Potter's butter beer ice cream.  Loved it!

This was a half work/half play kind of trip (but mostly play) since Jordan was there for a work conference....so while he 'worked'  I spent a lot of time on my big comfy king sized bed, studying for a test I have coming up.

We totally need a king sized bed.
Like for each of us.  One for him and one for me.  ;)

Oh good morning....just heading to the hot tub to relax

The second day we were there, we decided on a whim to find our way to Sea World even though the weather channel called for storms and the hotel concierge had warned us not to go.

 We were feeling wild and free and  Please....like the weather people are ever right...., so we checked the city bus schedule and  sprinted  to the nearest bus stop since it was due to arrive in like 5 minutes.  I was wearing sandals

We sprinted right through a family of huge birds that looked like Egrets.  We scared the crap out of them and they started running as fast as their skinny legs could carry them.  I was cracking up and trying to take a picture while sprinting.... in my sandals....., while J yelled back at me to stop messing around or we'd miss our bus.

I laughed the whole way  We arrived at our bus stop fully expecting it to show up any second...but 30 minutes later it still wasn't there...so I told J, "heck with this adventure...I'm done here.  it's hot."

As we started walking back, the bus arrived, and we sprinted back to the bus stop to hop on.

Once the bus let us off, we found ourselves in the middle of a friggin monsoon.  It was raining SO HARD, and we had no idea where we were, or what we should do.  So we just started walking toward what we thought looked like Sea World  and hoped for the best. It took us like an hour.  We were soaked from head to toe...but not to worry, I brought my Beanie hat along just in case I would need to protect my hair at some point.

  Naturally, I had to take a picture...since I'm pretty sure I am the only person to have ever worn a beanie hat in the entire state of Florida.

The picture was actually taken in the Bathroom at the Sea World Entrance...because that's as far as

we got before we decided to turn around and head back to the hotel.  It was raining too hard for the rides or shows to be running, and just as we showed up, everyone else was running out of the park. I asked the gift shop lady how much the parkas were (to protect us from the rain) and she looked at me funny.  Later I learned that parkas are not in fact the same thing as ponchos like I had thought.

I am a moron. 

 We walked forever to the next bus stop...and by the time we got there, the rain had ceased and the sun was blazing down again.  We cursed mother nature for ruining our plans and being so spiteful, and then found ourselves in a hole in the wall bar for lunch.  From there we caught a bus that we shouldn't have caught and found ourselves SO far out of the way on the other side of Orlando.  all we could do was laugh.  Our bus driver was a maniac and came within inches of running over 2 different pedestrians.  I was chilled to the bone...soggy, and scared for our lives.
We made it back to the hotel in once piece, but scarred for life.  ;)  To top the day off, as we walked back toward our section of the hotel, we ran into the same family of birds that we scared off earlier.  They took one look at J and I and ran for the hills.
Best ending ever.

When we got back to our room late one night, I had a voicemail waiting for me from the Hotel Spa saying that a friend of mine had secretly arranged for me to get a massage.

I had never told anyone where we would be!  How did she?  What the?

It was such an amazing surprise.  So thoughtful.

I had to take a mirror selfie just before my massage because I felt like a little kid wearing my mom's bathrobe.

They led me into a waiting room which was filled with desserts and drinks and big comfortable chairs and relaxing music.  Everyone used soft calming voices and I think, maybe, it was the closest to heaven I've ever been. ;)

We flew back to Delaware in our shorts and sandals and were welcomed by 35 degree weather. 

 I was glad once again, that my beanie was readily available  :)

Our vacation was over in a flash, but I am so glad Jordan invited me to tag along.

Grammy snuggling her girl. 

Ty Ty turned 4!!

And this little girl turned 1!

My camera ran out of juice just before the big reveal.  It was a baby doll, and I can't even describe the joy and excitement that came out of her little body when she saw it.  It was like she had been waiting her WHOLE LIFE for one.  She's so nurturing and won't let anyone else put their hands on that baby.  

So many things to remember about this little girl's first year of life.

So much fun.

More soon. :)