All About Lauren

During Mother's Day weekend I told Lauren that we could go to the American Girl store. She hasn't been since her 5th birthday so it was an extra special visit. Connor has no interest in dolls so he stayed at Grammy's house with his Papa.

After some shopping, we ate at the Bistro. I didn't realize it but you can go just for dessert and not eat off the main menu where you have to pay a fixed price per guest. This was perfect. It was around 3 in the afternoon and we had already eaten lunch so this was great.

And oh my word their desserts are divine. Lauren got a cookies n cream milkshake. That's her favorite kind of ice cream, besides Cotton Candy from Bruisters. Mom and I shared a yummy cookie sundae. It was so good!

She sure does love Saige. Im loving this stage that Lauren is in. When she isn't being super feisty and sassy, it's awesome. It's so fun doing girly things with her. I of course love my awesome boy but I feel so so giddy to know I get to experience both boy and girl things.

Saige got her hair done for the first time. This has to be the cutest thing Ive ever seen. 

Saige's hair was pretty ratty. I didn't realize that I could brush it out with just water. Who knew?

More fun facts about my Little L:

34 pounds

40-41 inches tall

Loves to travel and be busy

Attending the cutest little private school in the fall

Still loves gymnastics

She says she wants to take ballet and get back into tennis lessons too

She does not like big crowds like at birthday parties. They really really bother her

Her feelings get hurt easily and she doesn't understand why kids can be mean

She loves her good friends but she'll remember if someone says something ugly to her for forever and we hear about it all the time :)

Still sleeps like a champion but takes forever to get settled at night

She really really hates waking up in the middle of the night to go potty

She sleeps the best in our room. She claims she doesn't like her room

She prefers to wear dresses with leggings

Still against anything with a ruffle on it. Im waiting for this phase to end. It's been over a year now and I love clothes with ruffles

She loves the dentist and asks when we can go back

She prefers to have a smoothie filled with veggies and fruits over any meal

But she won't touch cut up fruit or veggies (unless its grapes) on her plate

She says she doesn't like chicken but she likes McDonalds chicken nuggets. I about gag in my mouth each time we visit there knowing I have no clue where that chicken comes from

Loves arts and craft

Frozen obsesses

Favorite show is The Pioneer Woman

Still likes making cooking videos of herself cooking

Mommy hopes she can grow 1 inch before our Disney trip in November so she can ride bigger rides

Splish Splash

Last month we went to a new place for us. We headed down to beautiful Florida and stayed on the west side of Panama City Beach. Ever since we took the kids to Ft Walton last September for 8 days, we've been itching to head back down to the Panhandle. The water is just gorgeous down that way.

I found a neat resort online called Splash. It's on the very west end of PCB so it's not loud or wild in any way. It's just a great family friend condo place with lots of activities for the little ones.

We stayed in a 3 bedroom unit and each bedroom had it's own balcony. It was large at around 1800 square feet so there was plenty of room for everyone. My mom and grandmother stayed the whole week. My dad and Todd just popped in for a couple of days.

Due to being on the west end of PCB, you really aren't that far from Seaside. Seaside is such a quaint little sea town. The Post Office is just precious and looks like something out of a magazine. 

The food trucks are always lined up. Talk about delicious. 

The kids shared a smoothie from one of the food trucks. Lauren picked it out. That's my girl. Im pretty sure Ive convinced her that it's super important to be strong and healthy. Ya'll, this smoothie was like $8. You have to get over the insane sticker shock while in Seaside.

Hanging out with her best buddy in beautiful FL.

Back to the resort. They have this huge water area for the kids. Not that you've asked for my advice but here it is :) I don't recommend coming here in the summer. It was great in April. The water in the lazy river and in this play area was freezing but it was great as far as crowd level goes. In the summer, there's no way you'd be able to find a chair by the pool. This condo is build up high so they don't have a lot of land. Waterscape, the place we went to in September, is built on a ton of property and so the pool area is truly like a huge resort.

Silly girl still went down the slides. I don't know how she standed the water being so cold.

The lazy river water was like ice but she still wanted to try it. Here's the thing with Splash too....they seem to have a lot of maintenance issues. This water was supposed to be heated but ya know, "a part didn't come in" or something to that nature.

Mema came down to the beach one afternoon. The views from each balcony were unbelievable. Ive never stayed in a condo where each room has it's own balcony. At Splash, if you rent one on the end, you get multiple balconies. It was beautiful!

Little C Man took the best naps, as usual. Mema would stay with him in the condo and we would walk the beach. I love my traveling buddies.

The best travel partner on the planet. Seriously. I never have to worry about a thing. I plan every single vacation but he keeps up with how to get there, goes anywhere we want to go, plans his flying schedule around our fun trips, etc. He's a fun one. And he loves Disney. I will never in 800 years understand how a man can't love seeing his kids light up seeing their favorite people. Makes.no.sense.

Shopping in Seaside with my girl. By shopping I mean looking at the prices, having a heart attack at a $70 sweatshirt, and just admiring items :) Last September we got lucky because lots of cute items were on sale since it was after their peak season.

Strolling the fun shops in Panama City. We stayed super close to a brand new shopping center. It was so nice.

This little cutie was so so excited because she picked out a necklace and ring as her beach souvenir. Love her.

My wild boy that never stops to slow down. He will run away from you, laugh, and be the cutest little dude you've ever seen. 

Ready to shop!

Here is the condo we stayed in: http://www.vrbo.com/241349

The prices are negotiable if you are looking for somewhere to go. We got them to come down quite a bit.

Better Late Than Never

A whole month has gone by. I used to be so good at blogging and I want to get back into it. This is my scrapbook for my kiddos so I better jump back on this train. Where do I begin?!

Let's start with Little L, aka Lauren. Sweet girl just graduated from Preschool. It seems like yesterday that she was born. She was a tiny 6 pounds 6 ounces and is still my little peanut. Gosh I love her. She will make you go nutso crazy in about 5 seconds because of her sass but man I love her. I actually have some gray hairs now and I promise they are from my spit fire. 

Even though Lauren is wild at home, she really does not like to be the center of attention. She doesn't like anyone looking at her and she can't stand performing on a big stage. We were cackling in our seats because if you notice all of the other kids doing the hand motions, Lauren keeps her hands down low. She's a funny one.

She was nervous.

Getting her diploma. Cutest thing Ive ever seen.

She was bored out of her mind. Using your diploma as binoculars is great to kill some time.

After her graduation, we had cake and juice. She was all smiles to be done but super sad to be leaving her sweet little school.

So for big girl school:

Little L got into a private school that I love here in town. It's a precious school with a maximum of 12 kids per class. So this is crazy but some people say that putting your child in a small school will shelter them. I have a whole post on "sheltering" your kids but if sheltering means putting her in a small private Christian school, being close to all of the teachers in the school, having 1 on 1 attention in a classroom, going to chapel, having the teachers pray for students before school starts each day, etc. sign me up for sheltered. Im totally game :) 

Playing dress up as Elsa has been a big hit lately. Holy cow ya'll, do you know how hard it is to find an Elsa dress?? Sheesh. I joined some group on Facebook where these women are genius at finding them. It's wild. 

The babes are about to take their 3rd Disney Cruise (Lauren) and 2nd for Connor dude. Lauren has no idea. I keep telling her "What if you get to go on the Disney boat again? Would you want to wear your Elsa dress?" She thinks it's so neat and keeps saying "Can we go now?!" We aren't telling her until we pull up at the port.

On to Connor. Oh my gosh he has to be the sweetest kid on the planet. Im not even kidding. He's the sweetest baby boy. He's a dream baby (or shall I say toddler now?) He gives the sweetest kisses and talks to everyone he sees. He's so so friendly. He waves Hi to everyone, tells everyone bye, blows them a kiss. He's such a little flirt. I could bottle that sweet boy up. If I could clone him, Id have a third. I love that he's talking now. He is a smart little boy too. He's not quite 2.5 and goes potty on the potty. It's so nice to now be diaper free during the day. We haven't braved going diaperless in public but at home, he's all clear. He knows the route to Lauren's school. If I don't turn at the normal spot, he yells "Sissy Lauren" and cries.

See? Still happy :) He thinks it's so fun to pretend drive.

So here's the thing....don't take candy away from the boy. He'll show his tears!

Up next: I need to recap our 8 day stay at the beach last month. In true fashion, we've been vacaying every 6-8 weeks and I don't want to get behind. The kids are getting to experience so much in the their little lives and I want them to be able to read about it.