Fun at the museum

It is ridiculously hot and humid out - it was already well over 90 degrees by 10am this morning - so we went in search of fun and free things to do (mostly) indoors. Thank goodness we have our annual membership to the Florida Museum of Natural History and its butterfly rainforest. 

Starting at the parking lot, everything is cool - there are sculptures right outside. 

Even the fire hydrants made Lela smile!

We first went to see the butterflies, before it got any warmer out. There were tons of them, probably because of the nice heat - we've never seen so many. Even just sitting there, they landed right on your head and stuff.

 

Some enjoyed that more than others. Resli still seems a bit freaked out by them.

Luckily, there are lots of other cool things to see and do out there. 

 

But it was getting late, and it was lunch time, 

so we decided to finish exploring the rest of the museum. The cave is the girls' favorite part, it shows what plant and animal life is like inside Florida's caves. It's all dark and scary inside, so coming out is a fun part too. 

One of the other great parts of the museum is the kids' Discovery Room where there are all kinds of things to do, see, touch and play with. Lela and Resli colored for a while, 

and then Lela read a book while Resli helped the staff mix up the memory game cards.

 

All in all, a successful outing! How was your Saturday morning?

Obstacle courses

One of Lela's favorite things to do lately is put things on the ground and jump over them. She's a really good jumper, we see a future in broad jump for her... This morning, to have some fun, we set up a little obstacle course for them, with a start and finish line and some jumps in between.
Resli went first.


Then Lela.


She seemed to have a lot of trouble with the jumping though... It was the crocs. Once she took those off, she was back to her springy self.

An afternoon at the nail spa

Resli and I spent some special girl time together this afternoon. We went to get our toenails done.
The nice Vietnamese ladies at the salon were beside themselves with laughter, having never experienced a pedicure with someone as short and ticklish and squirmy as Resli. She couldn't reach the water from the seat, so had to stand up in the tub for half of it. Then after some lotion massaging and more ticklish squirming, she picked a beautiful glittery pink polish and they set to work.

They even threw in a flower and a rhinestone jewel on each big toe, just because she was so cute.

And only charged us half price, after all that.
We had fun, and Resli is very proud of her bright pink sparkly feet.

Jammin' in JAX

We went up to Jacksonville today to celebrate Father's Day with Grandma and Granddaddy and Aunt Liz and Uncle Brian. We went to lunch at a great seafood restaurant on the water, and then went back to Liz and Brian's house for a bit. Resli and Lela - but especially Resli - really loved their drum set.
Resli was a little hesitant at first,

but then she found her groove and really got in to it.


Lela stepped up to the plate too, to join in the fun. Check out that white man's overbite. You go, Lela girl.

They made quite the racket - er, I mean music - together.

When I asked Resli later what she was playing she gave me this "must you really ask?" look and replied, "It was a rock and roll song."

Shiver me timbers!

Ahoy there, mateys! This evening at dinner we had an early Father's Day celebration for daddy, and we told him he could celebrate however he wanted. What did he want? PIRATE DINNER.

The rules of pirate dinner are simple: no manners, no utensils, no table and chairs (except for adults) no worrying about rules or cleanliness. 

Oh, and pirate costumes, of course. Here's Captain Daddy:

First mate Mami with Skipper Lela:

You may find this hard to believe, but Resli decided she did not want to be a pirate. She preferred to be a princess.

She knew that this meant that not only was she required to use her manners and her polite words, but also that she would be tied up as the pirates' prisoner and made to walk the plank, but still she insisted on the tiara, the napkin and the "please" and "thank you".
Nonetheless, we were all able to enjoy a lovely dinner of finger foods or, in the captain's case, hook foods, out on the porch, with a newspaper tablecloth.

To prevent scurvy, we had some watermelon for dessert, too, which is a treat for princesses and pirates alike.

  

Yo ho, yo ho, it's a pirate's life for us!

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Mami!

Yesterday was Mami's (and Aunt Melissa's) birthday, so we had a cake to celebrate. Daddy lit the candles and brought it in,

and we all sang.

Then Mami needed some help blowing the candles out.

And yum yum, we all had a little piece.
Or a big one, for the birthday girl...

Happy Birthday!

Lela's turn in the spotlight

This is not the song I would have expected to come from this cheerful cherubic face - and those curls! - but she does a good job with it nonetheless.  For some reason, when I upload the videos, the sound/image are no longer synced up... :(

Some more ear infections

We'd had a pretty good no-illness-run there, for a while. But it turns out that Resli has two pretty infected ears. Again. But they're not the typical ear infection this time, but rather otitis externa, or what's called "swimmer's ear." It's easily treated with drops.
The funny part is that we have to put cotton balls in after the drops to make sure they stay in there and get absorbed. Resli finds this hysterical (which is better than terrifying, which was her initial reaction to the drops).

Better yet, Lela wants to be just like Resli, so she wants cotton balls in her ears too!

Wow, we've got another 6 and 1/2 days of this fun!

A career in stand-up comedy?

Resli seems to have developed an interest in telling jokes lately. Here's her favorite:


And another, that she and Lela try to tell together:


And, in case you didn't catch that in the last clip, here's the key to figuring out where all these jokes are coming from:


(Yes, the episode of the Muppet Show with Brooke Shields as a guest. We've watched it several times...)

My first "graduation"

You may not know it, but apparently you can graduate from pre-kindergarten. We didn't know it either, until we had to get Resli a cap and gown for her big ceremony. But those 5 year olds sure did look cute as they marched in to the auditorium. 
They all lined up on stage.

And then they sang for us.
Their first song was the Florida Alphabet Song. I missed the first few words switching the camera on, and you can't understand all of it, but it's really quite clever. If you want to read the words, you can click here.

After that they sang a couple more songs, including this one, Peace Like a River. It's their favorite.

Then came the big moment, when everyone got their very own 'diploma'!

Resli's teachers, Ms. Jenny and Ms. Quillan, were wonderful, and she was so lucky to have them this year. She learned so much from them and will miss them very much next year. They might even miss her too!

Lela was very proud of her big sister, and Resli loved seeing Lela in the audience. They celebrated afterwards with a big, blurry hug.

So while the whole graduation ceremony did seem a bit over the top, it was a great celebration. We're very proud of our baby girl, who is officially no longer a "pre-schooler" but instead a proud member of the "CLASS OF 2010"!