Morning fun, Westside style

After all the rain the other night, the weather has been sunny and beautiful. Well, hot and humid, but that's what these Floridians seem to call beautiful summer weather. So we and Mami packed up the camera and our water bottles this morning and headed to Westside Park, our favorite place to pass the time. Resli and I took off running as soon as we got there.

I really really really wanted to go on the big girl swings, but I couldn't reach.

Luckily, Mami helped me up and then Resli, the best big sister ever, pushed me!


Wheeeee, that part was fun!

Then we moved on to the jungle gym. Peek-a-boo!

 

And boy did we discover some fun ways to go down the slide.  

  

Now I ask you, did you do anything nearly as fun with your Sunday morning?

The Sunday funnies

One of my favorite things to do with Daddy on Sunday mornings is to read the funnies in the paper. We've been doing it enough so that now I look forward to seeing what's going on in the stories and seeing who's doing what.

Our favorites are Peanuts, Prince Valiant (because they have princesses sometimes!), and Baby Blues. Sometimes we read some other ones too, but those are the ones we've been following.

A very close call (updated 5/5/10)

We had some very severe storms here Friday night, thunder, lightning, hail, maybe even some tornadoes. All night long we heard thuds and bumps of branches falling, hail hitting the windows, all kinds of noises. (And we were without power for several hours overnight.) So Saturday we were very curious to see what our yard and street looked like.
Overall, we came out ok. Parts of our road were closed for a good part of the day due to downed trees and power lines, but our only significant damage was this treetop down in our back yard.

It was one of the "weaknesses" we knew about in our yard, that we've just been waiting to figure out how to finance. Lots of weak trees and limbs that need to come down.

But when we saw how close this one came to doing real damage, we made the decision to make these trees our priority - before the brunt of hurricane season comes.

For today, though, we're just grateful for the 6 feet of breathing room we got this time!

UPDATE 5/5/10
We heard a big noise during the night last night. Turns out the treetop gave up the fight and fell all the way off. On to our fence. Time to call the tree people.

   

Resli's first Girl Scouts meeting

Growing up seems like it's going to be so much fun, with all these exciting adventures ahead of me! Tonight Mami and I went to our first Girl Scouts meeting to see if I want to sign up to be a Daisy Scout in the fall.
I met a lot of other Girl Scouts and troop leaders and we sang songs,

and did crafts, and learned all about the Girl Scout Promise and Law.

We had a good time, and I'm looking forward to becoming a Daisy in October!

Time for a little toes-up

Resli gave up her afternoon nap long ago, even though she desperately needs more sleep than she gets. (And I could always use a few extra winks here and there myself!) Some days, though, the fatigue just gets the better of her. She crawled up into my lap this afternoon and before I knew it she was snoring. Ever considerate as I am, I thought it would be rude to bother her, so I sat quietly myself. Before we knew it we were both out for what Nana likes to call a little toes-up.

An hour later we both felt quite rested, if a little groggy. We'll see if we can ever sleep tonight...

In search of alligators

This afternoon we decided to go on an alligator adventure. We drove out to Payne's Prairie to see if we could spot any. It was a beautiful afternoon.

Although the bright sun made the photo ops somewhat tricky...

We learned about the various amphibians that inhabit the prairie.

And we saw proof that the alligators do exist ....

But we weren't lucky enough to spot any of the reptiles themselves.
This may be due to the fact that we've had so little rain lately that there was very little water there. In this picture you can see that there's only a very small lake way out in the distance. Sometimes when we go the water is all the way up to the observation deck.

Maybe next time we'll see Albert and Alberta...

Happy Birthday Aunt Lizzie!

Today Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Brian came to visit and to help Aunt Lizzie celebrate her upcoming birthday. We had cake and sang to her.

Resli helped her blow out her candles.

Lela and Grandma exchanged a high-five in their excitement over the success of that adventure.

And Lela and Liz posed for a goddaughter-fairy godmother picture.

We hope you have a great birthday, Aunt Lizzie!

Kindergarten Round-Up Day

Today was a very special day here in Gainesville - it's Kindergarten Round Up Day when all 5 year olds get to go to the school where they'll be going to kindergarten and see the classrooms, meet the teachers, all that kind of stuff. 

I was so excited I could barely contain myself!

Mami and Daddy walked me down the street to my school. This is the first of many of these walks.

You may remember Glen Springs as the school near my house where we go to play on the playground every now and then... Well, this is going to be my school as of August! I'm very excited about the playground part.

 I'm also pretty excited about the school part, and the kindergarten part!   

We met the mascot, the "tiger", and then we kids went off with the kindergarten teachers and played and sang and had snacks. 

Mami spent a long time filling out paperwork.

All in all, it was a successful afternoon.

Ready or not, Glen Springs, HERE I COME!

Water fight!

Mami got some neat water shooters at the store today, so we decided to check them out.

It took a while to get the hang of it, 

 

but we figured it out.

Daddy helped, too.

Until he turned on us!!

We got wet and had fun. And, of course, danced.

All in a morning's work!

Breakfast fun

Resli and Lela love sitting RIGHT next to each other for breakfast.
They have to be touching, or it's not close enough!

Easy like Saturday morning

There's nothing like hanging out in the hammock on a lazy Saturday morning.

Is there a doctor in the house?

It's been a rough several weeks in our household, with illness after illness. At one point I think all four of us were on some kind of antibiotic or another... This week is vacation for the girls' school, which is just as well because it's been no different health-wise than previous weeks. Lela had a brief but intense stomach bug that required an entire box of pullups to get through it. Resli is still having trouble hearing and has all kinds of congestion and cough issues, and it turns out she has yet another ear infection. And then yesterday SHE got the stomach bug and pretty much vomited any time anything other than water entered her system. She had a fever, although seems to be better today. But we're taking it easy just in case.

Of course, she can still manage a smile for the camera.

I think she's on the mend... For now, at least.

UPDATE 4/8: I take that back. After a light dinner it turns out that no, the vomiting is not over!

UPDATE 4/9: Just came back from Pediatric After Hours with Resli - had to get dual shots of an antibiotic since she can't keep the antibiotics down and the ears are getting worse (two infections now). Traumatic but hopefully on the way to getting better - although we need another, maybe two more shots after 24 and 48 hours. Poor thing. Lela had another round of hers this morning but seems to be ok now. Harvey has the flu too.