Making a bad day good!

On Monday, we had to go to Miami Children's Hospital so that Mason could be seen by an immunologist. The appt. took THREE hours!!! When we left, we thought about doing one of two things: going to the Star Wars Collection store OR going to Miami Seaquarium. The Seaquarium won! (We will have to do the Star Wars store someday though since Mason would LOVE that!)

Thankfully, it was overcast and there were not that many people there. It was SO hot out, but we had a great day!

Someday, we will laugh about this....

This iguana would not leave us alone! First, he walked under our table and started licking Lexi's foot. And I mean LICKING! Nasty! Then, it climbed up on the seat and tried to get Mason's food! The meal was pretty much over at that point! Mason would not go near the seat after that!

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Mason is such an amazing big brother and just adores his little sisters!

Lexi trying to cool off with some ice

First day back at preschool

Wednesday, August 19th was Mason's first day back at preschool. He is now big man on campus and will be graduating the end of this year and heading to Kindergarten....a thought that frightens me more than I can tell you!

He was SO excited about the first day of school and ran to his classroom! His teacher this year is Mrs. Downes (Miss Ginny, his swim instructor). We love her and know he is going to have an amazing year at Holy Cross Preschool!!

The famous "first day of school" cake! I got a thumbs up!

Date with Sophia!!

Today was "date day". The day Mason has been waiting for!!! Sandra and I made plans to get the kids together for a play date and lunch. We met at the Clematis Library downtown, and I must say, this library is amazing!! The elevator ride was torture, since Lexi has the same phobia that Mason had when he was her age, but other than that, the library was a blast!! The whole third floor is for kids! They have interactive play sections, train tables, computers, a movie room....it was so much fun and definitely some place I plan to visit more often! ~and it must be told that Mason made a necklace for Sophia at the library...he even put it on her!! aaahhhh, puppy love!

After the library, we went for pizza. Again, this is another place I plan on going back to! The restaurant had great food and the kids were free! Can't beat that. After lunch and a few dollars blown in the arcade, it was time to get home and put the girls down for a nap. Mason was sad to leave Sophia! I have not broken the news to him that she will not be back at Holy Cross Preschool this year! He is going to be very sad about that!! But, we will just have to use that as an excuse to get together more often. Sandra was very sweet and I really enjoyed spending the day with her and her girls.


The girls love Sophia as well and she, as well as her sister Gabby, are SO good with them! When we got to the restaurant, Lexi did not want to hold my hand. She kept saying "Ophia hand"!

The necklace in the making...

Sandra caught the kids snuggled up here, reading books together!

DORA LIVE!!!

This past Saturday, August 8th, we took the kids to see Dora Live! We decided since this was the first show that the girls would ever see, it might be wise to pay a little more for the balcony seats, so we could be in our own section and have a quick escape if the need should arise!

Our little orchestra box was perfect! The girls ran around until the show started and then sat and watched the whole thing. Mason never moved from his seat and I dont think he ever took his eyes off the stage!! We had snacks, drinks, and even changed some diapers up there!! It was wonderful!

The show was really cute! Diego even made a special appearance with Baby Jaguar. We had one tiny meltdown, when the lights went very dim and Dora asked everyone to jump up and down. Surprisingly, it was Aubrey who lost it! She quickly calmed down and began waving her Dora star around in the air with the rest of them!!

It was a great day!!

The girls running around before the show.

BOOTS!

There's Dora!

The Map

Little Mace

SWIPER, NO SWIPING!

Diego and Boots

Backpack

The City of Lost Toys: where Dora found her teddy bear.

Aubrey waving her star and saying "bye bye" to Dora

The Hutch!!

Unfortunately, we have a very small kitchen and very few cabinets! We decided it was time to get a hutch so that we could have more storage space. The more we searched, the more expensive the hutches seemed to get!

We took a drive down to Faith Farm (where we have NEVER been able to find what we are looking for...). Thankfully, we did this on a day that Mason was in preschool, so we only had 2 out of 3 sets of hands grabbing things in a very cluttered store. The hutch aisle is toward the back of the store and you have to literally walk sideways to see anything. I was so frustrated that I was ready to leave, but I told Wayne to wait with the girls in the stroller while I tried to shimmy my way down the aisle...cutting my shoulder on the way as I bumped into a piece of glass sticking out of one of the doors!

About 1/2 way down, I came across a find! Usually, I cannot see past the "surface" and picture the outcome, but I looked past all the smoke that had been baked on to this thing and could see potential! We bought it for $79!!

I call this color "cigarette smoke yellow" YUK!

Not too bad once Wayne sanded all the smoke off!

I guess you could say we have a "country" style to our house. We have a lot of red accents and decided to go along with that theme. Originally, we were going to stain it the same color as our table, but we decided to go for it and go bold!!

A few months later, we have a beautiful, brand new hutch!! I am so thankful I didn't turn and run at the original appearance!

The one cabinet looks really "roughed up" here, but it isn't any more sanded than the rest of it. Not sure if it was just the angle or what, but it is all equally antiqued. Not bad for $79, a sander, and a can of paint!