Random Summer Fun Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our fun summer we had! Hope you enjoy!

Lake Nights!

First Lessons in hooking a cricket to fish with!

Waiting patiently!

Yea - our first fish caught at the lake! (learning how to hold it)

OOPPSSS! Yea that little dark spot at the bottom is a the fish! We let it go!

Bowling With Gran!

Playing in the rain at the lake house!

There is no better saying, according to our families! Just FYI... may parents lake house and Sam's parents lake house is only about 2 minutes from each other - it has made for a really FUN summer for all of us!

Anna on the Dancing Porch (that's what she calls one of the porches at the lake house).

All of the summer fun has caught up with Anna - we found her like this in the playroom at the lake!

Sophie - our lake dog!

One of the few times we actually got all cleaned up for church this summer - we took a sabbatical with Dr. Durham!

Redneck (backyard) version of a waterslide! I came home from the grocery store to find this little amusement park in our backyard!

Anna's New Class

Ok, so I realize that Anna's first day of preschool occurred a week before Mary Mac's, but here are Anna's pictures from her first day as a Friendly Frog! Her favorite thing about being a Friendly Frog is being able to play on the "big kids" playground instead of the baby one.

New Adventures In The Collins Clan

Yes, again, I am waaayyyyy behind in posting this, but Mary Mac started kindergarten back in August and it was a huge month for our house! On top of starting "real" school, Mary Mac also has her first loose tooth! Wow, I really can't believe that I have a child in the same school that I went to and with our first loose tooth! It seems like seconds ago that I Sam and I were married and that we were delightfully (after the shock wore off) surprised by that positive pregnancy test after only 7 months of married life!

Not only has it been a huge adjustment for Mary Mac (which, by the way, she LOVES kindergarten), but it's been a HUGE adjustment for me and Anna too! Anna is having to adjust to being at preschool without her Big Sis there to comfort her when she's having a rough morning. And I am having to adjust to EARLY MORNINGS, early pick-up times, and homework (a little). Man, I didn't realize that 2:30 pm came so fast until this year! I have had to set my phone to alarm at 2:20 just so I don't forget to go get her! She LOVES her teachers, PE, Lunch, and Extended Day (although she doesn't get to go as much as she'd like)!

Since the first day of school, we've already experienced PTA night and a hugely successful school-wide fundraiser for Promethean Smart Boards for every classroom in the school. This is HUGE because at the start of school (4 weeks prior), only 7 boards existed in the school and the parents would have to raise the money for the remaining boards because we are not federally funded school (those of which already have one in every room - go figure - we basically have paid with taxes and donations for our school PLUS the other schools!). In 4 short weeks, the amazing parents, donors, and grand-parents were able to raise $63,000 for every class to have a board! I am SOOOO proud to be a part of this amazing public school (and alma mater) Verner Elementary! I have never seen a public school rally around and become almost like our very own private school!

Wow Time Flies!

Well here I am again apologizing for no posts in over a month! We have had so much going on and I really should not have any excuses except that WE WERE BUSY!!!! Since my last post (yes, over a month ago), we decided to take a last minute family vacation to the beach. And when I say last minute, literally, last minute! On Sunday night as we were getting in bed, Sam looks at me (he's just gotten home from a trade show) and says, "So do we have any plans this weekend?" "Well, of course not! Why?" was my reply. Sam:"Why don't we go down to the beach?"Me:"Ok, so like when do you wanna go?" Sam:"Well, I can be ready Wednesday." Me: (internally)YIKES! "Ok, well let me see what all I get done over the next day or so at work!"

So, being the beach-lover that I am and the endless begging each and every night from the girls, I was a mad-woman at work getting tons of work accomplished in a few short hours and getting all of our clothes washed and packed. Before you knew it, we loaded the car on Wednesday afternoon (after Sam came home to cut the grass first) and were on our way! This was the first trip that we made with both girls where we left in the afternoon and drove into the night, arriving about 10:00 pm. Keep in mind that I have a HUGE show that was coming up in August (another reason I've been really busy).

Very rarely do we get away on vacation where NONE of our family is with us. Ok, I realize that we are VERY spoiled in that way, but on the other hand (and we LOVE our families - don't get me wrong) it was sooooo nice to have just the 4 of us! Needless to say, our last minute family vacation was the BEST EVER!!!! We spent 5 days at my parent's condo (ah...the luxury of family owning a place down there). While we packed, the girls energy was out the roof, so I sent them into the playroom to illustrate (i.e. draw, which is MM's favorite activity) all of the things that they wanted to do at the beach! It was so cute and we made sure to do all of the illustrated activities!

***Ok, quick funny sidenote...as I type Anna is totally torturing MM in the playroom. I can hardly stop laughing! Anna keeps blowing on this deer whistle thingy and MM screams every time she blows it. Of course, Anna continues to blow it just to make her scream! Is that cruel that I think that's kinda funny? (Molli, I can read your mind and I know that you are on MM's side on this)***

Ok, so back to the original post! At the beach, we had picnics on the beach, swam (BTW, no oil), built sand castles, hunted for shells, hunted for crabs, and went out to dinner (yes, I claimed I was on vacation from cooking!). So, here are some of my fave pics:

There were many more pics that I cherish from that much-needed vacation so if you are interested, click here!

Another Girl Day

Two Words...Mission Accomplished! I made another last minute decision this morning (after my tennis was cancelled) that I would go ahead and make today Anna's school supply shopping day. Like I said yesterday, I had already scoped everything out, so her trips were a much quicker (and fewer). And, even better, she opted for Wal-Mart instead of Target - you think that says anything as to what she will be like as an adult - I mean I've already designated her as the best money saver between the two girls! And, since I had already checked out the school supply section at Target, I agreed that we would do her shopping at Wal-Mart, especially considering most of her "supplies" were things like paper towels, plates, utensils, tissues, etc. and you can definitely get those much cheaper at Wal-Mart! We then ventured on to buy her 2 new outifts - it was a really tough choice for her though since she loves clothes. She was so funny and kept pulling out stuff and saying, "Oh, Mommy, isn't this so cute?" And, yes, she was right, but I had a limit of only 2 new outifts (not to mention she has more hand-me-downs than we can fit in her closet)!!! After her day (or half day) of shopping, we met Gran at Ruby Tuesday (that's a little more along the lines of what I consider a "nice big girls lunch" than a deli) and she had her favorite, fried cheese sticks! YUMMY! Not very healthy, but then again, it was "her" day! It was another GREAT girl day with my youngest! I do have to admit that it is soooo nice that I can finally do things that like for both girls (separately and together) and actually enjoy our time together!

So, as I said in the first line...mission accomplished! All of our supplies are bought and ready for the first days of school!

Man, though, I really wish these years would SLOW down! I feel like I'm on a treadmill of life watching my girls lives fly by me as I'm just casually jogging along, all the while, huffing and puffing to keep up with them!!!! I really have to remind myself to just STOP and take it all in because it all goes soooo fast! I cannot really grasp that my first-born baby is starting kindergarten. In a weepy sort of way, I feel like our "fun times" are over because once real school starts, it's just another rat race to help her get to her ultimate dream, whatever that may be, even though she is only 5! Sorry for the sappy-ness, but it's just the plain and honest truth!

Mid Summer Fun

While the summer is totally flying by, I realize that I have not really been keeping with up with the girls are doing this summer (aside from the BIG stuff). As many of you know, I decided to keep the girls home this summer in hopes of creating some really great memories of her last summer before starting kindergarten (maybe that was a pipe-dream on my part). I had arranged for several activities and camps and trips for June and then we have 2 incredibly sweet college-age girls (twins actually) that babysit for us and agreed to keep them everyday during July (which, by now, I'm sure they are rethinking this decision) so that I can work. I know this probably makes little sense, but MY thinking was that at least the twins could take them to the pool, movies, playground, etc. and not have to be contained in a classroom! At the end of June, I realized that maybe I had been daydreaming about how "wonderful" this time would be and that I AM DEFINITELY NOT MADE TO STAY HOME!!! And some of those feelings could stem from the fact that while I was not at the office everyday, I still had to get some work done somehow someway - which usually meant taking the girls with me to the office - UGH! I guess I shouldn't complain b/c at least I do have that option. At one point, I looked at Sam and said, "So who's bright idea was this to keep the girls home for the summer?" ~ Well that would be me!

With all that said, July could not come fast enough...and the girls have had a ball with the twins so far this summer! They have gone swimming (a lot), gone to the playground (in this scorching heat), gone to the movies, gone to the bookstore, played on the Slip N Slide DAILY (no joke), and who knows what else! And, their favorite part of the week is Friday b/c the twins take them to get a "treat" (i.e. toys) if they've been good all week.

Even with all of the fun things the girls have done, they are both getting on each other's nerves and are craving their friends. They can drive us all crazy with copying each other (yep, I remember doing that as a kid and I now realize how annoying it is), making loud noises just to annoy the other sibling, sit in each other's desginated chairs - you name it, they have fought over it! But, I guess that's what being a sibling is all about and, in fact, that's a lot of what I remember as a kid during the summer - getting on my brother's nerves ALL.THE.TIME!

But as the summer is quickly drawing near, I decided that I wanted to do our school supply shopping done BEFORE the mass crowds. And, since the girls are craving alone time with Mommy, I decided I would take them both separately and have their own "day"! So today was Mary Mac's day and she was sooooo excited - so much so that she was up at 6:30 am and ready to get dressed (in "cute" clothes which was our deal - she did not fight it this time)! So we made our way to Starbucks (because all "girl days" MUST begin with a coffee/chocolate milk trip) and then to Target, where I allowed her (against my inner dialogue) to pick out all of her supplies, including her lunchbox which, of course, she chose iCarly (ugh!). We also visited a local clothing store and she picked out 2 "cute" outfits that she wanted for school. Luckily, since we live in the deep south, it is still so hot during the beginning of school that we can wear summer stuff and this particular store was having a 50% summer clothes sale - so we got 2 for the price of 1! I had already ordered her backback (horse-themed of course) from a catalog so we didn't have to look for that AND I have to confess that once I got back to the office, I did order a "regular" lunchbox in hopes of her changing her mind on the iCarly one. Fingers crossed on that one!!!! The funniest part was that I promised her a Big Girls Lunch whereever she wanted (thinking DePalmas or somewhere kind of nice), but she insisted on Momma Goldberg's Deli - yep, sandwiches! But it was well worth it - while we ate, she looked at me with this silly grin and exclaimed that this had been the best girl day EVER!!! AHHHH - now that's what I want to remember about this summer!

Now, Anna's day is next! This should be interesting! Although, again I must confess, that while out today shopping with Mary Mac, I was scoping the stores out for the items that I think we need to purchase and I can "gently encourage" her - fingers crossed again! She definitely has her OWN IDEA about EVERYTHING! I now know what stores to visit and which ones we will not!

I do admit (and you can ask my mom), there is something about school supply shopping that I LOVE!!!! I always have and I always will and now I'm creating little school supply shopping lovers in the girls too! So fun!!!

Summer Time

Did I really say that I was looking forward to Summer? Well, maybe that was a little delusional on my part. I think I had visions of everyone sleeping late, no school, no where to be, playing in the backyard in the sprinklers (happily and together), spending hours at the pool, etc. NO WAY! Let's just say that nothing really has changed except that I am trying to fit in a few hours of work in the morning and trying to keep the girls entertained and happy (and getting along) the rest of the day.

This week we've had Vacation Bible School for MM (which she has loved) and I put Anna in school (her old class) for the week so that I could have a little time to get stuff done. It was a much needed break for all of us! The girls had been on each other's nerves from too much time together and they got to see and play with their friends. Next week MM has tennis camp and A will have a ballet camp in July. This weekend we have a family reunion so we have not slowed down AT ALL!

I may have forgotten (in my absence of blogging) to tell everyone that we (meaning my parents and Sam and I) have just become rightful owners to a little lake house here in T-town. It is nothing special but very SPECIAL to us as we are so looking forward to the memories we will surely create in this little peace of HEAVEN ON EARTH. We all love the beach, but it's just getting harder and harder to get to the beach as much as we would like. So now we have a refuge much closer to home! We have spent many nights there already and will spend many more over the summer (and year around, I'm sure). In addition to the house, Sam and I surprised the girls and my parents last weekend with another toy for the lake - a SeaDoo! It is so fun and we have all enjoyed it so far (except for Mom who is NOT a water-lover by any means!).

And I almost forgot...I am posting this blog via our new Mac computer. I am so pumped to finally have a computer at home that works! Up until this point, I've only been able to use my "work" computer to post. I cannot wait to upload my pictures (yes, that means more posts to come) when I have more time to upload them to Blogger.

My next mission this summer is to learn to sew. You may remember that my parents gave me a sewing machine for my birthday 2 YEARS AGO!!! It has collected dust until now...I am determined to learn how to at least fix the girls clothes, and maybe a few more things! I'll keep you posted on those projects too!

Missing in Action (literally)

Just a fair warning: LONG POST AHEAD!!!! You may want to save this posting until you have time to read it.

Well I never got to finish uploading some of my favorites when I was last posting (yes, several weeks ago) because I kept getting an error message from blogger and, well, I just gave up that day and have not had time to try it again (can you hear my frustration?). We have had so much going on here. I always thought that as the girls got older, life would get much easier too! Man, was I wrong! It seems that the older they've gotten, the busier we've gotten and there does not seem to be a light at the end of this tunnel that we're stuck in! I would not trade it for the world because we are doing so much FUN stuff now and the only thing that's gotten easier is just that they are much indepedent and do not require our 24 hour constant hands-on attention. It is so nice to get home in the afternoon and just let them "loose" in the backyard to play and "get their wiggles out!" And my favorite part is getting to hear their sweet (most of the time) sisterly chatter and conversations - so cute!

So back to the point of this post:

As I write, we (me, the girls, and my mom) are all in Palm Harbor, FL (close to Tampa) visiting my brother and his family for a week. My nephew is still in school, but this was the best time for all of us. We decided (for the first time) to drive down here with the girls, but it is such a long haul. We broke up the drive by leaving Sunday and staying at our condo in Destin for the night and making the remainder of the drive Monday. It does add several hours to the total trip, but it works better for the girls. We plan to leave here this Sunday and do the same return trip except to stay until after Memorial Day in Destin (with the addition of my dad - wish us all luck - he's used to traveling solo and not making stops every hour).
Side Note: We have just discovered that Anna seems to have inherited Sam's family's car sickness tendencies! And instead of relying on a hope and a prayer that we could drive 12 hours without a vomit-laced car, we opted for a little Dramamine - worked like a dream! I hate how it makes her so drousy, but then again, it does make for at least a few minutes of a quiet drive (since Anna talks NONE.STOP).

In the weeks leading up to this trip, Sam was traveling with work for about a month straight (home on the weekends, but I was still a C.R.A.Z.Y. momma that probably needed mental assistance), we had the ballet recital, swimming lessons (I will save this tragic story for another post - poor Anna), horseback riding (of course), tennis (my sanity and stress relief), hiring a few new people in our office, WORKING, a few crafty things (saving for another post) I was dying to create, PRESCHOOL GRADUATION (yikes!), preschool graduation party at the playground, and my college pledge class 10 reunion weekend(again, yikes!). Oh, and I can't forget Mother's Day and mine and my mother-in-law's birthday (May 19) and then packing for this trip in between all of this! Wow, no wonder I'm exhausted!

While here in Florida, we are celebrating my nephew's 7th birthday (party is Saturday) and we took a very-much anticipated trip to Magic Kingdom yesterday. Does it make any sense to say that it was the longest, shortest trip to Magic Kingdom? This was Anna's first trip to Disney and she got to do and see everything she asked for! We left here at 7:30 am and did not get home until 11:00 pm! Blake got to skip school (shhhh) for this Birthday trip to Disney so he was NOT complaining about having to do all of the "girly" stuff. We met several princesses (Cinderella, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Tiana), watched the parade, watched the show at the castle, rode rides, saw lots of fun stuff (and people too, I might add)! We then headed to LegoLand (wow what a place) and dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (another really cool place). Needless to say, we have ALL been worthless today and just chilled out! Our favorite memory of Anna's first time meeting the princess' was when she walked up to Belle, she curtsied to her!!!!! I mean, where would she have seen that to know that you are supposed to bow to royalty (even if it is just Disney's royalty)?! She then blew her a kiss as she left the room. And at the parade, as Cinderella "waved" to her she was yelling, "Hey, Cinderella, It's Me, Anna!" as if she remembered her from all of the thousands of kids they meet in a day! So fun and cute! Both she and Mary Mac told us that yesterday was the BEST day of their lives! We are so fortunate to be able to give our girls these experiences - thank you Dad and Sam for working so hard for us! And THANK YOU Gran for being such a trooper and helping Molli and I corral the kids around Disney! It was a trip to remember for sure!!!!!

We decided that we would give Anna 1/4 of a Dramamine for the Disney trip b/c of the car ride, as well as any other possible ride she may want to experience. We all got so tickled on the way there b/c she was sound asleep and I said I was having visions of her sleeping (drug-induced) through her first trip to Disney and us just holding her up next to everything (still sleeping) and taking her picture with captions (and commentary) of, "Look how much fun Anna had at Disney!" "And here she is with Cinderella (asleep)", etc... That would have been a hilarious childhood story, but, don't worry, she was wide awake for the WHOLE day (yes, that means, NO NAP AT DISNEY). She was such a trooper though and did not whine or complain hardly at all. That's not exactly how our recovery day has gone, but it was worth it!

Another funny conversation was Tuesday with Mary Mac. Blake asked to go to Macaroni Grill for his birthday dinner and she was curious to know what they had there (since we don't have one). Molli asked her if she like pasta with spaghetti sauce or the white sauce, which she explained was Alfredo sauce. Mary Mac's reply to her explanation was priceless: "I'm not afraid of no sauce!" How funny!

And of course, I have taken TONS of pictures, but have not loaded any of them...stay tuned. I'm also waiting on my brother to give me a "tutorial" on how to use my fabulous new camera!

So far, we have had a blast, but I'm not going to lie - I am really looking forward to the summer! The girls will not be in school, but will just be doing some camps, Vacation Bible School, and just hanging out at lake/pool/home (that is, if Anna learns to swim)! Hopefully, it will be a nice break for Mary Mac before she starts Kindergarten in the fall. I still cannot believe that I have one child already starting real school in the fall!

Snow Day

They played for a total of 15 minutes in the snow then wanted to come inside, sit by the fire, drink hot chocolate (which they don't really like), and watch Hanna Montana.

Dressed and ready for the snow. Obviously, we have no "snow" clothes!

My newest obsession - arent' these the cutest shirts? I made them! Ha!

Halloween!!!

Obviously, I am a little behind in announcing the winning pumpkin! Congratulations to my sweet husband (who thinks I am little nutty) for carving the best Alabama Elephant pumpkin this year. I have to admit that the last 2 years I have not been creative in my own sense and have used a template for my pumpkins (the easy way out), but stay tuned because next year I will create a masterpiece of my own creation! I better start working on ideas now!

We had a fabulous Halloween this year. It was so nice being on a Saturday because it gave us all day to prepare and slowly get ready for the night. The weekend started out with a date night for Sam and I. We went out to dinner, then shopped a little bit, and then went to see Couples Retreat. It was so nice and like the old days (before kiddos) to just walk around the stores, taking our time, without any meltdowns or whining to tend to. We stayed out until midnigh, but both agreed that we had the most fun that night and should take advantage of more nights like those. The next morning, Sam went to help his sister and her husband move while me and the girls just messed around the house. The horse barn was having a costume contest and party at 2:00, so I took MM to that while Sam let Anna finish her nap. MM got to dress up one of the horses she has riden (Jimmy) and then "show" him for the contest. Unfortunately we did not win, but she had a great time seeing all the other horses dressed up.

Halloween continued that night with our annual neighborhood parade and pizza party. This parade is infamous in our town and people come from all over town to participate in it and see it. We have a huge neighborhood so people also come here to get as much candy as possible in 1 neighborhood! We loaded our family on the golf cart in our costumes and blankets (it was COLD) and adult beverages and headed to the parade! All the kids have so much fun running around the streets with their friends and trying to figure out what everyone is dressed as. We then grouped up with some of neighbors/friends and began the trick-or-treating together. We managed to cover about 3 full streets before heading home with baskets overflowing with candy and all of our appendages frozen solid! This was the first year that both girls really "got it"! The funny thing about them at first was that MM and her little friends would run up to the door and start yelling "Trick-or-Treat" over and over again until we realized that they had not knocked on the door nor rang the doorbell. We died laughing! Thank goodness that Emily remembered glow sticks (I am usually loaded down with them, but that item slipped my mind this year) because we eventually had to tie different colored sticks to their baskets so that we could keep up with them and know who was who - they were running from door to door faster than we could keep up with them. And poor Anna and Ellen only got to about half the houses because they were having a hard time keeping up the pace of the older kids!

We finally made it back to the house, ran inside, put on our warmest fleece PJ's, started a fire, turned off the porch lights, turned on the football games, and ate soup and enjoyed the rest of the evening on the couch cuddling with everyone! It couldn't have been a better weekend! We normally have people over for soup after trick-or-tricking, but we opted not to do so this year and it was kind of nice for a change! So here come some pics from the week. . .

Anna - Flower Gnome

I was dressed up as a 60's housewife - curler, glasses, and wine!

MM and her cute little friends!


Sweet Sisters ready for the parade

MM with Carly and Jimmy

Silly Face

Hannah Montana Cowgirl!

Fall Is In The Air

****I just realized that this post never got posted! Is this any indication as to how crazy our lives are this time of year? So I apologize that this is so late, but I must record it for my personal reasons!****

You know what Fall means to the Collins Family?



Fall in our house only means it's time for our Annual Pumpkin Carving contest. It's a sort of new tradition in our house that started last year - some of you should remember! We had such a fun time and the girls loved it so much, that we could not wait to carve our pumpkins this year!



So with no further avail, PLEASE VOTE for your favorite pumpkin in our poll on the sidebar! Just like last year, I will not tell who carved which pumpkin - to keep it fair, since Sam claims I stacked the votes last year! We will keep the poll going until Halloween night - so what are you waiting for? VOTE, VOTE VOTE!!!