Summer!

We've had a great summer! Russell's preschool teacher (and several others) asked where we went on vacation this summer. The answer is nowhere, we live in a vacation spot! We mostly spent our summer at the beach and the pool and we did enjoy a few short trips to visit our parents/siblings farther south.

Russell turned 4! We had his party at the beach and we all enjoyed pizza/cupcakes/sand (for some it was mixed together).  I'm not good at taking pictures during parties so I didn't get much, but he had a blast, even though this picture doesn't look like it!

This sugar-obsessed baby devoured his whole cupcake.

Russell is obsessed with Moana and his great friend gave him this Maui hook for his birthday so we reenact the movie a lot. 

Our church also had a talent show for kids this summer and the kids in his church class performed a dance to some Moana music. He was kind of in a trance while on stage (i.e. he forgot the whole dance) but he had fun playing in his costume.

We took one more trip to Disney in May before it got too hot! 

So fun to have friends with kids the same ages and who get along so well! 

The stroller brigade heading out when the downpour began.

Ricardo and I took a little anniversary trip in May to St. Augustine for a few days. Our real anniversary is tomorrow but this was the best time to go so we went! His mom was kind to babysit and we enjoyed some kid-free time shopping, eating, and trying to sleep in.

We also chartered a fishing boat and went salt water fishing for a few hours. I caught our biggest (and only) fish within 20 minutes and after that it was not quite as exciting, but our guide was really nice and we enjoyed bringing the fish home. It was delicious!

At the end of our trip we went piano shopping and after deliberating for a month afterward, we finally got a piano. We got a digital piano which we LOVE (no tuning, can play with headphones, and feels like a real piano!). Everyone was really excited about it when it came.

The giant box it came in has been a really popular place for playing (and hiding toys from little brothers), so we still have it hidden behind our couch. Russell wants to keep it FOREVER he says.

We made wontons for my mother's day dinner. It was a lot of fun. Ricardo is great about making the holidays special for me and always makes me a delicious cheesecake since it's my favorite.

We went camping with Ricardo's parents and a few of Russell's cousins for the 4th of July. We all had a great time! It was hot but we camped by the beach so we spent all day there cooling off.

The morning before camping we enjoyed a pancake breakfast at church and a bike parade outside.

Thomas drove his car.

Ricardo reading bedtime stories.

We took Russell to the movie theater to see Cars 3. It was supposed to be his first time to the movies but it ended up being his 3rd time that week because of summer activities/birthdays. We all loved it and want to watch it again. We went with some friends who got him a Lightning McQueen shirt, which he has tried to wear every day since. I'll be sad when his Cars phase is over someday.

Thomas has been trained young to love cars (he says CAW).

Russell's other obsession is paw patrol. My friend and I took our kids to the paw patrol show that came here and they had a blast.

Other highlights from this summer include swimming lessons. Russell's come a long way since the beginning of the summer when he refused to get his face wet. It's been fun to see him start loving swimming! We swim almost every day.

Flying his kite with dad. Another great birthday present.

Chick -fil-A day. Russell has a blue udder since he's a boy. He refused to open his eyes for a picture. We got slurpees at 7-11 afterward and he didn't even like it. He takes after his dad for sure. Thomas on the other hand...takes after me and will eat any sweet.

There's a cute candy store here that does a storytime for kids and they make a treat that goes with the story afterward and then you take a short tour to see candy being made. We've done it twice and it's so fun.

We made our own candy treats (covered wagons) to celebrate Pioneer Day.

Still obsessed with playing pretend. He wanted to be Aladin that day.

We went back to St. Augustine with some friends who were visiting from Philly. I am having trouble loading the pictures we took with them, but we loved seeing you, Melody!!

Rita's 99 cent custard day!

Russell started preschool last week. We are sad our baby is growing up but he's enjoyed it so far. Can't believe fall is coming!