August 27, 2011

Taking the Challenge

Carmen Godwin is a friend of mine who is the Director of one of the most successful historic district organizations in the state, Riverside Avondale Preservation in Jacksonville, Florida. She is spunky, funny and has been quickly rising in the ranks in Florida's historic preservation scene (she is the new Vice President of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation).

She has just started a blog to document a personal challenge to not use a car for one whole year. Like myself, she is a working mom with two kids, though she is lucky she gets to actually live in the historic district in which she works (I so wish!!)

Check out her blog, Enginesoff, to check on her progress and the amazing things she has had to encounter. Good luck, girlfriend!

August 23, 2011

Summer Vacation Part II

After Daytona Beach it was on to Kissimmee/Orlando. Part of the hotel room was partitioned off just for the kids and it looked like a pirate ship! The girls had great fun in the pool and Olivia sang her first Karaoke song poolside... a  Justin Beiber song. Ugh.
The girls' pirate "room"


Don't mess with Julia's chicken


August 22, 2011

First Day of School!

Pencils, check! Backpack, check! Crayons, check! Ah, those were the days... when crayons were on your school supply list. Today was Olivia's first day of Kindergarten at David Fairchild Elementary. She was such a brave girl as we walked to her classroom.
Daddy and his girls get ready in the morning
Olivia with her neighbors, Noah and Luke Tremols
Mommy's big kindergartener!
Noah and Olivia
In front of Olivia's new classroom
At her desk and ready to go



With her new teacher, Ms. Adam
The courtyard behind her classroom. I love the jalousie windows.

August 20, 2011

Olivia is Ready for School

Olivia wanted to show you everything in her new school backpack.

August 14, 2011

Historic Daytona

You didn't actually think I would go somewhere and not scout out the historic neighborhoods, did you? Shame on you! With what little free (alone, without children) time I had, I drove around some of the neighborhoods to see what I could find. (If you don't know why I was in Daytona, click here.)












August 13, 2011

Our Summer "Vacation," Part I

Yeah. Notice I put "Vacation" in quotation marks. For some odd reason, I thought it would be great fun to have the whole family go away for five nights so that we could all "reconnect" and chill out together. Clearly delusion is setting in. Oh yes, the pictures will look like we're having a great time, and we did have some great experiences that I will surely never forget.

But Julia is still in diapers and sleeps in a crib. And has a 7:30 bedtime. So when you are all staying in the same room, guess what? EVERYONE has a 7:30 bedtime. Or so we thought. The first two nights, Julia wouldn't go to sleep because she was too freaked out about being in a room she didn't recognize. Our first stop was to Daytona Beach, which was five delightful hours in the car. But we were quickly rewarded by the sighting of a Friendly's, which brought back great college memories (a place we went to frequently in Fredericksburg, Virginia.)
Our hotel room looked right over the beach, which in my opinion, is far nicer than Miami Beach. So much cleaner and less crowded.
 
According to Olivia, the best way to do lunch is to picnic on the floor of the hotel room.
 
The second day we were there, it pretty much rained the whole afternoon. But the beach was eerily beautiful that way.
As long as Julia has a bottle of hot milk, we're all good.
Look at the size of those feet!
On the way out of town, we stopped at an old-fashioned Diner for breakfast. 
Interactive sculpture always makes for good public art. The gator was in front of a Florida Gators gift shop, and the other sculptures were in a little plaza right off the main strip. So long, Daytona, now on to the land of the Mouse....




August 6, 2011

Julia's Slide Show


The slide-show to Julia's (and Olivia's) last photo shoot is now available for your viewing pleasure...CLICK HERE to see it. Be sure you click the PLAY button.

August 4, 2011

Julia's Photo Shoot


So our wonderful photographer, Shanna Nye, had one last photo shoot to do for Julia, who was a "Bellies to Babies" client. You're supposed to do a photo shoot when you're pregnant, then when the baby is a week old, a third session at 6 months and then one year. Well, the 6 month shoot really turned into a 9 month shoot.... and then the one year shoot? Let's just say time got away from us. Nevertheless, Shanna still works some major magic with the camera. Our photo shoot was at one of my all time favorite haunts in my hometown, the historic Coral Gables Library. And of course, Olivia had to get in on some of the action as well.

CLICK HERE to see some of the photos on Shanna's blog. More will be coming soon!

August 2, 2011

Mother's (and Daddy's) Day

This year, Mother's Day also happened to be Daddy's birthday! My aunt and uncle were also visiting from Gainesville and my cousin, Jake, who lives in Oviedo (outside Orlando,) came with them. We went to Ceci and Don's house for brunch after church that day. The girls loved playing with their baby cousin who had just started to crawl.

Olivia bakes a cake for her daddy

Jake, Aunt Luanne, Grandmother, Olivia, Me and Uncle Bob

I love how they find such joy in the smallest things, like exploring seeds and rocks together

My Juju Bee

Baby Ceci with Mama

Me and Grandmother. Doesn't she look amazing?

My cousin James (we called him Jakie and Jake the Fake when we were kids!)

Daddy blows out the candles with a little help