Memorial Day at Myrtle Beach

We decided to take a long weekend and go camping. We have friends who moved to NC whom we have not seen in the year they have been there. Finally we were both able to manage to fit a camping trip in.

Myrtle Beach is about 3 hours drive for us. EmmaLi decided about two hours into the drive that she didn't ever want to go back to Myrtle Beach ever again. She said it was "Too far, far away." She drove me nutso for the last hour of the drive with "Are we there yet?" two minutes later..."How much further?" I would answer and she would whine "Awwwwww! I want to be at Myrtle Beach right now!" a minute later "Now how much further?" I would answer and she would respond with "Not how many minutes! How far is it?" I would tell her the miles and she would say "Awwwww! That's too much! I want to be there now!" ARGH! I have no idea what she is going to do about the long drive to Kentucky this summer.

Once we were there she loved it. She had two friends to play with one is three days older than she is and the other is one year younger. The camp ground was directly on the beach. We chose a camp site away from the beach and close to the pool and in the shade. They had a pier that played live music at night and you could fish off of it during the day. The arcade was great for the little ones. They just love riding them. You don't even have to put money in the machines.

I will say though that I almost cancelled the trip. Thursday night before we left I discovered that Memorial Day weekend is Black Bike Week. While I don't have an issue with black folks or bikers, the scene on the streets is NOT what you want to expose your 4 and 5 year olds to. My coworkers said that the goal is to have the biggest, barest bootie bouncing the highest on the back of the bikes. The girls wear barely anything and have those back sides propped up high on the back of the bikes. They showed me a web site of past pictures and it looks more like a porn site than a Bike Rally. After talking to a few others who were familiar with the area and had been there before it was decided that we would be far enough north that we wouldn't have much exposure to the nudity on the bikes. As it turns out, they were right. It really was a non-issue. Bikes are not permittind in the camp ground during bike rallies so we didn't have that noise in the camp area. We have nearly everything we needed inside the campground so there wasn't much need to leave. I will say that my friend left to get BBQ sauce at Kroger. When he returned he announced he saw boobies. Apparently, a woman on the back of a bike was flashing all the cars going the opposite direction. If any of us were going to see that I am glad it was him.

Here are some pictures of the weekend.

So what was the graduation gift?

A new bicycle was EmmaLi's reward for working so hard and getting through preschool.

We have been out testing bicycles every chance we get. Every time we go to Toys R Us EmmaLi wants to try out the bikes. We go to Wal-Mart same thing. She wants to try out every bike in her size.

Tonight we went to a place called Bike To Nature to have her fitted for a bike and make sure she truly needs a 16 inch bike and not an 18 inch bike. A very nice man (whom we later found to be the owner) helped us out. He spent a great deal of time with Emmie making sure she tested every bike. He got the book out and showed her every color that every bike came in. In the end she picked out a bike I would not have guessed to be the one she liked best. She called it the 101 Dalmation bike even though it wasn't. It is a black and white bike. The black parts are puppy prints and it has a puppy on the padded wrap around the handle bars.

I will admit I tried to get EmmaLi to decide on the Princess bike or the Starfish bike or the Dora bike we saw at Walmart and Toys R Us but she liked and wanted the Dalmation. The department store bikes were under way less than the one she got, like 2.25 to 3 times as much. The nice thing is that when she outgrows this new bike, we will get a discount on her next bike equal to one third the original cost of the bike we bought. So we will get about a $50.00 trade in on the next bike. I will say this bike is sturdier and definately better made than the department store bikes. The training wheels are much more stable than the ones on the other bikes as well.

Here are some pictures of her new bike.

My Baby Has Graduated!!

Preschool that is. Last night we had her preschool graduation. The day care had 23 children who are starting kindergarten this August and who graduated. They performed a little play of The Very Hungry Caterpiller. My baby was an orange and so was her honey Little Mr Trent. After they did The Very Hungry Caterpillar, they sang a couple songs for us. One song was especially cute. It was "If Your Happy and You Know It". This version was If your happy and you know it Blow a kiss, hug yourself and shout I love You!. So cute and my child could be heard over everyone singing that song. The picture below shows EmmaLi doing the I Love You! part.

After the if your Happy and You Know it they sang Itty Bitty Seeds and This Little Light of Mine.

Then they did a demonstration of sign language. They recited the ABC's using sign language and they demonstrated how to say Jesus Love Me and Jesus Loves You in sign language. I have video of the Itty Bitty Seeds and the sign language. If I can get it uploaded I'll post it. As it is now it is not in a format Blogger likes.

They were then excused from the room to get ready to walk down the isle and recieve their diplomas. While the children were getting their caps and gowns on they played a slide show for the parents, families and friends. Below is the segment for EmmaLi. Also in a format Blogger does not like.

Below are pictures of EmmaLi walking down the isle, standing with her friends waiting their turn to get their diplomas and one of EmmaLi receiving her diploma.

Finally we have a picture of the Graduate in her cap and gown and one with her mommy who has washed away all of her mascara with all the boo hooing done during the slide show presentation.

God Bless all of the Preschool Graduates in the class of 2008. May you all have a soft landing into Kindergarten.

Mother's Day and other things

It's been a bit of a busy week with lots of misc activities going on. Last weekend we went to the zoo. I am not sure why EmmaLi wanted to go to the zoo. She knew her school class was going to go to the zoo on Thursday for a field trip but for some reason she really wanted to go to the zoo. At any rate we went to the zoo twice last week. Here is a picture of EmmaLi when she and I went.

The next pictures were taken on EmmaLi's field trip. I went as chaperon. Below are two pictures of the class followed by two pictures of EmmaLi with her boy friend. She just love this little boy named Trent. Quite honestly, I can see why. He is just the sweetest little boy and he too cute for words.

Below are pictures of EmmaLi with her friend Trent. At Christmas I was on the floor wrapping presents and EmmaLi was on the floor helping me. We had been talking about a variety of things when suddenly she says "Mom, I broke up with Trent today." I nearly lost it. I said "Well, I didn't know you were going out with Trent. Why did you break up with him?" She said 'Well, we were outside playing on the play ground. I was running and he was running behind me. I stopped and looked behind myself and Trent wasn't there. Then I found him sitting on the concrete bein' hot. So, I broke up with him." Apparently, after Christmas they got back together because she said that he was her boyfriend again. I just love that boy. They play together very well and

For Mother's Day we had planned to go to the lake for a picnic and a little frolicking on the beach at the lake. Unfortunately, a bad storm (and cold front) came through. This morning it was cold and cloudy. We changed our plans to go bowling instead. We had our picnic lunch in the living room and headed to the bowling alley. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out they didn't open until 1:30. We had an hour to spend so we headed to the flea market. We picked up some tomatoes and raw honey, and looked at the pets, dropped the stuff off at home and headed back to the bowling alley only to find the doors still locked and no lights on. I am not sure what happened but they didn't have a note on the door.

Once home I told EmmaLi we could get the sprinkler out that she had gotten for Easter. She ran in the house at the speed of light and changed her clothes and put on her water shoes and was ready to get wet. That sprinkler thing had water flying in every direction and literally could be placed in the middle of the yard and could water the entire yard. She is going to have so much fun with that thing this summer. She got a little water on her today and was too cold but she had fun.

We then went to get some new sand for her sand and water table. She now has purple sand. I cleaned it and filled it with water and she had fun for an hour before coming in the house.

While I wouldn't say our Mother's Day was one of the best ever given we didn't get to do any thing that we planned, I will say it has been a great day. It started off as best as it possibly could. EmmaLi and I slept in until 9:30am. This morning after breakfast she came in and gave me a big bear hug and said "I love you so much! You are the best Mommy in the whole wide world! Happy Mother's Day!" Now what could possibly spoil a day that starts off like that?