Lea's birthday

We had Lea's 5th Birthday party at the end of July. I got a little carried away inviting people, but we're so lucky to be involved with some great people. We invited our long time friends like Anna & Molly, and the girls from our play-group that we've been with for a few years now and our new friends that Lea will start Kindergarten with in August. In all we had 14 kids! I was a little overwhelmed when 3 or 4 of the Kindergarten kids and parents all came at once, but it was so wonderful to see them all. I just let go and hoped the things I'd set up would entertain the kiddos and I think everyone had a wonderful time. I know I had a great day and Lea sure had fun.

Our theme was artistic mermaids.


The octopus that made its debut at Lea's 2nd birthday, welcomed guests.

The first Mermaid to arrive was Vivian in her Mermaid costume. Lea got a wonderful tail from Tina while we were on vacation so she was set for her Mermaid party.
Everything looked great.

Dan made waves on the ceiling with crepe paper and hung crepe paper outside like seaweed. Lea and Dan made "jellyfish" out of pudding cups and ribbon (from Family Fun magazine) that were beautiful!

I was pretty darn proud of the cake. Here is Lea with her cake.


I knew I wanted it to look like water with Ariel surrounded by a beach and sea. I knew I was going to put jello in the cake (jello poke cake like my mom used to make - yum!) with a jello ocean on top (which I'd seen in family circle and saw some great examples on the web). But how was I going to create an island paradise for Ariel and my little mermaid? A lady at work (Amy D.) saved my skin by bringing in an amazing cupcake book that said you could microwave starburst or taffy for 3 seconds and sculpt. Voila! I started with one lone strawberry crab.

There were pretzel palm trees with tootsie roll coconuts with sand made from graham cracker and brown sugar.


Marshmallow seagulls. (The cupcake book told me how to make those). Of the pretzel pylons, Lea said "That's where you dock a boat." I was shocked she knew that's what those were for!

A lobster, crab, starfish and some swedish fish in their blue jello ocean.

The final product.



The first activity as the kids came in was painting mermaid tails. I had visions of them wearing their tails around and playing tag, but we got carried away with fabric paint and it was just too hot to do too much outside. Everyone seemed to love making their tail and having it to take home. Here Kindergarten kids painting mermaid tails.

The painted mermaid tails drying in the sun. There were some beautiful creations!

We played a quick round of Pin the tail on the Mermaid. Aunt Teresa liked the game best.
Everyone else just wanted to SWIM!!!

But first we had cake.
The girls waiting patiently to cut the cake.
Then the kids got to swim.
Lea and some kindergarten friends are seeing how long they can hold their breath.

The chaos of swimming and our great life guard and jungle gym: Andrew.


Andrew with Lea in a noodle lock

Andrew was a trooper and got very worn out. He did the bulk of the life guarding and playing and Dan finished off with some feats of strength. Dan being a sea horse. But then he stood up with all the girls on him! He was a little sore the next day!

Lea and Molly climbing on Dan.

The mermaid queen and the birthday girl
Lea in front of her mural. I imagined all the kids painting and drawing on the mural, but with swimming and tails it was kind of an after thought. Teresa made this great little note of happy birthday and near the end Andrew got it really going with a gigantic Happy Birthday. While not everyone at the party got to enjoy the mural, we've left it up for two weeks and Lea has enjoyed drawing on it and sticking jewels. It's become quite the master piece.
Three girls stayed late after the party for some low key play time and snacks. The girls get a pretzel tree each.

Jenae stayed to play Barbies with some of Lea's new presents.

As everyone left they got a gift bags and our sand clay that we made from sand we collected at Myrtle Beach. It molds like play dough, but dries hard in a week or so. I found a recipe in a magazine on the way to Myrtle Beach so we collected bottles of sand for the clay. That's what's in the ziplock bags and then a toy & lollipop in the paper bags.

On Sunday we let Lea open her family presents. The biggest one first from Mommy & Daddy. Its a BIKE!! with training wheels.

"You can only ride in the house on your 5th birthday!" Later in the week Lea and Mommy did ride bikes down to the park and it was wonderful. Later in the week Mommy broke out her old pink bike and we rode down to the park. It wasn't too hot and we had a wonderful ride. Looking forward to many rides around the neighborhood.

A present from Grandma to her little chicken.

Grandma, Mommy, Lea and Daddy played one of the two games Lea got as a present. Balloon Lagoon is pretty fun with 4 different "carnival games" to earn balloons.
We had a wonderful birthday with Grandma, Mommy & Daddy on Sunday. Aside from wonderful gifts, we ate steak and went to the movies for Despicable Me in 3D. Everyone loved it. And of course we couldn't stop saying "It's so FLUFFY!" And speaking of fluff...

The big present Lea got from Grandma was princess sheets and comforter. She got a big girl single bed from Grandpa. So she was ready ready to Sleep like a 5 year old princess.

But all got kicked aside for good ol' blankie.
She's since started sleeping with the comforter nightly in such a fluffy bundle I can't see the girl for all the princess fluff! Being 5 is pretty awesome.

No Bumping the Table

I came home one day at lunch to find Lea and Dan building block towers. This sign was on the table:

"No bumping the table !"

(the triangle and circle are an interpretation of the exclamation mark showed her)

Apparently Dan had bumped the table and knocked down her tower enough times that she felt she needed a sign to impress upon him that bumping was not allowed. He told her what letters to write and she wrote the sign.

I hear tower building went much better after the sign was posted.

Myrtle Beach Highlights from July 2010

We went on our yearly vacation to Myrtle Beach with my grandpa (Grampy) and Margarete. We were gone from June 23 to July 5. It worked out nicely since the office was closed from the 1-5. 

It took us about 16 hours  over two days to get to Augusta, GA. This was on the wall by the door in the motel we stayed in in Alabama on the way. It cracked me up. A) like I need a miniature motivational picture on my way out of the Days Inn in Bessemer, Alabama and 2) it is SUPER redundant and pointless. It says: "Your Attitude Almost Always Determines Your Attitude in Life." No my attitude ALWAYS determines my attitude. So we put on our vacation attitude and went on our way. Lea and I had a good time on the trip with lots of games, playing pretend and projects.

We had a wonderful time staying at Tina's and swimming in Grampy's pool for a few days. 

Here is Lea, all greased up ready for Grampy's pool. Unfortunately the sunscreen was a year old and Lea and I both got a bit burned our first day in the pool. It didn't slow us down, but we wore shirts over our swim suits for a couple days. She started out pale as porcelain and ended up brown as a berry.

Mom in her pink pool hat. 

Tina and Lea playing in the pool.
Rub-a-dub dolly made her way to Grampy's pool once again. She likes do dive off the diving board.

Below is my favorite picture! Every time Grampy went to check on the pool Lea wanted to go. Really any excuse to be close to the pool, but she did like helping him clean it. This photos says "Grampy's little helper" to me.

Mommy and Lea in Grampy's pool.

Grandma eating watermelon pool side to cool off in the afternoon.

Lea eating watermelon. This was the only bite she ate. Glad I got it on film!
Lea splashing Grampy. You can see the water hang in the air before it hits him. They played "Splash Grampy" for a LONG time. For the record, Grampy splashed back.

After a few days in Agusta we loaded Grampy and Margarete and all of our stuff back in the van and drove the last four hours to Myrtle Beach. 

We were in a different condo than the last 3 years. (poor us, you're thinking, right?) We were at a Condo called Ocean Blvd. The room could have used some ceiling fans and a bigger balcony, but the beach was closer and there was an indoor pool for when the wind was too much coming off the beach. Yes, there were days when it was a bit chilly even in July. 

This was our view, once we got to Myrtle Beach. 

Our living room with Grampy watching golf and dining room with Margarete keeping things tidy.

Lea's spot when she wasn't in the pool or on the beach. She became addicted to Total Drama World Tour - a cartoon network spoof of survivor. Thank goodness we don't have cable! She was usually pretty tired from all the swimming we did, so she'd get pretty grumpy if she didn't get to watch her "stories."

Each day was mostly the same (in a glorious, fantastic way!). Wake up head to the beach, then the infinity edge pool (there was also a zero entrance pool which meant it sloped like the beach but it was unheated so it was too cold to swim in). Then up to the room for some lunch and a rest (and Lea's stories). Then back to the beach, the lazy river, the pool and ending in the warmest very shallow indoor pool. A few days had added attractions but each day included sand, sun, surf and swimming.

The Neals at the beach.

Lea and Daddy on the beach.

Lea after a big swim with Daddy at the deep end edge of the infinity edge pool.

We put Lea in swim lessons at Baylor Tom Landry center. She was in one session for two days a week and when we got to go to the parents day on the last day it didn't seem like the teacher had challenged her enough to do much good. We enrolled her in second session with a more challenging teacher, but she got an ear infection so she couldn't finish. I figured, fine we'd go on vacation and bring the floats one more year... but SHE COULD SWIM. She spent all her pool time in the deep end swimming back and forth from us to the wall or stairs. She jumped in and swam. Here is Lea swimming in the deep end of the infinity edge pool at the condo.


Lea made friends with some girls from Ohio, Emma and Ava. Lea got to play with them about 3 times in the sand and pool through the week. They were good vacation buddies.

More of Emma and Ava.

Bubble pig makes his return to Myrtle Beach. Lea called it the Lea signal and the friends we met on the beach were supposed to see it and know she'd be down after lunch.

Lea, Mommy, Margarte and Dan in the waves.

Lea and Mommy in the lazy river. The lazy river became our transition from beach to pool. Lea used a fish float and had a lot more fun that trying to stay in the bigger ring. The three of us had so much fun floating around a couple times each day.


Daddy and Lea in the lazy river.

Lea on the beach in front of the condos. She looks a bit like Godzilla and I did call her Destructo - Scourge of the South. She stomped every sand creation I created until we started making hotels.


We built a 3 tower hotel with a pool. The waves came in and filled the "pool" but only at high tide. After high tide property value dropped and the property needed other amenities to draw shell guests. So we built a McDonalds and a fancy dress shop. All our guest were very satisfied (or washed away to sea).


Each afternoon at low tide there were many tide pools along the beach which made for some warm wading. There was quite a bit of sea life in the tide pools. Some tiny little fish (that nibbled on Dan). One day when the water was very calm it was so clear we could see the bottom. Dan saw a small shark and a sting ray. He didn't tell me until we were done for the morning.

On Wednesday of our trip, Dan took a Gulf Stream fishing trip. He spent the first of the trip attending to necessities in the bottom bow of the ship which lead to some sea sickness that put a damper on the 11 hour trip. This picture probably reflects how he felt much of the trip.

Dan's fishing boat. And his outlook as the fish began to come in.

Dan's catch. He didn't have enough cash to pay the fish cleaner after tipping the boat crew, so they got cleaned in our bathroom.

The fisherman's haul

Dan cooked his grouper (a week or so after we got back - it was frozen on the way home and after)

He cooked it on the grill on a cedar plank with lemon and onion. We ate that fish for 3 days. It was super yummy!

On Thursday night we all went to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede. We whooped, stomped and ate chicken with our hands while watching pig races, barrel riding and southern belles in dresses that light up. Lea got a flag and waved it and cheered. We took it to the beach a couple times and it made a great flag for our castles. Lea on the beach with her North flag from Dixie Stampede.

Friday July 2. While on a trip to Walmart Grandma and I stopped for gas. The van would not start. We were panicked. We've always relied on the kindness of strangers, however. A kind man pushed us from the gas pump to a parking spot (much kinder than that cabbie that just honked at us and told us to move!) and gave us a card to a mechanic. Of course right before a long weekend we had visions of being stuck with no place to stay in Myrtle Beach. But when mom called the mechanic the lady began to do the sound we heard and said it was just a battery.



A guy from the mechanic's shop came out and changed our battery on the spot. It took about an hour an a half, but boy it could have been so much worse! We were very lucky and grateful to the kind people who helped us.

So... we went to church. Well, we would have gone to church anyway, but we had extra stuff to be thankful for. The church was Our Lady of Star of the Sea. I really kind of feel like they made that one up, being close to the beach, but who knows.

We enjoyed our trip to the last minute. The last two days we were out in the pool till dusk and in the pool till after dark. We were bound to squeeze every moment we could out of our wonderful trip. Lea on the beach at sunset.
These pretty well wrap up the end of our trip.

Except of course the 20 hour trip home. We were on the road for the 4th of July (Grandma's birthday). We we got sparklers and snappers at a store in one of the many states where fireworks are legal all the time.

Lea's first sparkler. It was a nice quite 4th, but in excellent company. 

A wonderful trip. And reservations are made for next year!