CFSC Figure Skating Camp

June 26-29, 2017

The Charleston Figure Skating Club camp was this week at the rink.  We were worried that the ice wouldn't be ready in time for camp (it was down from right after spring show until last week for repairs), but luckily they had it mostly ready for skating by the time camp started.

The kids went Monday through Thursday from 9am until noon and then several days, Emily and Kelsie stayed through to skate the public sessions after camp ended.  Both of them were very tired at the end of the week, but they skated great and agreed they definitely improved some of their skills.

I didn't get many pictures from the end of camp exhibition show on Thursday because I took video of both girls' skating, but luckily a couple of other moms did get some pics.  These two pics are from the group number when Emily was paired up with Jack for a couple of skills.  They are so cute!

We wrapped up camp week and a great exhibition performance by grabbing lunch at Applebee's (complete with dessert) and then some playtime at our house.  This week darn near ran me ragged, but they certainly made the most of their ice time and definitely had fun too.  Yay figure skate camp!

Uncork & Create and....Slime?

Saturday, June 24, 2017

This was a full weekend of summer fun for Emily and her skating BFF, Kelsie.  The girls started their adventures in the Uncork and Create Kitchen where they learned to make pasta and marinara sauce from scratch.  They made the dough, rolled the dough, cut the dough and boiled the noodles.  They even made homemade sauce to go with it.  The class was about 3 hours long and as best I could tell they loved every minute!

After they finished their pasta, we came back home and went to the pool.  We stayed so long that Daniel had to bring our dinner to the pool (of course the girls weren't hungry).  When we finally got home, we got to invite Kelsie to go on our beach trip with us in a few weeks!  They were sooo excited.  Then we celebrated with a trip to Yogurt Mountain and Kelsie slept over.

But, the fun wasn't over!  On Sunday morning the kids wanted to go to the "slime" clinic at Michael's to make and decorate their own slime.  Yep.  Slime.  Who'd of thought?  But it was free and they loved it!  What a fun weekend for these two!  Looking forward to the beach trip already!

Happy Father's Day!

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Happy Father's Day to the best father around!  We celebrated Daddy's special day with donuts for breakfast followed by presents!  Daddy got a homemade Star Wars picture, a Star Wars Life is  Good shirt, extra tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party in December, a new pillow and lots of peace and quiet too!

We love you so much Daddy and hope you enjoyed your special day.  You're the best dad our family could have wished for.  :-)

Summer fun with friends

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Sometimes the best parts and best memories of summer are the unplanned ones.  Tonight we went over to our neighbor's house for an impromptu cookout - grilled chicken, hot dogs, salad, watermelon and tater tots!  Everyone brought their kids, drinks of choice and a dish to share and voila! a fun summer night!

After dinner we had a big neighborhood game of tee ball/baseball.  The girls are still learning the rules, which actually makes it more fun in some ways.

Then after dinner we roasted marshmallows for s'mores and even lit a few sparklers.  All the fixins' for a perfect summer night at home with friends.

She's still scared of sparklers after one tiny spark hurt her hand like 3 years ago, but at least she still tries to enjoy them.

Drama Camp 2017

June 12-16, 2017

This is Emily's third summer at BCS Drama Camp.  Half of the fun of Drama Camp is the dress up themes and this year's dress up days did not disappoint.  We started Monday with - Artist.

 Tuesday was dress like a magician day.

 Wednesday was "calling all cats" day.  MEOW!

 Thursday was dress for an Italian food commercial.

Then Thursday evening the kids put on a little show called Luigi and the Magic Pasta Pot.  Emily played the role of a towns' person.  It was a cute little show. She loves drama camp.

Atlantis! Last Day

Friday, June 9, 2017

What a trip it was - watching Emily take on the Leap of Faith, seeing Mom on the lazy river and a big water slide, getting to see Bob enjoy the aquarium and watching Daniel enjoy some downtime in the cabana.  Definitely a great vacation.

But we weren't quite finished yet.  We still had a little more beach time in the morning before we had to check out and head to the airport.

  

Then we got cleaned up, packed our bags, checked out, and then went to the pool for lunch.  While we were eating, Emily made a friend.  Turns out the beach kitty liked grilled cheese sandwiches. A fun way to close out our trip.

What a wonderful, wonderful trip it was.  Can't wait to do it again sometime.

Atlantis! Day 5

Thursday, June 8, 2017

This must be why they call our building "The Cove"

   

Today we had to get up early.  It's Disney dining booking day for our December trip!  Nothing like planning vacation while you're on vacation! After our Disney planning was done we grabbed some breakfast and hit the beach.  Emily found a HUGE shell and she was over-the-moon excited!  There aren't as many shells here as there are on Myrtle Beach, but it was still fun hunting for them...and we've never found one nearly this large at Myrtle!  We also had some swim time in the ocean with many, many fish friends. They were fast and hard to photograph, but I did finally get a couple of pics.

After our beach time we made our way to the cabana area for one last day of water park fun. Mom and I spent part of our morning trying to help the tubes find their way back into the current so they could be available for riders.  Then we set out for a ride of our own!

  

We had one last lunch in our cabana (this time fish  sliders, yum) and then it was time for more waterslides!  We found a spot where you could watch riders coming down The Abyss, so we waited on a little bridge for Dan and Emily to come down.

Photo while waiting for D & EE to slide.

Since I had my camera in hand, we were inspired to walk over to the Serpent Slide (the one that goes through the shark tank) so I could get a few more pics.  And amazingly enough, we were able to convince Grandma to go down!  She shared a tube with Emily and they were off!  She actually ended up going down twice (since it wasn't as bad as she thought).  I loved watching them!!

  

  

Even the sharks wanted to get in the picture!

We took one more loop around the lazy river and then it was time to get cleaned up for dinner. Tonight was our reservation at Olives, right off the casino in the Royal Tower. We felt like we looked so nice we had better capture it on film.  Finally a family pic without a Christmas tree in the background!

  

We had a wonderful dinner so we decided to walk off some calories by taking another trip through The Dig to see all the fish.  I was glad we went back because I finally got a picture of the sea horse!  I think he's so beautiful!

  

  

After our visit with the fish we decided to make one last trip to Marina Village for ice cream and last minute souvenirs.  It was a beautiful night for a walk and a great way to spend our last night on Paradise Island.