Vernon Volumes text

Vernon Volumes text

Monday, August 31, 2015

Paige loves to swing

Paige's favorite thing to do at recess is to swing. Sadly, there aren't enough swings at school for all the kindergartners to swing at once, so sometimes she doesn't get to at school. I took her to the park last week while Connor was doing tennis and took a short video while we talked about swinging, snakes, and anything else on our minds.


Sunday, August 23, 2015

Andrea and Anna win the 3.0-3.5 JCP Tennis Invitational tournament


Andrea and Anna played in the JCP Tennis Invitational tournament this week at the 3.0-3.5 level. Andrea's played a few times informally with Anna, but they haven't played a lot together and they both had fairly low expectations for how the weekend would go. Anna is a B player and there were also mainly B level players in their bracket, although Andrea is on the C1 team currently. They started off on Friday at 3:00 pm against some of Andrea's close friends Michelle and Tina. They won that match, and on Saturday morning played Tara and Gina at 10:30 and then played Jill and Cindy at 3:00pm. Both Saturday matches went to the 3rd set tiebreaker and it was incredibly hot out.

Andrea and Anna could both barely sleep Saturday night and on Sunday morning they had the championship match at 10:30am against Ashley and Jeralyn. Saturday night at the tennis tournament party, everyone had been talking about how unbeatable the other team was and had been giving lots of advice and pointers. Ashley and Jeralyn had beaten some very strong teams that consisted A/B players, B/B players, and A/B. Andrea and Anna were just hoping to have a good showing and maybe win a couple games before losing.

I hadn't expected her to be playing on Sunday, but decided at the last minute that it would be neat to get there for her match to support her and take a few pictures. I managed to get there right as the 3rd set tiebreaker started, and snapped a few action shots of the ladies on the court.



It was a close match, but Andrea and Anna won the tiebreaker 10-7.


I'm so proud of Andrea and Anna and I'm glad they had a fun weekend tournament and had so much success. Glad I was able to get there to see a little bit of their tournament together.



Typhoon Lagoon with Grandma Alice and Grandpa Rick


This weekend I went with Grandma Alice, Grandpa Rick, Connor and Paige to Orlando for a fun weekend getaway. We stayed at Disney's All-Star Music resort in a suite together and went to Typhoon Lagoon on Saturday.

We arrived in town on Friday night and played around at the resort for a little while before bed. There was a playground and an arcade that we had to try out.









In the morning we got up and had some breakfast at the resort and then we went to Typhoon Lagoon.


The water park was pretty large and sprawling and in the middle was the neatest wave pool I'd ever seen. Every 80 seconds a gigantic wave would form against the back wall and make its way down the pool. The wave was so powerful I was a little nervous at first, but once it swept past everyone would have over a minute to catch their breath, find all the hats and glasses that were pulled off, and any lost children. Connor thought the wave was the best part and we spent a lot of time out near the deeper end where the wave was highest and the crowd was thinnest. Paige liked the wave a little bit, but the one time I took her out near the deeper end she didn't hang on very well or listen like I wanted so I didn't want to risk it.




We took a couple videos with my phone in a waterproof bag, but didn't venture too far out with it. Grandma's video was one of my favorites because the wave swept her off her feet and she had a heck of a time keeping the phone out of the water. Unfortunately the wave swept her off her feet a few times and she was pretty scraped up by the end of the day.


Grandpa Rick brought his waterproof camera out to the deep area and got some nice videos up close where you can see the wall of water approaching and washing him away. Poor Grandpa lost his hat to the wave half a dozen times, but thankfully always found it. Grandma Alice kept her hat through the waves, but somehow lost it at the end of the day. She was sad her hat, which she's had a long time, was lost.



No day with Paige is normal without a little bit of drama. We were getting lunch and I was filling up a cup with soda when I heard her shrieking "MY TOE! MY TOE!". There were a bunch of bees buzzing around the spilled soda and apparently Paige had stepped on one and it stung the bottom of her right foot. I carried her to our seats and was able to see that most of the stinger was out, but there was a little bit stuck under the skin. I carried my howling daughter through the park to the first aid station and they had some tweezers and tools at the ready. Unfortunately Paige was squirming and the nurse on hand wasn't very steady, so I took over and was able to get the stinger out while the nurse talked to Paige and distracted her. It was very dramatic and later on while we were on the lazy river a lady asked Paige if she was the one that hurt her foot. I think half the park heard it.


Paige's favorite part of the day was the little kiddie area. There were some water guns, small slides, and a small waterslide with yellow rafts. Paige called it the "Little Lazy River", but it was a medium speed slide really. Grandma was very sweet about staging rafts for Paige so that Paige could run back up again and again. She probably rode it 30+ times.


We all liked the lazy river, which circled the park. It was a little difficult staying together very well, and crowded at times, but it was a nice relaxing way to get around the park.









It was a fun weekend and I'm glad we were able to go with Grandpa and Grandma and have a fun adventure together!

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Paige's first day of Kindergarten


Thursday, Paige went to Kindergarten for the first day. She was home Monday through Wednesday and we were all excited for her first big day on Thursday. In the morning, she put on her pretty new dress and her kitty cat backpack. She was very happy to model it.


We had to get a picture of Paige with Connor and their backpacks before heading to the bus stop.



I took a short video of Paige getting on the bus. The bus driver was nice about helping her find a spot right up front, but he was not very nice to me and wouldn't let me stand on the step and take picture of Paige on the bus. Darn.


After school, Andrea and I both went to the bus stop and I snapped a pic of Paige smiling so big as she came down the steps of the bus.


Her first day went great, although she was irritated at us because one of the other kids had a Shopkins backpack, which is what she truly wanted. The backpack had been too gaudy and wasn't nearly as cute as the kitty cat backpack, so Andrea had told her we couldn't find one. 



Danny and Logan came back to our house to hang out after school and I snapped a pic of them all talking about their day on the way.


After we got home, I took a short video with Paige discussing her day. She was pretty distracted and kept leaning back and making the video go out of focus, but it was kind of cute so I had to include it.


First day of School 2015 - Connor's first day of 3rd grade



On Monday, Connor had his first day of third grade. Paige also started school this week, but the Kindergarteners had a staggered start so that the teacher would just have a few kids per day at first. Paige's first day with a small group was Thursday and her full class came in together on Friday.

Monday morning we all got up and got ready for our new routine. Connor and Paige got all dressed up and we snapped a few pictures before heading to the bus stop.











There are so many kids at our bus stop now! Paige was too shy to be in the pic and I don't think everyone was there, especially not all of the kindergarteners since they weren't all coming to school Monday.


Connor has Trevor in his class and they looked like little twins with their matching hair and matching backpacks.


I put together a comparison of the kids showing how they've looked on the first day of school for the last 4 years.


Connor's first day of school went nicely. The buses were a little messed up, and there's been quite a bit of confusion as to which buses we're supposed to take. His teacher actually told him to get on the wrong bus, but Connor decided to think for himself and got on the bus that stopped at our stop. It worked out, but it does sound like the buses will be changing soon in the future.

Back to school party at Serenata Beach Club



On Sunday, the day before school started, Serenata Beach club had a back to school party at their pool. We invited the Bunnels to join us and the kids had fun playing with Kennedy and Keagan. Another family from our neighborhood happened to be there and we hung out with them as well.

Connor had fun swimming and playing catch with Bo.



Both kids had fun on the waterslide, but Paige loved it more than anyone. She must have gone up and down it dozens of times.







Paige's favorite part of the day was the facepainting. Andrea noticed the guy was available and Paige was one of the first people in line for the day. The man spent a nice amount of time doing one of the most beautiful designs on Paige I'd seen.





He also made a butterfly balloon animal for Paige. I snapped a pic of her with the man and a closeup detailed view of her face before it got smudged.



Thankfully we got some pics really quickly because within a couple minutes it was all ruined. I put a flip-flop over Paige's balloon animal so it wouldn't blow away and unfortunately it popped. Paige began sobbing and wiping her eyes with her hands and within a few moments it was all gone.

The kids got unlimited snowcones for the day, and we definitely took advantage of it. Yummy!



It was a great event to cap off the summer and we were happy we got to enjoy it with some friends.