Family fun day at Camp Kulaqua

This morning we went to church with Ryan's parents and then we headed over to Camp Kulaqua in High Springs - their church rented it out for the day for a Family Fun Day. Camp Kulaqua was great! We had lunch and then went over to the springs for a bit, then we headed over to their zoo that they have and we saw some black leopards,

a playful black bear,

a llama (in the background),

a beautiful tiger,

lemurs and several types of monkeys. From there we headed over to the go-cart area and Ryan rode by himself, Libby rode with me, and Ryan's little niece Deandra rode with Ryan's mom. Ryan came in 1st and Libby and I came in second (that is me and Libby in the background)...

It was a lot of fun out there racing on the track!! After the go-carts we headed over to the waterpark area and they did a few laps in the lazy river then Libby and Deandra went down the loopy water slide many times and then they went over to the wave pool for a while before heading back to the water slide and lazy river...

At 4pm it was time for us to head back home. It's still going to be a busy night. Libby just got a sky ball yesterday and I promised her we could play with it again outside this evening then we have to have dinner then a shower and in bed early tonight to make sure she is ready to get up in the morning for her first day of school. :-( I don't know which I'm more sad about...Libby's first day of school or my first day back from vacation. Ugh, I wish we had another couple of weeks just like the week that we just had!! At least we had a fun week this past week and finished it off having all sorts of fun today!

Tea room and play date

This morning Libby and I left to head to the Tea Room for our Friendship Day tea. Friendship Day was actually at the beginning of this month but we weren't able to go then because Tara was still out of town so we finally made it for our Friendship Day tea today. The four of us are in the Pink Hat Society - which is part of the Red Hat Society. Although my friend Kristina believes it to be a cult ;-) the point of the group is to embrace life with enthusiasm and even silliness and to have fun in everything that you do. After the Tea Room we met up with Libby's friend Riley at Funworks and for three hours they skated, climbed the rock wall, and played in the indoor playground. They had fun but at 6:00pm I was tired, hungry, and ready to go so we came home. Only one more day of summer break and then school start. :-(

Meet the Teacher day

Today was Meet the Teacher day at Libby's school! I can't believe how quickly our week flew by and now she has just two more days of summer break left!

Libby's teacher is Miss Davis...she has taught at Libby's school for three years, then moved down to south Florida with her fiance and taught there for a year and they relocated back here and she is back at Libby's new school. I called Ryan after we left the school and it turns out that one of Ryan's co-workers used to work at Libby's school and he is actually going to be returning to work at Libby's school and he knew Libby's teacher and said she was the best 2nd grade teacher there so that was encouraging! She seems nice and friendly. I hope that we have as great of a 2nd grade year as we've had in Kindergarten and 1st grade!

Build-A-Bear

This morning we slept in a bit and then just hung around the house. We left around 3pm and headed back to Kohl's once again to exchange yet another pair of shoes for Libby. We went earlier in the week to exchange the three pair that I previously bought for her because I had originally purchased her size 1 shoes (which is what she was wearing just a few weeks ago) but apparently now she wears size 3! When we took in the size 1's on Monday to exchange I apparently left with two pair of size 3 shoes and one pair of size 2 shoes. The size 2 shoes just wouldn't fit so we went back today to exchange that for a size 3 and NOW she is ready for school! :-)

After Kohl's we headed to the mall so that Libby could go to Build-A-Bear. Libby chose their new bear that is for Fall...it is a white bear with orange leaves all over it and an embroidered leaf on her nose and also one on her foot. How cute! She took her time picking out an outfit and shoes for her new bear but she new immediately what she was going to name her...Autumn Breeze. :-) After she had her bear we headed over to Starbucks. We were sitting there in Starbucks and she asked me what ages were teenagers and she asked me if I was a teenager. (I LOVE that girl!)

:-) That was possibly her attempt to make up for a comment she made earlier in the week, though. I was talking to her on Monday about our trip to St. Augustine that we were going to take on Tuesday and I told her that the city is over 400 years old and she said, "So, was that before you were born?" She was nearly grounded for that question! :-)

After Starbucks we left and headed over to Ryan's parents house because we were having dinner at their house tonight. We had dinner and then sat and chatted with them for a bit. They just got a new tv two days ago and they know nothing about it so Ryan was showing them how to work it. :-) After a few hours at their house it was time to come home and that sums up our day!

Movies and the park

Wow, I can't believe it is already Wednesday! Miss Libby only has four more days of summer break and then she has to start back to school. :-( I hate how time flies so fast.

This morning we left at 9:30am and picked up her friend Riley who was going to spend the day with us. We went directly to the park to get there before it was too hot to be outside and to be sure to beat the daily rain shower you are guaranteed to have in July and August in Florida. They played for two hours and then it was time to head over to the movies. Libby has been wanting to see G-Force so we went to see that. The girls really liked it...I love hearing Libby belly laugh!! That and her giggle are two of my favorite sounds in the whole world.

After the movie I had to make a quick stop in Wal-mart to pick up a few things that we needed and then it was time to take Riley back home. We got home right at 5:00 and Libby played some Webkinz on the computer for a while and then had dinner. After dinner we spent the rest of the evening playing until it was time for her to go to bed. She went to bed "early" tonight compared to what time she has been going to bed all summer but considering that we are now down to just four more summer days I figured it was time to start getting her back on track for school nights.

St. Augustine

Today Libby and I went to St. Augustine with Karen and her son Wyatt. We left this morning and got there at 10am so that we could beat the crowds. We were hoping to beat the heat, too, but that obviously didn't happen considering that we are in Florida...in August! :-)

We ate some great food and had fun walking around the Ancient City for a few hours. I've been there 100 times but this time I decided to get a little touristy and take some pictures of the beautiful architecture.

You smell like...

Today Libby and I had to go to Kohl's to return the shoes I bought her for school. It seems her feet grew in the last few weeks so we had to take her shoes back and get larger sizes. After that we had a few different stops to make and then our last stop was Toys R Us. My uncle gave Libby $20 yesterday when we were visiting him and it's been burning a hole in her pocket. She has had a specific Barbie in mind that she just "had to have". When we got to Toys R Us at first she couldn't find it but I finally found it and she let out a shriek of pure joy when I handed it to her. :-)

After she found her Barbie we went swimming for about a hour and then it was time to start getting some things done at home. I was out in the garage for a while moving things around since we just got some shelving units for the garage over the weekend. I was in the garage, in Florida, in August - which obviously means it was h.o.t and I was sweating. I came inside and Libby was standing next to me and she leaned in, sniffed me, and then said, "You smell like...cake!" Wow, I eat so much sugar I apparently sweat it! :-)