Meredith's American Girl "Birthday"

Meredith's big wish for her 5th birthday has been an American Girl doll for several months now. I decided it would be really fun to invite all the people that love her out to the store so she could pick out the perfect doll. We found out that if we went today we could get Aunt Sandy AND Laura, Vic, and Sarah, too - so we couldn't pass that up. Luckily, I didn't get any push-back from Meredith on getting to have an early birthday celebration either! :)

Meredith took a trip back to the babies before getting into the big dolls so she and Jillian could do a little playing
Meredith picked a doll that looks like her - brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles. She finally came up with her name late this afternoon - Rebecca!
After picking her doll, she had the task of picking out a few things for birthday presents from Gigi, Grandma, Bubbie, and Aunt Sandy. This was so serious, it meant she needed to RUN!
Oh, my silly girls and their silly poses! Jillian has at this point, adopted a little grey kitten. She found that she could open the boxes herself and find such fun treasures! When she found a kitten, she pulled down two, took one to Meredith and then told me "Kitty. Home." Meredith put hers away but Jillian was very insistent that this kitty was hers!
After shopping, we headed to the Bistro for lunch. The dolls all got their own chairs and Meredith and Jillian each had a crowns for their dolls.
We had lots of dolls celebrating - Laura, Victoria, and Sarah all spent last night getting their childhood dolls ready for the big day!
Helping her doll drink Lemonade.

Meredith has passed down her Bitty Baby that Aunt Sandy gave her when Jillian was born to her little sister - I had suggested she let her borrow it just for today, but she wants to make sure Jillian has an American Girl, too!

While we waited on lunch, Aunt Sandy let Meredith open her presents. She got the perfect presents - almost all for her new doll!

Meredith fell in love with this dog in the display, but they were all out of him. They seriously had every other one of the other 12 dogs, but not this one. Amazingly, Sandy had shopped early at the New York store and had randomly picked this exact dog out for her. Can you see her happiness??
The Sooks just got back from Hawaii and PJ picked out this little turtle for Meredith - she was thrilled!
Sandy asked me to get Meredith to pick out a dress that she could make for her, so we browsed the online store. She was a little disappointed that they didn't have a turtle option (ha!) so Sandy made her this dress and gave it to her in advance to wear. When she saw it, she said "Maybe I can ask her to make one for my doll when I get one" not knowing there was one ready to go! As lunch arrived at our table, there was one present left - this dress. She didn't see it and we started to eat. I looked over and saw that Meredith looked a little sad. When I asked why, she told me that she didn't look enough like her doll since they didn't match. We quickly got her to open the last present, and she started beaming! Aunt Sandy saved the day!

There was even birthday cake and ice cream to celebrate!
Me with my sweet 4-year-old! I will take advantage of calling her that for just a little while longer. Can't believe 5 is right around the corner.
The cousins took time to play with the animals that Aunt Sandy treated them to. So Jillian's dream of taking Kitty home was realized!
Having fun with Aunt Sandy!
So loved that all of these ladies and my favorite little guy were all with us to celebrate and spend such a fun day with us!

Car Washing

After we got back from the beach, the girls and Neal headed out to get some of the sea yuck off of my car....and took the opportunity to wash the girl's cars, too!

Life is a Beach

Warning for everyone - this might classify under the picture overload category, but we had such a great time on our first ever trip with just our family of four that I couldn't narrow it down!

Neal and I started talking about trying to get away a few months ago and we happened upon a fun looking condo that wasn't too costly and we were sold. The bonus to this trip is that we got to pass by Houston to see our good friends, the Klugs, to meet their newborn son, Landry!

After meeting sweet Landry, we hit the road again and got to Galveston in plenty of time to make our first trip down to the beach. Jillian, who has not been to the beach since she was only a few months old, was possibly the most excited of all of us! She kept demanding "simsoos" (swimsuits) so we could hit the "BEACH!!!" (complete with arms thrown in the air). She was so enthusiastic, she would try to get there through the most direct path - our balcony door. We finally convinced her to take the front door for safety reasons, however! I didn't have my camera for our first excursion, but got plenty on the other days to make up for it.

After a quick trip to check out our beach, we took it easy the first night - we had dinner in the condo and then I headed out for a few groceries while everyone else got ready for bed and watched a movie. When I got back the girls were dying to go to bed since they got to stay in these super-cool bunks that even had their own lights that the girls could control. What could be better?

Meredith was pumped to get the top bunk. We had to really work on her climbing down because she slipped one of the first times she was doing it and then was a little spooked, but by day 2, she was a pro!

I was a little afraid we would have a fight for the top, which I was not willing to let Jillian win for fear she would fall, but she was just thrilled with her bed. She and Sissy did play some on the top bunk which seemed to be just perfect for her.

The next morning after breakfast and me taking the opportunity to go for a run on the beach, we all headed out for a full day of fun!

Jillian, still excited, would periodically, do this "Beach!" pose!

Meredith was most excited to build sandcastles, especially since she had promised to send a picture of one of her creations to her Sunday School teacher.
One of the many castles we made - this one has a Capri Sun packet as a flag. We also made a sand turtle and a sand hippo. Sadly, you can't tell much about them from the pictures I took, but the girls loved them!

Meredith was also pretty excited to fly kites with Daddy. Sadly, I had decided that the two pack from Dollar Tree would fit our needs. This picture shows about how well that kite flew even in some pretty windy conditions.

Luckily, our shell hunt was more successful
Jillian was pretty excited to get into the water too - she loved going out to jump and splash! Big waves scared her and neither girl liked to have water in their faces, but they just loved the beach!
The tiny people out in the water are Jillian and Neal - Meredith stayed behind after having been splashed in the mouth right before this. She made fun in the little waves jumping, though - and then when she saw how much fun they were having, she and I ventured out too.
We also took full advantage of the pool at the condo. Meredith worked on swimming and Jillian loved riding on Daddy's back as much as she could!

That night we headed out to The Strand to explore a little and let Neal get some seafood!

At Fisherman's Wharf - the food and view were both really nice. The girls loved taking breaks from dinner to check out the boats, fish and birds they could see.

The next day, we decided to try out Schlitterbahn. We had so much fun! We spent lots of time in the kiddie pools and their river but we also got everyone on a ride or two!

Our last day we decided to devote to being total beach bums!

There were lots more sand castles!
We tested out floating in the waves

The rings were a hit!

Then I tried to teach the girls to let the waves bring them in from out in the ocean. It turned into them just riding me back to shore, but we had so much fun laughing and splashing!

That afternoon, I was out searching for shells with just Meredith and I was just overwhelmed with what an amazing time we had. I truly just felt like I wanted to bottle up the whole week so I could just go back to it over and over. I was so struck by how big the girls are getting and how blessed I am by this family that I have. I just want to be able to allow myself the time to feel that in normal everyday life. The best part was that, to top off this great vacation, we got to meet our friends, the Hooks family, for dinner. They had just officially moved to the Houston area the week before. I was already missing Jackie and Meredith couldn't stop talking about how she was missing her friend, Grace. We kept the dinner a surprise and she was so excited to walk into the restaurant and see Grace sitting there! After dinner, they came back with us for some fun on the beach. Again, such a great way to end our trip!

This amazing family God has blessed me with! I took advantage of having Jackie there to snap a quick family picture.
Pretty much the only way I get smiley pictures out of the girls anymore is to promise them a silly one. This is the first one we got to do as a whole family and I think I want to keep this tradition up! :)

After lots of playing in the waves and the sand, the Hanks and Hooks kiddos tried out their hands at a silly group pic too!