St. Thomas

We recently took a family vacation to St. Thomas.  I was so eager to sqeeze in a vacation before Kindergarten started (more on that later) and looking back I'm so glad we did.  We all loved St. Thomas!  You will see from the photos it was a boy paradise from all the snorkeling, sea life, sailboats, hobie cats, skim boards, paddle boards, boogie boards, and sea kayaks.  Ethan and David kept each other on the move, while Bennett and I took a more relaxed approach.  I was starting my third trimester and found myself a little more cautious since the island did not have a hospital.  Bennett didn't mind!  We have the more relaxed beach approach where as David and Ethan were all about conquoring the water!

In the photos above we found an 80 year old Wooden Sailboat, The Catania, and chartered it for a day.  The Captain was born on the boat and the closet thing to Jack Sparrow I'd ever seen.  He had sailed around the world on this boat with his parents and brother.  He now owns the boat and takes it out on private charters.  We had quite the day when the wind riped the sail right in half as our morning started.  No worries a good sailor always has a back up sail.  We snorkled off of two islands and had lunch on the boat.  The first mate(the guy with the dreads) kept us quite entertained with his islander stories.  

Ethan and David took these Hobie Cats out every day.  They loved sailing!  I enjoyed watching everyone else flip theirs over and getting rescued:)  Beach entertainment people!

Puffer fish caught by Dad

sea urchin caught a little too close to shore!

pool and ocean view 

Ethan made friends with two older boys who gave him a quick skim board lesson.  

Ethan was determined to learn to paddle board!  He did a great job.   

Dinner View

My beach boys!  

Bennett's first time on a sea kayak

hammock on the beach...yes please

We took an afternoon sail on this catamaran the Ritz owns.  Ethan showed everyone his snorkle skills as he decided to jump off the boat verses walking down the steps to snorkel in the middle of ocean.  He can snorkle and handle his fins better than most grown men we've learned!  Hopefully my gopro video will upload later!  

Last night!  

Bennett's Bowling Birthday Party

Back in February we celebrated Bennett's 2nd Birthday.  What type of birthday party do you have for a toddler who adores {actually obsessed with} any type of ball during the winter months?  A Bowling Party!  Since Bennett is my little shy guy we kept the party small as possible with just immediate family.  We met everyone at the local bowling alley for an afternoon of strikes and spares.  While we bowled my handy crock pot cooked my kid favored meat ball recipe at home.  Everyone then met back at our house for a spaghetti and meat ball sit down dinner.  Keeping Bennett's favorites in mind we had Gigi's Cupcakes in the wedding cake favor for his birthday cake.  The kids wore personalized bowling shirts that they took home as party favors.  The big laugh came at the end of the night when two strangers walked straight into our house into our living room for a party before realizing they were in the wrong house!  I still can't believe my sweet Bennett Stone is two years old.  

printable party found here

he is such a little Mommy's boy and I soak it up! 

party favor tee shirts

Bennett bowling with Daddy

birthday cake

my picks for best kid apps...

Lately I have been pretty impressed with the apps I have found for the boys.  We have an old ipad that we have deemed the kids ipad.  We had purchased a leap pad and returned it shortly disappointed.  Ethan's curriculum at his day school has impressed me with the things they start tackling at such an early age...touch point match, sight words, patterns.   My favorite thing about the ipad is they think it's cool to play with and don't realize the learning that is taking place.  However, I do limit screen time {combined tv and ipad} they are allowed each day.  Here are my favorite apps {actual app names} from the App Store:

Sight Words {free}

This app lets you customize the specific sight words your preschooler/school aged kiddo is working on.  You can create "sets" of flashcards that say the word as you touch the word or wait to hear the word once you touch it.  

Counting Lite {free}

This app is great for ages 18 months and up.  It simply places things on the screen such as giraffes as the kid touches each giraffe it counts them and the number that is spoken pops up.  Bennett loves this one!  They can choose easy (fewer items) or hard (10 or more items).

Letter Quiz {free and $}

This one is definitely worth spending a couple dollars on!  It has four different games:  tracing letters, matching upper to lower case letters, flashcards, and picking out a letters from 6 choices.  Both my 4 year old and almost 2 year play with this one frequently.

Shapes {free}

This app verbally states a shape and the kid touches the shape mentioned.  

Little Critter Digital Books {search for these, $15 for collection}

We are huge fans of Mercer Mayer's Little Critter Collection.  These are the perfect first digital book to download!  Each book has three options:  auto play, read it myself, and read to me (kids turn page).  These are great for all ages...Bennett enjoys them and Ethan.  Digital books on your ipad are great for traveling light too!

Dr. Seuss Digital Books {$5 each-$15 bundles}

These are much longer than the Little Critter books, but have the same three options.  They are great.

Goodnight Safari {free or buy $2}

This in an interactive book where you can read alone, have it read to you, or play games.  

The Boynton Collection {$10}

Sandra Boynton Books {Moo Baa La La La, Blue Hat Green Hat, Barnyard Dance, and the Going to Bed Book} are the perfect first digital books for baby and toddler.  They are interactive and yet again a space saver when traveling.  Two options of read it myself or auto play.  

Endless Reader {free or $3 for entire selection}

This app has precious graphics for teaching first words.  A simple word such as "go"  appear on the screen, then scatter.  You have to drag the G to the g  and the o back on the go.  Then a sentence appears and you hear word in a sentence.  

Endless Alphabet {free or $3}

This is the same maker as Endless Reader but focuses just on words, but has longer words such as "hilarioius."  This one too has modern graphics that teach words and word meaning.  Worth the $3!  Bennett is amazing at matching the letters to create words.  I think this app is perfect at building a broader vocabulary.  

Well those are my picks!  Sorry I couldn't figure out how to have a link to the app store for each app, but if you enter the title in bold in the search box...you'll stumble across them.