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!  

beach please...

we are headed out today for an island vacation where I can't wait see my boys hair lighten in the sun, read beach side, and snorkle off a sail boat that's over 100 years old.  we've been seaching all summer for a place to vacation and I can hardly wait now that we finally planned one.  This will be our last family vacation as a family of four:)  

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.

not only...

someone likes brother's boots

a little sneak peak of the project

it's Friday!!!  Not only did Bennett not cry for the FIRST time during ISR 

he squealed as if he enjoyed himself swimming with his brother.  Did I

mention we are in week four?

Not only did we get Sweet Cece's afterwards to celebrate another week of ISR complete, 

we enjoyed our frozen yogurt for free!  

Not only did I start an art project for Ethan's room, I actually finished it!  

Not only do we have a date night tomorrow night, we are taking a limo to a concert {Fitz & the Tantrums}.  Which is a first for me...

  

Oh, David's family are joining us.  We might actually carry on a conversation over 

dinner without five kiddos to tend to.  

Yes, I have enjoyed today!  I hope you have too!

oh Canada!

We just returned home from Canada where David's family has been camping for four generations now. We had lovely weather... warm enough to swim during the day but cool at night to snuggle down in your sleeping bag.  David drove to Canada towing our boat and I flew up two days later with the boys.  

I had been raining when we arrived at camp.  

The first thing Bennett did was go stomp through a few puddles.  

Ethan all smiles one morning when we woke up to a chilly day and needed our warm clothes.  

I was super excited to see Bennett sport his flannel:)

We found a Canadian ball for Bennett and he couldn't have been a happier camper.  

The boy loves balls!

After a super chilly night, David started a fire for us to warm up. 

One of my favorite things was Ethan picking me "flowers" every day.  Don't worry, he would get the root and all!  I wore my flowers in my hair all week.  

This year the mosquitoes and the deer flies were terrible!!!  I kept myself and the boys covered in deet and I am fairly certain I will smell like deet for the remainder of the summer.  But hey...it worked.

Fishing was pretty good this year!  David caught the largest perch he has ever caught.  We someone 

managed to not get a picture of it:(  Ethan and I got new fishing poles...mine was pretty awesome.  

We picnicked on Big Island.  Bennett read Brown Bear to ward away the bears!

David and I snuck away one night to have a date night on our boat.  The sky and clouds gorgeous in Canada.  I found myself always looking up.

Things weren't too rough...I'm pretty sure David didn't get to watch his favorite show at night when he was a little boy.  One of Ethan's favorite memories this year was waking up to be surprised to see his cousins in his bed.  Cousin sleepovers while camping is kinda a big deal to a 4 year old!

Poor Baby Bennett had to sport his life jacket a lot last week!  He did great though.  We had to make sure to take the key out of the boat so he wouldn't drive it away!

We ate at Wheelers which has pancakes, french toast, and maple sausage on the menu.  My sugar loving baby loved his pancakes and was all smiles.  His momma was all smiles after a treat of hot coffee!!!

Babies first s'more!

One borrowed snorkel from a kind cousin and who knew Ethan could snorkel? 

 Guess we need to buy one...

Someone was so sad to leave and misses his cousins!  We all drove home and I was amazed at how well the boys did during our 20 hour car trip.  We split it up into two days and I came prepared with new toys from a local toystore.  I guess they were also worn out from a week of outdoor life!