things that make you go hmmmm.....

Strolling through Total Wine, Avery says, "Mommy, can I hug my friends?"

Mommy (half paying attention as I'm shopping) answers, "That would be a nice thing to do, Avery. Hugs make us feel happy."

I looked down to find this-

Hmmmmmm........

in full swing.

As of two weeks ago, we officially have a preschooler (sigh). What's even more cool is she is attending the preschool mommy attended as a child!  After all the preschools that we checked out, it was this one that gave us an instant warm and fuzzy feeling.  The same director is there and she impressively remembered my family.

We love that her teacher came and visited our house this summer

and that the first day was just a "getting acquainted," 30 minute day with a couple of other students.

 We shopped for new shoes, a new dress and a new tote bag.  She was all set to go for her real First Day!

Our little preschooler did a phenomenal job of being brave on her first day.  When she realized that mommy and daddy were not coming in the classroom and staying with her, she got a little teary.  The teachers reported that her crying lasted under five minutes until she was redirected into circle time! Our brave little girl.

We even got to take "Jack," the parakeet home for the weekend.  He got lots of attention... from everybody!

 Attention from the 80lb yellow lab not captured as we couldn't swing taking a photo and protecting "Jack.

In a nutshell, she is loving preschool and we are loving hearing all about it!!

one last maui post.

Tide pooling

Family photo at Gannon's

Mama's Fish House- someone's was a little tired of taking photos. She thought she'd spice things up.  I like it!

loving her Pog and tropical umbrellas

Mommy/Daddy shot. We don't get too many of these anymore.

snorkeling with Mimi in the pool

Ok, this photo hits home for me.  Avery was terrified of the whale at the bottom of the pool.  I totally get it.  So was I as a little one.  Here, my mom and Avers are having a discussion that the whale is just pretend.  It doesn't move. Someone just drew it like you draw pictures, and on and on.  Still, she would only like to swim "in the sun, not the shade." She correlated the whale with the shade.  Poor baby.  Every now and then, she'd drift a little too close for comfort and when she realized it, complete panic would overtake her.  She thrashed around trying to swim faster towards the sun. 

Every day, one of us would talk about how the whale was pretend, taking a different angle, hoping she'd buy it.  

A clearer view. She still didn't buy it.  Maybe next year....

These were called "party hats with fire."  Totally makes sense.

Every year, my siblings and I would take a picture by this "Maui Hill sign."  It was so fun to see how we changed and grew year after year. We thought we'd start this tradition in our family.

Three generations with Dennis, the GM of Maui Hill. He's been there as long as we've been going (32 years).  Every year, he'd have a pack of Nerds candy waiting for us in our condo.  This year, Avery got her first pack of nerds.  It's such a special tradition!!

We will miss you, Maui- until next year.......