It started out with a minor dental emergency for Kaylin and she ended up needing a tooth pulled. I still don't understand quite what happened, but she came through fine and handled it very well.
We had a fun 4th of July and I made my first cake pops. Those were fun, but harder than I expected them to be. They were worth the effort though - YUM! We ate burgers and hotdogs outside and just spent time together. It was a fun weekend.
We had Maryella's birthday party on the 10th of July - a week before the real day. She wanted a pink princess water party with a pink princess cake covered with flowers. She had thought for a long time about that and was very specific and insistent about it. It was a small party, but so much fun! The little girls who came seemed to have a great time!
The next day, we left for Cape San Blas for our annual beach vacation with my family. It was such a fabulous week!
We played on the beach
played at the pool
played in the house
celebrated birthdays with a cake I made
got to eat out and see old friends.
On our way home, it was Maryella's real birthday and we stopped at McDonald's for the chicken nuggets she had been begging for. We were driving back to Alabama for more vacation time.
When we got back to Alabaster, we stopped at Del Toro for a birthday dinner for Maryella. She wasn't sure about the sombraro thing but was excited about the singing and the flan!
Jeff and I left soon after that for Charleston, SC for our 10th anniversary trip. That was a wonderful time!
While we were gone, my parents kept the girls and treated them to a very fun couple of days! They went to the park
the zoo
and Pump It Up - we made it back just in time to join them for that one!
Then we drove back to Alabama, picked up the girls, and headed up to Tennessee for Papa Tate's memorial service.
After the service, we made a fast trip back to Montgomery, AL for a family wedding that night.
Whew, that was a whirlwind day!
After we got back home to Lake City, Maryella had her 4 yr well check and all was well. She's 35 lbs (50%) and 41 inches (80ish%) - growing right on track!
On August 5-6 we drove over to Jekyll Island for a quick beach trip to finish our summer. We had enough hotel points to get a free night stay, so it worked out perfectly!
And here are a few more random pictures from the summer.
Maryella did her on make-up!
Elianna with a cute hair-do.
A room rearrange we did for the 3 big girls. They now have a separate playroom and bedroom that they share together.
It was a fun and busy summer, filled with memories! Just the way we like it!
We spent 2 of our mornings hanging out over in the stores because we didn't have the van to drive anywhere else. We found other things to do at the hotel as well. We swam quite a bit and the girls loved it! We discovered that Elianna is a little dare devil in the water. She loved going under! 
We also had a "movie rest" each day to give us a little down time. The girls didn't complain a bit, I think they were glad for it. 
I also brought a couple craft projects to in the hotel room, because that's one of my girls' favorite things in the world.
But our most favorite activity we found was the day the we took Jeff to his meetings and kept the car. We found a children's museum that was so much fun! They had it set up like a town. There was a bank
theater
firetruck
news station 
dress up area for children's stories (here Kaylin and Annlee are taking turns being Little Red Riding Hood
school
grocery store
boat
airplane
and doctors office.
Downstairs was an orange grove where they could pick oranges
send them to the factory 
make orange juice
and even sell them at the grove stand.
Elianna enjoyed a few minutes playing in this little area that I thought looked like a baby jail! 
And they all enjoyed a few turns on the slide in the orange grove.
