Charlie

I had to put in a picture of Charlie, because I can now! He is such a cute baby! This is Mary Stuart and Molly's first cousin!

Tweetsie Pictures are here!!!

I took my disposable camera to be developed, and CVS printed the pictures on a CD, so now I have pictures from the mountains and Tweetsie!
You'll notice in many of the pictures, Molly is wearing a "leash". This was invented for her! It's actually a cute monkey backpack, and you can hold onto the tail to keep track of your child. PERFECT!! Because she wanted nothing to do with holding hands or staying in the stroller. So, yes, we did leash our children at the park.
Here is Mary Stuart and Tom on the big train. She was not a fan of the Indians, and kept telling them, "No ma'am. You are not my friend and you are not being nice". And she was serious about it!


Here is Molly as excited as can be:



Heck yeah! I'm getting the pics where I want...finally..

Here are some other shots:




That's it! We had a great time...a perfect park for toddlers!

A Wonderful June 15th

June 15th was a great day for many reasons!

Tom's mother, "Tuddie", had a birthday. We had Father's Day, and we were lucky enough to have Tom's brother, Jeff, in from Dallas, his grandfather and grandmother in from Raleigh, and Mary Stuart's ballet recital. It was a busy day!

Mary Stuart started the day at the Blumenthal's Belk Theater. For those of you unfamiliar with Charlotte, this is an "uptown" theatre that is host to many concerts and off-broadway shows. It is in the Bank of America building. We felt very important! She was the first of a long show, but she did wonderful and didn't get stage-fright at all! I know you think I'm crazy, but I was so proud of Mary Stuart and it was the sweetest thing ever.

After that, everyone came over for Frogmore Stew (shrimp boil) at our house. It was fun.. Baby Charlie came. I will post his picture once I can figure out how to post separate pics. He is a chunky monkey, 3 months old, who is the happiest baby around. Well, maybe last night was the first night I EVER heard him cry. But overall, he is so happy.

All in all, a great day! We are thankful for our Tuddie, our fathers, and Granddad! Happy June 15th!

PS Thanks for letting me borrow your camera, Amanda!

Good News, Bad News

The "Good News" is that we just got back from the mountains! More on that later.
The "Bad News" is that MY CAMERA BROKE!!!

So this blog is sure to be boring if I don't post pictures soon! Mary Stuart has her very important ballet recital Sunday, so hopefully we can buy or borrow a camera before then. All of my mountain pictures are on (gasp!) a disposable camera!!!

Anyways, we had a lot of fun in the mountains. We got to visit with Tom's family, and even got to see Chuck, Amanda, and Baby Charlie.

Yesterday we took the girls to Tweetsie Railroad. That was a lot of fun! The train ride was a little scary for them, only because of the guns firing, but it was more or less a G-rated ride as opposed to the PG-13 rides Tom tells me they used to have. We enjoyed the ski lift and all of the toddler rides.

All in all it was a great trip! If I find a way to post a picture, I will. And hopefully we'll have some up sooner than later. Because you'll just have to see Mary Stuart on stage with a tutu! It's the best!

Good Times With The Schulze's

We had a great night with Jennifer, Derek, and Sydney and Hudson!!

Mary Stuart thought it was a good idea to get her friends to empty all of the toys in the playroom into her bed. That was a fun clean up!

Thanks for a great night! We enjoyed!

Swim lessons!

Ice Cream Bribe

So, after a few weekends in the pool, it became clear that Mary Stuart was not going to be the little fish we assumed she would be! She LOVES to do everything but put her face in, and if we are going to have a pool in our backyard, I would rather her be a little more confident. Even though Mommy used to teach lessons at North Ridge, mommy just doesn't do the job. I really envisioned that my years as swim instructor would come in handy once I had children. I didn't realize that your own children don't want to do what YOU want them to!

Nonetheless, today was our first official day of private swim lessons. We signed up for private 20-minute sessions for this week only at the Charlotte Swim Academy. I was SO impressed! Ms. Amber had Mary Stuart doing things I could never envision! Mary Stuart wasn't their most enthusiastic student, but she did great. I'll fill you in on how the rest of the week goes. The goal is to have her comfortable with her face in the water and floating. We'll see...

(I can't figure out how to get my pictures where I want them. The above is literally how I found Molly before bedtime. The one of Mary Stuart is with her ice cream bribe from swim lessons). I'll figure it out!