Weekend at Hilton Head Island.

I can't believe that we are now in September and more than that I can't believe how little I've blogged this year. I've pondered a lot why that is and why I have been so apathetic. I love it and I love being able to look back on past seasons in our lives...and yet, most days this year I have yet to document our life in this moment. 2013 has been a hard year. It has been an emotional year with some pretty deep moments. Some of these moments in time I may be able to blog about and other moments might not ever get recorded here. If you are still reading this know that we are good and the kids are good. It's been a hard year but God has been gracious and has sustained us. 

This past weekend we went with Andy's mom and sisters to Hilton Head Island. This was the first time our immediate family had been to Hilton Head and we LOVED it. We stayed at Marriott's Barony Beach Club and it was fabulous! Within the last year they had remodeled the pool area and it was AH-Mazing. I'm not sure who enjoyed it more the kids or the adults. It will most definitely be on our list of Marriott places to return to. (I seriously wouldn't mind if we went back yearly.) I loved that it was only 5 hours from Rome and that it was easily doable for a long weekend. For this trip we went Thursday night to Monday afternoon. I left wishing that we had been able to stay a full week. Next time! :)

 We took advantage of the lower crowds and spent time each day at the beach and pool. I loved that our room overlooked the pool. In the afternoons we were able to leave the little girls up in the room napping with an adult while the older two swam all afternoon. I even managed to read an entire 400+ page book cover to cover over the weekend. Which is quite the accomplishment these days with small kids. I remember the trips we use to take to the beach before kids and I would read multiple books in a week. One day again...when they are older, right? :) Here are some pictures on the beach and at the pool... 

July Book Basket...

Since this month is dedicated to the beach and traveling I decided to do a 'water/beach' theme for the month. I came to the conclusion that I need more 4th of July books in our personal library but I'm not sweating it this year since I just did a complete history/America themed basket in May for our trip to Williamsburg. Note to self for next year. :)

Sailaway Home by Bruce Degen
The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole
The Magic School Bus at the WaterWorks by Joanna Cole
Curious George Goes to the Beach by Margaret and H.A. Rey
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Shell by Lucille Colandro
Sheep on a Ship by Nancy Shaw
Pirates Don't Change Diapers by Melinda Long and David Shannon
Greetings From the 50 States by Sheila Keenan
Olivia Forms A Band by Ian Falconer
Coconut Mon by Linda Milstein
The Jolly Mon by Jimmy Buffett and Savannah Jane Buffett
Vivienne and the Giant Boots by Patrick FitzSymons
The Big Big Sea by Martin Waddell
A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle
Wally the Whale Who Loved Balloons by Yuichi Watanabe
The Fish Who Could Wish by John Bush and Korky Paul


Like I said yesterday, we are in the process of completely reorganizing several rooms and moving things around. One of the things that we did is move one of the bookshelves that Andy made a few years ago to the den. It has six cubby spaces and some red collapsible bins to hold small toys/board books. One cubby contains some of the kids most loved authors including Mo Willems, Ian Falconer, and Anna Dewdney. The other open shelf is now my designated 'book basket' space. I've been wanting to have a designated shelf/space for themed books for awhile now. (Like the last few years!) However, it just didn't work till now. I really wanted it to be in a common/shared space in the house and not tucked away in one of the kids rooms. That way we can pull them out to read together on the couch. Since we moved the shelf in to the den the kids have spent more time pulling out the books and making use of them. (Which makes this teacher's heart very happy.) I also put on the shelf two ocean themed puzzles on the shelf for them to use. I can see us making good use of this as we head in to the second half of the year. I have a vast collection of themed books for the months ahead and I look forward to displaying them.

Pictures to come! Once I get everything the way I want it. We are still quite disheveled at the moment. I'm also mulling painting this fall. I ready to change up some of the colors in the house...

Wordless Wednesday