Birthday fun

Joshua's birthday was last week and we celebrated on his birthday and then on the weekend with a family party.  Red Lobster was his restaurant of choice and Helaina was pleased with his selection.

Popcorn shrimp and rice for Helaina - lobster, shrimp and scallops for the birthday boy.

A birthday present from Wildwood.  A huge beach towel with the actual amusement rides on it.

We knew we'd be full from Red Lobster so we had small cupcakes at home for dessert.

Opening presents at the weekend family birthday party with his helper.

The cousins.

Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting per Josh's request.

Ok, there are no words to describe this precious little girl, Baby Sophia.  She has the EXACT same head of hair that Anna had as a baby.  I see more light brown ringlets in the future.

The Wildwood Water Parks

An all-day waterpark wristband got you entrance into both waterparks on Morey's Pier and Mariner's Landing.  The parks are within walking distance of each other via the beach or the boardwalk.  We started out on Morey's Pier, splashed all morning, had lunch then ended the (very long) afternoon at Mariner's Landing.  We got to the first waterpark about 10:30am and didn't leave the 2nd park until about 5:30.  We were all exhausted but every time we told Helaina it was time to go she would beg and plead to stay a while longer.  We ended our day with 2 trips around the lazy river.  One would have been enough since Helaina actually fell asleep sitting on Jim's lap while floating down the river on their inner tube!

Queen of the water slides.  Helaina absolutely loves these kiddie sized flumes.

Waiting for the huge overhead bucket to fill with water and pour down on you.

"I soaking!!!" she would scream.

Wheee, over and over and over and over again.......

An overhead view of the kiddie area on Mariner's Landing.  We were riding around the park in an overhead suspended boat ride.

Helaina was so tired that she fell asleep in her stroller while we waited for Jim to get the car and pick us up.  That was a very long day for all of us.  We didn't even hit the boardwalk that night.  After dinner we stopped at a playground and Helaina spent most of her time on the monkey bars (what else). Thankfully the playground closed at 8pm and we headed straight for our hotel.  Of course, even as exhausted as she was, Helaina asked to take a dip in the hotel pool before going to sleep.  The girl's got boundless energy.

Boardwalk fun

We hit the boardwalk every day, either after the beach during or after dinner - sometimes both.  Helaina loved all the rides, emphasis on the word love.  She couldn't get enought of them almost to the point of obsession.

This jack-in-the-box type ride was Helaina's absolute favorite.  Each of the 3 piers had one but this one was the "bounciest".  She would immediately exit after riding and get in line to ride again, as many of the kids did.  The look on this little boy's face cracks me up.  He was probably thinking "Why the heck is this chick screaming so much?"

Each pier also had a carousel and Helaina rode every one of them more than once.

I called these the "whip it" cars because at each curve she got whipped around the corner - and naturally loved it.

Kiddie bumper cars are another favorite, especially when she drives into another car.

Helaina and Jim rode this sky-way thing and got a teriffic view of the beach and boardwalk.  I stuck to riding the roller coasters with Helaina, something Jim didn't want to experience.

Helaina liked the scrambler too.  She begs to ride the full-size ones but she's not allowed - yet.

Convoy trucks.  She spent a lot of time going around in circles!

One of the props next to the Great White - a massive wooden roller coaster.  Joshua and I used to ride it over and over years ago.  It's loud, rickety but loads of fun.

At the end of a very long night on the boardwalk, Helaina's about to fall asleep in her stroller.  She begged for this lighted sword and well, she won.  She's also holding a stuffed Smurf.  We played one of those water squirting gun games and unfortunately didn't win.  A young man in his mid-20's won but didn't want his prize.  He saw Helaina looking all disappointed and asked us what prize she wanted.  He let her pick out his prize and keep it.  Nice gesture.  She was thrilled.  I thanked him profusely and told him she made his night.  Helaina gave him a hug, said thank you and was happier than anything.

In dreamland back at the hotel.  She fell asleep almost immediately with her new Smuf by her side.  Life is good when you're 5 years old at the Jersey shore.  Next up - the waterparks.

Ahhhhh, the ocean

Who doesn't love the ocean, really?  How could you not love sunshine on your face, warm sand beneath your toes, the sounds of the surf, the taste of salt water on your lips, riding the waves and splashing in the beautiful ocean.  Not much out there that's better than that, in my opinion.  And Helaina seconds that motion.

Helaina and her hero.  Lately she'll say "Daddy, you my hero."

The southern Jersey shore makes me happy.

We stayed in Wildwood Crest this year.

How true.

I usually had Helaina wear a t-shirt while at the beach.  The sun was intense and she tans so quickly even with the glops of sunblock I slather on her.  She's got a brown body and a white butt!

Every day Helaina made countless trips from the water back to her "digging spot", filling holes in the sand that she dug with water.  She was one exhausted little gal at the end of each day.

The Bo Derek run, with braids flapping!

She was fearless in the ocean, not quite realizing the danger of being knocked over by a wave and getting knocked around under the water.

Daddy and daughter.

Happy beach face.

I think this picture was taken after our exhausting day at the water parks.  Helaina fell asleep in her carseat on the way back to our hotel.  Jim carried her from the car and plunked her down on the chair outside our room.  I think she would have slept there for hours if we had left her!

North Wildwood Inlet.  Beautiful, isn't it?

We need a vacation ... after that vacation ...

We've been vacationing at the southern Jersey shore in Wildwood for the past 7 days.  Needless to say, Jim and I are EXHAUSTED since returning home very late Friday night (thanks to that blasted Philly traffic).  Helaina was a wild child in Wildwood, the true Energizer Bunny, pushing through exhaustion for one more romp in the ocean, one more chase with a seagull, one more ride on the boardwalk, one more lick of an ice cream cone.  For the last 2 days we've been shaking sand out of towels, trying to unpack, doing laundry, getting organized, lawn mowing, grocery shopping - all that fun stuff that awaits you at home when you return from vacation.  Here's a preview of the fun ...Splashing in the warm Jersey water.  Last Sunday the ocean temperature was 82 degrees!  82 degrees?  I've never been in ocean water that warm.

There were mud pies to be made.

Treasures to be found.

Water slides to conquer.

Seagulls to be fed.

Bouncy cars to be driven.

Roller coasters to be ridden.

                                   Dolphins to be spotted.

Starfish to be held.

These are just 9 of the 238 pictures I took while on vacation.  When I'm rested up (ha), I'll share lots more. 

Our little gymnast

Helaina absolutely loves gymnastics class.  I'm glad we signed her up for the summer session instead of waiting until the Fall classes begin.  She's gotten so much stronger since she started in March.  Here she is after climbing up the wall with her feet to practice a hand stand.  Between the monkey bars and gymnastics she's got unbelievable upper arm strength.  She is one solid little package!

 The kids had never used the rings before so at class this week when the instructor asked "Does anyone want to try out the rings?", every kid screamed yes, raised their hand and asked if they could go first.  I'll bet you can guess who went first.

They learned how to correctly grip the rings and just swung back and forth for the first time, but they were all thrilled to do it.  Helaina was most likely thinking "higher, higher!"

Even though we've got the pool, Helaina still enjoys a sprinkler every so often.  She's got her Little Mermaid Barbie with her and she's getting "soaking", which appears to be Helaina's favorite word lately.

 She had a pool party last weekend with 2 friends - nothing more fun than dumping buckets of water over your head, I guess.

Helaina's having a good summer so far.  I'm savoring every moment of it because in September it's off to Kindergarten on the bus (eee-gad).  We're waiting for the letter to arrive from school that will tell us who her teacher will be and when the next open house night is.  Oh my smurfness.

She's had a Smurfy good time

Oh My Smurfness.  Forgive me if I use the word "smurf" too much in this post but once you start doing it, it's hard to stop.  Helaina has loved the smurfs for the past few months, watching the old cartoons on Boomerang and Cartoon Network.  Then she saw that there was going to be a smurf movie and she just couldn't wait for it to be at the theater.  Jim had Friday off, it was raining outside, the smurf movie opened that day and well, the rest is history.  Posing in front of one of the many giant-sized movie theater displays.

After the movie posing with Helaina's favorite character, Smurfette.  Helaina absolutely LOVED the movie.  It was the first movie that she sat through in its entirety.  She even held her potty because she didn't want to miss a second of the action.

We went to Carousel Mall today to see one of the $1 summer movies (Despicable Me, also an adorable movie with 3 little girls who get adopted - one of them Asian!), and yet another pose with the smurfs.  Notice that Helaina is "smurfed out" with the smurf shirt and a stuffed smurf.  The Toys R Us ad in Sunday's paper had smurf stuff and Helaina begged to go, literally.  I caved and told her she could pick out 3 items so she selected a t-shirt, a stuffed Poppa Smurf (no Smurfette's left, bummer) and a puzzle.

After the movie they were handing out paper smurf hats.  Holy smoke, how cute does she look.

Poppa Smurf is her favorite stuffed critter now - even taking the coveted place beside her in bed at night.  Her cabbage patch doll (named Smurfette) has dropped into 2nd place now.  How sad.  Smurfs also enjoy riding on carousels.

Sunday night Helaina saw the McDonald's commercial that advertised smurf Happy Meals.  She jumped off the couch, squealed a high-pitched squeal that every dog in a 10-mile radius could hear and started clapping and jumping up and down so hard that the furniture was actually shaking.  Jim came down from his shower and she screamed at him "Daddy! Daddy!  McDonalds has smurf happy meals!  Can we go?"  His response:  "Great."  Yah, we went the next day.  Damn that McDonald's.

 Smurf puzzle.

 Zoey likes smurfs too.

 Even napping with Poppa Smurf.  She's slightly smurf obsessed.

I will admit that I loved the movie too.  It was absolutely adorable, full of color, action and slap-stick which Helaina loves.  She's still talking about her favorite scenes, her favorite lines from the movie, her favorite characters.  As with most kid's movies there is also adult humor sprinkled throughout that goes right over their  heads but that the parents enjoy.  My favorite was when Smurfette (voiced by Katy Perry) says "I smurfed a girl and I liked it", playing off her hit song.  Funny.  The Smurfs will be a must buy when it's available to purchase later in the year.  Maybe Santa or his elves will smurf it for Helaina.