Pony rides and pony tails

Lola has discovered the joys of riding Copper Pony, who came to live with us after Santa dropped him at our home when Amelia was two. This lil' cowpoke loves climbing aboard her steed and rocking back and forth whilst watching television and shouting, "Whee, whee!" I've been working on teaching her to say "Yahoo!," but so far she's only managed "Whoo!"

Amelia is proud as punch to have finally grown her hair out enough that we can pull it all back into a pony tail. In the past, she's always had little wisps of hair around her face that used to be bangs that refused to be pulled back into a hair tie and inevitably wound up hanging in her face.

However, everything now fits snuggly at the back her head, the timing of which is perfect because dance pictures are being made Thursday and her hair must be pulled back into a bun for the photos.

The last two years I've had to use copious amounts of hair gel and hair spray in order to slick her hair back for dance photos. I am so happy her hair is long enough to be pulled back this year without all those products. Maybe this year her hair won't look so wet in the photos.

Spring break 2010

I returned home yesterday after spending five wonderful days and six glorious night at Wilderness at the Smokies with my three favorite people in the whole wide world - Amelia, Jeff and Lola - who are pictured on the left in the above photo. (I haven't a clue who the kid is on the right. The little photo bomber sneaked in while I was snapping a pic of my family.)

As has become the custom, I have zero photos of myself from this vacation because I was always the one behind the camera. Even without photographic evidence, I can assure you that I had tons of fun and wished I could afford for us to have stayed another week. 

If you live anywhere near Sevierville, Tennessee, I highly recommend spending your next vacation at this resort. They have both indoor and outdoor waterparks as well as an arcade and a paint-your-own-ceramics studio. Everything you need including restaurants are all under one roof. We rented a two-room suite complete with a kitchen so the only time I left the resort was to run to the grocery store for essentials.

Amelia and I had a lot of fun painting at Polka Dot Pots, and she loved the arcade where she won more than 1,200 tickets which she turned in for about $9 worth of swag. I keep reminding myself how much fun my little munchkin had procuring those tickets and try to forget those "prizes" actually cost $40, which is how much money Jeff and I had loaded onto her player's card.

Regardless, we had massive amounts of fun and spent about six hours everyday at the water park. Our first day there Jeff and Amelia braved the waves on the Surf Rider where they both performed quite well. 

 Amelia didn't meet the height requirement to be able to stand up and do the traditional type of surfing, but she put on quite a show body-boarding. 

While Jeff was plenty tall enough to try surfing, he doesn't quite have the coordination to get up on the board and hang ten, but he loved body-boarding and was really pretty good at it. 

Neither Lola nor I had any interest in surfing so we stuck with playing in the other areas of the park. She loved the kiddie area where she was able to slide, swing, and see-saw with her sister. 

Lola and Amelia both loved what we called "the bucket area" because of the giant bucket that periodically dropped 750 gallons of water on the kids below. My girls spent tons of time in this area where there was no shortage of fun things to do. 

I'd bet Lola logged 150 miles on these stairs. She never tired of climbing them.

Amelia loved the small slides in the bucket area. I am surprised she didn't wear a hole in the rear-end of her bathing suit from riding these slides so much.

We all enjoyed the "snake pool," so called because of the giant floating snake perched in the middle of it. We spent lots of time here where we were so comfortable that Lola and I even took a nap poolside one day. 

Speaking of naps: both girls played so hard one day that they collapsed on the couch and chair to snag some much-needed shut-eye. I couldn't help but snap some pics of my little darlings.

Dog and pony show

 

"Playing pony" has become the girls' new favorite game. Amelia asks for a pony ride at least once a night. As you can tell from the above photo, Daisy, our dog, was trying to get in on the action, but Jeff draws the line at offering pony rides to her.

Hats off to her!

 

Today is Hat Day as part of Read Across America Week at Amelia's school. My little darlin' opted to wear her Minnie Mouse crown that she acquired at Disney on Ice. Jeff dropped her off at school this morning and reported she was the only kid he saw that wasn't wearing a baseball cap.

I know Amelia will love that her head wear will allow her to stand out in the crowd. She'll feel so special and will revel in the attention I am sure will be heaped upon her. I love that she's unafraid to be a leader rather than a follower and beam with pride at how fearless she already is with regards to navigating the social stratum.

Say what?

This morning while driving Amelia to school I shared with her that after talking with daddy we've agreed that she won't need to go to swimming lessons this summer.

"But why? I love swimming lessons!" cried Amelia from the back seat.

I was stunned by her reply because she has done nothing but complain and whine about swimming lessons since she had her very last one way back in July. In fact, she's been so against returning to swim class that we've had a running countdown of how many days are left until classes begin again just so my little worry wart will have ample time to fret. Today we stand at 124 days left.

"What? I thought you didn't like going? Plus, daddy and I think you're doing so good with help from us that you won't need official lessons this year." I said as calmly as possible while contemplating if I should pull the car to the side of the road in order to have both hands free to rub away the tension that was building in my temples. 

"Mommmmma! I want to try going off the diving board all by myself. Plus Ms. Kim needs to see that I can swim all by myself in the deep, deep water," Amelia said, clearly agitated that I would dare suggest she not enroll in lessons this summer.

"Okay. Swimming lessons it is," I replied while doing little to disguise my utter shock at her actually desiring to attend classes that just a few months ago it seemed she would have cut off her own legs in order to get out of participating in them. 

I swear, though, if we get to class and she starts freaking out and announcing she hates swimming class, I may just push her off the diving board myself rather than wait for Ms. Kim to do it. 

 

Amelia, with a gentle push from Ms. Alex, completing a much-dreaded jump from the diving board during last summer's lessons.

Happy birthday momma

Today is my momma's birthday, but she's not here to celebrate because she died almost three years ago. Momma would have been 68 years old today. I still miss her like crazy and continue to hang on to some bitterness that she's not here because she couldn't quit smoking - a bit of resentment that I may never be able to let go of.

 

While I miss momma immensely and wish she were here to mother me, my heart truly breaks for my girls who don't have a grandmother, or any grandparents for that matter, on my side of the family. Amelia knew GranJan for almost three years and occassionally mentions that she misses her, but Lola will never know my mother, a fact that makes me ache with saddness.

I've shared a pictoral history of momma using some of my favorite photos of her. I'd give almost anything if she were here today to pose for a birthday portrait.

 

Momma, age 3, front left; her momma, Lillian Bonds, top left; her daddy, Layman Bonds, top right; and her big sister, Gayle, lower right. 1945

 

From left: momma, age 11; her baby sister Teresa; their momma, Lillian; and big sister Gayle. 1953.

 

 Momma in 1964.

Momma and daddy 1978. Daddy died at age 43 just nine years after this photo was taken.

 

Momma 1983

 

Me and momma 1998

 

Amelia and GranJan December 2006. Our last Christmas with momma.

We start 'em young

As evidenced by the above photo, Jeff and I believe you're never to young to start boning up on current events. Lola as well as big sister Amelia see us read the newspaper everyday so it's no surprise that our wee one would mimic this behavior.

Notice, though, that Lola is enjoying the comics section of the paper rather than actual news. Eh, we'll take what we can get at this point. After all, they've got to start somewhere.