First day of school 2014

School is back in session and we have one happy little girl. She really, REALLLLLLY missed her teachers this summer. I'm not sure what we are going to do when this school year is over and we have to explain to her that her teacher next year will be different. I'm already dreading it!

ANYWAY...these first day of school pictures were super rushed and I feel terrible about it. I got whatever illness the kids had last week and I was feeling like death that morning. :( I still managed to get a few-

Layla says she isn't really sure what she wants to be but she knows that she wants to be a Mommy "for sure". :) 

Poor girl didn't sleep well the night before. I think she was just so excited for school! So after pictures on the porch she asked Daddy to carry her to the car. 

Here she is, all ready for school with a big smile on her face. 

It's funny to me that our kids will be at the top of the alphabet. Layla had the first hook again this year...Mommy was always the last in class. LOL. She knew just what to do!

She was a little anxious and held my hand for a minute before she was off to play. She has a much bigger class with some different kids this year. But once she recognized a friend from last year (a little blonde curly haired girl...her twin) she was off and happy. 

Poor sweet Jack really missed "sissy" that morning. He walked around the house calling for her. I had to go blow my nose and went back into the playroom to find it empty. I couldn't find Jack anywhere! Then I peeked around the corner and saw him in sissy's bed playing with my phone. :) 

Layla had a great first day and Jack gave her a big hug when he saw her. I wonder how long that enthusiasm will last?

Layla's First Ballet Lesson

Oh boy. We may have created a monster here. We've been putting off dance for awhile because of the "ballet class of 2013" fiasco. We took her to a free class right after Jack was born to see if she'd like it...she ended up rolling around on the floor and following the teacher barking. Not. Ready.

She also didn't love the gymnastics class I signed her up for pre-Jack. The only thing she wanted to do was the balance beam. If there is one thing we've learned about this girl over the last 4.5 years it's that when she doesn't want to do something, she doesn't want to do something. There is no convincing her otherwise.

I've been building her up for dance for about 2 years. Seriously...2 entire years. It started with going to her BFF, Maddie's, dance recital after "ballet class of 2013". We told her "See?? THAT is how ballet is supposed to be". She told us she didn't like it and wanted to dance to "Lady Gaga". Ok so she wasn't ready.

So since then we've been reading books about dance, listing to some classical music and encouraging her to "do what I do" during our dance parties. It totally worked and she was FINALLY excited to start dance this year. YAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!

I wouldn't consider L a girly girl but she was ROCKING her hair bow, leg warmers and tights the day of her first lesson. She was so excited to "go to ballet"!

I told her to give me her best ballet pose...this is what I got-

Then I told her to "be serious" and she did THIS. Oh I love this kid!

Layla gets to do her lessons in the library auditorium, the same place where her recital will be. PERFECT for this girl. She was a little nervous going into things...

She seemed hesitant when they first got started. I think most of the girls where in class last year so they were familiar with the format. Layla's teacher seems super sweet and really good with the girls. She moves quickly which I'm hoping means L will pick up her pace. :) We shall see! 

She was all smiles after class and said she "REALLY LOVED BALLET"! She can't wait to go back this week. :)

Our FL Vacation

It's about time we took our first vacation as a family of four! We had so much fun in Florida last week. It was hot, sunny (with a tiny bit of rain) and absolutely perfect.

Our trip started with a 2 hour drive to Detroit. We shoved all our stuff into a little airport shuttle bus (we had so much stuff they could ONLY take us lol) and took the bouncy ride in. Of course L loved the bus, J's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head.

The kids loved to watch the indoor "train" and see the big fountain at DTW. They also loved running up and down the long aisles and shoving McDonalds in their mouths-

Jack ended up sleeping on both long flights to and from FL! It was awesome except for the extra hours we spent in the air on the way home because of storms. Overall they both did great, MUCH better than driving.

Ahhhhh the beach! Both kids were a little hesitant about the Gulf at first. I think they were just overwhelmed by it.

They loved the sand and chasing the birds. You'd think they'd NEVER seen one before...

Layla had her own suite back at the condo. She really liked having her own HUGE bed and a bathroom. LOL. She got really into coloring over this trip (random) so she spent a lot of time drawing in her little notebook.

This was taken at Fudruckers...a TOTAL dud. We were trying to be cheap and we heard they had alligators there. This was about the extent of the alligator fun.

We tried to enjoy LOTS of sea food. This was Old Bay Steamers...SO good (the kids did not agree).

One of the kids favorite things was visiting the Gulfarium. They got to see lots of super cool fish in the tanks AND....

They even got to see a Dolphin show!

We knew Layla would like it but Jack LOOOOOVED it. He kept pointing at them saying "ish ish ISH" (fish).

We tried to take a stroll on the beach every evening. We also tried to catch the sand crabs but only had 1 successful evening.

Daddy and the kids with our crab gear.

Jack liked to destroy everyone's sand castles at the end of the day. :/

The kids were pretty tried of swimming by the last day (because they are nuts) so we went to an air museum nearby. Jack didn't get it but L loved to play in the cockpits and look at all the flags.

A new addition to the Barton family came for Bryan's birthday...a GoPro! We had a TON of fun with it!

Here's a few views from the beach-

And from the zero entry pool

Jack didn't love the lazy river LOL

But Layla did!

Jack DID love the splash pad and kid's slide.

He also loved to get buried in the sand!

Bryan and I were terrible about getting in pictures with the kids this trip. Oops!

But we did get this with the GoPro...it's probably one of my favorites EVER.

Layla helped us write a note in the guest book on our last night. She also drew this sweet picture of a the condo full of dogs. LOL

And of course we made a video of our trip. I may or may not watch this multiple times a day :)

We can't WAIT to go on vacation again. I think the next stop is NYC for Mommy and Layla and then maybe another FL trip soon?! I sure hope so!