Father's Day 2015

This post is a tad late in coming, but better late than never, eh?!  As per usual, we headed to Sarasota to stay at my parent's house this Father Day.  Also per usual, we celebrated Mikayla's birthday while we were there.  This year she turned the BIG 8!

Cameron & Mikayla are seriously together every second of every weekend they spend together... They get along so well because they're both so darn crazy!

Another big happening Father's Day weekend is that Cameron officially learned to swim without his swimmies!  Woohooo.  Although these pictures may indicate that he can't swim at all, he's quite the confident pro suddenly.

I got a video of Cameron swimming across the length of the pool, but I'm moronic when it comes to uploading videos to my blog.  We've been practicing with him in spurts & he's gradually gotten stronger & stronger to the point that he can really hold his own, even in the deep end.  Not to say that I'm going to let him swim unsupervised anytime soon, but he's really come far.

I sometimes struggle with Father's Day ideas for Mike & this year was no exception, especially since we were out of town the week before.  The picture above caught my eye so I decided to go with it since Mike is in need of more pictures for his office anyway.  Last week, I whipped together some poster board & did a quick photo shoot with the kiddos.

It started out rough when I told Cam that he was going to hold the "Best" sign since I envisioned him in the first picture since he's the first born.  Well, that didn't go over too well since he apparently decided he had his heart set on holding the "Daddy" sign.  Luckily he quickly moved past that hitch & we snapped a cute picture.

Next came Reese who has decided as of a week and a half ago that this picture above is the new normal/natural way to smile...

See what I mean?

But after several takes, her cute/natural smile came back out & we wrapped up this portion of the shoot.  On to the last picture...

Several odd smiles came out in our first few shots.

The photo shoot paired with evening crankiness meant that a big temper tantrum was brewing as you will see in the following pictures.

Notice as Reese angrily kicks at the "Ever" sign in hopes of destroying it.

She was ticked off that we laughed at her outburst, but when you see a three year old start to scream like a banshee, it can be kind of funny.  Once I start laughing (and I had to pee so bad..), I cannot stop!

Oh my..

This shot turned out cute, but I ultimately ended up using one of the tantrum shots where her mouth is super wide, to the effect that she's screaming, "Ever!"  It's pretty darn funny & more real anyway.

On another note, I feel like Reese looks just like Reese Witherspoon (her namesake) in this picture above.  The prominence of her chin & the blond hair is uncanny!

Don't you think they look a lot alike or is it just me?!

Either way, both are beautiful ladies named Reese!

In summmmeeeerrrrrr!

Despite the disgustingly hot & humid Florida weather, I am positively thrilled that summer is here!  Summer brings a lot of fun with plenty of swimming & weekend barbeques with friends.  You'd think we pretty much swim year-round in Florida, but if a pool doesn't have a heater, it's way too cold in the winter even if the weather is warm.  Last week was my first Wednesday of summer vacation since the previous week we were on vacation in Destin.  Since I work full-time (32 hours/week), summer vacation means Cameron being out of school which means a lot more flexibility in our schedules.  No homework, no rushing to get him off the bus, no making lunches every evening or organizing backpacks & paperwork, no permission slips to fill out.  Not to mention, since Cameron & Reese are back together at the same school, drop-off & pick-up is a breeze!

Last Wednesday I ended up watching our friend's four & six year old since their usual sitter/teacher was out of town.  Let's just say that I was pretty distracted & did not get much accomplished.  I love using my Wednesdays to organize & be productive so our weekends can be smoother.

While the kids have a lazy day at home, I'll be tackling Reese's closet & going through her sacks & sacks of hand-me-downs from my friend Jill.  I'm so thankful for all the clothes she has given us since I've basically not had to buy Reese much at all.  Love me some money saving!

 

Reese's room is unfortunately a modge-podge of mismatched furniture; her bed is the convertible crib that Cam used as a baby.  I'm not at all a fan of the dark wood since my tastes have changed a lot over the years, but hopefully soon we'll swap it with something more fitting.  If only money wasn't an object!!!

We painted her room when we moved in 2+ years ago & at that time she was only 10 months old & couldn't voice her tastes.  Now I know that her favorite colors are purple & pink, so I threw her a bone by painting her dilapidated bookshelf her beloved colors. 

I'm not in love with her room by any means, but basically like every room in my house, I have many visions in my head but a pocket book that doesn't support me fulfilling every wish.

 

Reese has a really big closet since it stretches back under the staircase leading up to the bonus room.

This is the perfect spot to toss the many bags of hand-me-downs that she'll one day use.  I have to be careful in keeping up with what sizes are in each bag since I'd hate her to pass a size & have clothes go unworn.  With that being said, my goal today is to weed out all of her 4T clothes & update them with 5T so I'm done with her closet & drawers for the next year.  The nice thing about kids getting older is that they stay in the same size for a long time!

While the kids stay entertained, I'll also be organizing toys today since over the weekend, I got a box of goodies from Melanie (my sis-in-law).

We have a lot of IKEA storage shelves around our house which can be a double edge sword.  They're awesome for concealing toys & make clean-up a cinch when you're doing a quick run through.

But... they're also dump traps that allow things to get mixed up & collect junk like old Happy Meal toys.

 Every few months I run through each bin to dump, donate or relocate toys that might get forgotten.

When you have 20+ bins throughout the house, toys tend to get lost in the mix.  Yay for extra time to relax during the week & organize on Wednesdays off.. yay for summer!

A vacation & a wedding

We had a wonderful time last week, celebrating my BFF Lauren at her beach wedding getaway.  Going to a gorgeous beach for a whole week was so amazing & I'm very thankful that we were able to get away with an awesome group of friends!

Look at the happy faces of these beach bunnies enjoying themselves!

Leah & Sammy

Tay & Reese

We headed up to Destin which is on the Florida panhandle & about six hours from where we are in Tampa.  Even though it's the same body of water from where we live (the Gulf of Mexico), it was completely different!  The color was much more Caribbean like, the waves were a heck of a lot rougher than our Gulf coast & the sand was softer with a lot less seashells. 

We rented a condo with our other BFFs, Matt & Kelly & since they just so happen to have two kids the same age as ours, all were happy!  Our kids have known each other since day one, so we consider them family vs. friends.

We had a lot of fresh fish & gorgeous views!

The guys even went on a fishing excursion & caught a boat load of red snapper... we enjoyed it for dinner later that evening!

Lauren & Reese

Monday was Lauren & Marc's wedding day!!!

Lauren (and Tay!) looked absolutely amazing!

So happy for the Smith family!!!

It's not very often that the Pernecky family cleans up & looks presentable for a fancy occasion so it was a treat to head to the reception on a gorgeous dinner cruise.

Pretty soon this boy will be taller than me!

Ever since my friend Lesli posted pictures of her vacation to Seaside, Florida, I've been dying to go & I finally got to check it out last Tuesday!

It was such an adorably quaint beach town full of shops, food stops & picturesque cottages.

Fun fact, the Truman Show (Jim Carey movie) was filmed in Seaside... here's a picture of the Truman house!

 

It really doesn't get much cuter than this town.  I have to say though, with a quaint seaside town comes big prices!  I was sticker shocked by each gift store we browsed around!

The adults & children alike had an amazing vacation celebrating friends & new families!  It's always good to get home, but I have to say, work could have waited... no matter how much time I have off, I'm NEVER ready to get back to it!  But as Dr. Suess says, Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened!