Bethany Beach (part 2)

Sea Colony was a great fit for our family.  It was a large complex with several different buildings, all with individual condo units inside.  They were right on the beach which was nice for us because we spent the majority of our time there, but they also had activities going on each day that you could participate in if you chose.  The first one the girls did was a mini swim race followed by a search and dive for $60 worth of coins at the bottom of one of the heated pools.  

They also elected to participate in the sand castle making contest.  There were several categories (kids only, most creative, family, etc.), and some of the creations were VERY impressive.  Nina and Lyla entered in the kids only category and truely worked on it only by themselves.  Their design was a sand castle birthday cake.  

 

Later that day, they invited all the participants back for awards and a bonfire on the beach.  The prizes went from participation awards, to Honorable Mention, and following that was one first place winner in each category.  Nina and Lyla won Honerable Mention for their sand castle and were pretty proud!

 

Awards were followed by a marshmallow roast on the beach with a DJ playing. The girls loved it!

 

 

Sea Colony was also within a short walk to fun restaurants and ice cream shops, so when we wanted to go out, things were very close by.  So, after all the research and looking around at family beaches, Bethany Beach ended up being a great place for our family to go, and we all would love to go back again!

  

  

It was a great week for our family and one that I’ll treasure for a long time.  It was wonderful making these memories together and sharing a fun week away.

 

 

 

 

  

  

  

Finally, we did miss Cayenne (who was staying at Mousey and Poppy’s house) a lot.  We decided to try FaceTiming her, and it was one of the funniest parts of the week.  She actually got the concept.  When we would call her in the evening, she would get so excited and jump at the phone, whine, and “talk”.  However, once she settled down, she would just lay down and wag her tail while we talked to her.  Eventually, she would relax enough to start falling asleep at the end of the call.  It was so cute, but it did make us miss her a lot, however my mom told us how much she actually seemed to look for us to call in the evenings, so that made us happy that she seemed to enjoy getting to FaceTime.  

Only Cayenne!  

Bethany Beach 2017 (part 1)

Last week we took a family vacation to Bethany Beach, DE.  We left the day after school got out, so it was a busy time of finishing school, packing, and getting ready to be gone for a week, but once we got there we started enjoying ourselves immediately.  The weather was sunny and hot, but the water was pretty chilly.  It took some getting used to at first, but once you got over the initial chill of it, all was good.  From the very first day, it was gorgeous to be on the beach.  We rented a condo that was part of Sea Colony, so it was great to be right on the beach to come and go as we pleased with little effort.  Both Nina and Lyla are beach girls.  They love being down at the water - either digging in the sand or playing in the waves.  While they both enjoy sand and waves, Nina is the one who wants to be in the waves constantly, and Lyla has so much fun digging in the sand.

 

The other bonus to being at the beach is fabulous ice cream. It didn’t take long for the girls to sniff out a great little ice cream shop on the boardwalk that gave enormous “single”  scoop cones.  Bethany isn’t a super busy beach, but it has some great little shops, restaurants, and plenty to do, so it’s great for families, and we felt like it was a great fit for our family.

  

 

 

 

 

5th Grade Promotion and the Last Day of School

Last week was a super busy week for the Simpson family.  It started out with a really big day for Mark.  For six weeks he had been studying every day for a big exam to become PMP certified.  It’s a designation for project management that is really good for the resume and attractive to prospective employers, but it’s a very tough exam.  Mark had been studying and preparing to take the exam, however it was a stressful process until it was over.  We’re all smiles in the picture below, however, because we were out celebrating that Mark took and passed his exam and is now officialy PMP certified.  Great job, Mark!

The last week of school followed, and it was a busy one.  However, we arrived to Thursday morning, and it was the promotion ceremony for the 5th grade class.  We have really loved the girls' school, Legacy Elementary.  It’s not small by any stretch (over 1,000 kids), but it’s a close knit community of kids and parents with a great staff.  It’s been a great six years for Nina at Legacy, and while we’re sad to see her leaving, we’re glad that 95% of her class will all be going to the same middle school together, so there will be lots of familiar faces and good friends to make the transition with.

 

So, here was Nina getting ready to head off on her first day of Kindergarten… https://youtu.be/GQU_XygEtak

 

…and here she is getting ready to head off to her last day as a 5th grader!

There were some nice words from administrators, the presentation of promotion certificates, and a song, and just like that we have a middle schooler in the house!

  

Nina and her BFF, Grace - best buddies since 2nd grade!

  

The last day of school followed the promotion ceremony, and for 5th graders, it’s probably their best day of the year.  It’s kind of a tradition around Legacy that the 5th graders get an amazing party complete with human hampster balls, a DJ, awesome food, a game truck, photo booth, games, class shirts, etc. on their last day of school. This year was a beautiful day for the indoor/outdoor party, and the 5th graders had a wonderful time.  It’s all capped off with the 5th graders going on parade through the school to “Who Let the Dogs Out” blasting over the loud speakers (because they’re the Legacy Labs) and all the students lining the hallways to cheer them on.  It’s a great way to finish the day and their time at Legacy.

 

Then one last tradition that’s anticipated each year is that the buses take several laps around the bus loop while honking their horns and letting the kids wave out the windows (while spectators blow bubbles at them) as they drive away on the last day.  This was Nina and Lyla’s bus.

Lyla went straight to a class party after she got home, and Nina and I went to a little graduation celebration for some girls on our block, then we headed over to a graduation pool party for some friends.  Needless to say, by the end of the day she was exhausted, but she said she had absolutely the best day, so that was great!

Brambleton Middle School is currently in the final stages of new construction, so they’ll put the finishing touches on it this summer, and it will open brand new and shiny to the kids in the fall, so hello Brambleton Bears!