*LABOR DAY LEMONADE STAND*

Alexa begged to have a lemonade stand so we finally let her. Of course Maren came out to help too. Surprisingly she stayed out with Alexa almost the whole time. During her lemonade stand Jack and Luke from across the street came over to get lemonade and trade silly bands. Then Maggie and Avery came over to help out. Alexa paid them each a dollar for helping her. She is such a little entrepreneur. She said it wouldn't be fair if she didn't pay them for being there. It was pretty cute.

Her idea was to get a new toy called a zooble. I have to give her credit for going out there and earning her money for her toy. I had to run an errand at Wal-Mart, so I picked her and Maren up one for all of their hard work. She was so excited to work hard and earn what she wanted.

*ALEXA'S 1ST DAY OF 3RD GRADE INTERVIEW*

*ALEXA'S FIRST DAY OF 3RD GRADE*

It was Alexa's first day of 3rd grade and she really was excited. We were on vacation, so we missed the night where she could have met her teacher. She was really worried, because she heard a rumor the girl teachers were mean in her grade. She was really disappointed when she didn't get Mr. Coleman.
Luckily, she loved her teacher. She was so happy at how nice her teacher, Mrs. DeVault was. I knew it would all work out.
I was worried about Alexa being tired, because she started school the day after she got back from her long vacation. It was only half a day, so she survived.

*DISNEY INTERVIEW*

*EAR PIERCING*

On vacation I promised the girls I would let them get their ears pierced. I kept telling Alexa that she couldn't for a long time now, because I didn't want her to hop in the chair, get one ear pierced and refuse to do the next. However, I could tell she really wanted too. Of course Maren begged to as well, which was fine only because she can usually tolerate a lot of pain.
We headed to Oak Park Mall after getting home from our plane ride from Florida. I figured we would quickly swing in, get them pierced and head home so that I can finish unpacking.
Two older teenagers were in line when we got there, so Alexa and Maren watched them. The boy that went (the one Maren watched) didn't even flinch. The girls that went (the one Alexa watched) almost started crying. So of course Alexa started to get scared and cry. I thought, "I can just convince her to hold off and we can come back another day." Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. Both girls wanted too.
Maren offered to go first to show Alexa how it was done. The lady handed her a teddy bear to hold onto and Maren sat emotionless waiting for it to happen. Both her ears were marked and read to go. Then the lady did the first ear. All of a sudden her eyes welled up and she started to cry grabbing her unpierced ear. (by that time a long line had formed for their turn) She absolutely refused to let us do the other one.
I decided to go ahead and have Alexa do hers while I tried and convince Maren on getting her other one done. Before Alexa hopped in the seat she started having tears in her eyes, but still wanted to get it done. The lady pierced one and Alexa said "That wasn't too bad." Then she got the other one done. She said it hurt, but she really wanted her ears pierced liked her other friends did. Sometimes want out does the hurt!
Unfortunately, that was not Maren's view point. She never let go of her ear and kept crying that it hurts. After a long time of trying to convince (or bribe) her, I didn't know what to do. I finally decided to just hold her down and get it down. I think I had to hold back as many tears as Maren as she screamed her head off. It was horrible. I felt like I was the vainest mom alive and that I was forcing my child to have it done. The bad part is it didn't come out even! After all that pain. Lesson learned for this mom. I should have just pulled out the earring and went on my way.
The funny thing is that I was so worried about Alexa freaking out, I never even considered Maren would be the one I would have to worry about. I didn't even prepare myself at all. It just goes to show that you never truly can predict what your children will do!


This is what Grandma Marilyn said:
"The pierced ears is almost an exact duplicate of what happened with you and Rachel when Nana had your ears pierced as a going away present when she was out here for a visit.We all went to Independence Center to have the deed done. You were very small."

*DAY AT DAYCAMP*

Jay and I took the girls to a day camp. After dropping them off, we went jet skiing and snorkeling. The jet skiing was really fun, but completely different then the lake. It actually was a lot calmer. The only thing that made me nervous was it seemed really shallow and you could see the coral. We went snorkeling also. Jay had been before, but it was my first time. It took me awhile to trust the gear and put my head all the way in the water. Once I did, I was really glad. It was definitely neat to see all of the unique fish and coral.
Once we were done, we went and got the girls from the camp. They said they had to much fun there. It ended up only being them and 2 other little girls, so they had the entire staff to play with them. They made several crafts. One was a box made out of Popsicle sticks for their jewelry.
After we went home and got cleaned up, Jay went gambling at the local casino and I took the girls out to the beach to take some pictures of them with the ocean.

*ON OUR WAY TO THE BAHAMAS*

Although Disney was a blast, it's time to head to the Bahamas. Alexa was excited about riding the ferry over to the island. The first thing we did that morning was to eat breakfast on the ship and then head to the game room to play the wii and ping pong. We spent most of our time there until I convinced them to head to the upper deck to see the ocean.