Boat Ride and Slip and Slides

 The kids had Spring Break right after Easter, so went to Pensacola. It is about 7 hours north of us.  The kids are such good car riders.  It really helps I am sure that we have DVD players and lots of movies!  I read the 4th book of the Twilight series to Mike while he drove.

We stayed at the same hotel that we stayed at over Thanksgiving.

And ate at our fav place there, Crabs We Got Them.

We just walked along the beach about a 1/3 mile.

It has a great playground right on the beach that the kids play at while we eat.

Oh, they ate too, if you can call scarfing down their food in like 2 seconds so they could rush out and play again, actually eating.

I had oysters on the half shell and found a pearl in one! Its small, but still a real pearl!

The hotel pools are awesome! They are heated and this shallow one is perfect for little ones.  Elektra can stand in it and it only comes up to her bottom at the deepest point.

We rented a Pontoon boat and fishing equipment since we forgot ours,

and went out for an entire day to explore the little inland islands and waterways.

Faster Daddy! Go Faster!

Is this a good spot to fish? How many fish are there in the ocean? Will we catch a shark?

They are distracted by getting the fish stuff ready, so I'm going to drive the boat!

And I will drive it faster than you! Vrrooom!

What are you going to do with those LIVE shrimp? Hook them?! Poor shrimp.

Here fishy fishy fishy! Come eat that yummy shrimp!

My turn. Now lets see, if I turn this knobby thing here,

and then turn it again, maybe it will bring me a fish.

I got one! I got one!

Ugh. A catfish. Again. We caught several of them. But tossed them all back. We are very good at catching catfish. In fact, we are so good at it, that one time Mike reeled in his line and there was another old line wrapped around our hook and at the end of that line was..wait for it...another catfish!

We came back on Friday, and spent Sat and Sun just relaxing.

And eating my homemade cream pie topped with fresh strawberries.

Elektra played dress up in Mikes shoes and belt.

Then Caleb took the Princess on a joy ride.

Elektra got stickers in the mail from Mommy and Daddy and promptly put them on papers.

While we were gone, Christina and Katelyn bought a Slip and Slide.

All the kids enjoyed it.

One of the big kids REALLY enjoyed it!

Zachary loves it, and can really fly down it!

Elektra is still getting the hang of it, but it didn't slow her down!

Alright Caleb!

The weather has been so beautiful! Every day is high 70's or low 80. 

 You know what that means in our household! Golf season!

In fact, as I type this, Mike and Caleb are out playing 18 holes at a new golf course near the house.

What form. I think, like I know anything about golf form.

Mike built me some veggie, fruit and herb containers. This is just one of them.  I have strawberries, basil, cilantro, rosemary, jalapenos, beef steak tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, catnip, squash and cucumbers.

I taught the kids which leaves they can eat, and Caleb loves going out and snacking on the cilantro and basil. He can pick them out by smell. Zachary won't have anything to do with eating Plants. ewww. Elektra will take teeny tiny itybity bites if I give her some, but she's not too keen on it either.

This week Zachary starts bible classes at his school on Fridays. They are free fun little classes for 1st-5th graders after school for 1 1/2 hours. He loved the Willow Glen Church School so much, and since he has read the entire bible, I think he will really enjoy this class. (and its free!) Caleb is bummed that he can't go too. But he has golf classes on Tues, so they helps make up for it.

Mike and I are planning a trip to Naples probably this coming weekend.  With everything that has gone on in the last month, we really didn't do much for our 10 year anniversary, except go to Universal and to a hotel near there.  Christina and Katelyn have said they will bbsit, so hopefully we will get to make up for it. But who knows with us. We really usually just fly by the seat of our pants!

Easter Eggs! Lots of Them!

Easter!

The kids colored Easter eggs. All the kids!

Christina, Ben, Katelyn, Zachary, Caleb and Elektra.

Since there were so many of us coloring eggs I boiled 50! Yes 50 eggs!

Lots of Easter eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide!

A little messy, but worth it! I thought I had a picture of all the finished eggs,

 but I can't find it, or I erased it.

On Saturday Christina flew to AZ to surprise her dad for Easter and to spend spring break with him. 

My mom picked her up at the airport, and she spent Sat night with my family. Then Sunday morning my mom took her to her dads. While Christina knocked on the door and her dad opened it, my mom videotaped it with Christina's phone. Later Christina posted the video on Facebook, and it brought tears to your eyes if you watched it. Maybe clicking this link will bring you there:

 http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fhome.php%3F%23!%2Fvideo%2Fvideo.php%3Fv%3D1257070352564&h=91aed3eb25096b23965433e87cc4c458

Before she left, she made rice krispy egg treats with melted chocolate and sprinkles.

 The kids got to decorate the eggs. They were wonderful!

Easter morning!

The kids are hiding their eyes so they couldn't peak, while we waited for Mike to hurry up and come out.

Even tho Zachary was up at 7, I had them wait until 9. Caleb and Elektra stayed asleep until just before then anyway, so it worked out and we got to sleep in a little bit.

Yeah! Easter baskets full of toys and candy! MMMMM!

Easter Bunny brought Princess stuff for Elektra.

With all those eggs to hide, plus all the plastic ones filled with goodies,

 the Easter Bunny had to get creative on where to hide all of them!

They grabbed empty baskets and went on the egg hunt.

They were in the foyer, den, living room, family room, kitchen, front porch, front yard, back patio and back yard. Wheeww! Good thing the bunny ate the carrots we left out for him! He must of been exhausted by the time he finished hiding all of them!

We counted all the eggs so that we could make sure we didn't have rotting eggs attracting some critters.

Not that we had much to worry about. Those kids looked high and low and easily found all the eggs.

Elektra completely held her own finding eggs.  She didn't let those boys out find her!

Once we made sure we had found all the eggs we came in to check out all the goodies.

We let them eat for a few minutes. 

 I learned years ago when Christina was 2 or 3, to watch how much they eat

so we wouldn't have tummy aches.

Then I made Crepes Eggs Benedict. Which turned out wonderfully, and I need to blog that recipe on my food blog. Caleb liked the eggs benedict while Zachary and Elektra ate the crepes sprinkled with cinnamon.

Then the kids spent the rest of the day rehiding the plastic eggs for each other.

Monday morning we got up early and headed to Pensacola Beach.

We will be here thru Friday.  I will blog this trip next week.

Fun Weekend

We  had a very busy and fun weekend!

It started Friday right after school got out. 

It was the 10th anniversary of the boys' elementary school, John Evans Elementary. 

Since the first year, they have held a Founders Day Party on the anniversary.

Once the kids got home we went out for Pizza at a new Pizzeria near the school.

Then we walked to the school for the party. Elektra wanted her face painted.

Caleb was in line with her and I and he saw a Spider and wanted that on his face. The lady said he was the first boy they had. But when other boys came over and saw what Caleb was getting, they got in line. By the end of the day we saw a ton of boys with Spiders on their faces.

There was Jump houses, and obstacle courses and a ride.

There was free popcorn and cotton candy.

And snow cones.  MMMM! Wow what a seriously pink tongue!

They had so much fun playing on the equipment.

Zachary is in mid air here.

It  was a fun event and we were there till dark.

The school mascot is the SunRays.

On Saturday morning we got up early. I made a breakfast of blueberry pancakes, homemade berry syrup, sausage and fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

So yummy!

Then we headed out to the Boy Scout Family Camp Out.  If we hadn't of had the Founder's Day the night before, we would of brought our tent and camped  Friday - Sunday. But to pack all that stuff for a family of 5 for just one night, is a bit much. So we just spent the day and early evening there.

It was a beautiful camp ground with very nice spots. We will keep it in mind for another time.

It was right on a beauiful lake with a boardwalk that connected an entire corner of the lake.

The kids had fun 'racing' down it.

Then it was break time.

The only thing we had a big concern with was the poison ivy. It  was all over the trails.  We took a long nature walk, and you didn't dare step off the trail because you would be stepping directly in it.

Our kids behaved so well.  This boy scout troup is interesting. The leaders do not do much of anything.

Their kids run the show when there are meetings. The kids ran the show out there. The adults just sat in their chairs and talked.  It was a small turn out and the leaders all know each other.  They didn't follow the schedule, or play games or organize any activities.

Mike finally got the kids playing a game of catch.

Then he got a game of kick ball going.  Zachary is sliding in to base here. Ouch!

Dinner was hotdogs, carrots and celery. They grilled Brats for the adults.

The weather was perfect.

It was a fun weekend.

This coming weekend is Mike's and my 10th wedding anniversary. 

 Thursday and Friday we are staying at a hotel on the beach in St. Augustine,

and renting a boat for the day on Friday.

Thursday will be Sushi night and Friday steak or seafood. Then we are going to a comedy club.

We will be back home Saturday morning/afternoon.

Christina doesn't have school on Friday so she will be babysitting. Plus Katelyn is staying with us again, so she will be here also.  Next week is Spring Break and Mike and I are taking the kids to Delray Beach for the week.  There is always something fun going on!