15 years of service

It's hard to believe, but I just got my 15 year service award at work. Who knew I could stick with anything that long? Ha! They presented my award to me in our division staff meeting where there were tons of people that I didn't know. There had to be over a hundred people there, which is why I dressed up....well, that's dressing up for me anyway. Ha! After the all hands meeting we had a little BBQ and brownies...what's not to like? Now I get to pick a prize out of the 15 year catalog....I'm looking at maybe getting the grill since we left ours in VA. Sean just got his 20 year service award as well but wouldn't hold his plaque for a picture....not a team player at all. ha! Maybe I'll let him get the grill since the 20 year catalog has a nicer one and I'll just get something else....oh, all these decisions. Until my next post...

2nd Grade Field Trip

Sis and I signed up to go on the 2nd grade field trip to Wonder Works for Matt and Kenzie's school. It was a great trip, the kids all had a really good time....and I was very lucky because we had enough adults that we only had to take 2 kids each (some classes had 5 kids per adult)! Wonder Works is an indoor kids museum that has a virtual roller coaster, a hurricane simulator, the building is upside down on the outside so you have to go through a tunnel when you enter that "turns you upside down"....I have to close my eyes to make it through and the kids thought that was really funny. We all had a wonderful time!

Off with the training wheels

Sunday night Hunter came in and asked Sean if he would take the training wheels off his bike and Sean promised that Monday when we got home from work he would. So Monday evening Hunter comes in and says "I'm ready to take the training wheels off now" but I had no idea they had come up with that agreement so I asked him to wait until the next day because Monday is Monday and after work you have little desire to do anything else. Well he then said "but dad promised" and Sean overheard that and came out and said "yes, I promised so I'll do it". Well no sooner than Sean got those wheels off, Hunter jumped on his bike and took off! It was like he had always been riding without them, no help, nothing...just took off. He had one stopping accident where he ended up in the bush because he didn't hit his breaks hard enough, but very minor and he was right back on track. He rode for hours, we literally had to drag him in at dark. Now he's trying to ride standing up and with one hand....Lord help me to survive this kid! We were so proud of him though and he was so excited that he wanted to go ride his bike to everyone's house and show them how good he could ride on 2 wheels. Instead of traveling with bike in tow...we've decided to post pictures to you instead. ( ;

Easter Day

Our Easter Day was fabulous! The boys woke up and saw eggs scattered and hidden all over the house but then Hunter cries out "but the bunny didn't leave us a basket". ha! He just didn't look far enough, they were up high on our mantle so they couldn't go through them until they woke us up to get them...just in case we didn't hear them, this FL bunny is a smart one huh? So they were very excited to get their baskets and then they were off to find eggs. The FL bunny leaves lots of eggs so Matthew was excited about that, and he was also very excited that the eggs were labeled with names so they didn't have to divide them afterwards so they were only allowed to find their own eggs. Hunter is the type to open every egg along the way though so it turned out that Matthew had to help him find the rest or it would have taken hours. So after all the egg and basket fun, we went to Port Canaveral to one of our favorite restaurants on the water, Fishlips. I know the name doesn't sound very appealing but the place is great! The food is awesome and we always sit outside on the water and the kids get to run around and watch for dolphins and see the huge cruise ships and other boats go by. After brunch we headed out to the beach where we spent the entire rest of the day relaxing, playing in the sand and watching some of the surfers that were there for the Ron Jon Surf Festival. It was a great day but on the ride home I started to get sick, sadly I ended up with a stomach bug but lucky for me it only lasted that night.

Coloring eggs

We went to the Chase family's house for dinner and they had tons of eggs and dye ready for the kids. I'm so thankful they had that all ready or my kids would have missed out on dying eggs this year for sure. They had a great time doing it and Linda had boiled so many eggs that the kids actually got tired before they had finished coloring all of them....or they were just all excited to go play games together might be more like it. But the adults actually got to color some eggs too....unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of that. Linda and Jon are awesome cooks, so we always look forward to going over for dinner and we always have such a great time. This night was no different, of course we left way too late so we were all exhausted, especially since we had a full day at the other events this day as well.

Easter party

We went to an Easter party sponsored by the church at Waterford. The kids had a great time on the giant inflatable slides, the obstacle course, an Easter egg hunt and this is actually the only picture we have of any of them with the Easter Bunny. Easter came so soon this year that it totally caught us off guard so this is the only bunny we got the opportunity to see. It works though, good enough....they're more worried about the real bunny showing up with the goods than a picture with the character anyway. We had a great time and then we all went to lunch at Amigos and followed that up with a movie, Horton Hears a Who. Good movie, but I wouldn't recommend showing up late on a new release...it was rough. We had a full day of fun and then we ended up going to a friends house later that night to die eggs and have dinner....pictures of that to follow.

Soccer time

Hunter decided to play soccer for the Spring so this should be interesting. He's never played an organized team sport so this could be really good or really bad...I'm hoping really good. He seems to be very energetic and ready to go to practices and at his first game he actually scored a goal....too bad it was for the wrong team. ha! I told him he did a great job but we score in the other goal and he walked off crying hysterically shouting "I'm horrible at this game...horrible". ha! That's the Hunter we all know and love right there. ( : He's doing great though and seems to be having a lot of fun so hopefully it'll be a great soccer season for us. Rick and Sean are coaching and I'm helping out at practices...basically because I'm loud so the kids respond to me a little better. Ha! Our team name is the "Gators" as a TN fan that's not good but what can you do, I was out voted by 12 5 year olds. Their jerseys are even orange though so the Vols would have worked out nicely really....maybe next year.

Easter egg hunt

There was an Easter Egg Hunt at Hunter's school and we had to send in 12 eggs filled with prizes with his name on them as did every kid. So these kids not only had to search for eggs but they could only pick up their own to put into the basket. It actually worked out great because I didn't have to worry about Hunter getting anything that he was allergic to in his eggs and all of the kids had a great time. It was pretty warm out that day, but they were only out for about a half hour so it worked out. I took off work long enough to come watch and video tape all the excitement of the hunt...the kids all had a great time. Here are some pictures that I took, of Hunter with my Sis, Mom, me, Keegan and his 3 teachers...Ms. Monica, Ms. Robin and Ms. Shannon. He loves all of the dearly, they have been such awesome teachers...I actually dread him going to another school next year.

St. Patty's Day 2008

We all gathered at Beef O'Bradys to celebrate St. Patty's Day. It was Sis, Rick, Kenzie, Keegan, Liz, John, Luke, Noah, Sean, Matthew, Hunter and me....quite the group! So we decided to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine and took up the entire patio. The kids all got to run around the patio and play games and we didn't have to worry about them disturbing anyone...it was great! We of course all had on our green, drank green beer, and took turns tying on a goofy leprechaun hat that my sister had brought. It was a wonderful time but we didn't find a pot of gold...maybe next year!

Spring break with friends

We are so lucky that our friends from VA come here so often for vacation....actually I think we see them more now that we're living in FL than we did in VA. Ha! And the really funny thing is that each time they come we learn our way around FL a little better. If we keep hanging out with them down here we might eventually stop getting lost in the Disney Resort areas. ha! I'm so glad they allowed us to come crash in on their spring break vacation, we always have so much fun hanging out with them. We spent the day at the pool with them, swimming and watching the kids practice cannon balls off the side. The kids also played games at the kid area like huge, life size board games of chess and snakes and ladders.

Matt's lost yet another

This tooth took FOREVER to fall out and it looked like a snaggle tooth because it would stick straight out. I tried and tried to get him to let me pull it but he suddenly has a fear of pulling his teeth out so we had to wait it out. He's lost many now but they are coming in pretty fast. Here's his latest toothless smile with big Chiclets in the front. Ha!

Keegan and Kenzie's basketball games

I had promised both Makenzie and Keegan that I would come to at least one of their games before the end of the season....guess what, I had to go to both on the same day. Yes, the procrastinator strikes again. I ended up spending the full day going to each of their games and their end of season parties. Here are some pictures I took of them, and they both are excellent players. Keegan is a great shot and Kenzie can really drive the ball under the net...she looks like a pro when she does it really unbelievable. And it was so funny to watch them play defense, those poor kids they were blocking didn't stand a chance.

Bike week in Orlando

Okay, so this may not be the same as bike week in Daytona but it's just a matter of time before they trade these pedals for some fat boys! ha! Hunter and Keegan's school did a fund raiser for St. Jude's Children's Hospital and all the kids raised money for the cause and then rode their bikes for many, many, many laps! Of all the bikes and kids going wild on those bikes, there was only one pile up and no one was hurt...I was impressed. It was actually very hot out and not many of those kids stopped riding until they forced them to. Hunter and Keegan just kept trucking around that loop...I think they could have kept going for days. The kids all had a good time and then they got Popsicles afterward. Grammy came out to support the boys and Rick, Sean, Sis and I were there cheering them on as well. Hunter's class raised the most money, and the entire school raised over $2500, they all did a great job!

Mikey was here...

A dear friend of mine from VA was here on business and so we got to meet up and have dinner. It was just Mike, Sis and me and we went to Outback and had a wonderful time. His birthday was the day before so we sort of got to celebrate with dinner and desert but couldn't talk him into a drink....didn't stop Sis though, she drank enough for both of them. Ha! We had a great time talking to the waiter, the dinner was awesome and I'm so glad we got to hang out even if it was for too short of a time, I'll take what time I can get with my friends!

Universal

Okay, so after taking in 3 Disney parks in a day, we still had enough energy or maybe we were just delirious enough to go to Universal and Islands of Adventure the next day. So we met up with a group of our friends there and took off to ride. There were just enough adults and kids that we could split up here and there and actually get to ride some "big kid" rides too. So I got to ride The Hulk and Dueling Dragons coasters and let me tell you, they were both awesome! The kids got to ride their favorite, The Flying Unicorn 4 times in a row because the lines were pretty good that day. We stayed for a good majority of the day, then we all decided on lunch at City Walk so we ended up at Margaritaville. This one has a Volcano in it that erupts every now and again, the kids love that. After that the boys really wanted to go ride the Jimmy Neutron ride so I went ahead and walked all the kids over to ride that and then we headed out. We had a wonderful day but boy were we exhausted after that! 5 parks in 2 days....what were we thinking?