Hunter's new costume

Okay, so anyone who knows Hunter knows how he loves to dress up in costumes. So for his birthday he had gotten a Toys 'R Us gift card and this is what he decided to buy. Out of all the toys in that place, he goes for a costume. And the odd thing is that Halloween was coming up soon and this isn't even what he wanted for Halloween...just because. Our neighbors must think we're crazy with a different character each day in our front yard. Especially since it's hot and he's riding a bike in a long sleeve, long pant cotton suit with a mask on....boy isn't that just a heat stroke waiting to happen? ha! He enjoys it though...

The boys and their weekend activities

Hunter decided he wanted to take golf and Matthew wanted to do bowling and of course they were on complete separate ends of town. So Sean went one direction (Hunter to golf) and I went the other (Matt to bowling). Turns out after just one day, they both quit! Now Matthew takes golf and Hunter does gymnastics...quite a switch huh? Sean and I were both pretty happy not to have to go to the bowling alley all day on Saturday so we didn't discourage Matt from quitting. Hunter still goes to golf on occasion but he's more interested in the gym for sure. Matthew is good at golf when he actually stays focused, but that typically only happens when there's candy rewards involved. Hunter is great at gymnastics but insists that he hates it but can't wait to go to class again...we can't figure him out. They're both taking tennis lessons now too...pictures of that to be posted later.

Hunter's 6th birthday

For Hunter's 6th birthday we offered to take him to do whatever he wanted to do and he was lucky enough to have his real birthday fall on a weekend even. And of course, he decided he didn't want to do anything...go figure. So rather than going out, we decided to invite a few friends over to celebrate with pizza (chicken for Hunter) and cake. He and Matthew decided to do a birthday party together so that was planned for a couple of weeks after his actual birthday.

Day at the beach

Well, I guess my dad is a weather man of sorts because he had planned to go to the beach but when we got up it was pouring rain. I said "well, I guess the beach is out" and he's like "I can't come to FL and not go to the beach, let's load up and go anyway"....and so we did. Poor Sean, what a trooper he was driving in that downpour with me and my backseat driver self telling him to slow down, turn on the wipers, stay back from that car...ugh. I'm a terrible passenger and driver in the rain...it all goes back to my sister wrecking us on US 81 in VA once, that's a whole separate post all together. ( :

Anyway, as soon as we pulled into the beach the rain stopped....I couldn't believe it! Turned out to be an awesome day and we basically had the entire beach to ourselves! My dad learned the hard lesson about waves and hurricane season though, he broke his toe when a wave picked him up like a small child and tossed him furiously into the sand. His toe was purple in a matter of seconds. Didn't stop him though, he was a boogie boarding fool! I even ventured out with him, I think more because I was afraid a rip current was going to sweep him away so I wanted to stay close to rescue him before he went out to sea. We wouldn't let the kids get too far into the water though because these were the most brutal waves I've ever seen. They just stuck to fishing, and caught a ton of fish in their nets and they even caught a crab. We also went to the manatee observation deck and saw the manatees. I'm not sure why we like to go look at them because they're not the most exciting creatures, but I guess because we can...we do. Some things we do out of the love for it (beach) and others out of habit (manatees).

My dad comes to visit

My dad came at just the right time...right AFTER the hurricane. We didn't have any real damage but a ton of flooding. As a matter of fact, the lake that we go over from the airport was just barely under the bridge and extended for about 15 miles past where it normally stops. People were having to keep their doors closed on their houses to keep the fish and alligators out. YUK! Thankfully we didn't buy a house on any water so that wasn't a worry for us. We had a tiny leak in my closet and that was it thankfully. So we had sunny beautiful days right after the storm, just in time for his visit....I wish I had that kind of timing, but I typically would land during the hurricane, it's just that amazing luck of mine. We loved having my dad in town but of course it was entirely too short of a visit, and the terrible part about anyone coming is they always have to leave...that's the hard part!

Pics of our day at the Marriott

Like I mentioned in Sean's birthday post...some friends of ours were in from VA so if any one's on vacation here we feel like we need to be too. So we stayed at the Marriott for a day with them, there's just something nice about being in a hotel, even if it's just for a day. The pools at this place are amazing, and the kid's club there has a ton of fun activities. Oh, did I mention they have really great margarita's at the poolside bar too? ha! Here are just a few of the misc pictures from that trip....Hunter and me swimming, Hunter being silly (what's new) and the boys all making tye dyed shirts which turned out to be really cool.

Sean's 40th birthday

I decided to try to pull off a surprise party for Sean's 40th. I did posters of the past 40 years of his life, I had the cake made with his birth certificate and baby picture, and we even played games that were based on Sean and his favorite things and little known facts. Also, I did a trivia game about sports events from the year he was born and I even had prizes. Friends of ours from VA were in town on vacation so I did the party a week early so they could be included. We were staying in a hotel down in the touristy area with them and so I decided to book his party close to the hotel so he wouldn't have a clue. I booked it at the Front Row Sports Bar and we had the entire upstairs party room. There was an arcade for the kids too which made it really nice. So I had my sister pick up the cake and she and the rest of our friends took care of decorating as well. When we got there the code for us being "the birthday party surprise" was that I asked for a table "where we could see the Redskins game"...which just happened to be on that night. I took it that there wouldn't be many of those particular requests in this area...and I'm thinking I was right. Anyway, when we got there he was so surprised. The really funny part is that he was lagging pretty far behind so I tried to get ahead so I could take a picture when he saw everyone but when I came up, Rick (Sean's brother) thought he was with me and jumped out and yelled surprise but Sean wasn't there. So Rick just took off running to find him yelling surprise the entire way. Sean was like "what is going on" and the look on Sean's mom's face when Rick did that was priceless...I should have gotten a picture of that more than Sean's look to be honest. So then when Sean got to the actual group it was like a really bummed out sort of "oh...surprise". ha! He really was in total shock that everyone came out...and if you can't tell by my hair in the pictures, it was pouring rain! So he thought even more of it that everyone would come out in a monsoon to celebrate his birthday. I'm glad those big years don't come often because I'll have to start saving up now to pay for the 5oth and how do I top this one? We all had a really good time, even the kids.