Old Friends

Usually when we head out on vacation we either go north to Atlanta (and The Cannegieters) or south towards Jacksonville (where we have lots of friends and THE BEACH!) This time, Jacksonville won out, but don't worry Lora and Jeff- we're headed your way SOON!! We stayed with my oldest friend in the world, DeeAnn and her family. We have known each other since we were three years old, and she's like a sister to me. I didn't get any pictures of her or her husband Marty, but that's because I was too busy taking pictures of her cute kids!





And if DeeAnn is my oldest friend, the Kiki is probably my second oldest friend! Her mom was my first Primary teacher, and then my Young Women president. Kiki invited us all over on Sunday for an egg hunt (her family recently moved into DeeAnn's neighborhood. How convenient!). We ended up staying until close to midnight! All nine kids happily played and watched movies while we visited and laughed and gossiped.






On Monday we had dinner with The Jarvis' and The Howles. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that Katheryn and Erin are cool enough to become friends with an old girlfriend of their husbands. Yes, in my misspent youth I dated both Nathan and Jason (although not at the same time ;D). I adored them both (and still do) and my teenage years would not have been as much fun without them in my life.

Our visit was the first time I've met Katheryn (I met Erin about 14 years ago, when she and Jason first started dating). They are both as awesome as I hoped, and we might even all go camping together this summer! (I hope this works out!) I must also give props to my awesome husband who is cool enough to be friends with my ex-boyfriends! YAY James!






I have to give credit to Katheryn for this shot- she insisted me and the guys take a picture together! How funny is that??!!?


I love that we have so many friends who care about us enough to make time to see us and feed us and keep in contact!

maggie and milly and molly and may

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

- ee cummings

Day Three of Spring Break found us on our way to Anastasia State park, which is in St. Augustine, FL. I would be lying if I said our whole spring break trip wasn't planned around spending a day at the beach. Spending time with old friends? The cherry on top of a ginormous and delicious sundae. We needed to get our toes in the sand and some salt in our hair. (But more on those old friends later.)

The weather was perfect. In the mid-80's, light breeze, beautiful sunlight. The water temp was still on the cool side (59 degrees) but once you were numb it felt great! ;) James played Super Dad and rented a body board and spent hours riding the waves with the girls while I read a book in between wave jumping.










Honestly, I don't see how people can live in land-locked states. I would go crazy.

Spring Break

I don't know how it happened, but this year we managed to take an honest-to-goodness Spring Break, as opposed to a stay-at-home-vegging-in-front-of-the-tv-occasionally-doing-some-yard-work Spring Break. Tomorrow we go back to real life (with only a month and a half till the end of the school year!).

We kicked off Spring Break with the Easter Bunny visiting us on Saturday morning (somehow she knew we wouldn't be here for Easter) then heading over to Tifton for an Easter Egg hunt and lunch.

For the record, I didn't wrap up the baskets like this. The nice Easter Bunnies at Place on the Pointe made them look all pretty. And no, those bags weren't as full as they looked!


This year we had to expand to three different egg hunts: one for the adults (16 and up), one for the big kids and one for the little kids.







Jed thought it would be funny to put an egg on Roxie's collar, thinking none of the kids would get it.


He didn't take into account Madeline's long legs and determination!


Mom got ahold of some eggs with strings attached. James and David thought it would be funny to hang these in the trees.


It's all fun and games until someone ends up in the Emergency Room!


Of course, the highlight of the day was the adult Easter Egg hunt, which involves COLD HARD CASH.

I'm not sure why Matt and James wore their buckets on their head, but to each his own..











Once again I forgot to wear the right type of shoes, so my hunting was seriously impared. But between James and I we found about $15 worth of eggs. Matt found the golden egg worth the big bucks.

After lunch, we headed down to Jacksonville...

Double Digits, again

Isabella turned 10 last week. *sigh*

One of the drawbacks to 1) only having two kiddos and 2) having those two kiddos so close together is that not long after marvelling that "the first one" has hit a certain milestone is having "the last one" hit that same milestone soon after. Don't mind me, I'll just be over in the corner mournfully singing Sunrise, Sunset.

We only do BIG parties for three special birthdays- when they turn 8, 12, and 16. But last year we started inviting a few friends over for dinner and to spend the night. So the ear-busting squealing and shrieking you heard last Friday night was coming from our house.

The weather was nice enough that we ate pizza and cake outside on the patio.


I'm not sure why Bella was wearing her green OZ sunglasses, but it's her birthday, so I guess she can wear what she wants.


Nana and Jed came over to drop cousin Catie off. Jed's choice in sunglass wear was just as odd as Bella's.


Once the mosquitos descended, we came back inside to open presents.






Nana and Jed had to leave after we opened the presents (because heaven forbid Mom drive at night, or worse, let JED drive!). The preteen girls tried there best to keep him, but he finally escaped. I' pretty sure he wanted to to stick around. The girls settled in for the night to watch movies and eat me out of house and home. They all left (except Catie, who was spending the weekend with us) by 11:00 the next morning, and I've spent all week trying to get the house back in order.

The End

March-ing along

There was a time when March seemed like the least busiest, least exciting, longest lasting month of the year. It's really not that way anymore. Winter is gone, spring is here and time is rapidly moving forward.

Last night we finished our last OZ related activity. The owners of the local skating rink had seen one of the shows, and they were so impressed that they contacted the drama teacher and said they wanted to invite the entire cast for a night of free skating! How nice is that??!!? It's definitely one of the perks of living in a small-ish town.

Even though it was a massive undertaking, we are all kind of sad that the show is over. We made a lot of new friends, and it was an experience that definitely brought us closer together as a family.

After the last show, we had the cast party. Parents were invited, and I think James and I expected...well, I'm not sure what we expected. All I know is that I DID NOT take the drama teacher seriously when she said the party usually went late. The party didn't start until almost 9:00pm, and I figured the kids would be pretty tired, having come off two performances that day.

Boy, was I WRONG!!

The party ended around 12:30. AM. By the time we got home, showered, ready for bed, etc, it was pushing 2AM. All I can say is that I CANNOT stay up that late on a regular basis anymore. ;)

It was worth it though, because we had a BLAST. There was great food and a DJ (who played mostly music for the kids, but it was still fun to get out there and dance).

Why is the Macarena such a long song?




It seriously goes on and on and on FOR-EV-ERRRRRRR.


That blur of hair is Bella dancing with a friend. LOL




I'm pretty sure they played "Party in the USA" at least two times.




Is it any wonder we slept until almost noon the next day?? ;)

The Possibilities Are Practically Endless!

In researching movies that Bella wants to watch at her birthday/slumber party this weekend, we discovered that Pee Wee's Playhouse is ON DVD!!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT???!??!!??!?



I was trying to describe the awesomeness to the girls, but you can't describe is, can you? Pee Wee must be EXPERIENCED. It was off to YouTube we went, looking for clips. They didn't really "get it" until we came across the BEST CLIP EVAH!!!



So now we've been randomly shouting "GIANT UNDERPANTS!!" for the past two days, then laughing and laughing afterward. This is why being a parent is so much fun!

Wanna know what's even better?? Our local library has the DVDs! We've been working our way through them, and the girls love them. James doesn't really get it (I guess he was TOO OLD for Pee Wee) but we don't care. Pee Wee is polarious!

I have GOT to see this movie!!

The Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer

What up, peeps?

1. Sometimes I worry because my vocabulary of slang is hopelessly stuck in 1995. I still use phrases like "You're da bomb!" and "As if!", I use the word 'random' far too often and I've been known to throw up the 'whatever' and 'loser' signs on a regular basis. And frankly, my usual term of endearment for the DH is "Dude" instead of "Sweetcakes" or "Honeybuckets" or "Knuzzlebunny'- whatever the cool kids are using these days.

2. Is it wrong the be thinking about what I'd like my grandchildren to call me before my own children have even hit puberty? And do I care if it is? Answer: no. I think about this far too often. Maybe it's hearing all of the grandparents names around preschool. In my class this year, we have grandparents called Dut and Bones (who are seriously hilarious people), Da and Moose, Pops and Lindy, Char Char, Gamma and Bookie and my personal favorites, Grumps and Begs. In the past I've had a Bets, Sugar, Sweet, Ya Ya, Papou and of course the more run-of-the-mill Grandmom, Granddad/pa and Granny.

James had already decided that, like David Ortiz, he wants to be called 'Papi'. I like it. I think it suits him. Me, I'm leaning toward having the little nippers call me Jennifer. Because I think it would be funny. Or maybe Gram or Grammy. Or maybe Deliliah, just because.

3. Speaking of family, about 20 members showed up over here last Saturday so we could descend en masse on a performance of OZ. We didn't get to all sit together. (Which, if you know my family is probably a good thing. Just ask the people who have the misfortune to be sitting in the hospital waiting room with us when a member of the family is in said hospital. Or sitting by us at a restaurant. Or a funeral.)

It was the first time James and I watched to play all the way through, and we were incredibly impressed and proud. The girls have handled the pressure and stress with a maturity we certainly don't posess!We have three more performances to go, and then we are DONE.

Pictures!

First costumes- Bella as a munchkin and Madeline as part of the Tin Man's "pit crew"


After the show in their Emerald City Citizen costumes






In addition to other things, James built Dorothy's house


and the Munchkinland Village!