Family Fun - Early Easter Fun!

Today was a "family gathering" of sorts. I'm not sure how we did it, but we had my 2 sets of grandparents, my parents, my cousin and her family, my brother and his family, and me and my girls all together! Ron of course, was working...because he always seems to work on these kinds of days.

We had a lot of fun... playing ball...

My cousin teaching Brooklynn how to bat...which is kind of ironic, since Lish is probably the least athletic one there. lol

And just hanging out with the grandparents..or in this case, great-grandparents!

Then, Lish had the idea of bringing eggs to hide so we did a little Easter egg hunt. What a great idea!

These are Lish's boys... I just love them.

Silly Nana, hiding eggs in her sweater.

The kids of the day.. minus Baby Caroline and Baby Jack

Pete and Frank love the pond... we just automatically bring towels for the ride home now. I can't wait to see what it's going to be like when we get the pool in. lol

All of my grandparents!Love them to bits!

 My dad and Grandpa, Hoss... with Caroline and Jack... I just love his smile!

I just love family... family by blood, or family by love... makes my heart happy!

Pool Update- Sod Removal and Pool Colors!

More pool update!

The pool company sent their sod-remover to do the first step....removing sod. lol

We weren't sure how we were going to get all that slab to the dump? Well, he solved that problem for us! Yes!  He took the slab for us...in his dump truck. What a life saver - and that little bobcat thingy?? That's so much easier than us picking it up and putting it in the back of Ron's truck. It took him like 5 minutes to get rid of all that slab.

Then it was time for him to get digging on the sod.  The girls and I left for the beach at this point, so we didn't get to see the magic happen.

But when we came home, this is what our backyard looks like.

Remember that little problem I have with keeping my house clean???

Yeah.

Now there's a BIG dirt backyard...and 2 kids and 2 dogs to bring the dirt back in my house. Awesome.

Oh well...it's for the greater good, right!?




Also on this day, we went back up to the pool place to pick out our "colors."

It's really hard to see the actual colors, but the tile I picked was something like "Island tile" which was fitting because the whole time, I was saying "I really want the blue to pop like the Caribbean colors. I want to feel like the water is a whole kind of get-away."

The bottom of the pool is called "Miami Blue." The speckles in the finish are sapphire like the water-line tile. It's going to be so blue! I love it! I can't wait!

Today they came out to measure and "draw" the pool. Brooklynn pulled herself up a chair and watched them. ha!

You can see the orange spray on the ground. That's the pool outline. And the wood is where the patio is going to be.

Since we have small kids, we decided it was best to fence off the back door because there are a lot of metal stakes sticking out of the ground. So now all the dogs have to go out front. 

Bright side? At least the dirt won't be coming in through the house!

Monday they are coming to dig for the actual pool! 

Officially Beach Season

It's beach season!!  So excited! The beach is our happy place... I'm telling you. This particular day, the girls were driving. me. CRAZY. Finally, I made the decision...we needed a beach day. And can I tell you? As soon as we got our toes in the sand, our day was so much more calm!

Oh. My. Lanta. Can you tell just how much Caroline loves the beach!?

She's one of us!  Just look at that smile. This was her first official beach day. She's been before, but not to where she got to go in the water and play in the sand. 

Autumn wanted a turn SO bad to hold Caroline in the water. 

And then the girls were off to the water - never to return until it was time to leave! That's my girls for ya... always in the water.

At one point, Autumn says, "Mommy, we love the beach!!"

I know baby, I know.

I also got myself a new toy! A paddleboard! I have been debating for years now if I really wanted one. Well, I finally made the decision. I got a really good price since I got it from my brother, so I just had to get it.

Can't wait to take it out!

Disney trip!

Going to Disney is one of our favorite past-times.  So of course we had to go on our spring break.

So on Monday morning when Ron got home from work, we hopped in the car and started the drive I can now do without even thinking about.

Fast forward about 10 minutes....

Yep... our tire. The tread was coming off. Awesome.  And the spare?? It was a donut...so no driving on that one to Orlando. 

Well, let's just say, our car is now riding on 4 brand new tires...so sorry for my checkbook.

That's ok. We went home and the girls played in the rain.

Then, while Ron went to get the new tires, I took the girls to see Cinderella. I mean, if you can't go to Disney, seeing the movie is a good 2nd place, right? What a cute movie! I really liked it. I wouldn't mind seeing it again actually.

SO, then the next day, our plan was to wake up early and head out to get there right when the park opened. Well, that plan changed when Caroline woke up with her eyes completely crusted shut. My poor sick baby. Took her to the morning clinic at her doctor's office... ear infection and the gunky eyes are because of it.  Not that you could tell that she was sick though - still such a happy baby!

Since she was pretty much ok, we went ahead and went to Disney. Something about just stepping into the park. As soon as you get into the main courtyard... everything is magically better!

This trip, we decided to get Brooklynn her own autograph book, now that she really knows the characters and such. She was so proud of it! When we asked her who she wanted her first autograph to be...who do you think she said!?

Um, Ariel, of course! My kind of girl.

Then we ran into Aurora. 

Brooklynn conked out... and she slept through the whole Pirates of the Caribbean ride. lol. 

And I finally got my hands on a Dole Whip!! These things are so good!! But I couldn't finish the whole thing... but I really wanted the float because it had the pineapple juice in it. So yum!!

On the way out, we saw something else I've been wanting to see. It was the tradition of the band playing the anthem and "America" song... and they pick a kid from the crowd to say the pledge...and they bring down the flag. It's a pretty cool process. I really enjoyed the band playing too. If you're ever in the front of the park around 5:00, make sure you try to watch it. 

Until next time, Disney!