Just a Note

Today is an exciting day for all the kiddos!

First off, Ava got to go to Animal Kingdom with Aunt Steph and Uncle Danny for the day! This is WAY exciting because, though it may be hard to believe, Ava is a little nervous nelly when it comes to doing something "unknown". At the first invite, she was a definite NO on going. Once I told her they'd buy her food (funny what food will do for a kid) she was on board. Throughout the day we've been receiving pictures and she seems to be having a BLAST! Will  post more later!


Second off, today is Ethan's 17 month old birthday! My oh my does time fly! This little guy is turning into such a sweet little boy! He LOVES his toys, especially balls (footballs to be specific). He also LOVES his sister. In fact, today he's a little lost without her. Every time we get up to do something he keeps asking for her. I know she's missing him to and their "reunion" later tonight will be precious! He's such my little lover boy too! Oh! And what a joker personality! He's good a peek-a-boo and being a little mischievous! I guess that's what little boys are made of!


Thirdly, baby #3 is 26 weeks in the belly today! HOORAY for both of us! We've reached the 3rd trimester and I'm am stoked! Can NOT wait to meet this little bitty! She will be such a joyful addition to our already "house full of love"!

Rainy Wednesday

Ava has been DYING to use her rain boots! Thankful to finally be getting some rain, today turned out to be a great day to try out these new boots. By the way, the boots were a STEAL at $1.00 from a garage sale! :) Love great deals!

When we got home from a friends house, she immediately ran to her room, grabbed the boots and coat and headed outside. Such a sweet girl!

Remembering

Memorial Day weekend brought about lots of activities for us! Typically we've always celebrated Memorial Day with a BIG backyard BBQ. In fact, this was the first year in 6 that we DIDN'T host our traditional event. I think time slipped away in the planning stages and we just got too darn busy. I hope we can bring it back next year!

We DID, however, get to go to the downtown parade this year. It was lots of fun seeing all the floats and people parading around. Of course, I always get teary during these things. I'd like to blame it on the pregnancy hormones, so that's what we'll do. Here's a few shots of us at the parade.

This shot sure makes me feel HUGE! That belly of mine is getting pretty big at just over 25 weeks! Phew, it's gonna be a long, hot summer!



After the parade, we headed to our pool and did some splashing around.

 Ethan LOVES to jump! Could do it over and over again! I think he'll be ready to go once swim lessons start in a few weeks!

Ava is becoming very good at swimming! 2 summers of lessons and she's feeling confident in her skills. As the summer goes she'll probably be swimming laps! Way to go!!

It was ALSO Mike's birthday yesterday! Told ya it was a busy day for us! We went to Kobe's for his celebratory dinner! Yummmmm!

Gardens and Party Time

I've always admired those who can grow things in their gardens. Last year, Mike built us a garden box and we had some success with Basil. Other than that, nothing. Anything else we tried to grow above ground was eaten alive by some crazy kind of worm. So over the next season I attempted growing carrots and onions. We had some success with our carrots, but the onions never came about. Finally, this new season came and I am bound and determined to grow something "fruitful" this year! We tilled the soil up and started fresh. Here's what we have:

Far back left (you can't see it though) we have onions growing. The large leaves to the left are cucumbers. So far, it's just a giant plant, but my fingers are crossed for some yummy cucumbers!! We also have some basil starting up on the right (can't see it) and I've planted a potted rosemary bush, which smells SO good!

 Close up of the Rosemary

 Here's Ava's potted basil, which she planted with the dirt in our yard!

And I'm giving the good ol' topsy turvy tomato a try! I KNOW it can be done! Check out these tomato's my oh-so-nice neighbor brought over earlier today! Grown right in his garden!!

Ava and I also had some fun planned for today. It was a friends birthday party and it was a "tea party" theme! Ava was SUPER excited to get to dress up for the event. Literally, she was dressed at 10AM and the party didn't start until 4PM. She's such a girly girl! Here she is all ready to go!

Gorgeous! Love this picture. 

But here's the real reason why you pick a dress:

SPIN FACTOR!

Me and my girl!

How cute is this little set up? Such fun! The birthday girl also had a special surprise visitor come who did face paint. What a great day!

Saturday Fun

The morning started off with a delicious run to Dunkin Donuts. I'm a sucker for DD's coffee! YUMMY!! Plus the kids love the donuts....

After teaching some piano and voice lessons in the morning, I took the kids outside for some fun Memorial Day flag painting projects. I can't claim ownership of this idea, though. Stole it straight out of one of those parenting type magazines. Ava thought it was so fun! I mean, what could be more fun than getting paint all over your hands AND feet?

Ethan on the other, not so sure of the whole idea! He dabbed a little in the blue, then it became more of a "paint yourself" type of project.

Here's Ava's finished flag project! Happy Memorial Day!!

After the projects were finished, my girl and I hit the road to do a little garage sale-ing. I'm a sucker for a good garage sale. But I'm really cheap. There, I said it. I go out with only a few dollars and truly expect to come home with treasures. Makes you want to laugh, huh?

Well, it was already late in the day, so things didn't start off GREAT. But wait! We came to our last stop and, no joke, the lady was GIVING her stuff away. What I'll do with some of it, who knows. And I'm not so sure the hubs will ever let me go out again! Ah, I love the sale!!

Here's what I got:
Stop #1: 1 boy shorts, 1 boy shirt                          $1.00
Stop #2: pasta canister (needs some cleaning)        $  .50
Stop #3: Cute white table (needs work)                 FREE
              Matted frame                                          FREE
              Mirror                                                     FREE
              5 hangers                                                FREE
              Spray/fan H20 bottle                               FREE
              Book                                                      FREE

I mean, seriously, $1.50 for all that! Come on!! The table will need to be refinished AND I really have no idea where it'll go. But it's SO cute! Any who knows where the frames and mirrors will go....a "someday" project I'm certain! SCORE!!!

Summer Fun

We went on an adventure today out to Tavares. About an hour drive, but we were told it would be well worth the trip once we got to this "amazing" splash park. And we were told correct! It was such a fun day with our friends. Both Ava and Ethan LOVED the water park, though Ethan only lasted in it for about 30 minutes.

Can you see the slide! How cool is that?! Right next to the splash park was a really fun wooden playground that both kids really liked as well. I have a feeling we may be making this trip a FEW more times this summer. AND it's shady! Score one for Momma, too!

Here We Are

I've been feeling crafty and productive lately and with that comes new projects!! Perhaps I'm nesting....Well, project in motion: A BLOG! Here is the first post of (hopefully) many, boasting of great daily adventures with my family and friends.

This morning the kiddos and I headed out to one of the many splash parks we have in our area. Ya gotta keep cool when living in Florida! The purpose: trying to start up a group with my church called the Catholic Kids Club. I've been hoping to get this group up and running for awhile and turns out, quite a few others were looking for something like this too. We'll have to wait and see what else we can plan and maybe, just maybe, this group will grow to something wonderful. See, another project!