Beach Holiday

We went on holiday...

(I love to say that verses "vacation")

traveled to Florida, by car from the heartland,

it really was not too bad, we only went to the panhandle.

I took waaay too many pics, like 600 -ridiculous!

And I have this problem, not being able to delete some, even if the shot is sooo similar to the next one. 

Here is Lydia holding a jellyfish!

With red snowcone "lipstick".

All this pics are unedited - cept for the last one of our fam - cropped and "auto" fixed in PSE!

my little model!

Evan loves the beach, waves, shells, etc

Lydia loved the noodle-

she went under with this one though!

We had some big waves on some beaches!

loved, loved the boogie boards too.

The house we rented had a couple of them,

she was a little leary as it was a "boy" one, but

she soon got over it!

this one quite liked the beach too!

not too shy,

kept getting more and more daring.

She wanted her daddy

 to keep taking her in the water to "jump" the waves!

This guy waaay shy about the water,

(he fell in a hotel pool in April - daddy was right there, but he swalled a couple of good mouthfuls and has made him scared ever since)

but did not stop him from finding all kinds of treasure!

tons of finds

had to show me everytime.

every time.

This boy drinking a chocolate milkshake

that we were all "sharing", told his brother,

"Cyrus, once you put your lips on it,

you just can't stop"

needless to say it disappeared quickly!

Loved my pirates.

Doesn't being on a play wooden ship

turn you into a pirate!

my beach boys. 

they were being so cute-

I love it when everyone is getting along-

beach/holdiay atmosphere helps!

I just wanted to yell at that guy in the background-nobody

else around and he has to stand right there!

Didn't he know I was trying to capture a moment!!!

she did not want to stop

once she got a taste of this

Pretty sure she was thinking,

"hey, I want to ride more why did it stop?"

Here we are-

almost got everyone looking!

I started off wearing my swim cover as being pregnant in a swimsuit

is not all that fun for me, but eventually it was hot, and I just wore the darn thing (maternity suit)  - I never wore one with the others!

Blog Abandonment

I abandoned my blog...
Just stopped recording our moments...
So, I shall "catch up" a bit...
We had some birthdays occur around here.

Like this guy who turned 4.

I made spider web snacks.

We ate blue & red M&M's.

Enjoyed some Spidey Juice.

This young one is growing.

I just like this pic.

It is "old" now - back in April hence the flannel jam bams...

I have been putting pigtails in her hair.

I like car pictures.

We made play rice awhile back... 

It was soooo pretty!

I may not bother coloring it next time.

Although Cyrus and Lydia loved that process. 

It was pretty easy.

This was from Easter!

So was this.

Currently she is missing both front teeth.

She caught up with Evan who is 20 months older.

Family pic...

the best one.

Evan has a really hard time

when he knows his picture is being taken!

My twirly whirly girl.

We went to Chicago back in April.

I still call this Sears Tower...

I think the locals even forget to call it Willis!

On Skydeck.

The glass box

or the "ledge"

Evan is actually pretty scared of heights,

which I thought was a "made up" thing,

but he truely has issues...sorry for judging anyone!

But he did well, even stepped out on the ledge-

totally surprised me!

Baby on "ledge"

Family at top of Willis Tower.

Pic #2 of family...

Couldn't take the kids to Chicago

without eating here.

There was hardly anyone there,

so it was not as "lively" as it can get.

But who needs more liveliness

when you have this party animal!

Or better yet this one!

It wore this one out cold!

We walked...

a lot..

she did this

a lot!

I did not get a ton of pics.

Naturally the first day my camera battery was dead!

This pic was in the evening towards the end of our trip.

It was at that perfect lighting time of day!

That is all for now....

I will be back to record more of my digital journal (soon!).
Someone turned 2 on us and another one turned 6!

But before I go I will "announce" - we are expecting baby #5 in December.

Yikes!...

Teacher Appreciation Gift

We have teacher appreciation week at our school, I don't know maybe that is a national thing for all I know!  Anyway, I saw the cutest and simpliest idea!

We packaged up a little assortment of mint candy.

We put them in paper sacks.

(The PTO actually sent home 1 paper sack/child to place something in - so we stuck with that, we probaly could have found something cuter!)

We glued the cutest little note on the sacks.

I changed it from the original version.

(And added some clipart!)

The kids signed their names.  They will pass them out to their "main" teachers/para and then to the art teacher, PE teacher, music teacher, computer teacher, and the 2 librians!

Here is my version of the note:

Thanks for your commit-"mint" to help me learn.
Thanks for your encourage-"mint" to always do my best.
Thanks for your involve-"mint" in my life.
Thanks for your invest-"mint" of time and energy to make school a fun place to be.
Thanks for creating a great environ-"mint" for me to learn and grow.
Thanks for making each day an enjoy-"mint"!!!
You have really “mint” a lot to me this year! 

This was so easy - would it be tacky to do this year after year!! ha, ha!