Squirrel Proof?!?

So I posted a few weeks ago that we got a new bird feeder. I wanted it to be a bird feeder and not a squirrel feeder. Up until now, we have been pretty successful. And then we come home to this! How on earth can I compete and outsmart these creatures! To interpret this picture, the squirrel is actually sitting on the ledge above the spring activated bar to keep the likes of him out! He then leans down and eats out of the trough - fully outsmarting the squirrel proof part of this feeder!

Hanging With Friends!

This afternoon we went over to our good friends for an afternoon of riding bikes and playing! It was good to get outside and feel the bright sunshine! Looking for a little warmer temperatures! We are so greatful to have such good friends to just hang out with!

A Choir Field Trip!

Today the kids went on a sort of field trip for choir. They participated in assisting with a service run by children at a local church. They sang 2 of their favorite songs and had a great time! After the service, the church provide a great lunch for everyone!

A Day With Nana & Grandpa

Today was an entire day that the kids spent with Nana & Grandpa! I was sick in bed with a very bad case of the flu so although there are no photos to document the day, we wanted to remember the very fun day!

The day started first thing in the morning with a trip for 2 to the dentist! The kids are still at the age where they think that this is a treat! After the dentist, they took Nana & Grandpa to visit their school and walk around outside. The ended up of course at the township playground.

They then went on a little shopping spree to Target for a few fun pieces of clothes! Then lunch at Chick-fil-a where they ran into some friends!

After a brief stop at home and a snack, they were off again for an afternoon of bowling!

It goes without saying that EVERYONE slept really well!

And me, well, I was so thankful that they were entertained for the day and I could rest and recover!

Thanks Nana & Grandpa!

I Love This Picture!

Too cute for words!

Easter Sunday!

Despite our spring attire, it was a very chilly day to be hunting for Easter eggs!


Our day started out at home with the discovery of our Easter Baskets! After a quick once over on the baskets, off to find our eggs! It seems like every year there is 1 egg that is troublesome and difficult to find!


Once we were all dressed we left for church and had a great Easter service. We met up with my friend Melissa from college there. She joins our family every Easter.


After church we stopped at my mom and dad's for a photo shoot before everyone put their "comfy" clothes on! With the chilly weather, all photos were inside. It's hard to believe that some Easters it warm and all trees are in full bloom - not this year! :o(





My mom and dad hosted Easter lunch. It was very relaxing! Then another egg hunt - this time outside! Again - 1 egg unaccounted for and then after much searching - found! Abby really got into searching for the eggs - she is an old pro now!

It was a perfect day for a Grandfather/Grandson game of pool! Jacob is getting to be quite the pro!

Easter Eggs!

Tonight we dyed our Easter eggs with Abby. Suzanne stripped her down to her diaper in case of a curiosity fiasco. Abby showed minimal interest this year and was content with me just "helping" her to dye the eggs. As long as we moved fast, things were great!



We had a full house with both sets of grandparents and Suzanne and Abby here!

Before dying the eggs, the kids had fun playing with the boxes that bar stools came in! Amazing what fun kids can have with plain old boxes!

Our Annual Trek!

The day before Easter is an annual tradition for our family - one that was started by my mom when I was little! Every year, the day before Easter we head down to Ocean City to buy our discounted amusement tickets. You know that I love a deal and to pay full price for our amusement tickets would be unheard of! So whether rain or shine, cold or warm, we head down. Today, no exception! The forecast looked grim but reality was much better than predicted! We packed our lunch and loaded up the car and hit the road after Jacob's indoor soccer game. Once there, we divided and conquered all the ticket options. The boys took off to Playland, and the girls went to Wonderland.

Some Johnson's popcorn was a must!

And to end our day of tradition, a couple of rides to hold us over till warmer weather!

A Good Friday!

Eric's parents are here visiting. They arrived late last night. Although it's a pretty day outside, it's really windy so we opted for a short trip to the local park/playground.

After dinner, Nana helped the kids make "Ressurection Rolls". They had a great time rolling out the dough and getting them ready to bake!

A Complete Kitchen!

Finally! After months of waiting... and negotiating with Eric our bar stools have arrived for our newly enlarged island! We ordered them in January and finally they are here! I love them. It's a little weird getting used to the new look in our kitchen. After 4 years w/o anything in that space, it's taking some getting used to.

Sick Again?!

So much for a short 24 hour thing! Jacob was not feeling well over the weekend and even had a low grade temperature. I thought he was better yesterday so off to school he went. Right now his chief complaint is that his legs hurt and he is really having quite a bit of difficulty walking. After down playing it yesterday and seeing no improvement today, in fact he's feeling worse today, we kept him home and took him to the Dr.

Turns out he has what the Dr. is calling "a really really bad case of the flu". The leg pain is causing myalgia due to the flu (simply muscle aching as a result of the flu). Although his asthma is flaring again, his lungs and chest are clear. So Motrin and rest and lots of fluid! No school today or tomorrow! UGH!

After I questioned whether or not he really ever got over what he had in February, the doctor responded with this little formula....
The average child gets 6-8 respiratory illnesses each year. Each illness tends to last on average 10 - 14 days. So... we are well under average at this point! Scary figures though!

A Bird's Eye View!

Since we have moved into our house over 4 years ago, we have taken notice to a large variety of birds. I've never really been much of a bird "lover", but throughout the years, we've seem some quirky little birds most of which we've come to love! I think the fact that we back to some woods, increases the amount of birds that we get. We get everything from large wild turkeys to little sparrows and everything in between. For several years, I've wanted a bird feeder - a good one - and a squirrel proof one! We've had feeders before and seem to feed not much more than all the squirrels! So, I've been on the lookout for a good one! Yesterday we got one! I love it! It's so cute and sits right on a tree that you can see from the entire back of the house! So far we've had only a bite or two from the little Nuthatches that frequent our trees but I'm eagerly awaiting to see a huge variety. Some birds that we have seen in the past are 2 different kinds of Woodpeckers, Cardinals, Blue Jays, and Blue Birds, just to mention a few. Good friends gave us a bird book a while ago and we pull it out frequently - it's fun to figure out our new little feathered friends!

Yeah! Shamrock Shakes!

Each year at this time, I crave only 1 thing!!!! A Shamrock Shake! I love anything minty, especially green mint ice cream! We made the mistake one year of going on St. Patty's Day, and good ol' McD's was sold out! I was a bit of a crazed maniac at the news so we make sure to get our yearly treat early in the promotion! So tonight was the night! After dinner we drove over to McD's for our treat! Unlike her mom, Allison did not inherit the love of mint! In fact she gags at the very mention of mint! So, she got a sundae instead! What a great treat!

Spring Is In The Air!

Today was a wonderful prelude to spring! With temperatures in the low 60's it brought everyone out of their homes for some fresh air! Since we are in daylight savings time, there was even time for some hoops when Eric got home from work! I'm sad to say that winter is not over though, temperatures will be going down and there is even rumor of some snow on Sunday!

Prayer

I wanted to pass along two families for you to pray for as you think about them.

The first is for Nate, Tricia, and their baby Gwyneth. Tricia has CF and consequently delivered a beautiful baby girl very prematurely. Tricia is waiting for a double lung transplant at Duke and Gwyneth is taking each day at a time growing and getting stronger. Today Gwyneth needs some prayer!

The other family is Leslie, Tyson, and their son. Leslie just had some major surgery to remove a portion of her forehead as a result of a bone infection following cancer. She is struggling right now as she recovers. You can read their blog to fill in all the details.

I know that both of these families covet any and all prayers! They are amazing families that need our support right now!

Thanks!

Are we famous?!

I noticed alot of activity on my blog today. More hits than I've ever had! A big day before was 20 or 30. Today over 80! I'd like to just throw this out there.....


Besides my small group of local friends (and you know who you are) that I know read regularly, I'd love the others of you that are reading about our adventures in life, to comment.


For those who are new to blogging, simply click on the word comment after each post/entry and another page will come up, then, just start typing away. If you don't have a "blog name or identity" that's o.k., just sign your name at the end of your comment!

Thanks!

We're Home!!!

After a long day in the car, we arrived home last night around 11pm! 13 hours driving from Jacksonville, FL makes for a long day! It felt very good to get home and have everyone sleep in their own beds!


We had a wonderful trip and enjoyed the time we spent with my parents (Grandmom & Grandpop), Suzanne, & Abby! It was fun to see Abby's reaction to all of the Disney magic for the 1st time! She loved the characters but not enough to walk up to them! The kids enjoyed the time they got to spend with all of us - uninterrupted! :o)


Allison had such a great time - she didn't want to leave. As we were driving away from Disney, Allison broke down in tears saying she didn't want to leave Disney and that she would miss it!


I've posted for each day that we were gone, so scroll down and hear about some of our highlights and a sample of our photos. All of the photos are on my flicker account to the left - just click on it and you will see us in action!

Animals, Animals, and More Animals!

After checking out of our condo, we ventured into the land of the wild at Animal Kingdom!

First stop - Festival of the Lion King! Here I discovered that I live everyday with 2 elephants! Eric and Allison were choosed to lead the theatre in an elephant trumpet to call the elephant out for the show!

And finally, pictures with Mickey & Minnie - now our trip is complete!!!

After seeing tons of wild animals up close and all the other attractions, off we went for a final dip in the pool on a very warm day!

We went to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping. Afterwards, we loaded into the car and headed up to Jacksonville for the night as we made our trek home. Florida was having really severe rain, thunder, and even a tornado or two so driving was quite an adventure! We were glad we only had to go as far as Jacksonville!

A Magical Day in the Magic Kingdom!

With a plan in hand, we tackled the Magic Kingdom today! We had much to accomplish since this would be our last opportunity for the Magic Kingdom!

Allison ventured onto Space Mountain with Eric and I, while Jacob and Grandpop played video games in the gift shop!Jacob was finally tall enough to drive the Indy Speedway cars alone - what a big kid!
Abby was eagerly waiting for us to get off the ride! Don't you like our cool 3-D glasses?!

After seeing all the attractions, a parade and a stray rain shower, it was off to dinner once again at Epcot, but this time in Italy! Wow! A great meal and superb desserts!
I had to include this picture of Abby and her "silly" face!

Jedi School!

Today was the long awaited day at Disney's Hollywood Studios! There is a Star Wars ride and for anyone who knows Jacob, knows this is his thing! Not only is there a ride, but there is a "show" where they pick volunteers out of the audience to be "trained" by an official Jedi how to use a lightsaber to "defend justice". Needless to say Jacob was more than eager to be chosen. There is no rhyme or reason to who is chosen - it's just luck! Our fear was that Allison would be chosen and that Jacob would not! What do we do then?! So as soon as the park opened we went right to that attraction and waited 45 minutes for the show. The kids were sitting front and center and given a lecture of how to look eager and excited to be chosen. Right off the bat - Allison was picked! Yikes! But they pick about 20 kids so there was still hope! With each child that was picked, my heart would stop! Finally - 3rd from the last to be picked - Jacob was living his dream! There they were on stage, in costume, learning to use a lightsaber when all of the sudden - Darth Vader and 2 Storm Troopers come out! One by one, each child, got to defeat Darth Vader! At the end, each child was given a certificate stating that they had successfully completed Jedi School!


Mission accomplished! All else for the day was simply a bonus! Allison and Eric ventured to Tower of Terror! Finally Eric has a playmate to go on "scary" rides! She says she only liked it a little bit! We had lunch at Jacob's favorite restaurant - Pizza Planet - from Toy Story!
Dinner was in a Japanese Steakhouse at Epcot! Really a good meal! The kids thought the chef was amazing! He made a volcano out of sliced onions!
Here's the whole gang at dinner!

A Little Break!

Today turned out to be not so "magical" for Suzanne and I. We both woke up sick with some sort of stomach virus! Not so fun!


Since we were both sick and it was a somewhat warm day, the rest of the group decided to have a pool day. Suzanne joined them poolside later in the afternoon, however, I only moved from bed to the sofa!


By dinner time, I was feeling well enough to venture to dinner with the rest of the group who had already left for the Magic Kingdom to conquer some attractions before dinner. We with Pooh and his friends at the Crystal Palace. From reviews by the others in our group, this too was a good meal choice. I on the other hand had rice, a couple of rolls, a bananna, and some mashed potatoes - YUMMY! :o)


We managed a couple of rides after dinner - Buzz Lightyear - a family favorite!

The kids had a great time entertaining us all by being silly for Abby!

Princess For A Day!

We started today with an early appointment at the Bipiddi Bopiddi Boutique provided by Grandmom and Grandpop! It's hard to tell from the pictures, but Allison truly enjoyed her moment to be transformed into a princess! It was amazing how different she looked! Several times during the day, Eric would be looking for her and she would be standing right in front of her!
As we were leaving Downtown Disney, this was the scene that I saw - can we say "like father like son!".
From the boutique to breakfast with Mulan, Snow White, Belle, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty! While we were waiting Abby was exploring the flowers nearby!
Allison was completely in her element enjoying every last minute!We spent the rest of the day in Epcot! Surprisingly, Epcot has turned out to be the kids favorite place in Disney! Some highlights of the day were Soarin', Test Track, and Nemo & Turtle Talk!From Epcot, we went to the Magic Kingdom for a great light parade and fireworks! Eric managed to get us a ride in the front of the monorail with the driver!