Celebration, Florida

Last week we got a chance to meet our friends from North Carolina while they were here on vacation. Summer is just a few months younger than Ali and their son, Cooper, is about the same age as Ben. We had a great afternoon hanging out. Here are some pics of the kids playing.

Summer & Ali at the fountain
Dan with Ben & Brandon with Cooper
A really old phone booth that I wanted to take home and put in my house

St. Pete Beach

We spent a couple of days at St. Petersburg Beach this week. It was fun to spend the night since we usually only take day trips to the beach. Here are some fun pics. Some of the pics aren't clear. Dan said I didn't have the white balance right. I'll try to learn about that soon! Rach... I thought of you and Joe...the last pic is for you!

Ali chasing seagulls

Dan & Ali with Uncle Charlie

Dan & Ben with Uncle Charlie
This is the best baby float because of the movable shade. Ben fell asleep while we floated in the ocean - the waves rocked him to sleep. Thanks for the idea Cooper!

After getting getting cleaned up for dinner... me and Ali couldn't help but lay out in the evening sun for just a few more minutes.

Our room was just three steps away from the beach, which was nice not having to carry all the kids stuff far. I didn't get any pics of the pool around the corner. Ben & Ali spent over 3 hours in it the first day and slept so hard that night.
The last time I was here... was at Rachel & Joe's wedding - just a few weeks pregnant with Ben!

Lazy Saturday

I love spring at the beach.
I think Ben ate a bucket of sand today. There was no stopping this curious little taster. He can't help but taste his world... but never complained about the sand!
After a good mouth/face rinsing, it was lunch with Dad. Ben has all four of his top front teeth comming in and already has his bottom front two, so he is munching on one tough piece of toast!
I love watching these two kids play... I mean Dan & Ali :)
Time for a little shade and a popsicle
Our beach buddies!
The best invention ever! Ali got this wagon for her birthday, They LOVE to ride in the wagon. The big tires work great in sand or grass. It is a nice ride for two kids and a few toys, as well as super easy to steer/turn.
Ali's favorite part of the day...flying her new Veggie Tale's kite. She got it to fly all by herself because the wind was spectacular for kite flying. She was so excited running up and down the beach with it up in the air.

Children's Museum

Friday I took the kids to the Children's Museum down town.

They have a little stage with dress up clothes... and today Ali wanted to be a tap dancer!

The airplane ride
Ali making Florida orange juice!

Captain Ali & passenger Ben
Back to the stage, but this time she was a musician... I had to sing (it wasn't pretty-the things you do for your kids!)


The siren on this police car kept Ben amazed for a long time!
Ali pretending to have a broken leg at the 'doctor's office'.
Fireman Ben to the rescue!
Banker Ali, just before she took all the money to the minature Publix to buy her groceries!

Carpenter Dan!

I have really been wanting a certain bookcase in the PBK magazine for a while... but I'm entirely too...hmmm how should we say financially responsible (ok, cheap) to pay the almost $400 price tag. So, I finally ripped it out of the magazine and asked Dan if he had any spare time to build it for me. Well, being the wonderful hubby that he is, off to Lowes we went to buy some wood! Here it is in construction phase and then finally all painted and in my living room. It isn't completely organized yet, but at least all my books and pictures are in one place now. THANKS DAN!!

This was his helper Ali, with her 'Handy Manny' tools. She loves to help out with projects.

Ben in the wagon carrying the new green paint for the bookcase.

No Time To Post!

I can't seem to find time to post as often as I would like, so here is the a few happenings from the past couple of weeks!

This is Fort Wilderness at Disney World. We went camping with Dan's parents this week. The cabin was SO CUTE. This is all of us on Ali's bunk bed one morning (even though she slept with Grammy in her bed!)

They had pony rides... Ali's favorite animal right now. She just hugged her pony (named Nemo). She tells me how much she misses him often!

Later, we took a boat ride over to the Magic Kingdom and back.

Nemo again!

This was actually Ben's first real pool experience... Disney heats the pools to 82 degrees, so it was just about perfect. They baby pool was even warmer. He loved the water.This is the Children's Festival that the Explorations Musem down town hosts each year. We had a lot of fun with crafts, zoo animals, boat making, and snow cones!!This was our picnic lunch outside our apartment after church last week... just enjoying Spring before the heat of summer comes!
I love this picture. Every first Friday night of the month they have live music, antique car shows and other events downtown. We met up with the Jindra's at Palace Pizza Friday night and this was Ali and her best friend Nolan dancing outside in front of one of the folk artist. They had a blast. It was so cute.

This is everyone about to grab some ice cream after our pizza.