Playdate Fun...

The little one and I had the pleasure of going with some friends to Cypress Gardens on Friday for a playdate. It was a beautiful day to be outside and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Saw this in their butterfly building and thought it was especially cool. It is a butterfly in a cocoon that is just about ready to hatch.

The little one's investigating a giant spider web.

Help! An alligator is eating me!

Taking turns in the swing

Look at all of these HUGE fish!

The girls showing off their fashionable life jackets.

The little one's discussing whether or not the mommies are capable of paddling them...

We did indeed successfully paddle them around for a few minutes, with only one small tree incident. It just came out of no where and ran right into our row boat!

A Little Halloween Preview...

This morning a little giraffe and I went to pick out our pumpkins. It was a little more challenging than previous years because now she wants to pick up ALL of the pumpkins to see if they are indeed the perfect pumpkin! We found several great ones but only two perfect ones came home with us, I will be making a separate trip to round up the rest of the pumpkins for our 2nd annual family pumpkin carving contest. So if any of my family is reading this - place your pumpkin specification order with me ASAP! Otherwise you may get the pumpkin of my choice which may or may not help your possibly winning design!

Last blooms of the year...

Even though summer ended officially a week or so ago I was still pleased to walk out in the yard and find a few last summer blooms.

My roses have never truly recovered from their transplant two years ago, so any blooms from them are are pleasant surprise.

 Hubby gave me the hibiscus this year for mother's day and it did great for its first season in the yard. I wasn't expecting any more blooms this year so when this sprung out from the top it was a very pleasant surprise.

The inpatients are still in full bloom, which the little one loves. They are her favorite to pick. I love them to because they come back every year here. They even come back in colors I never planted which is pretty cool, I think the birds must import them for us. :)

Even though I hate cold weather I am ready for the change in season. It's just about cold enough to light a fire in the outside fireplace and roast some marshmallows, my favorite!

Happy Friday!

A Working Vacation...

I have been working up to getting this post done for almost 3 days but due to an influx of laundry and cleaning post vacay I am a little behind. Hubby had taken a few days off from work so we had a nice 4 day weekend where neither of us had to work so we thought we would go on a nice little vacation. After much debate (meaning I couldn't make up my mind, damn expedia for having to many choices and traveler reviews!) we opted to go camping in the mountains with some close friends and their 2 boys.

We had not been camping in almost 8 years so after dusting off the camping gear and upgrading our air mattress (I'm too old to be sleeping that close to the ground ) off we went...

We had booked a hotel to stay in the first night as we were not meeting our friends until Friday morning. Hubby had picked the hotel for us because I couldn't decide. It was the only 3 star or more he could find in the area so he says and it got good reviews from recent online postings...

Check out our lovely mountain view...

What? Is that a fence you see not a gorgeous mountain view?

The MOTEL was really not bad. It was clean enough and the little one had a great time turning the dial on the in room microwave a million times but I am a self admitted hotel snob and prefer something a little less Bates motel and a little more Ritz-Carlton.

The next day we drove the rest of the way up and met up with our friends. Here is hubby showing off the first official beverage of the canoe trip. 

We paddled over the course of two days which totaled almost 18 miles and lots of empty beer cans!

Friday and Saturday nights we camped in the cold. The temps got down in the lower 40s .

Fortunately having camped here before we knew to bring plenty of fire wood and alcohol to keep us warm!

Below is the view from our campsite, it is so nice to fall asleep and wake to the sound of the river going over the rocks. Very peaceful sleep.

Here is hubby and the little one warming up by the fire the first morning. Once the fog burned off it turned into a beautiful sunny day on the river.

       It amazes me that all three kids were still smiling after a long day on the river.

Here we all are the last morning.

Going camping is more of a working vacation since there is definitely no cocktail waitress to bring me another drink and the fact that I'm sleeping in a tent with probably several spiders but it was still fun and I have to admit I'm ready to go back again sooner rather than later.

:)



Day 2...

Today was the second day of mother's morning out. Since the first day didn't go so hot we were unsure what to expect today. Since I picked her up on Monday we have really been talking to her about how cool school is and how much fun it is and how she would meet new friends. I guess it worked because she stayed the whole morning and her teachers said she did great! ( I'm pretty sure they weren't lying to me to be nice, it is a church school after all!)

Tucked in her bag was this morning's art project, too cute!

She was very proud to show me her awesome coloring skills!

For a special treat for staying we had lunch at her favorite place - McDonald's!!!!

I think she has already had a big boost of confidence in going to school because she hopped right on in the playground there with no hesitation to play with all of the other kids. Normally I would have to crawl all through the nasty play equipment with her!

Here she is beaming with delight from the top!

I hope that it continues to go well and so does my house, I managed to get the whole place vacuumed and dusted as well as doing 2 loads of laundry and the dishes! Whoohoo!  

Mother's Morning Out?...

Today was the first day of the mother's morning out program I had signed the little one up for. It is at a church 2 blocks from our house. We have been talking it up to the little one for over a month now. She seemed really excited about going .

Here she is doing her I'm going to school dance this morning!

Here she is hopping in the stroller to walk to school.

And here she is pushing her bun bun to school in the stroller.

Can't you just tell how excited she was?

Unfortunately, all of that excitement and happiness wore off immediately upon me dropping her off. Not pictured is the tearful face I saw after the school called about an hour later to tell me she hadn't stopped crying and would I come to pick her up?! So much for my high hopes that she would instantly love it and that I would have 3 glorious hours twice a week to myself!

I am hoping that Wednesday will go better and that she might stay at least for an hour and a half!

Happy Monday!

Surprise! and the case of the forgotten potatoes!

For the three day holiday weekend we decided to go and spend some time with my folks for mom's birthday. As a special surprise one of my sister's flew in.

Can you see the surprise on mom's face?

While we were visiting we visited a park close by that the little one enjoys.  

The slides were fun until mommy got road rash on her elbow from the slide!

The little one of course enjoyed the swings, it is hard to convince her that the other playground equipment can be equally as fun.

We also went to the pool in mom's neighborhood. Which was a real treat for the little one, who has only been in a pool a handful of times.

Unfortunately she found the water to be more refreshing than the ocean, which is her usual swimming spot.

We all had a grand time playing around with her little float, it made a great necklace for sister and a wonderful chin rest for me.

Mom found it to be a wonderful seat, once she was able to get it under her!

Caught her just as she was making her first attempt at hopping on it! Nice!

We also hit up some of my our favorite places to eat. Lunch at J. Michael's Philly Deli and dinner from Smithfield's , Awesome! J. Michael's Deli has the best cheese steaks and Smithfield's has the most wonderful BBQ, since moving away from Wilmington, hubby and I have found nothing that even compares to either place. Sad to say, but years ago it was their cheesesteaks that broke me of being a vegetarian, I just couldn't resist the yummy goodness of it! The cheese, the meat! I'm drooling just thinking about it!

We also ate several meals at mom's house which brings me to the case of the forgotten potatoes. Mom makes a really yummy dish we call a potato volcano. It is smooth and creamy mashed potatoes baked with lots of cheese and butter. Unfortunatly the meal it was intended to go with came and went before she realized it was still happily baking away in the oven. Ooops! Although I was already stuffed full, I did have a small dish of it, yum!

So the plan was to have it the next night with supper, we would just reheat and enjoy!

Unfortuntaly, it wasn't until after we had all scarfed down our

Elmo birthday cupcakes and a full meal that mom came to the realization that, D'oh!

We had totally forgotten the potatoes in the oven, again! By this time they could have been used as a nice doorstop because the cheese was so very hard and crusty, so out to the trash they went! Which was a total shame because the little bit I ate when they were fresh out of the oven the first time was delish!

It was fun to get out of town for a few days. It wore the little one completely out. Here she is napping at Grandma's in her special princess tent. She thought she was hot stuff because it came with its very own pink flashlight!

Hope ya'll has a great holiday weekend, i'm off to tackle the mountain of laundry that goes along with a roadtrip out of town!

Not The Most Talkative But Oh So Entertaining...

Today we had the pleasure of having one of the little one's friends over for playtime and lunch. I have to say it was one of the most entertaining lunch dates I have had in some time. Granted, I don't get out much but that is a story for another day. So if you have a minute to spare check out the video excerpts from my lunch with two toddlers. I bet it may even make you laugh or at least crack a smile. :)