Happy 4th From Us to You!

For 3 years now, we have traveled to St. Mary's, GA for their parade. We love it! St. Mary's is typical small town America. Their parade consists of old tractors and cars. Police cars, trucks, and tanks. Firetrucks. Radio stations. Tae Kwon Do academies. Day cares. Music Studios. Knights of Columbus. Boy Scouts. There are no marching bands or anything else that would make you think typical parade. We love it. The neighbors drive their golf carts to Osteola Drive. Moms walk their babies in strollers. It makes me think of 1950's America!

After the parade, we returned home for necessary naps for all since we would not only be up VERY late, a certain unnamed 9 year old slept for a whopping 4 hrs the night before keeping said child's mother up. Once said child fell asleep, a certain 7 year old woke 1 hour and 33 minutes later followed by a certain 5 year old 25 minutes later. These unnamed children only allowed their mother to sleep from 4-5:33am - she was a tad cranky!

  After naps, we prepared to go see the Jacksonville Suns play the Chattanooga Lookouts! The final score was 3-0, Suns. So, it was a bit of a boring game! However, Daddy did catch a ball for the kiddos. Also, Grandma was able to join us! Father David was supposed to come, but there was an emergency at our parish, so he was unable.

After the game, Winn Dixie sponsored a huge fireworks show. Normally on Friday nights they will have fireworks, but this was about double what is normally done. The kiddos loved every single second!

After the game, Grandma, Daddy, and I grabbed a kiddo and headed to the van. We parked in the garage across from the field and arrived to our van at 10:30. We were finally exiting the garage at 11:05. Once out of the garage, all we saw were brake lights in all directions. There are only a handful of ways out of downtown Jacksonville and every single one was backed up. We had to go over the Matthew's Bridge and we could see that things were not moving at all. Finally, at 11:40 we were over the Matthew's bridge and headed towards Grandma's house. We dropped her off and were home shortly after midnight....

The kiddos were still on cloud nine from everything, but after a little night time routine aided and snuggles, all were out by 1am, quickly followed by Mommy and Daddy.

It was a wonderful 4th of July. I love the tradition we have began of attending the St. Mary's Parade in the morning. As we were driving home, Daddy and I agreed that this is something we always want to do - even when the kiddos are grown and we are called Granny and Papa!

Daddy's Girl TuTu 5K

Many weeks ago, I came across an ad for a daddy/daughter 5k. The caveat was that they BOTH had to wear tu-tu's! After approaching Hannah, we chose to double team daddy - he had no choice but to agree!

Hannah and I had elaborate designs for the tu-tu's - they would be bright pink and purple with LOTS of glitter and ribbons/bows. However, once we arrived at Hobby Lobby and realized just how much work this was going to be, we quickly changed out mind and opted for the pre-rolled tulle and various ribbons! This greatly lessened our workload, but little did I know there was still a lot of work left!

Finally, 12 hours prior to the race, both Daddy and Hannah's Tu-Tu's were ready; tiara's, hair bows, and all!

When we arrived in Nocatee Saturday morning, our jaws hit the ground; there were dads in tiaras, boas, beautiful tu-tu's, etc! It was incredible to see what these dads did for their girls!

Both Hannah and Daddy had a great time and completed the 5k in 36minutes! However, regardless of their final time, or the fact that Hannah placed 3rd in her age group, they had a great time and made memories that will last a life time!

I am one proud mommy!

Memorial Day Hail Storm

  We had all just returned home and were cooling off when the horizontal rain began. Within minutes, it started to sound like someone was tapping their fingers on the window and I asked daddy if he thought it was hail. He opened the garage door and there it was - it looked like little gumballs bouncing on a trampoline! The kiddos were scared, yet quite curious and within moments, they all had their helmets on and were off to collect some hail before the lightening began again!


The hail was not large - dime to nickel size and only lasted 10-15minutes, but we all enjoyed the show!

To Germany We Go...

This summer, the kiddos and I have decided to travel Germany and Europe alongside Uncle Michael. Over the next 11 weeks, as Uncle Michael visits a new country in the EU, so will we. We will read books and try their food. We will listen to videos of how they speak and see how they dress. We will learn about the landscape and agriculture. We will read about their history. Every Monday, we will enter a new country and on Friday, we will depart after a family dinner eating native foods and sharing our favorite facts. Uncle Michael will also be helping us out by sending pictures and passing on neat information that he finds...

This week, we are beginning with Germany. We have borrowed books galore from the library and have already read through most of them. Last night, we read about their food and learned that hot dogs (frankfurters) originated in Frankfurt, Germany. We also learned that with every meal, there is a bread and potato dish. They also eat a lot of raw cabbage!

On the menu this week is Hot Dogs on Buns, mashed potatoes, and a raw cabbage salad. We are not really stepping out of our comfort zone this week, but it is also our off week for grocery shopping, so we must use what we have!

I look forward to learning more this week and finding out where next week's adventure will be!

Home...



At 0445 Eastern Time Tuesday morning, we backed out of our driveway and began the 600 mile journey to Mississippi. We woke the kiddos moments before leaving, had them potty, and brought them to the van with the high hope that they would fall back into a restful slumber until the sun made an appearance - how wrong we were! They never closed their eyes again until they laid their heads down in the camper that night, a mere 19hours after they woke! This set the tone for the remainder of the trip - late nights and early mornings! Suffice it to say that Mommy and Daddy are still playing catch up!

The reason for our pre-dawn departure was because Daddy was taking the kiddos to see the Mississippi Braves play the Jacksonville Suns at Trustmark Stadium while I attended the Baccalaureate Mass with my parents and siblings. While at the stadium waiting for the game to begin, Robert and Hannah were asked to be the Honorary Bat Boy and the Play Ball Girl! This meant that they were able to go on the field and do 'special things' prior to the games beginning! However, shortly after it began, Wesley decided to get sick, throwing up everywhere resulting in a rapid departure from the game - luckily he was fine!



Wednesday came and was a HUGE day. That morning, we took family pictures (not an easy feat when you are organizing the different schedules of 20 people - great job, Aunt LaLa!), followed by a celebratory lunch/dinner, a short rest period , and finally Mollie's Graduation - even Aunt Maura's pig and Aunt MooMoo's Maura bear attended! It was a crazy day, yet one full of SO many memories and good times!


Thursday came and we just had family time scheduled. We started out by visiting the cemetery and then heading over to get Mississippi Brave's hats for the kiddos. Once we were done with that, we headed to Grammie/Grampy's house to get some lunch and get ready to go swimming at Uncle Will's Daddy's house. We spent almost 4 hours swimming and having a great time! Grammie helped Hannah build her swimming confidence. Lil' Robert learned how to dive to the bottom - 9 feet deep! Wesley learned that when he jumps into the deep end without floaties, that he WILL sink to the bottom, and Mommy will jump in fully clothed - shoes, glasses, everything - to save him... and then we will both be inconsolable for the remainder of the pool time! Once we arrived back to the house, we learned that Grampy was in an accident on his way home from work - he was doing 77 on the interstate when a deer ran in front of him. He had no option but to hit it, which resulted in a good bit of damage to his car, but he was fine - All Praise Be to God! Once he arrived home and we saw that he was safe, Mommy and Daddy went on a date to Keifer's and Target while Grammie and Grampy watched our kiddos! It was another incredible, exhausting, memory filled day!

Friday, I woke up and took Grampy to the body shop so that he could begin the process of getting his car repaired. Once I returned to the house, we all got ready and went to the MS Children's Museum where we met with Mommy's good friend Mrs. Hailey and her kiddos, Hank and Gus. We had a great time spending the late morning/early afternoon with them! Once we went back to Grammie/Grampy's house, my other good friend, Ms. Jordan came by where I learned that she was engaged! We had a great talk and loved catching up on life. Once she left, Aunt RaRa and Uncle Bret came by and we enjoyed drinks and a fabulous dinner! Once dinner was done, Grammie took Hannah and Grampy took the boys out on an ice cream date while daddy and I worked on packing the van...

Robert's Farm just outside of Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Saturday morning, Grampy made us a big breakfast and we enjoyed spending our last bit of time together before leaving. Around 10am central time, we loaded into the van and began the 598mile, 12 hour drive home with a little something extra in the van with us...

This trip was hard. It was very emotionally draining - I did good keeping my brave smiley face on while around others, but in the privacy of the shower, I would lose it. Coming home is hard. Coming home is very hard. But, coming home is full of memories. It helps to strengthen relationships that have struggled. It helps me emotionally. Although hard, it is good to go home ....

Joy Is...

Watching your kiddos play in the sprinklers on a warm *still* winter day...

 

 

 

Listening to your oldest talk about when he gets married to his CCD sweetheart...

Getting your nails done with your sweet daughter...

 

Snuggling with your 4yo baby as they drift off to dreamland...

Spending time with the love of your life...





Being surprised by your siblings and parents for your birthday...

Watching your kids do something they so enjoy...

 

This is what joy is!

Shower Spelling

After a good bit of trial and error, I finally found something that the kiddos enjoy for practicing spelling words...

I bought 4 packages of foam letters and put them in a bucket. I then had each kiddo put on a swim suit and hop - with not knowing why - in the shower -->

Once in there, I informed them of the rules:  I will call out a word and whoever 'writes' the word correctly first wins. If there is fighting or screaming, you must sit out for 2 words. The first to get 10 words, in a row, correct, wins! What they win is up to the initiator of the game... ME!

 Even Wesley had fun trying to figure out how to spell words... He was quite good at finding 'W', 'A', and a few others!

Each kiddo had a great time and really practiced new words. I enjoyed every second of hearing their laughs and giggles - especially since they had NO idea that they were learning new information... in their little minds, they were just playing and having fun!