Baseball's Never Been Hotter Than The Jacksonville Suns!

Today, we met up with our homeschool group, HomeGrown Homeschoolers, for a field trip/behind the scenes tour of the Jacksonville Suns Stadium! To say that we were excited is quite the understatement :-)

At first, we tried to keep the trip a secret and let it be a huge surprise for them today, BUT I needed some bribery for nap yesterday and told Ms. Hannah. Now, she was under STRICT orders to not tell a soul, but evidently, she is not ready for secrets.... not only did she not take a nap, she also told both brothers within minutes of me telling her. Ugh!

As usual with the Riker Family, we were running late, but luckily, this is common among home schooling families, and well, families in general, so we had plenty of time to spare. This would have been great, but it was a 90* October day - with no breeze. Another UGH!

Before the tour started, we took a group shot of all the kiddos - go figure, my midgets would stand in the very back where they were only visible from side angles!

 After the group photo, the tour began - at first it was the boring stuff, but after a bit in the fabulous Florida heat, we made it to the dugout, followed by the indoor batting/pitching/practice area, followed by the Suns weight room and locker room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this, we made our way to the main level, right behind home plate.

 

 

 

 

The kiddos were quite anxious to get to the third floor and after daddy finished taking pictures, we were off. The third floor held the press box (where there was an actual hole in the wall where a ball came flying through the open window and hit the wall - the announcer leaned to the left and kept talking as if nothing happened the entire time!), the crew room for the video guys and scoreboard people, and the suites where you pay too much money to sit in an air conditioned room and watch baseball!

 Once this was over, the tour was over, and it was time for lunch - Capri Suns, chips, and hot dogs - what more could a group of hot, sweaty, hungry kiddos ask for?!

 

After lunch and a few more pictures.....

 

....it was time to head down the stairs and get home....

.... but Wesley wanted to try and buy some tickets first!

As we were driving home, we saw the Jaguars practicing and as we continued towards the Hart Bridge, we noticed that the road was closed and there were many marines and combat vehicles. Curious, we pulled into a parking lot to watch, only to see a few Marines sitting inside of a tank. We pulled all of the kiddos out of the van and walked over to see what was going on. These gentleman told us that they were setting up the vehicles to show off for the Marine Corps Half-Marathon in the morning, but would LOVE to open up the other tank and give us a private tour!

We were able to watch as they lowered the gate, which was pretty cool. Who would have known that lowering a gate was a two man job?! We were able to see him climb into the drivers seat, instead of opening a door - the kiddos thought that was SO neat! He allowed all of us to walk inside, ask tons of questions, and then he even let the kiddos try on the bullet proof vests and helmets! This poor marine, was in full fatigues, and sat in the fabulous, non-breezy, 90* blazing sun....

 

 

We said our thank yous goodbyes and decided that since we had already skipped nap for the day, that we would take the kiddos to Adoration since it was on the way home. Let me just say, I am so very impressed with each of my children. They were so very respectful. The behaved so nicely. There was not a single poor choice made. Lil' Robert for the first time ever, instead of genuflecting in front of the Blessed Sacrament, he laid down prostrate - this brought tears to my eyes as he is going to be receiving this beautiful Sacrament in May of '13.

Once we left the chapel, we walked over to the Rectory to see Grandma, since we had not seen her in a few weeks because of the missions trip to Jamaica, but she was nowhere to be seen. We waited, Robert recited his entire Act of Contrition, Wesley acted like Wesley, and Hannah sat perfectly still. Finally after a good bit, we packed up and left!

 It was an incredibly adventurous morning! We all had a great time as a family and made some very, very precious memories!

Peer Pressure!

All 4 kiddos working!

This afternoon, I had our sweet neighbor Lucas over to do some school with us - we made it lots of fun so that he did not feel like he was 'in school' from 8a until 5p!

When he arrived, Little Robert, Lucas, and I sat on the couch and read for a bit. They would take turns reading pages. Lucas' presence motivated Little Robert to work even harder. It was so fun to watch them read - it became a little competition with who could read faster than the other! When we were done, each received 5 gummy bears for doing a great job!

After this, we went to the table for a game show version of a spelling test! I gave all of the kiddos (Hannah and Aahliya included) a sheet of paper. They each wrote their names on the top and then their ABC's - whoever wrote them the nicest received a smily face on top of their paper - wouldn't you know it that they all have smiley faces?!?!?! After that, we went on to spell 10 words from Little Robert's 3rd quarter spelling words. This was great fun for all of them and the best part was that they had no idea they were learning! Nobody became upset or mouthy. Nobody fussed - all they knew was that they were having a great time and I felt on top of the world!

We had a major breakthrough yesterday and I am so very excited! I can hardly wait for our next Reading/Phonics/Spelling lesson with a friend!

Birthday Party.... #1!

This is the first time that we have had a 'real' party for all of the kiddos. We rented a bounce house, bought 3 separate cakes, concocted a deal with Sno Biz to have sno cones, etc etc. We created and sent invitations to family and a handful of our intimate friends.... since this was the first real party, we did not want to overwhelm ourselves with the possible chaos of inviting a large group of people.....

The air dancers

After deciding to have the party, we chose a date - March 31. It is a Saturday between all 3 birthdays (March 2, March 22, and April 8) and it worked for our extended family. Well, we never planned on inclimate weather and as the week progressed and the chance of rain rose from 10% on Monday to 70% last night to 100% this morning, we knew that things were not looking good. When the rain first started, Hannah and I ran inside, grabbed our Rosaries and said 2 decades. By the time we were done, not only was it raining, but now it was thundering and lightening as well - UGH! Daddy and I went back and forth and finally, after seeking the counsel of an outside party, the decision was made to move it to tomorrow.....

Little Robert's Dinosaur Cake

Daddy and I made all of the phone calls and were ever so grateful when all but 4 families would not be able to join us tomorrow. The kiddos were quite bummed about this, so Daddy and I spoke for a moment and then decided to have those families over today instead.....

Hannah's Cinderella Cake (decorations will be added tomorrow)

So, after these decisions were made, Daddy made the trek to Publix to pick up the 3 birthday cakes for the birthday boys and girl. As he was turning into the driveway at 1:50 (party was to begin at 2), the sun began to peek through the clouds. By 2:45, it was out in all of its glory, so Daddy and 2 other daddies went out with brooms and towels and cleaned the bounce house so that the kiddos could play. And that they did until just before 4 (When the party was to end!). So, I guess that we could have still had the party today since our prayers were answered, but in the end I am glad that we did it this way.... It was much more intimate and a way to test the waters for tomorrow!

Wesley's Monster Truck Cake - He wanted to use his for our Mini-Party today!

Praise God, all of them, Robert, Hannah, and Wesley had a great time. I am so glad that those few families were able to join us today because the kiddos were so very upset about not having any party today.

Wesley testing out the bounce house on Friday!

Mommy and Hannah

Hollis, Robert, Lucas

Big Wesley, Robert, Lucas

Enjoying the bounce house!

Hannah and Robert having a great time!

Big Wesley and Robert

Wesley going.....

....going.....

.....gone!

Cake time!

"Happy Birthday to ya'll! Happy Birthday to ya'll! Happy Birthday Robert, Hannah, and Wesley! Happy Birthday to ya'll!"

It took *multiple* attempts to light the candles thanks to a few anxious kiddos!

We had to sing 3 separate times so that each kiddos could have a turn blowing out the candles!

The cake was good :-)

Aside from the bounce house, the presents were a huge hit! Thank you to all for pampering my kiddos!

SO much fun was had by all!

Robert received airplanes and Hannah a kitty cat that purrs! Wesley was given puzzles! Thank you Mrs. Gretchen, Mr. Troy, Hollis, and Hayes!

Robert trying to break into his transformer - Thank you Mrs. Marsha, Mr. Tim, Wesley and Cooper!

Hannah and Robert playing and Big Wesley swing high as the sky while I get super sweet snuggles from Baby Emerson - Thank you, Mrs. Julia, Mr. Andrew, Xavier, and Felix for coming and sharing your sweet one with Mama Mary!

A huge thank you to all that came out and celebrated with us today. It was so much fun to celebrate each one of our children. To let them know just how very important and special they are.  We love you all!