LEGOLAND

 

My friend, Jen, offered us FREE tickets to visit LEGOLAND. The only stipulation was they had to be used before the end of the month. We jumped at the opportunity! We took them this past Sunday and it was a hot one! Luckily our tickets also got us into their water park. Connor has just recently gotten into LEGO’s (thanks to Papa) so he was really excited about going. We got there around 10:30 am and the park was still pretty empty (it opened at 10 am). There was hardly any wait on most of the rides which was nice. It was also pretty cool to see everything made out of LEGO’s.The website made it sound like the park was geared to the younger crowd, and maybe it was, but we took to mean Addison would get to do a lot. Not so much. So we took turns going on rides with Connor but she was still happy. I don’t think she knew the difference :)

 

Daytona Speedway was one of the themes in Miniland, where they had reconstructed several different parts of the US out of LEGO’s.

 

 

After lunch we headed to the water park. We were ready to cool off! So we splashed around a bit and then the rain clouds started to roll in. It was okay with us as it cooled things off a bit and perfect timing since we were already wet! It didn’t rain long though and they never closed any rides due to lightning. Next thing you know Addie is running out of the water as a woman is speed walking by, who was busy yakking away to a friend. She wasn’t paying any attention to where she was going and plowed right into Addie. She went down hard and immediately started crying. I assumed she just hit her knee but when I picked her up there was blood all around her mouth. Of course the lady was super apologetic but I wasn’t listening. I ran to the life guard to find out where medic was. I quickly found John to let him know where we were headed and then took her in. Luckily it was just a busted lip and nothing too serious. No missing teeth or anything. It swelled up really quick though. They gave her a Popsicle to help with the swelling and I gave her a lot of TLC. She’s one tough cookie and handled it very well.

 

 

 

 

We wrapped it up at the water park and headed back out to finish exploring the rest of LEGOLAND. Addison was worn out by this time and quickly fell asleep in the stroller. Connor had the best time riding/racing the LEGO cars. He rode that one two or three times. We hit up a few more rides and then decided to call it a day. By then it was almost 6 pm. We were also hungry so we started talking about what we were going to eat. Connor seemed pretty excited to go eat out somewhere (we don’t do it very often). We didn’t make it out of the parking lot though before he was fast asleep. John and I settled for drive-thru and headed back home. A fun-filled day full of great memories :) Thanks again, Jen!

 

 

You can check out the rest of our LEGOLAND pictures here.

Waldo Visit

We made an impromptu visit to Waldo a couple of weekends ago to visit my family. We had not been up since May and BeBe and Grandpa hadn't seen the kids since they were here the 1st of June. We left right after work on Friday, straight from picking the kids up from day care. We really didn't know how it was going to go with Addie being in the car that long. John had to work that night so we didn't want to get in too late. I thought for sure she'd be fine. I was loaded with snacks, dum dums, movies...anything a kid could ask for. Our trip went great the first hour. That was about when Addie had decided she had had enough of the car and started fussing. The fussing turned to whining which quickly turned to crying. It didn't bother us as much as you'd think it would. We've become accustomed to it if anything, but when she started crying so hard that she started choking we knew we had to stop. So we took a break at the next rest stop so she could get out and run around for a bit. She was happy as a clam. Then she tripped and got her first strawberry. Man, not her day. She hardly made a fuss over it though, didn't seem to even notice the blood. Funny that she can hurt herself and not even bat an eye, but heaven forbid you strap her into a car seat for more than an hour. So we left around 5 pm and got to Waldo around 8 pm. Not too bad considering, we were just happy to get there. BeBe and Grandpa filled our belly's with steak and wine and we all went to bed happy.

Happy

Not so much :(

Saturday we got to spend some time with Nana and my Uncle Dominique. Connor and Addie did a little skinny dipping when we got back to BeBe and Grandpa's. Later that evening my Uncle Steve came over for dinner. Connor helped BeBe with the dishes afterwards. He loved it! I need to start putting that boy to work at home ;)

 

One of my best friends, Jessica, came over with her girls on Sunday. We'd hoped to have a fun filled pool day but the weather wasn't in our favor. We did get our dip in the pool but it didn't last that long. Connor had a great time playing with Taylor and Kaleigh though. They also had fun playing with Grandpa's racetrack in the pool room.

Uncle Chris joined us for dinner Sunday night before we left. It was great seeing everyone again. Unfortunately it will probably be awhile before we make the trip back up. Our trip home was even more miserable than our trip there. We left around 7:30 pm in hopes the kids would sleep most of the way home as it's easy to transfer them to their own beds, especially after such a busy weekend. Addison fell asleep around 8 pm and then we noticed Connor nodding off about 30 minutes later. Next thing you know Addie is wide awake. And not happy she is in the car when she'd rather be in her bed. She is a tummy sleeper so I know she just couldn't get comfortable. So naturally she started crying. Her crying woke up Connor who started crying because he wanted to be sleeping, which was impossible to do with Addie's crying. And Jackson kept standing up and repositioning himself, which caused Zoey to have to reposition herself. He's getting too old for long car trips. It was too dark and late to stop so we just kept driving. Addie never got as worked up as she did on the way there, but it was on and off the rest of the way. We were all miserable and so happy to get home. We had a great time though and, as always, so good to see everyone!! :)

She's bound to outgrow this one day, right? RIGHT?

More pictures from our trip here.





Spirit Week

It was spirit week at day care this past week and the kids had fun with it!

Monday - Crazy Hair Day

Not a great picture as his hair was still wet but we sprayed it blue! We wanted to give him a mohawk but we didn't have hair spray strong enough to hold it.

Tuesday - Mix Match Day

Wednesday - Sports Day

Thursday - Pajama Day

Friday - Costume Day

I typically get Addie ready and then head out for work, leaving John to get Connor dressed. That is why there aren't pictures of Connor every day :p Connor really enjoyed getting to wear his jammies to school on Pajama Day. And for Mix Match day he wore two different shoes with mix matched socks. Addie refused to wear her butterfly wings this morning for Costume Day, she was in a mood!



Photo Shoot!

At the end or March we took the kids to get their pictures taken; for Connor's 3 year and Addison's 1 year milestone. We've always taken them to a studio but I had found this great deal on LivingSocial for an on location shoot. I thought it would be a great way to try something new. If they didn't turn out great, I wouldn't be out too much money. Long story short, the deal was too good to be true. The photographer took their pictures but we never heard from him again :( It took a couple of months before I accepted the fact that I wasn't ever going to see those pictures and started looking for another photographer. I shared my story with a photographer friend of ours and he couldn't believe it. Then he offered to take pictures of the kiddos. He normally takes architectural pictures but is trying to get into portraits so it was a win win situation. I would get my shots and he would get his practice :) We opted to take them indoors this time. The kids had fun with it. I think it helped that they knew the guy. Raif, our photographer, is Finn's dad (one of Connor's best buddies from school). Afterwards he invited us back to their house for a little BBQ and swim. Though the pictures were taken a couple of months after their actual 'milestones' I'm just glad I finally got them.

Enjoy!

Let me know if you want a particular picture and what size. I haven't printed any yet so I'm taking orders :)

Tot Start Tennis

Aunt Nancy was in town visiting from Chicago a couple of weeks ago. Connor loved having her here and so did Addie! I was a little surprised with how quickly she warmed up to her. Her face would beam when she would see her! I guess I'm just so used to how long it has always taken Connor warm up to people. They continue to amaze me with how different their personalities are. Anyway, on Tuesday Nancy and John snuck into day care to watch Connor play Tennis and get the kids a little early since it was Nancy last day with us. John was able to capture the following video/pictures:

John said he seemed pretty quite and reserved, compared to the soccer practice he got to watch, but Connor says he likes it better than soccer. We'll keep him in it as long as he says he likes it :)

That evening John and Connor took Nancy to the airport. They parked on the top level of the short term parking garage to watch the planes for a bit which Connor loved. They took this picture, which I just love for some reason, pretending the fall off the building.

They stopped at McDonald's for dinner before heading home. He sure makes eating at McDonald's look fun.

We loved having Nancy visit us. We'll all miss her but she'll be back soon enough :)