AirFest

We attended AirFest at MacDill Air Force Base a couple of weekends ago. This annual event was grounded last year by budget cuts but not this year! The base was packed with all sorts of military aircraft, warbirds and military vehicles. But the star of the show was definitely the Thunderbirds!

Addie did not like the loud noise the Thunderbirds made and in fact, laid down on the ground covering her ears. Her lack of a nap may have been a contributing factor but she fell asleep quickly after being picked up by John. She must have been tired to sleep through that noise. They put on a pretty cool show though!

Addie, Lucas and Brody

Let the Season Begin!

Connor started another session of baseball this past weekend and he has graduated to pitch! They get 3 chances at a pitch before they have to use the tee and I am proud to say that Connor never needed it! He did awesome!

"Who knows what the most important thing was today?"
That we had FUN!!!!

 After the game Addie and Blaise headed to the playground to have their own fun. These two...they are so cute together! Addie claims Blaise to be one of her best friends. 

Wordless Wednesday

Connor's 5th Birthday

My baby isn’t a baby anymore! I’m starting to sound like a broken record but I just can’t believe Connor is already 5! He has really grown and matured in the last several months and is quite self-sufficient. I’m not one to brag but Connor is also very smart. He only missed 1 out of 67 questions on his last Kindergarten readiness exam putting him at the top of his class! He makes good choices (most of the time!) and we always get a good report from his school. He is also so good with Addie. He genuinely loves her and is good about sharing and looking out for her. We really couldn’t be more proud! Now…on to the fun stuff!

Connor’s birthday party was a success! He wanted a trashie birthday party and I made sure he got one! They are not “main stream” yet (and will probably never be) so there weren’t any premade party supplies available. We managed to get the job done though thanks to the internet, printer, cardstock and a trusty pair of scissors. 

It turned out to be a gorgeous day and I think the kids all had a blast. Connor had quite a turnout too! There were 27 kids and 30 adults! They bounced. They played. They ate.  Addie, who generally doesn’t do bounce houses or cake, bounced and had her first cupcake!  Grandma thought I was going to be upset with her for feeding her a cupcake but I couldn’t have been more thrilled! I’ve been trying for almost 2 years to get her to eat cake! lol She would never try it and now wants cupcakes for her birthday party :) whew! I have been fretting over what to do.

This was his 'trashie' smile. The only kind of smile he would give me!

We attempted a family photo but our "photographer" only took 1 shot and it didn’t turn out.

Connor’s only complaint was that the party wasn’t at the park he wanted it at. I could deal with that :) I tried but it was already reserved. Our only complaint was with the company we reserved the bounce house from. I won’t get into it here but do not do business with Jump For Fun!

After the party we went to dinner at the Wine Exchange to celebrate Grandma’s birthday. Poor Addie was passed out by the time we got there. She had had a busy day and no nap! We had a really nice dinner and then headed back to the house. Connor was anxious to finally open his gifts!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!

A big thank you to everyone who helped Connor celebrate his 5th birthday! Click here to see all the birthday shenanigans.

Vacation

I have to start out giving huge props to Addison and Connor. They did AMAZING in the car!! They were pretty darn good for our entire vacation, for that matter, but the car was my biggest worry. I still can’t believe how smoothly everything went!

Our trip was broken up over several planned stops. Our first stop was to visit the Dixie DeSantiago’s…in Dixie, GA! We left right after Addison’s gymnastics class on Saturday. It was the first class of a new session so we didn’t want her to miss it. It was a little over 4 hours and we only stopped once for lunch. It was so good to see my family and the kids had a blast together! I forget who pointed it out but there are 5 second cousins between my cousins and me ranging in ages from 1 to 5 (now that Connor is officially 5). They all got along pretty good and we visited with one another until 11 pm!

David and I

This was the best group shot I could get. From left to right:
Layla, Addie, Connor, Ian and Megan

Jessica and Brandon

Connor getting a head start on his birthday :)

We woke up Sunday morning to a lot of rain. We visited a bit more and then hit the road for Atlanta. 5 hours and 2 stops later we arrived at my friend Tracy and Rob’s. Tracy is a friend from college and she and I were preggo together. Her son, Gavin, was born just 2 days before Addie! She has since welcomed a baby girl and it was so good to finally meet her! Presley is now 6 months old and the cutest little thing! Addie adored her and still talks about “how cute and smiley” she was. Tracy had us and another couple, Stacy and Donnie, with their kids for dinner. Their kids were 2 and 4 so there was lots of fun going on between the 5 of them! I also went to college with Stacy so it was a lot of fun to catch up with everyone.

We left Atlanta Monday morning for North Carolina. About 6 hours and several stops later we arrived at Sugar Mountain, NC….to no snow :( We were little disappointed since seeing snow was the primary purpose of our trip but it was still gorgeous! We stopped at the local Food Lion to stock up before heading to our condo and they had little carts for kids. How cute is that?! Our condo was great. Nice and cozy with fantastic views. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and settling into our place and watched our first mountain sunset.

Our mission Tuesday was to find snow! We bundled up and headed to the ski resort on the other side of Sugar Mountain. We were at the top of the mountain so if we were seasoned skiers we could have walked about 100 yards to a black and skied down. But we’re not :p They had snow for the slopes but not much more. We walked around a bit and the kids got their hands on a patch of snow just outside of the resort. Not exactly how we had envisioned their first touch of snow to go but they were tickled nonetheless. We went back to the condo for lunch and naps with a game plan to come back later and go tubing.

We hit up the 4 pm session of tubing and had a blast! I was proud of Addie for not being scared and they even got to play in the snow at the bottom of the slope. It was freezing the second the sun went behind the mountain though so we took one more trip down the slope and called it a day. We got back to the condo just in time to see another beautiful sunset.

We woke up on Wednesday to 16 degrees and snow flurries! John went skiing that afternoon and the plan was to pick us up when he was done to go ice skating. We bundled up and headed back to the resort for the 4 pm session. After paying for our skates and enduring the process of bundling up even more and getting to the rink, the kids both decided they were miserable. I don’t think they got more than 1 lap around the rink before they were crying. It was cold, I’ll give them that, but it was unfortunate we had to leave.

Thursday was even colder. I think it was only 7 degrees when we woke up and super windy. We knew we weren't going to get to do anything else outside if the kids thought the previous day was miserable so we packed up and said our goodbyes to North Carolina. We didn't have any solid plans other than getting to Waldo by Friday to visit with my parents. It would have been 9 hours straight there and after the first few hours we decided we were going to make a stop in Savannah, GA for the night. We had never been and it was a good break in the trip. Plus my parents had to work Friday so there was no rush to get there. 8 hours and several stops later we arrived in Savannah. We picked a hotel from my Hotel Tonight app and settled in for the evening.

We spent Friday morning sightseeing in Savannah, all along River Street and then let the kids release some energy at Forsyth Park. It was a gorgeous day and a lovely city. We’ll have to get back there another weekend sans kids. Looks like a fun place :)

It was only 3 hours to Waldo from there and we arrived shortly after BeBe and Grandpa got home from work. The kids were so excited to see them! We were excited to see them too and all the new remodeling they just got done. The house was totally different and looked great!

We went to Gainesville on Saturday to visit Nana and Uncle Dominique. After a really nice visit we headed back to my parents for dinner. But first Connor and Addie had to help BeBe make his birthday cookie cake! Steve and Chris joined us for dinner and then Connor got to open a few gifts. He was so excited to be going to bed 4 and waking up 5!

Addie taking pictures for BeBe

The birthday boy did not want to leave so we hung around later than we originally planned. It was after 2 pm before we headed back to Tampa. Funny enough the shortest leg of our trip was the least enjoyable. Addie was whiny and I think we were all just bummed it was our last day of vacation. Connor perked up a bit when we got home and had a few more birthday gifts to open. He even let Addie help him which made her a happy girl.  Connor asked for steak and corn muffins for his birthday so that’s what he had for dinner. He also got to sleep on the top bunk for the first time.  He’s been eyeing the top for a while now but we told him he had to be 5 before he could sleep up there.

The BIRTHDAY Boy!

 

Overall we had a very good vacation! It was nice to be away from the house, chores, work and just relax and enjoy all the family time. We took a million pictures so click here if you have some time to spare.