Friday, June 25, 2010

Florida

We just got home from a visit to Florida (yeah, be jealous). We had such a great time with our BFFF's.


(Miscellaneous pretty sunset/sunrise pictures - from the road).


Before we left to go to Florida, Tia and I started a list of all the things we wanted to do during the 3.5 days we would be there. We ended up with 30-something items, some silly and small, and some big. We got a surprising number of those things done.

Here is the list, in no particular order:

Go on a dolphin cruise - check!


Hit up some sort of buffet - double check (that means we went twice! Yum.)
Run around in a torrential downpour in our bathing suits......we didn't do this one. Something about lightning, or something. But we enjoyed the daily late-afternoon storms each day. From inside. Fully dressed. Still fun.

Go to a pool party - check! And guess whose kids went in the pool?? Tia's!!

But, wait!! Mine went in too! In fact, we had to practically drag all three out when it got dark. They loved it. My!!kids!!swam!!! So - a big fat check! for that one.


Fix the ribbon on Mya's awesome, custom-made, favorite kimono dress so she could wear it to Ella's baptism - check!

Baptize a baby - check!

Take a group photo of all 6 kiddos...
(incidentally, if you've ever seen 6 more gorgeous children together, I'd love to see the photographic evidence - I won't hold my breath!)

...and one of the 10 (!!) of us (plus a few extras)- check!
Have a slumber party on the living room floor...
Can you believe we got flak for this, just because it was in the middle of the afternoon on Father's Day? I mean, really...we were keeping the kids entertained so the dads could relax! I don't know about you, but I don't see a whole lot of sleeping going on here!

Uh, anyway - check! And moving on...

Go to a playground...well, we tried, but this mall didn't have one. So the ride-on toys in the food court had to suffice. The kids had fun, so - check!

Have loads of fun - check!

Camera-shy moments from the list:
Kicking Matt and Tia out for a date night.
A trip to JoAnn Fabrics to choose the fabric for Mya's dress that she will wear in Mom and Jim's wedding - which Tia is making. The fabric is so pretty, but I couldn't get the color right in a picture, so I gave up.
Grownup movie night after the kids went to bed, complete with junk food and a funny movie.
Drink Diet Coke (very important, it's a tradition).
Bake cake.
Choose favorite fabric scraps from Tia's stash so she can make me an awesome "Happy Birthday" banner.
There were a few items we couldn't fit in, but they obviously weren't that important! We had such an awesome time, and can't wait to go back!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Strawberries

Ever since I transplanted the strawberries from along our fence, I've watched to see if I killed them. Because I was pretty sure I would. But, before we left for Florida, we found five red, ripe strawberries in our garden, which were immediately picked and eaten.



And when we came home, we found these:


So I guess I haven't killed them after all. These looked good enough to eat, and so we did.