MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

This weekend was a fun one for the Smiths! We got a fire going on Friday night and roasted ourselves a few hundred marshmallows! We found these super jumbo regular and strawberry flavored marshmallows that we just had to try. The kids were impressed!

Saturday morning we were up and ready for an adventure. After wanting to try geocaching for over a year, today was going to be our first attempt. (Geocaching is basically treasure hunting using a GPS. Thousands and thousands of hunts have been set up by people all over the country and the coordinates needed to find the treasure (a.k.a. trinkets) can be found online.) We were all pretty excited, not sure what to expect from the whole experience. We headed out to the first "test" location and ended up on the side of a deserted road. We knew we were close, but the small bit of land between us and the jackpot was covered in poison ivy. See previous post for details, but no one in my family was going to go anywhere near that stuff! We jumped back into the car, ready to get to the "real" hunt!

The coordinates for this one took us to a large park on the edge of town with trails and paths that run deep into a wooded area. Oooh, this is going to be fun! Chris was our official leader. Nick declared the two of them Lewis and Clark and we were to call them by their appropriate explorer names. On our way:

Fast forward an hour and we had been "almost there" and "right on top of it" about 27 times. Our fearless leader had us cover the same trail multiple times. Nothing. It was hot and muggy down in the trees, we were all sweating, and still nothing. Finally, something....

Yeah, that's right. Nothin' but the butt end of a deer. We were treasureless! The underbrush was just so thick that it was nearly impossible to see anything. And the possibility that we were using the wrong kind of GPS could have played a part in our problems, too. We were a little bummed but vowed to try again in the fall, once the trees were bare, the air was cooler, and we had done a little more research into how to properly geocache! The next day I  headed to the library and checked out "Geocaching for Dummies"....

SCHOOL PICNICS

The kids had their "End of the Year" picnics at Bennett Park this year, just around the corner from our house. Olivia invited Ben and I join them at the park so we did. We pulled in and her and all her little friends crowded around the car. We got out and she said, "Mom where's Charlie???" Oops, I had forgotten the dog. The crowd of kids was for the dog! We ran home and picked up the guest of honor. He, of course, loved all the attention from the kids. Ben thought he was in heaven too because he got to have a Lunchable for his picnic lunch! Thanks, Liv, for letting us hang out with your class!

Ben and I walked to the park with all the kindergartners for their picnic, too. The weather didn't hold up too well for them though and as soon as lunch was over, they were scurried back to the school before the thunderstorm rolled in. All the games and bounce houses were moved into the gym so the party just continued inside!  Ben and I headed home before the storm, too, before I could get any pictures...dang!

Thanks for being so excited to have us at your picnic, Nick! 

LOVEBUG

This little lovebug brought these flowers to me all on his own and said, "I love you mom!" Totally made my day! I love you too buddy. XOXOX

YARD SALE

For the first time since we started having children, I am going through the kids clothes and getting rid of some of them! I know, I know...but I just couldn't bring myself to do it until now. I had tried once before and ended up a sobbing mess! This time, I have a plan. I am dying for another baby. D-Y-I-N-G. And lately I keep hearing people say how they "got rid of everything" and then ended up pregnant. I think it's a sign. All these old baby clothes have to go so we can buy some more! Bin after bin was emptied, keeping only the most special things. I think we went from over 20 bins down to about 4. My store room is practically empty now!

Ben "helping" me sort through clothes...these pants are 0-3 months...

Yep, a little snug....

I was glad our neighborhood was having a sale because that really got us motivated to clean things out. The majority of our stuff was the kids clothes....I think we used about 10 long tables plus a hanging rod to display it all! Yard sales are always so much work, but we all helped out and it was fun. The kids had a cookie and lemonade stand and had a blast. We ended up making several hundred dollars on our junk so it was worth the time!

TOOTHPASTE

This was one of those nights when we put the kids to bed and they Ben didn't really go to bed. And sometimes I am a lazy mom..... I could hear little feet scurrying upstairs but simply did not have the energy to go up there and deal with it. I figured someday they he would fall asleep and all would be fine. Not this night, however. I can't remember what it was that finally got me upstairs, but let's just say the usual pee scent drafting from my boys room was replaced with a fresh, minty smell that was oh-so-noticeable the second I hit the landing. This is what I found....

Thankfully he used two FULL tubes of whitening paste so even after my right-before-bed carpet cleaning session, the carpet remained bleached. It does, however, smell better than it has in months. I am going to bed......this child is going to kill me........

FROGGY

This little frog was captured by Chris while he was mowing the lawn tonight. He, of course, gave it to Ben, who proceded to "love" it to death. He and froggy were best friends. Froggy stayed pretty close to Ben since he wouldn't let go of Froggy's back leg.... 

 Even lots of kisses couldn't nurse Froggy back to health....

When it was bedtime, Ben said good-gye to his new friend and off froggy went, probably to find a quiet place to die.

STAR

Olivia is Star of the Week! She is so excited! She took three special items with her today to share with her class....her new shell necklace, beaded anklet and her lion. Tomorrow is picture day so we dug out all of her favorite pictures to take. Wednesday she will read the class her favorite book of all time, Olivia Saves the Circus. On Thursday Chris and I will join her for a special luncheon at school and Friday is celebration day. She has been waiting all her for her week to arrive. She just filled out a paper about herself with the following answers:

name: Olivia J. Smith
age: 9
if you could be any animal, what would you be? A lion
favorite book: Olivia Saves the Circus
what you want to be when you grow up: A third grade teacher and a hip hop teacher
favorite subject in school: History and Science
if you could take a trip to anywhere, where would you go? South Dakota or back to Germany
favorite ice cream flavor: Cotton Candy
favorite sport: Dance
favorite thing to do on a saturday afternoon: Eat and sleep and eat and sleep...or go to Culvers!

Livi is my darling girl. I could eat her up she is so stinkin sweet! She's just getting big way too fast. It was fun looking through old photos and seeing her cute little face.  You'll always be your momma's star, Livi Lou!

MOTHER'S DAY

Oh, I love these kids! They were so cute to postpone my Mother's Day until the Sunday after we got back from Florida! As always, they spoiled me rotten and I felt very loved. You guys are absolutely the cutest little bugs on the planet! I love every minute I spend with you. There is nothing else I would rather do than be your mommy. XOXOXOXO

FLORIDA

Chris and I escaped to Florida with my family and had an amazing time! Thanks to my mom and dad, we vacationed in total high class luxury for an entire week! The best part was being together and we did so many fun things. The highlights: relaxing on the beach, parasailing over the ocean, the Miami night life, the swamp ride to hunt for alligators, my list could go on and on....

Our condo we shared with John and Kat

We had Mother's Day breakfast on the patio for mom

I could wake up to this every day...

We slept in every day, worked out on the beach and then
Chris had his favorite thing for breakfast...

Them waves are big, boys...

Seriously....

Steak Night! Soo goood. These babies were $30.00/pound...
If I'd been buying, we would have all shared one!
Chris and Thad tried to teach John how to grill...

...but John was more interested in what the girls were doing!

The Masters of the grill

In Heaven

We saw tons of these jelly fish on the beach...watch out for that stinger on the bottom!

Thad was the Birthday Boy while we were there and needed to get himself a Cuban cigar and a hat...
So off we went to Miami for the night!

Bienvenido a Miami..

Mom and Dad

John and Kat, who faired well with the Cuban Policeman..

The Birthday Boy and his chica

The hat, some good Cuban food and ghetto rap in the limo made for a really fun night.
John really shouldn't know those songs as well as he did....

This "personal"pizza is almost as big as John's head...wow, this was good italian!

Surviving parasailing...that is a death grip I have on Chris' hand...

The happy crew, all done flying!

I am so glad my sister was able to talk me into this parasailing thing! It was, hands down, my most favorite part of the trip! Once Chris and I got up there, the view was amazingand the ride was so smooth. We saw all kinds of things in the water below us...huge schools of fish, big turtles, and either a sting ray or a manatee. And then, on our way back to the boat, the driver dipped our toes in the water directly above an 8 foot bull shark! Unfortunately, they couldn't see it from the boat but we were pointing and gesturing so they knew something was below us! It was so exciting. I can' wait to try it again sometime!

Saying good-bye to the boat

Several hundred feet in the air.....amazing!

"just aim for the bullseye..." 

Me and the hubs

Our accomodations for the swamp boat ride...

I thought a swamp was full of trees and vines and snakes all over...

...but we did see some of these bad boys!

Captain Peanut on the "Beautiful Homes" waterway tour

Funny thing, in my excitement of seeing this little boat, I deleted the photo of Tiger Woods' yacht...

just kidding...

And look! We bought a new place for the winter...

...Chris' transportation, for the winter of course

Guess who brought the games for the last night???

Okay, fun story. While we were there, we kept seeing these little things popping up all over the beach:

Our hotel's beach man, Tony, was more than happy to introduce us to the Leatherback turtles that were in the process of nesting right there on our beach! Apparently, the island is HUGE into the conservation of these turtles and there is a turtle hotline that is called when a nest is spotted. The turtle crew reports to the site immediately to mark and tape off the area so the nest isn't disturbed. Tony told us all about them, that they follow the moon up onto the beach late at night to lay their eggs. He also told us that if we wanted to see them we could wait on the beach between 11pm-2am, but to be sure to be quiet, not bring any flashlights and not to touch them or they would head straight back to the ocean without nesting. Oh, I was soooo in! We went down one night, but it was so windy that we didn't stay long. We, okay I, was determined to see myself a turtle! So the last night we walked and walked up and down the beach, seeing absolutely nothing. It was pitch black, except for the moon, and that was a tiny bit creepy. Then all of a sudden, we stopped short. Maybe three feet in front of us was this not-so-little lady:

We crouched down on the far side of the lounger to watch. She was swishing sand around her for what seemed like forever! I had to get a quick picture so I snuck around the end of the lounger, got my camera adjusted to the lack of light and just as I took it, we heard a loud,"Hey! You can't do that!" from behind us. I nearly died right there on the spot. This lady had come out of absolute nowhere and was yelling at us to stop "harassing" the turtle. I "shushed" her at first, worried she would disrupt the nesting and then we would have trouble on our hands. I honestly thought she was drunk because she was so loud but maybe she was part of the turtle crew, we weren't sure. She went on and on about how we can be fined thousands of dollars, etc. etc. and just read us the right act. She finally left when Chris told her to "get out of here!" It wasn't long after that we decided it was time for us to high tail it out of there, just to be safe! But isn't she cool? She was a big old thing, covered in barnacles and bony plates. Not quite as cute as those turtles in Finding Nemo but she was really amazing to see!

We all flew out on Saturday afternoon so we spent the morning touring this little place and having lunch together one last time:

 John and Kat were on our flight with us to Atlanta and we had fun hanging out at the gate before the plane boarded. And, lucky for John, big sis was there to help him out when he got hung up in security with his C-PAP...

It looks to me like he is sweating....

Ah, good times! We laughed so hard and made some great memories on this trip. Thank you, Mom and Dad for all the effort to get us together and entertain us so well! Love you!