Happy Grandparent's Day

Yesterday we had dinner at our house in celebration of Grandparent's Day.  Mima, Papa, Grandaddy, Grandma and Grandpa were able to join us.  We missed you Granmommy and wish you could have been here, too!  

I made grilled chicken topped with bacon, mushrooms and cheese; baked sweet potatoes; strawberry romaine salad and rolls.  Lillian drew some sweet cards at school for everyone.  Her teacher thought it was so funny when I told her she needed to make four cards - such lucky kids to have so many sets of grandparents to love!

Caleb's 2nd Annual Week at Grandma and Grandpa's

My mom was thoughtful enough to send me a bunch of pictures from Caleb's week in Daytona.  I have no idea what order they should be in, but I wanted to have them on here for him (and them) to look at and remember!

 One of my favorite arcade games, along with pinball and air hockey :)

 Hopefully he drives a go-kart cleaner than his mom does :)

Grandpa's birthday dinner at Ale House - Caleb got to have the free birthday dessert!

Trip Pics

These are long overdue, I know! It has been crazy around here this week with me attempting to get us all prepared for school. I am trying really hard to be more prepared this year and not fly by the seat of my pants like I did last year. That really isn't my nature and I'm not very good at it! Don't get me wrong, we had a great year and Caleb learned a TON, but with a newborn in the mix and a new kindergartner, I will definitely need to be as organized as possible. I also hope to be more intentional with my activities for Lillian and Jackson. Lillian is telling me now that she doesn't want to homeschool for Kindergarten so I have 2 years to make her enjoy learning at home and hopefully change her mind! :)

Here are some pictures my mom e-mailed me from their escapades in Daytona. I think it is safe to say Caleb had a blast, hopefully they did, too! :) One thing I didn't have a picture of yet is their trek to the top of the lighthouse, but he does have a souvenir t-shirt from it. Every time I looked at a picture she had sent, I felt like Caleb looked so much older!

We met halfway on Sunday to fetch him and worked in a trip to IKEA while we were in Orlando. I had asked the kids what they wanted to do our last couple of weeks before we started school and both girls wanted to go play in the playplace there. So we all visited over lunch in the cafe, which happened to have free kids meals that day... no minimum purchase, no limit on how many you could get! After the kids played and we shopped for a bit, Scott and I joked about taking them back there for a free dinner! But then Caleb asked if we could have a family dinner out somewhere to celebrate him coming home (that's my boy - any excuse to eat out!) and he wanted to eat at Bob Evans. Uncle Austin and Grandaddy met us at the Bob Evans in north Lakeland as we were getting back to town and we enjoyed a yummy dinner together. Their kids meals are super cheap and all my kids wanted breakfast, so we got to bring their leftovers home and finish them up the next morning.

Caleb Takes a Trip

Yesterday my oldest "little man" left to spend a week at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They came and got him mid-day and I miss him so much already! They have all kinds of fun things planned for the week - I joked with my mom that I wanted to come next time!

This is the longest any of our kids have been away from us. The girls are already counting down until they are old enough to make the trip! I know they will all have a blast together but I sure can't wait to see my boy again on Sunday...

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today was a big milestone birthday for Grandma (don't worry mom, we won't sell you out on the blog). :) Taking full advantage of our flexible homeschooling schedule, I decided we we would go and visit her for the day to help her celebrate. We all had lunch at the Daytona Ale House and the kids got to play pool for the first time ever. Caleb loved it! We had lots of yummy food... I ate some french onion soup and steak fajitas. The kids enjoyed their usual kid fare (pizza, grilled cheese, hot dog, etc.) except for Caleb who announced that he wanted grilled shrimp and tossed salad with ranch.

My mom isn't too big on sweets so she kindly passed on her free birthday dessert to me - a luscious brownie sundae. It was amazing, one of the best I have ever tasted. I didn't even eat dinner and I still feel full from lunch!

Happy Birthday Grandma (Mom) - so glad we got to spend the day with you!

Please excuse the food hanging from my son's mouth!

Happy Grandparent's Day!

Today we had Grandparent's Day dessert at our house to celebrate the holiday. We missed you Grandma, Grandpa, Papa and Granmommy!! Spoiler alert - the kids made you a little craft so don't look at the pictures if you don't want to see it ahead of time since I didn't get them in the mail early enough (as usual)... We had lots of arts and crafts time this past school week!

Caleb, Ella, Lillian and Jackson love you all so much and feel so blessed to have SIX wonderful grandparents!

And Aunt Cissy we enjoyed celebrating with you even though you aren't our grandparent, but a grandparent nonetheless!

Wreaths and other goodies for the grandparents and some homemade (coffee filters and pipe cleaners) watercolor flowers for Aunt Cissy.

"Make your own ice cream sundae" bar!