Four very busy months behind us.... yeee'owww. No wonder I have been putting off this blog post.....
Oh WHERE DO I BEGIN???
Besides working on the improvements and new images on my website, this house has been a CRAZY one!!! Enjoy.....
xoxoxoxo
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My Mom and Tom moved to Florida, just 3 miles from us in mid-February. It's been amazing having them here... they spend SO much time with the kids, showing up for all of their school activities, sporting events, dinners, sleepovers, parties, swimming, pizza night, babysitting and more. When the kids get bored, they ask to go to Nanas.... I feel so lucky for that. When they have something fun going on, they want to go share it with them. Tom has taught both kids how to play chess and they're actually REALLY GOOD! They are full-on involved and I know it's just as good for them as it is us.
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FEBRUARY! We were BUSY BUSY BUSY.....
Luke started Kickball! He played from 5-6:30pm every Thurs and it was HOT. The late afternoon sun is SO super strong but we never missed a game. By the end he was REALLY getting good, even asked to pitch. Just another time that my children leave me in awe by how quickly they learn. He loved it and was very sad when the season ended! We met a lot of great parents and had fun sitting on the side making fun of the refs... they really were awful - pretty sure they were serving some sort of community service or being punished for being just plain stupid. Oh-well... lots of laughs and we'd do it again in a second!
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Liv started gymnastics.... she SO reminded me of a "little me". She was very focused and kept her head in the game and her cartwheels started off SUPER clumsy and ended up being pretty straight! I loved that hour at the Y... Luke played with the older boy siblings of Liv's girlfriends who were in class with her. I got to chat it up with some of my favorite mommy friends (and daddy friends too). They celebrated the end of the session by doing a Mini-Olympics. HOLY CUTENESS. There were red/white/blue balloons everywhere. Each child got to step up on the platform and receive a trophy (Oh, Luke is STILL not over the fact that Liv got a trophy before he did) and her Nana brought her flowers... so sweet! They all performed for all of the parents, it was so formal and so adorable.... well worth the extra $25 they suckered out of us!
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I volunteered to head up the WatchDogs Program at the kids school..... this is a nationwide program put on by Fathers.com - a Nat'l center for Fathering. This was SO exciting for me..... I REALLY wanted to be involved somehow in the school and since I absolutely love being in control and running the show, when the opportunity to "run" a program presented itself, of course I grabbed it. (Thank you, Pati Hall!!) I initiated a launch event (Pizza Night) at the school and over 150 people attended - HOW exciting! (my milkshake brings all the dads to the school...... just kidding) SO many dads signed up to come in and devote an entire day to just being there as a positive male role model. (not gonna lie, men are a LOT easier to deal with than women when it comes to scheduling :) Having dads, step-dads, grand-dad in the school was so amazing for the kids - they loved it and I think every school should take part in this program!
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MARCH!
March we had Spring Break and we went to a friend's house in Key Largo... it was AMAZING... SO fun. Our friends are sort of a bad influence in that they make really fabulous cocktails and I drank a little too much for sure. The kids had a blast and since that weekend, they have moved on from sneaking into our bed at night to sleeping in their own beds ALL NIGHT LONG. No clue what really did it for them but who cares - WOO HOO!
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The kids both started playing SOCCER. I can't say enough about this amazing company (Massive Soccer Coaching) that leads the program. Besides the fact that we LOVE LOVE LOVE (with all of our hearts) the Head Coach and his family ~ they run a REAL program that completely focuses on the kids having fun and learning real skills. I am pretty sure that as we head north for this next year, we will not find anything even CLOSE to Massive so I'm fully expecting Frasier Foster to pick up where he left off with my children when we return to Florida. They WILL be soccer players. In fact, Luke has stopped playing most of those hideous games he loves on the iPad and has downloaded all international soccer games. Somehow I believe this MUST be enhancing his skills, no? I have watched Luke improve his game 100% and even though they come off the field with red faces, muddy pants and soaking wet shirts - they love every second of it. (Honestly, Olivia mostly twirls her hair and looks cute in her shinguards but I know that when given the chance, she has a mean dribble!)
(ok, QUIZ!! how many times have I used the word "amazing" so far?!)
APRIL!
We had a really fun visit with my step-bro Joe, Kristianna & the kids (Annabella and Gabriel). They were here for a week and we spent some really special time with them. It was particularly sweet watching Annabella (who is exactly one year to the day older than Liv) play, swim, dress up with and attend church with Liv. They both cried when it was time to say good-bye. I get sad that we aren't closer to cousins. My brother's little girl (who is not so little anymore) and my stepbrothers children are all too far away and my kids are totally at the age where they LOVE being with family... Sigh....
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We were invited out to Fort Myers (& Sanibel Island) for the weekend with some friends from up north. Another fun trip and so great to see the "other side" of Florida. Sanibel Island beaches are unbelievable. The boys got to fish (even though Adam forgot to clean the bait bucket before putting it in my car), the kids played on the beach, mamas sunbathed with cocktails and we all had a ball.
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The kids had swim lessons - I mean real, live, no joke, push them under the water and keep them there SWIM lessons. I was SO torn about this company. The lessons were going to be at the dude's house, in his 90 degree water outdoor pool and by the end of the five days, my kids were guaranteed to be swimming. The only instructions I was given was that I had to stay indoors and watch through the one sided glass doors and NOT to come out, even if my child was screaming for me. Oh. My. Gosh. Long story short, they both responded beautifully to Miss Jeannie and by the end of the first day, they were totally comfortable swimming with their faces submerged and holding their breath! I was DUMBfounded. Those 5 short days (1/2 hour for each child each day) absolutely changed my life. It is such a relief to live in a house that has a pool and not worry for a second about them falling in. I watched every second of their lessons and I still have no idea how it worked. It was perfect timing for them to be in that pool with such a strong instructor building confidence in them that neither my husband nor I could have done for them in the past. Worth every single cent....... Olivia is a master swimmer... she swims every single day, dives to the bottom of the pool to get whatever it is we throw down there and now is swimming back and forth the whole length of the pool with only a couple of quick breaths. Brilliant, i say.
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