Happy Birthday William Luke

Pool time

It's my party and I will sleep of I want to

Vacation Day 1

So we debated back and forth for a while about what to do for spring break this year.  We finally decided to pull the trigger on the cruise and then it was full.  Yeah, spring break is a popular time for cruising.  But then a week later the travel agent said there was an opening so we jumped on it.  Most people thought we were crazy for taking our three young kids on a 7 day cruise by ourselves but we all had a great time!  Next time we hope to convince some grandparents to come along but if not we’d still to it again.  The best part for us, we left out of New Orleans so we only had a 25 min drive!


Waiting…lots of waiting to board the ship but thanks to Justin’s ties with the port we got early boarding which was nice with the kids.  We got one by 11am and where able to have lunch before it got too crowded.


Everybody checking out the view from our room.  We had what they call a family suite, your typical cruise queen, a fold out couch for two and a bunk bed.  It worked out perfect for us.

Since we got on so early we had some time to check everything out.  A quick round of miniature golf.

One game was all he could handle!

View from our cabin. 


Having fun playing while the others swam.  Biggest draw back to taking a 2 yr old on the cruise.  They don’t allow them in the pools.  Bad when you have old siblings but he did ok with it and on the last day we let him play around a little bit.


He fell asleep many time in the stroller this week.

First swim.

Happy birthday

Loving Hot Sauce

Just a little rain…

Large live oaks shredding leaves like crazy plus grown adults that don’t know how to use a trash can, leads to clogged storm drains, which leads to flooded streets when you get heavy rains for two days straight.

I put on my rain boots and went out Friday morning after it stopped raining and raked our way out of the neighborhood. 

Special Birthday Boy

Yeap, it’s not his real birthday quite yet, but his Mimi loves him too much and let him start celebrating this weekend. 

It is safe to say all three kids had a good time celebrating his birthday day.

Mimi kept telling the kids she had a “special friend” coming to visit…

And Mimi’s biggest fear came true when the first words from Elizabeth upon seeing the pony’s, “You bought a pony Mimi!!”

Anxiously awaiting the ponies to get saddled up.

He had no fears jumping on, but he carefully held on with both hands the whole time.  At one point the riding about but this tired little boy to sleep!

I’m pretty sure this little girl loved this the most!

And Logan was probably the most unsure about the pony’s at first, loved every minute of it too.  Sadly though, the ponies did have to go home!

And these are all the adults who wanted to ride but couldn’t because of the 60lbs weight limit.

 

Luke loved the attention and just sat back and took it all in.

These hands and this face speak to a successful 2nd birthday party!  Thanks to all the family that came over.  It was great seeing everyone.

“Green fun”

 

The Audubon Zoo was having “Green” day today.  It was a combo Earth day/ St Pattys.

 

 

Part of the entertainment was Marvel comics.  It was really bad but the kids loved it.  Ironman, Captin America, Hulk, and Zore in the flesh.  Kept the kids complete attention for 30+ mins.  At the end the kids had to be sworn in as “super heros in training”.

 

This trap was set up special for Earth day festivities.  it kept the boys entertained while Elizabeth did an endless list of “projects”.

Luke started off the day in a great silly mode but after four hours he didn’t leave with this same grin.

This is a raise rope/climbing wall in the “swamp” section of the zoo. 

 

To cap off St Patty’s we decided to go traditional with corned beef, cabbage (fresh from the garden!), carrots and potatoes.  Even though we did feed our kids throughout the day, they ate all of this like they were ravenous.  Logan probably ate over 1/2lb corned beef himself.  Happy St Patty’s Day!

Easter “grab”

So we took the kids to Lakeside mall for an Easter egg hunt.  The kids where drooling as they stood around these marked off spots filled with candy. 

We are proud to say we picked up NO candy.  We let our kids pick up their own candy.  We can not say that for the other 80% of parents there. 

 

Our kids loved the bunny train ride.  This first little boy screamed the entire ride, Luke screamed like that when it was over.

Giving daddy hi fives around the corner.

Good Morning!

No wonder the kids like it when daddy fixes breakfast!  Mama’s not complaining either.

Busy weekend doing nothing!

We spent the weekend working around the house for the most part. We moved bulbs around, planted a few new flowers, and started re-mulching the flower beds. Maybe if we have another weekend of good weather we can get it finished.  I looked out the back window at one point and saw this rare moment of working together.

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This kid is just constant trouble. If you don’t see him, find him and he’s sure to be into something he shouldn’t be!

 

We did pizza night again but added a new twist - the EGG.  Justin got this for his birthday so we have this a try.  It really crisps up the crust much better than the oven usually does so this may be a new standard.