First Spring Soccer game and getting ready for Easter

We had more of a normal weekend at home this past weekend which is good because next weekend we are once again a family on the go traveling down south to see our friends the Sherman Family for Easter.  We had Jackson's first spring soccer game Saturday morning.  Jon is once again coaching and they are both enjoying it.  Jackson is really pretty darn good at soccer, it is amazing to sit and watch and at 4, I can already immediately tell the boys that are athletic and those that just are NOT.  Thank goodness we have an athlete in the house or I think Jon would die:)

I worked most of the day Saturday to catch up on work I did not get done last week when we were off for a few days at Disney and also to get ahead for the time I will be out this coming week for Easter.  Saturday night we stayed in and enjoyed dinner out on our patio which was really nice.  It was unseasonably warm here this weekend, like summer weather out of nowwhere, we've had two days with near record setting temps for March, temps near 90 both days so we spent a lot of time outside and in the pool.  Today I spent a lot of time getting things set out for our Easter trip and we also colored some eggs and made special Easter cards to send north.  We have a short three day work week ahead of us but it will be a jam packed three days so we're trying to start the week off as organized as possible in that regard!

 

Have a good week and a Happy Easter all:)  I hope that darn snow stops...looks like a good bit of Ohio was getting quite the snow showers and cold temps, ugh.  I can remember warm Easters, but I can also rembmer those years where it is just cold and winter did not seem to want to let up.  Hopefully this is the end of that. 

Disney in a flash.....

Phew, it's been a busy past 6 days or so!!  We had a great visit with Mimi and Papa and got to see their friends too and share a bit of our life and home wiht them all...I would show you pictures from that fun night but Sarabeth got the memory chip from my camera AND PUT IT IN HER MOUTH before I could upload the pictures and the card is fried...I could cry and scream at the same time.  Good thing that there were only about 30 pictures from that night on the card (adorable as they were with everyone all dressed up and the adults driving in Deke's "old fashioned car") as Jackson called it!!  I will have to wait for someone to email me a picture from Julie or Hopie's cameras, thank goodness mine was not the only one but I had the bulk of the pictures, BUMMER.

We also made a marathon trip to WDW with Mimi and Papa, we had a villa room at the Boardwalk hotel, the pool had been newly renovated and the location was great! Then, at the end of their trip and when we returned home, we had our friends from the UK, Stuart and Laura (who we met in Costa Rica nearly five years ago) and their son William who is 3 in tow to visit with us for a day at our house!  We had a great time both at Disney (Jack had the best 24 hours of his life thus far I think) and at home with our friends from "across the pond" we had a nice visit.  They happened to be in Olrando for two weeks and contacted us so we set this all up and they followed us in their rental car back to our house for a fun day together!!  We all slept WELL last night to say the least but it was a very fun time to get to do all of these things with all of our spring visitors. 

I still have to edit the photos but here is a sneak peek of the Disney trip!!

Spring visit with Mimi and Papa

We are feeling pretty lucky as we approach St. Patrick's day because we have our Mimi and Papa in town this week!  They arrived Thursday and to Jackson's delight, picked him up at school on their way in to town and took him to the park before heading home.  He could barely contain his excitement for days in advance and I had to warn his teachers so they would be prepared:)  He was a very good boy all week and stayed on the green light at school all week in anticipation (he did not want Papa to see his "car" with his name on it on the red light)!!  Thursday night we grilled out at home and due to the warm sunny days and cooler nights, we enjoyed a fire in our fireplace after the kids went to bed.  It was nice to have some quiet adult time to visit and catch up.  They slept over Thursday night and Friday morning we woke up and got going and headed out to breakfast as a group before I went to work for a few hours.  We had breakfast at the local place at our little tiny Vero airport and it was really fun!  Our airport here is small, really small, and only lands small planes and private jets (and there are a lot of them coming into town these next few weeks prior to Easter) and the restaurant sits right along the run ways with views of the planes coming and going.  There is also a pretty garden right outside the restaurant between the restaurant and the runways for little ones to run around and watch the planes while they wait to eat, it was a huge hit! 

We had a great breakfast, I headed to work, and everyone else enjoyed a nice sunny day at home to play.  Tonight everyone is coming to our house to see the kids and our home and then we have a sitter coming to stay with the kids and Jon and I have been invited to join the group for dinner at our favorite place, The Ocean Grill.  Monday morning we are picking up Mimi and Papa from their friend's house and off to Disney we shall go!  We have reservations for a villa at Disney's Boardwalk resort, a fun Monday planned at Magic Kingdom, with dinner in Paris at Epcot Monday night and we are capping off our visit with Chef Mickey Character Breakfast Tuesday morning.  Everyone is sure to sleep good Tuesday night!!!  Pictures of our Disney experience to come!  We Love living in Florida and we love spring time visitors:) P.S. Jackson insisted on dressing identical to papa!!!

Jackson-isms

Jackson is switfly rounding the corner towards his 5th birthday.  This coming year will bring big changes to our household with him going off to Kindergarten at the local catholic school.  He has really grown this year in independence and with his reading, writing, counting, and verbal skills.  He says things every day that amaze me.  The other day he was outside with me and we were talking about the birds and he saw a hawk-like bird and told me very matter of factly that "did I know that the hawk was a predator to a mouse"???  I was surprised he even knew the word predator, much less how to use it in a sentence.  He is growing up so fast!  He has a group of little neighborhood friends now and he has flight in him...he is the youngest (which I don't like because he trys so hard to keep up and sometimes he is just too young).  He knows the rules but the minute his "friends" are in site, it is like whatever I've told him is OUT the door along with him so we are working very hard on establishing those rules for going to and from a neighbors house, asking our permission, understanding time to come home adn not being upset about that, etc.  He is up for anythign most anytime and that is one of our favorite things about him!  He is growing up to be such a good boy and a great big brother.  Today he held the door for me (normally I open it for him) so it caught me off guard.  I tried to take the door from him so he could go out and I could be sure it was shut and he said "no mommy, girls go first, boys hold the door for girls"!  I was amazed and asked where he learned that and he said "at school".  He has a really good teacher this year and it really shows in Jack.  I will close this post with a funny comment he made the other day which tells us just where he is right now:  This past Sunday morning Jon and I were finishing breakfast at the table, the kids were playing and Jon was looking at the paper and we were just talking, kind of planning out the day, and Jack came up and asked me what we were doing and I said "just visiting with daddy" and Jack said "Mommy, you're silly, daddy is not visiting, HE LIVES HERE"!!!  Very literal at this stage!

trip to the fair

We had a busy weekend this past weekend trying to get the last details of our room re-model pulled together (the details seem to take the most time).  We also took on the task of spring planting of flowers in the front yard, and of course after the bedroom project our garage was a war zone so that had to be emptied out and re-organized once again.  Saturday night Jon and I had tickets to Les Mis which is playing at our local theater.  It was a beautiful show to see live and a nice night out, despite the fact that we were wiped out from all of our house project of late!!  Sunday brought a day of rest at home until the late afternoon when we met another family from Jack's school at the fair which is in town for the next week or so!  In Florida the fair comes to town in March while it is still nice out but not too hot!!  We love the fair and visit every year at least once, maybe twice if Jack is lucky!!

Sarabeth also enjoyed the fair this year, although she is not big enough to ride any of the rides besides the merry go round, she enjoyed the treats (especially the cotton candy) and she liked seeing the animals.  Jackon and his buddy Ryan were just a bunch of silly boys and loved to ride the rides and enjoyed the snacks too!  We are on teh count down this week for Mimi and Papa's visit which we will cap off early next week with a trip to WALT DISNEY WORLD...Jackson can hardly stand it and is already telling us about "all of the rides" he is taking Papa on...Papa...we hope you are ready for this, Thunder Mountain railroad is at the top of his list!!