Spring Break (Day #4) EASTER

Those who attended church.

 

and those who didn't attend church today.

 

After a very loud attempt by Amelia and Ava to spy on any Easter preparation activities last night, the girls did finally get to sleep and did awake to find their Easter baskets.  Jenna didn't really know what to expect, and Andrew would have rather slept in longer.  Amelia was happy with her glitter pens, Ava with her light up slippers, Jenna with her gum and Andrew with his new Kids Clip!  Ava sang "Christ is Risen" with her cherub choir today at the 10am Mass.  Grandma and Grandpa came up to watch. We all met back at home for brunch.  We had a wonderful Easter Sunday.

Spring Break (Day #3)

JENNA'S FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY!!

 

Here's Jenna, Quincy & Mary as they came downstairs this morning to see the birthday decorations.

 

Here's Jenna waiting for her guests to arrive.

 Here is mostly everybody after our Easter Egg Hunt.

Everyone got a turn at the pinata.

Here's Jenna enjoying her Dora cake.

(And in reverse) Jenna getting her cake.

Jenna opening her presents.  She got a cash register, food, princess cupcake game, and pretty dresses.

 

WE HAD A FUN PARTY!  Thanks everybody!

Spring Break (Day 2)

Two of my very good friends came over this morning for an "Easter Party".  We dyed eggs, played, talked and had lunch. 

Spring Break (Day 1)

Amelia attended a Japanese Art class this morning at FCC with her friend Kirsten.

 

Jenna receiving her sticker from her dance teacher.

 

While Amelia was gone, Ava had a playdate here with her friend Cameron.

 

 

Ava's Solar System

This is Ava's entry into her school science fair.   The solar system is inside the box!

Spring Snow

The kids are off school today.  We have 4 inches of snow, and it's still snowing!! 

Easter Egg Hunt!

Thanks to my friend Mary, we were advised that we should check out this fun Easter Egg hunt today in Germantown.  Here's Amelia before we started the hunt.  See all those eggs?  There were 30,000!

 

Ava enjoying warm popcorn.  It was windy & cold today!

Here's the grades 1-5 section.  We're counting down!

Lots of kids, lots of eggs.

Jenna was with Dave in the ages 4-5 section. 

Here we are after all was said and done!

And at home... LOTS of tootsie rolls and stickers.

Ava Sings

Here is Ava practicing tonight at church.  The cherub and older kids choir will sing together at Easter Sunday Mass.

Hawaiian Mary

An early birthday present for Jenna and Mary!  An outfit all the way from Hawaii!

Come on Spring!!

The daffodils are in bloom... now where is our warm weather?

Happy 72nd Birthday to MY Mom!!

Troop 81647

Ava and her Troop had a re-dedication ceremony yesterday.  Here's a picture of Ava with her friends at the end of their ceremony.

SNOWQUESTER (thanks Ann)

The kids and Dave were home from school today with what was too be a huge blizzard for us.  We got about 4-5 inches of slushy, messy snow.  We had enough though to play outside, build snow buildings, go sledding, swinging and cupcake decorating.

 

A view of the backyard this morning.

 

Girlsies sledding.

Best place to watch the snow come down.

 

Cupcakes!  The finished product.

                                     Jenna modeling the hat my Grandma knitted for me when I was a kid.

BACK TO SCHOOL!

Jenna returned to Kiddie Hawks today!  She was very excited to see all her "pretty girl" teachers.

FAMILY ADVENTURE- FLORIDA IN FEBRUARY!!

Our first stop - A great empty park with a carousel by the beach in St. Augustine, FL.

Horses go round are always fun. 

The carousel was all OURS!

and OURS! 

This is our first show at Sea World.  The dolphin show - a favorite for us all.

 

Ava was the only one brave enough to take this ride (Journey to Atlantis) with Dave.

 

 One of Jenna's favorite times.... feeding the birds pizza for lunch. 

Getting reading for The One Ocean show. 

See Dave and Jenna's heads?  They are in the splash zone.

 

Jenna's favorite ride - Shamu the roller coaster!

Ava & Amelia on the jellies.


Up and down on this Crab Crawl ride.



Amelia finally seeing the beluga whales whe wanted to see so bad.  They are diving in this picture.


The sting ray tank.  Lots of babies.

 

Jenna before our character breakfast.

Ahhhh!! Minnie!!!  Fake Minnie!

Everyone posing with Minnie.

Girls with Donald.


Swimming - another must on this trip!

Happiness

Nighttime at our hotel in Orlando.  Ava, Andrew and I were on a search for chocolate chip cookies.

Viera Beach, FL - Home of Nationals Training camp.



Our hotel in St. Augustine-World Golf Village - this is our view while eating dinner.

Jenna cracking up at dinner! We haven't seen her laugh that hard.  It was cold too!


Our next morning in downtown St. Augustine.  Lots of pretty scenery and shops.

St. Augustine


The beach.  A little chilly, but empty and beautiful.

Lunch by the beach.  Drew ordered crabcakes.



Waiting for our lunch.

Just chillin on the hotel grounds with pink rabbit.

We decided to make a last minute trip to Florida to escape the cold winter!!  I took over 300 pictures and tried to post the best which are posted above.

The main focus of this trip was a visit to Sea World.  We drove down, stopping in Yemassee, SC.  We took a detour once we got to Floria and headed to the beach.  We picked up some hot dogs from a beach stand and found this great EMPTY park with a carousel!  We stayed here for awhile, eating our lunch, playing, stretching and riding that carousel!

Next, we drove to Orlando and checked in at Doubletree hotel at Sea World.  We could walk to Sea World!  After several room changes, we were the only ones brave enough to hit the pool at night.  The water was warm, but the air was chilly.  We spent the entire next day at Sea World.  The highlights from the kids were, the dolphin show, feeding the birds pizza for lunch, the Shamu kiddie roller coaster, and up close and personal with Beluga whales and dolphins.  We were there with very few people when the park closed at 7pm.  We went back to our hotel and crashed. 

The next morning, we had reservations at Cape May Restaurant at Disney's Beach Club resort for a character breakfast with Minnie, Donald and Goofy.  Jenna wasn't as leary this time.  Drew was.  He didn't want anything to do with meeting those characters.  After breakfast we walked around downtown Disney checking out our favorites TRex, Lego and Disney stores.  We went home for an afternoon of swimming. 

We left our hotel on Thursday morning and headed for the coast and Viera Beach, FL where the Nationals train.  We found the team training and watched for awhile.  We then headed North to our hotel in St. Augustine at the World Golf Village.  We spent all of Friday walking downtown St. Augustine, shopping, having a great lunch at the beach and even playing and taking a stretch break on the beach.  We spent our last evening, at our snazzy hotel, walking around the beautiful grounds. 

We decided to make it straight home on Saturday.  We made it in twelve and a half hours!  We were home in our own beds by 7:30pm last night.  It's cold here, they are calling for a significant snow storm this week, but the kids have school and our "regular" life must continue.