Recent happenings

Our weekends have been full & fun these days with plenty of time spent with family & friends!

 

We had a few leftover tickets from our Disney trip in 2014 that we hadn't used, so it was time to plan a trip to the most magical place on Earth.  And who better to spend it with than our besties, Matt & Kelly?  It turned out that our tickets had expired, but despite that, Disney issued us four free tickets because they "value us as customers."  How awesome is that?!



The weather was spectacular the day we went & we had the best time.  Epcot is by far my favorite park at Disney since I love their World Showcase of countries.  Love trying the different food & drinks & meeting the staff from each country.  It's the closest I've come to traveling around the world!



The kids were so excited to meet the characters.  At first Cam tried to play it cool & say he didn't want to meet Pluto since "he was just a person in a costume."  Low & behold, he loved it so much that he ran back for one extra hug.

 

 

It just so happened that the garden festival was going on so there were so many pretty colors surrounding us as we walked through the park.

We ended the night in France where we found this beautiful, quiet garden to watch the fireworks while we sipped on wine & ate scrumptious French food.  It was wonderful!



A few days after we came back, we celebrated Mike's 37th birthday & the kitties 14th birthday.  I made an ice cream cake by the Pioneer woman that was simple to put together & absolutely delish!  I used leftover candy from Easter so all I had to buy was ice cream, a pound cake & some magic shell chocolate topping.  Mike said it was his favorite birthday cake to date! 

Click here for the recipe, you'll love it!

While we enjoyed our ice cream cake, the kitties had a ball rolling around in a plate of cat nip.

 

In other happenings, Cameron has been doing awesome at baseball.  It's like a light bulb went on & he's playing better than he's ever played before.  It's really fun to watch!

This past weekend my Uncle Keith was in town from Chicago so my family scheduled an outing to the Rays vs. the White Sox for some tailgating & baseball.  Unfortunately I already had a baby shower planned this day, so I was incredibly bummed I wouldn't be able to make it.  When I found out the tailgating was happening early enough, I was so happy to be able to come out for a couple of hours before the game.  Tailgating is the best part anyway! 

The kids were so happy to hang with their cousins!

 

Maddy is always so sweet with Reese!

 

These two stinkers tend to leave their little cousin out of their exclusive Mikayla & Cameron club so I'm thankful Reese has Maddy.

Love getting to spend time with those that I love!!

Easter 2016

Another holiday has come & gone!!  With that being said, I realized that I only decorate my house for three holidays each year; Halloween, Thanksgiving/Fall & Christmas.  I do squat for Valentine's Day, St. Paddy's Day, Easter or the 4th of July.  I guess I'm just more drawn to the Fall!

 

We hadn't been down to my parent's house in Sarasota since Christmas so we were definitely ready for a long weekend there!  As Easter arrived, Cam's Spring break ended.  Since we work full-time, spring break doesn't mean all that much to Cam since he still has to go to the school all day & stay at their wrap-around program.  It's definitely nice not having to worry about homework though & get a break from baseball!  We did take the day after Easter off since it was a teacher planning day.  That meant one more day in Sarasota!

The cousins were united & it felt so good!  The dynamic duo of Cameron & Mikayla were apart for three whole months!!

Since then, Cameron has continued to shed more teeth, although he actually went a long stretch without losing any.

The boy has definitely been on a growth spurt lately & he'll be taller than me before you know it.  As he now asks for 2 sandwiches for dinner, I know he must be growing quickly!

Then there's my sweet, little Reese!  I got her signed up for pre-K in the Fall... where has the time gone?!  I'm so glad she's a November baby because I so wouldn't be ready for her to start kindergarten!

The kiddos were ready to find their baskets & go on an egg hunt when they woke up Easter morning!

This little boy was looking rather dapper in the outfit his Grammy bought him before she headed to Chicago.

Although the kids have seen my mom several times since Christmas, my dad's been working a lot so he hasn't been able to come up to our house.  It was so great to have the whole family back together again!

Even though Reese is getting older, the other kids have a much greater advantage, so we gave Reese a fifteen second head-start in finding eggs.  Not that they hadn't been on the pool deck all morning, scoping out the backyard ahead of time!

Reese was sporting a new dress that her Grammy bought too!

Handsome boy!

The girls!  And that's Easter in a nutshell... lots of catching up, hanging out, cooking & just enjoying each other!

Recent happenings

Baseball started back up a few weeks ago, so our weekends have been consumed with sports.  Not only is Cam playing spring ball, but Reese is signed up for tball this season too!  Cameron is also playing flag football on Sunday mornings.  That's a whole lot of activities packed into each weekend!

  

How stinking cute is Reese in these massive pants?!  Mike took the kids to be sized for their uniforms & apparently only a small would fit over her sizable belly!! 

The first couple of times that Reese batted, she ran to the pitcher's mound instead of first base.  Another time she tried to field her own hit instead of running to first base.  It is so funny to watch her games... nothing like a gaggle of four year-olds running aimlessly around the field!

Cam is having a great season so far too!  After they rearranged the ages last season, he completely skipped a league and went from coach pitch to kid pitch.  After they realized what a mistake this was, he's gone down to machine pitch which has been perfect.

Cameron got the game medal his first flag football game too!  It's his first time playing & he's loving it.  It helps that the weather has been super cool vs. unbearably hot.

If you haven't discovered this laundry soap/stain remover, you need to run out and buy it STAT!  The kids play baseball on bright orange clay & I have never been able to even budge the stains from their white pants.  In previous seasons, I basically tried & failed after game one & gave up, letting Cameron look homeless at the rest of his games.  Cameron's team mom mentioned this soap, so I ran out & picked it up at our local grocery store for about a dollar a bar.  It worked & Reese's pants are gleaming white after three games played!  It's the little victories in life that make me the happiest!!  My mother-in-law who is in town tells me that her mom used this soap when she was a kid; it's been around for a long time!

 

Speaking of victories, I've been wanting to clean our garage before the weather gets hot & we did just that this past weekend.  We literally took everything out, pressure washed the garage & shelves & put everything back in an organized way.  We also got rid of a lot of big things that no longer worked which saved a ton of room.  A guy came out & picked up a truck full of junk for about $80.  Big price but so worth it!!

We used to have a super cheap, wire shoe rack on the wall, but it would constantly break, showering the garage floor with shoes.  We took a run to IKEA on my day off last Wednesday in search of a better shoe rack.

 I liked this shoe rack since it had a built in bench, but I wasn't willing to spend $60. 

 As we wandered around, I noticed this narrow bookshelf for only $25; seemed like the perfect solution for our shoes & it was!  It is so nice that everything in our garage now has a tidy home.  I'm finding myself loitering out there, just so I can enjoy it in all it's glory!



Since I'm obsessed with turquoise, I've had my eye on this kitchen cart from IKEA for a long time.

I went with the intention of getting it as a bookshelf for Reese's room, but couldn't resist putting it in the kitchen.  Not only did it clear my counter of the cookbooks, but I freed up 3/4 of a pantry shelf by putting the big jars of flour & sugar as well as other baking essentials on the bottom two shelves.  Nothing better than ticking of the to-do list & getting things in order!

Camping & caving - Take 1

I've been living in Florida for the past 11 years & traveling here from Illinois since I was an infant, but in all those years, I never knew there were caves to be found here!

We were lucky enough to go with some experienced cavers that showed us the way.

Going into this trip, I didn't know what to expect in any way.  We were told to buy head lamps & that's about the gist of it.  I especially didn't know what to expect out of Reese since she tends to be a very cautious kid.

Reese shocked the heck out of us & boldly climbed in & out of the caves we visited.  She was even more fearless than me.  On the outside I may have appeared calm, but on the inside I was shaking in my boots!  The biggest fear was bumping into a large spider while I was in a confined space.

Cam was super brave & never hesitated crawling into every space we were faced with.

It's funny because having the kids there made us more likely to go in since we didn't want to hold them back on experiencing something new.

Here I was, climbing farther & farther into the depths of this dark, eerie space...

Little did I know that just above my head was a sleeping bat!  Thank goodness it wasn't discovered until I was standing safely outside & in the open air.

Had I looked up & seen this guy hanging above my head, I may have lost it!

Camping was an absolute blast & the kids had an amazing time.  My favorite part was being off the grid at only a 45 minute drive from our house.  There was no TV, no video games & it was so awesome to spend time together distraction free.

We're hoping to make this an annual trip since we had such a great time.  

I have to say though, I'll probably stay in the fresh air instead of climbing down into the dark depths of the caves.  That's something that I can check off my life list & that's good enough for me!