let them eat cake!

I made a skateboard cake for Joaquin this year. The idea was from the family fun website. But icing it is always harder than it looks. I don't think I have the patience for that. But the donut wheels made the cake. Joaquin couldn't wait to open presents...see him on that big blow up chair? Later, he cried because he said he only got one bite of his cake...I think he took one bite, then ran over to that chair. He's been saving the good guys, and getting the bad guys ever since!

more party pics

Pump it up!

We celebrated Joaquin's birthday yesterday at this inflatable place called Pump It Up. It was all Joaquin could think about for weeks...and what a great day to have it...it was pouring outside! This was by far the easiest party I've ever done for the kids, and I think it was his favorite. That super slide was the favorite activity...and it did make your stomach drop, it was so steep. But there was also a basketball blowup court, a rock climbing wall with slides, and a boxing ring. Even the parents got to jump and slide!

news

So we haven't been doing too much since we got back from vacation. I did go to my first doctor's appointment...our due date is February 27th, which I imagine will change after the ultrasound. But I did hear the heartbeat, so the baby's really in there! The kids are so excited...Isabela had to draw a picture of her family yesterday at church and there were five of us! And the doctor gave me some samples of baby stuff...including...a diaper, and that just cracked Joaquin up.
We've been going to the pool, too, and Joaquin is definitely the next Michael Phelps. He can swim the whole length of the pool, and back, all by himself. He normally does freestyle, but I've seen him do the backstroke and breaststroke as well. And he's only three! Isabela is a pretty good underwater swimmer, but I think a few lessons might be in the future for her.
Today we have someone coming out to check our septic tank...fun!
I'm not sure if everyone knows this, but I'll be starting work Sept. 2. I'll be an assistant teacher at Joaquin's preschool. My first job in five years! Yikes!
Well, that's about it...just a short update!

the beach

I have to say, the day at the beach was my favorite day. It was very relaxing, mainly because the kids were so entertained by the waves and sand. Joaquin caught some great waves....Isabela caught more waves crashing on top of her, but they both loved it! Nancy and Lew had a great set up on the beach...and it was great to have that boogie board. I was a little anxious watching Joaquin's fearlessness, but he is a great swimmer and had a blast. Isabela was diligently building something in the sand, and it was nice not having to think of something for them to do!! I think we should move to the beach. But I don't know if that will ever happen. All in all, it was a great trip! And we avoided buying the timeshare Marriott tried to sell us, although it was very tempting! Thanks to Nancy and Lew for being great hosts!

the rainbow

Isabela spotted the beautiful rainbow after the storm! And yes, she keeps chewing on her hair!!

fun!!

I'll spare you the hundreds of other pictures we took. But here are some of our resort...it was amazing, and the kids loved that pirate boat pool..we did too! It stormed the day after we went to SeaWorld, but we were able to swim before it, and then return to SeaWorld for the night shows, after the storm. We definitely wanted to get our money's worth out of SeaWorld and since they let you come back a second day for free, we had to do it. It had cooled off after the storm which made it more bareable and of course everyone fled when they saw rain, so we had the place to ourselves.

splash zone!

We were very happy to finally get splashed by the whales...even with that stinky water. One lucky boy got to go up and feed Shamu.

seaworld!

Did I mention it was hot?? No, I mean hot. I haven't been that hot since I went to Maymont in jeans one summer and had to walk all those hills with the sun beating down on me. So we are waiting for the Shamu show in the blazing sun with sweat just rolling down us. Thank God Isabela thought of bringing that umbrella. We used that for awhile until the sun finally moved and we had a little shade. Then we passed it on to the family in front of us that had 15 more minutes of blazing sun. But the show was awesome! The kids were enthralled and I was moved to tears.

the monkeys!

We got the kids these cute monkeys at the rainforest cafe and they just loved them! They were hanging them all sorts of ways all over themselves...it was very creative!

rainforest cafe

So our first day in Orlando, we went to Downtown Disney to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. I thought DD was a lot of fun and would definitely go there again. We rode the ferry across the water to the cafe, which looks like a rainforest...hence the name. They periodically have thunderstorms in it and the animals will come to life every now and then. The food was really good...I'm sure we were starving...but we had a lot of fun there. We walked around after that, to the Disney toy stores and Legoland, but it was soooo hot, that it wasn't much fun. So we headed back to the resort pool.

the drive

10 hours on 95! We left in the morning and I had packed PLENTY of things for the kids to do. I did use the cookie tray idea, which serves as a hard surface to color on, and it doesn't let things fall off of it because of the little edge. The kids really liked that and colored a lot. Whoever said kids sleep on car trips? We did force a nap on them and after some crying they slept for a bit. It turns out North Carolina is the longest state to go through...I would have thought Georgia, but it's not. So we made one wrong turn in Jacksonville, but got to cross this really cool bridge, which the kids considered the first roller coaster of the trip and screamed the whole way down. When we finally got there, the kids spent the evening in Nancy and Lew's pool. Then the next morning we left for Orlando.

Nancy said to call her my favorite aunt!

We're here

We're at Nancy and Lew's house in Jacksonville! We got here in 9.5 hours which was pretty good...there was no traffic. Joaquin and Isabela swam in their pool, and Joaquin must have been in there for two hours going full force the whole time. We're off to Orlando tomorrow!

Orlando, here we come!

We'll be on our way to Florida pretty soon! We decided to drive...I hope that turns out well, I tend to get sleepy easily, so it might be alot on JP...not to mention the kids! We haven't planned at all what we'll do, except we have to do a time share presentation on Friday morning. Feel free to make suggestions....we're leaning toward SeaWorld and then relaxing by the pool for the rest of it.