Chuck E Cheese

We recently went to Chuck E Cheese with Nana and Bill. We had a great time!!

Whoa there, little dude - you need to roll the ball, not throw it! Clearly the Chuck E Cheese people did not give much thought to the consequences of lining up the Bozo ball-toss, basketball and then skiball. Daniel got into the pattern of toss the ball, toss the ball and toss the ball. Oops! I showed him how to roll the balls with this game.

Keith and Bill trying to beat my basketball score. At 5 ft 3 inches tall, I am the basketball champion in our house!! Try as he might, Keith was unable to beat my score.

Joshua and Megan playing the Bozo ball toss game. (I miss the Bozo the Clown show!)

Megan LOVED the whack-a-shark game. I have to admit, it's a good stress buster. I might stop into Chuck E Cheese a few nights this week after work to whack at a shark or two!

Daniel playing air hockey wtih Daddy.

Bill and Daniel back at the Bozo ball toss game.

Keith's newest ID. Now that he's no longer Active Duty in the Coast Guard, he's a Hollywood Star (you can be too, for 1 token at your local Chuck E Cheese - a whole lot easier than 8 weeks of bootcamp, but not the same personal satisfaction of having served your country).

Pirate's Dinner Adventure

During Nana and Bill's visit, we all went to dinner at the Pirate's Dinner Adventure Theater. The kids dressed up for the occaision. I told Megan that the pirates were mean and were going to steal the gold off of her Jasmine outfit. :) She was then on the look-out for pirates for the rest of the evening. The boys waited ever-so-patiently while we had to hang outside waiting for the auditorium to open. Daniel was GLUED to the show! He didn't even eat his dinner because he couldn't take his eyes off of the performance.

The performance is done on a boat in the middle of the auditorium. The pirates swing around on the ropes and come out into the audience. The kids were awe-struck the entire time!

Keith and the big kids.

Me and Daniel. It was really dark inside during one part of the performance. And then a (fake) gunshot rang out and he got very scared. Right about now he's saying, "I think we should leave.".

Swimming with Bill and Nana

Me and the kids swimming at the hotel pool. Nana and Bill (my mom and step-dad) decided to come over to the Orlando area from Daytona Beach. They are most comfortable staying in one of the hotel's down the street, so we decided to crash their place and check out the pool. The kids were amazed at that concept - swimming inside!

At first, Daniel was very hesitant to get in the pool. After a little while, he was all over the place.

Leu Gardens

Sometime last month, we went to Leu Gardens with Grandma and Grandpa. The kids really enjoy looking at the flowers. We were only able to hang out in the gardens for about 30 minutes because the skies had opened and the rain drops were starting to fall fast!

Megan always asks about the butterfly garden. On this particular day, there were tons of butterflies in the air.

Learning about the caterpillar-to-butterfly process.

Gotta watch out for this one - he likes to pick the flowers.

We recently learned that our zoo pass also allows us free access to the gardens. What a deal! (Now if I can just remember to get to the zoo to renew our zoo pass!!)

Grandpa's Birthday Dinner

The kids helped wrap Grandpa's birthday presents. They did such a great job decorating the packages!

Joshua wrote, "Happy Birthday, Grandpa you are the best"

I'm not sure which of the kids made the "hand turkeys" on the package.

Daniel and Grandpa reading together.

Grandpa and the kids.

The chocolate cake was very yummy!

I think the party blowers were the biggest hit of the night.

Joshua's Birthday Dinner at Amigos

These pictures are about a month old! We had dinner at Amigos with Grandma and Grandpa to celebrate Joshua's Birthday on his actual birthday. I love the little brother is "helping" to unwrap presents. This year Keith and I got Joshua a gift certificate to Toys R Us for him to pick something out for himself. He had a blast going around the store with Daddy and Grandma.

Instead of a birthday cake, our waiter brought Joshua out a pastry of some sort. It was cinnamony and very yummy.

Megan being silly. The kids just saw this picture again and they all commented that they miss Ashley.

Daniel and his broccoli. Given the choice between french fries or broccoli, and he'll pick broccoli every time.

Random picture

Cleaning off the camera tonight, I came across some random pictures that gave me a good giggle, and I thought I'd share. Our sweet cat, Meow-meow. We keep her partially shaved for everyone's sanity. She sheds quite a bit.

Silly Daniel and his flock of Mr. Potato heads. At any given time, there are at least 2 or 3 potato heads in various attire hanging out in his room.

Keith putting together a 3-D puzzle that Joshua talked me into buying. I thought it was going to be easy, but I was so wrong. It must be hard to put together, if Keith's reading the directions!

My big boy independently brushing his teeth. However, notice the teal toothbrush on the sink...that's actually Daniel's toothbrush, he's using his sisters in the picture. Ewww..

Megan playing www.starfall.com her favorite game to play on-line. She's becoming quite good at the reading games.

Dude, where ya been?

Goodness, I can't believe it's been a month since I've had time to sit and post pictures. I will say that in our flurry of turning our house upside down, I misplaced the cord that connects my camera to the computer. *Sigh* Which meant that I had to actually clean up my home office to find the cord (which was hiding in a drawer that was already clean - go figure, it was actually where it belonged!).

In the past month, we've moved nearly all of our furniture around in the house. Our house has a very unique floor plan and it's taken us an entire year to figure out how to make the best use of the space we have. We still have one room that has no furniture in it, and it will probably take us another year to figure out what our plan is with that.

I've also worked alot of crazy hours in the past month. And I had to finish writing the curriculum for this year's homeschooling craziness. But mostly, I've been goofing off with the kids, enjoying some time in the pool.

So now I'm back and ready to play catch-up on the stuff that every one's missed out on, and to share the fun of our homeschooling year ahead!