Learning to Fish

We decided to not do any "work" today. We slept in. I made french toast for brunch. We all got in the pool and drank frozen strawberry daiquiris (non alcoholic)...I made those, too :-)took a nap and then Richard took the kids down by the lake and taught them to fish. I sat on a log and watched. We finished the evening with steak and corn on the cob that I grilled. Now the kids are in bed and I'm about to go to bed, too.I'm not sure what they were looking at, but even Boo was interested in it.Hannah found some raccoon tracks. At first we thought they were otter prints because we had seen the otters there earlier, but I don't think that they have hands like raccoonsAndrew making sure that no alligators were lurking aroundAndrew was a natural. He got the line out in the water on the first try.Richard is giving Sarah some casting tips.Sarah finally gets a line to throw.

Hannah's Birthday

Hannah had three of her friends spend the night for her birthday. As a mom, I think that I winced a little when Hannah said that she wanted a sleep over for her birthday wondering how much sleep I'd get after the long work week. But Sarah made invitations for Hannah and they planned her party. Hannah picked her cake and Sarah baked it. It was a chocolate ice cream cake. We had to laugh because the layers of the cake were still warm and she was putting the ice cream in between...so we had some sliding going on...nothing that some toothpicks and popping it back in the freezer couldn't fix. But I forgot to pick up candles, so we had to do a "6" and two little candles to make the 8. The girls were so good. They swam, played with make up and watched the Bratz Movie and were asleep by midnight. Up by 7am and in the pool again. We all got our sleep that night and Hannah told me after everyone went home that her party was awesome! We LOVE you, Hannah Kay!Hannah reading her card from Mama and PapaAutumn didn't get to stay the night, but she was part of the party.

Labor Day Weekend

One of my favorite places to eat is Deck Down Under. You actually go across the bridge and then back under the bridge to get to Deck Down Under. It is a very casual resteraunt on the Intercostal in South Daytona Beach. You stand in line until you place your order and then go find a table (Unless you send the children off to find a table a head of time) But they have the best food. While the wait can be long, you end up making best friends with others that are standing in line with you.

Father's Day - I know it's a little late

Richard and I popped in on his Uncle Bill and Aunt Priscilla for Father's Day. His cousin, Lyn, and her husband, Max,were vising from Jacksonville. We looked through some old photos and slides and then we ate:-)Uncle Bill's hamburgers, Aunt Priscilla's carrot salad and carrot cake. It was soooo good and we loved our time with them. With Richard's parents being gone, we're thankful for them.
While taking the first picture, a neighbor, we think, came over and offered to take a pictue so that all of us could be in the picture. Funny thing,Uncle Bill and Aunt Priscilla don't know her and when we turned to say "thank you", she was gone.

Mama and Papa's Visit

It seemed that the time flew by when Mom and Dad were here. I guess one of the bad things about owning your business is that it is hard to take time off. I felt like Richard and I were either on the computer or the phone. But Mom and Dad said that they were able to relax. Mom went to the SPCA with Sarah, Papa went to the races with us, we stayed out by the pool and went to the beach. Sarah with the help of Mrs. Debbie Sikora made a wonderful dinner for all us. (It was so nice of the Sikora's to open their home to us) I just wish that I would have spent more time with my parents.

Sarah had fixed Mama's hair and Mama had fixed Hannah's hair. The girls wanted a picture together and Andrew kept sticking his foot in their way.Hannah has to watch Andrew's footFinally, a picture without Andrew's footThe girl's getting their revenege on Andrew for sticking his foot in their faces

Wonderful 4th of July Week

Mom, Dad, Todd, Ron and Mary came in for a visit over the 4th of July week. Brent and Emily opened their home to all of us. They grilled hamburgers, hotdogs and sausage dogs. We had all kinds of cookies and brownies that Sarah and Hannah made...and lots of good food. Avalon Park puts on a "carnival" theme at their town square. The kids loved playing/climbing/jumping...there was even a man that was wrestling alligators.Tyler and Sarah - the two TeenagersYummmm...the hamburgers are really good...maybe it's the ketchup that is sooooo goodColton, the wonderful Big brother, helping Dakota climb the rock wallDakota going down the slideAndrew going down the slideSarah and Hannah at the top of the three story jungle gymWatching the fireworks...we were right across the street from where they were shooting them....pretty closeMary got us tickets to see the Coke Zero 400 on July 5th. It was Andrew, Dad, Todd and my first experience. Prior to going there, Richard would make comments about the "thrill of seeing cars pass by while sitting in hard bleachers and drinking half cold beers out of a can" But I have to say that I'm a little hooked on the whole Nascar experience. We had beautiful weather and I was so amazed that I could see the cars race around the track, but as they passed directly in front of me, they were nothing but a blur. We rented the Fanview, so we were able to listen to the drivers. There is so much more than just a fast car to win the race...there is bumping, drafting, when to bring the car in for a pit stop, how many new tires that are put on. We were there to watch Carl Edwards who is sponsored by Office Depot (Well, Andrew loves Jeff Gordon)and we had an increditble ending that included Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch won....not our pick...but we loved being there...we took home little pieces of tire that were all over our shirts from the tiresAndrew stepping in Jeff Gordon's shoesMary got us Pit Credentials which meant that we got to go down on the track and back by the cars. Here we are on the track at the top of Turn Four. Andrew got to wave at several drivers: Mark Martin, Tim Burton, Tony Stewart,Andrew in front of Jeff Gordon's car

Just Cuz She's So Cute

Andrew Turns 11

Andrew had his cousins over for his birthday. They spent the day together. We saw the movie Get Smart at the theater with everyone, then came home and grilled Richard's hamburger and had Birthday Ice Cream cake. The boys said they stayed up until 4:30amRon, Mary, Cheyene and Alexis were vacationing in Orlando the weekend of Andrew's birthday. We sent Saturday with them at their resort...eating and hanging out at the pool. Then on Sunday, we went to North Turn where we had lunch and played on the beach and in the ocean...then we came home...grilled steaks (more eating)

We've been Adopted

"Mommy" cat has been visiting us for several weeks now. Patches and her get into quite the screaming matches. And respecting Richard's wishes, we haven't feed her...until this weekend. Richard has been building me a pond in our front yard (By our front door). We got the pond in the ground and filled it with water to make sure that it wouldn't leak a couple of weekends ago. Since then, we have had other things to get done and the pond was put to the side...still with water in it. On Friday, Richard and I went to Pebble Junction and picked out our rocks to go around the pond and to build the waterfall. So we got up on Saturday ready to place the rocks around the pond, when we noticed two kittens drinking out of the pond. That is when we realized that the cat that has taken up residence in our yard is a Mommy...mommy to FIVE kittens. Sooooo...we feed her and her five kittens. Now that we're feeding this family, they are staying in our front yard and we have to say...they are so cute!!!! But one sad thing though, Mommy cat is very friendly and not quite full grown herself. I think that Mommy cat was someone's cat until she got pregnant and then she was put outside. It's my goal to get the kittens friendly enough to take all of them to the SPCA and get them their shots, dewormed and spayed or neutered...we'll see.

Memorial Day Memories

We had Tyler, Colton, Wesley and Dakota spend Saturday with us so that Brent and Emily could get their rental home ready for the new tenant. The kids LOVE to play with one another. They have built a "condo" out of branches and leaves in our dried up lake bed. I had planned on Tacos for dinner but my Hubbie convinced me that we had to grill hamburger and hotdogs. Tacos just aren't an American food for our American Holiday. Todd was able to spend the day with us as well since his travel plans were changed.(I have a great picture of the kids and Uncle Todd along the pool until I noticed that Todd is showing plumber's crack...so it's not on the blog)

Then on Sunday, we took the boat and the Criste family to Disappearing Island. It's called Disappearing Island because when the tide comes in...the island (which I think is actually a HUGE sand bar) is under a couple of inches of water. The pictures are of us trying to move things out of the water, but eventually you just give up and know that everything is going to get wet...that's part of the fun of the island. Being that is was Memorial weekend, the island was so crowded which is part of the fun...you end up making new friends. A couple of neat things happened. One was three F14 Fighter planes fly above us in a formation and then antique Mustang Fighter planes fly above. It made you salute!

All About ANDREW JOHN

In going back over my blog, I realized that I don't have a lot about Andrew, so this post is about him. In the past, we've had him very involved in Little League and I have pictures of those days. But this year, his father and I decided to put him in the After School Sports Program because it was the best time to make it work with what we had going on with everyone else in our families. Little League has been a minimum of 6 hours (often more)a week which doesn't seem like a lot, but when juggling the activities of five, it took up so much time...so the After School Sports Program just made sense. Andrew loves his coaches and every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, he learns and plays all different sport activities. This program is right after school and he finishes at 4:30 which is the same time that Sarah gets off of the bus. I'm saying all of this to say, I think this is why I don't have many pictures of him because I haven't been at the After School Sports Program. But I wanted Andrew to know that we are very proud of him. Actually, a few weeks ago, it seemed that every morning on the way to school that Andrew would start "sighing". I asked him a few times if everything was OK and he always told me that he was bored. I had his father talk to him and Richard talked to him. We just wanted to make sure that nothing was happening at school that we weren't aware of. He told all of us that he just gets bored at school but he was OK. So I called his teacher...just to make sure. Mr. Sweatland didn't think that anything was wrong with Andrew and went on to praise him...told me that Andrew has always been respectful, hangs out with good kids, gets competitive in gym but isn't mean (the competitive is a Tallman thing...that's what I told Mr Sweatland)Mr. Sweatland told me that the school will miss his attitude when he moves to Middle School next year. Then the following week, Andrew had pulled his groin muscle in the After School Sports Program. I went into the office with Andrew to fill out a request to have him not participate in gym that day. His coach was there and again told me how much they loved having Andrew and would miss him. (Since "Mom" caused so a fuss over his sighing, Andrew no longer sighs anymore nor complains about school being boring.) We love you, Andrew. May you continue to be respectful, always learning and always helping others...even your sisters :-)

Sarah's Spring Concert

Sarah has always been involved with Music and been part of the Choir. This was their last concert. And I have to say that I was very impressed with singing! They sounded great. This last concert was songs from the 50's, 60's & 70's.(Sarah wore a Poodle skirt) I'm not sure how Megan and Sarah managed it, but they were able to be by one another all year long. Sarah LOVES Mrs. James, her Choir teacher! I'm thankful that my children have such great teachers and adults involved with them.