May 15 - I Want to Rescue a Possum

Happy May! J.D. and I attended the RNASA (Rotary National Award for Space Achievement) at the end of April. It is considered "the Oscars" of the space industry and a huge honor to be nominated. J.D.'s team was nominated for their work on Robonaut (http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov) and J.D. was chosen to attend the gala as a team leader. It was a black tie affair and we had a great time. Of course, I was super excited to dress up. It was like we were going to the prom! We left the kids with a babysitter for the first time ever and they did fabulous without us. In fact, Julia was so excited about our sitter, she asked me about 100 times when 'Flora' (her name is actually Lara) was coming over. We had a fun time at the gala and most thrilling, J.D.'s team was one of the recipients of the team awards!! Congrats Robonaut engineers!!

So far May has been a fun month. We went to a Halloween themed birthday party (Julia dressed up as a Cinderella) and another party at the Jump N Jungle. We've also had several play dates with the Root family, our new friends in the neighborhood (who are also Florida alumns) as well as several trips to the new park in our neighborhood. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here lately (a few hot/humid days but overall, a nice spring). The kids are doing well. Julia has a VERY active imagination and said to me this morning:


"Mom. After breakfast, I want to go in the backyard and rescue a baby possum. Then I will bring it in the house and take care of it. I'm going to name her Arianna. Oh, and I also want a baby sister. I don't want another brother." 

Seriously, how do I even respond to that? Simply hilarious! We are also done with ballet. They recently switched teachers and she doesn't care for the new one. She has now focused all efforts and energy into gymnastics and does cartwheels and somersaults all over the house. She also knows how to pull up gymnastic videos on youtube and can't get enough.


Luke is turning into quite the little rascal. He loves pulling hair, climbing on everything and is obsessed with the toilet. If he can gain entry to the bathroom (which is almost always since he's figured out how to open doors) he will unroll the toilet paper roll, throw things in the toilet or his new favorite: he takes pots from the toy kitchen, fills them with toilet water and dumps it on the floor. Exciting stuff, let me tell you. He also loves the dog food bin and has figured out that if he knocks it over, he can get the lid open. He then climbs into it (no joke) and "feeds" Amelia. The food bin is now outside whenever he is in the house. Speaking of Amelia, she is now outside whenever we are eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. This new house rule went into effect last weekend after she ate her own breakfast, 2 waffles, 3 nutrigrain bars and a peanut butter sandwich (all courtesy of Master Luke). 

Tent Fort Fun

Oh this? It's just a frozen waffle I grabbed out of the freezer. Toast it you say? No Mommy! I like to eat frozen waffles!

The Adventures of Our Little Rascal and the Dog Food Bin

Cutest Rascal Ever!

Julia and Emma - Peas in a (muddy) pod!

The girls can pump their legs now

A Rare Family Photo

Have a great week everyone!

April 20 - On the Growth Chart!!

I am thrilled to announce that our little man, Master Luke, has made it onto the growth chart. Can I get a woo hoo?! His 18-month stats are:
*21lb 12oz; 5%
*30.5 inches; 8%
*48.5 cm; 71% 


In other news, Amelia's 7 year stats are not so good. Our furry baby is at her heaviest ever, and in fact she gained over 7lbs since her last vet visit. We know what the problem is (Luke feeds her all the time) we are cutting back on her dog food intake since we can control that (hopefully he will outgrow feeding her soon). She will go in for another weight check in 6-8 weeks and see how she is doing. She is also now considered a 'senior' dog but the vet said she looks great (other than the extra pounds) as she has barely any grey hair. 

In family news, we renewed our zoo membership last weekend and went to see the animals and have a fun picnic style lunch. The kids had a great time and this was the first time Luke really showed an interest in the animals. He also loved the carousal!  Julia's favorite still include the elephants so we made several trips to see them.


Enjoy these pictures of the zoo!! We all had a fab time!!

Playing the drums

Dancing in the huts

Carousal fun

Checking out the animals up close

April 12 - More Outdoor Fun

Here are some more pictures of the kids. Enjoy!

Luke's first pony ride

Julia and Emma - backyard fun

Julia, Luke, Emma, Sarah and Amelia

Julia and Emma - on the little train

Sarah and Luke (notice Luke chillin' with his leg propped up!)

"Santa" explaining to Julia and Emma that he moonlights in the spring/summer managing a petting zoo (yes, they were very confused and kept asking "Where is your red suit?"

April 9 - Happy Birthday Daddy!

Hello faithful followers and happy belated Easter. Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I am so far behind on all of my blogs. I have about 15 books to review on the book blog, some house pictures to post on the home blog, and of course, pictures of our dimpled munchkins to post on this one. Work has been extremely busy lately (working until 11:30pm several nights over the last few weeks) and if I have free time in the evenings, I've been reading. I will post a lot of pictures in this post so enjoy!! 


There are 2 parks within walking distance to our house. Julia has dubbed them either 'the swing park' (which is our neighborhood park) or 'the slide park' (which is behind the elementary school). Our neighborhood recently tore out the swing park and installed brand new equipment. There is a big play structure for the bigger kids, a toddler area as well as swings. It is fabulous and the kids love it! We've also met a few neighbors with kids the same age which is fun too. We are taking advantage of the gorgeous weather here (it has been in the mid 80s, which is hot, but not grossly hot yet) and are spending a lot of time outdoors. 

We have also been having a lot of play dates recently, and this past weekend was no exception. On Friday, we went to my friend Jidi's house for an Easter egg hunt. There were 20-30 kids there and I'm not joking when I say they picked up all the eggs in about 2min flat. In fact-they were so fast that by the time my camera was out its case and turned on-it was over! Later that afternoon, the Root family came over for another egg hunt. Sarah and Caroline "hid" the plastic eggs for Julia and Emma and then we all dyed eggs together. The kids also played in the back yard for awhile (they ran several laps around the yard) and we had a great time. Saturday, after gymnastics, we went to a local church for an Easter festival where they had pony rides, a petting zoo, bouncy house, train ride, ball pit, bubble station and you guessed it-another egg hunt! Later that day we went to the Root's house for more playing fun and a delicious Easter Eve dinner of roast and homemade pizza. Yesterday, we spent our Easter morning at the park (the weather was beautiful), had new neighborhood friends over so the kids could play in the baby pool, then went to their house for a tasty ham dinner. It was a great, busy, weekend!


Here are some cute stories, enjoy!

"It was a beautiful day outside. I was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and chasing a butterfly and when all of a sudden, a skunk stole my sandwich and sprayed me! My mom had to give me a tomato juice bath so I wasn't stinky. That's why I wasn't in school yesterday." -Julia. This is the story she told her classmates as to why she wasn't in class on Wednesday. In fact, she actually threw up Tuesday night, but the skunk story was much more interesting! Her teacher told me she really 'sold' the story. What an imagination that little girl has!


"Happy Easter! Go find your basket!" - Mommy and Daddy Easter morning
"Oh." - Julia looks at her Easter basket with obvious disappointment
"What's wrong?" - Mommy and Daddy
"Where's the bunny? I thought the Easter bunny would be here and I really wanted a picture with him in my house!" - Julia
"Well, he has to go to a lot of houses so he came in the middle of the night." - Mommy and Daddy, trying not to chuckle

Some adorable pics, enjoy!

New Neighborhood Park

Eating this waffle makes me tired

The boys

Backyard fun

Easter Eggs & Easter Basket

Cuties

And a very happy birthday to J.D. today!