Mommy Is Out

Every once in a great while this Mommy actually gets out of the house without the kids and after the sun has set.  A few bars, drinks and an order of gorgonzola and balsamic chips later and the night would be complete UNLESS you run into someone with a mustache worth taking a photo with.  Another great visit with my Boomer Sooner friend!

Get Rugged

2012 seemed to be the year of groupon activities and 2013 is turning into the year of mud.  Go ahead and start scratching your head because I don't know how this happened either.  Grant and I have started doing mud runs and now the only man in this house of girls is addicted to the dirtiest activity we could find.
It all started with a Rugged Maniac race in good ole Waldo, FL.  Waldo is a good 50 minutes from our house on the way to worst place on Earth, Gainesville.  Grant, Linds and I started out early on a Saturday morning and I will admit it was a very stressful drive for me because I was so incredibly nervous for this new adventure.  All of the pictures and videos showed barbed wire, fire and a whole lot of objects I didn't know how I was going to hurl myself over.
We got there and it was a balmy 40 degrees outside.  Of course it would be a Florida low on the day that we were going to run through the water and mud.  A note to those interested in this type of adventure, no matter how cold it is outside DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT wear extra clothing.  It will only cause the extra weight from the water to weigh you down and the extra fabric gets caught on everything.  Obviously it was a lesson learned here.
The blow horn went off and our feet started moving until we got to that first obstacle, a giant freezing cold mud pit.  My legs turned red and it felt like needles were poking me all over.  Just keep moving, it has to get better than this right?  Oh yes it did.  25 obstacles later and we were ready to sign up for the next round.

There is one funny little story that I can't leave out.  At about mile 1 Linds looks at me and says, "hey, is this key water proof?"  Long story short, Mercedes keys should be bag checked because they will not work after being dipped in water over and over again for 3 miles.  Oh yes, we had to call dear Russ to drive down to Waldo and bring the extra set of keys from the house.  Not our finest moment and that is why we are always in debt to him.

School Pictures

My opinion on school pictures is that as a parent you can never win.  One of two things happen...
1.The pictures are horrible and you are annoyed that the photographer didn't think about something like the giant glare on A's glasses.  So you win because you don't have guilt about not purchasing the pics, but then again you now don't have a school pic for the year.
2.  Occasionally number 2 happens and there are so many cute options you don't know what to do.  There pictures cost how much again...HOLY COW!

It Is Starting...Soccer That Is

When I was young we didn't live in a place where organized sports were happening around the corner. Things have changed in the last 30 or so years, now you can start gymnastics before the child walks and soccer when they are two.  Besides The Little Gym we didn't want to start anything too early with the girls, but we finally caved and A started soccer.
A couldn't have been more excited than the day that we started shopping for cleats and shin guards.  Who would have imagined that one shopping outing would be so exciting to this little girl.  Poor little P wasn't allowed out of the cart, A needed all of the attention on this particular morning.

After three pair of shorts, one pink soccer ball, a new pair of cleats and finally shin guards we were finally ready to leave.  In fact the cleats and shin guards left the store on A.  Were we allowed to go home?  Nope, we had to go over to YaYa and Grr's house to show them how excited she was to start soccer.  Once we were there we had to practice in the front yard so that all of the neighbors could see her.  A big day for this funny little girl.

Mini Models

Every once in a while my little fashionistas are just too cute not to grab the camera and take a few photos.  I should probably do this more often, but I really do get lazy and quite frankly I never take the time to edit any of my photos.  The more shocking part is when I place my twice a year shutterfly order and the total comes to a triple digit total no matter how many coupons I find.
Just another Spring day in the front yard.

Anything you can do I can do better.

My name is Penelope and I am super silly.

Tired of pictures I guess, because she ran away from me.

Soaking up the sun

Feeling Artsy

So every once in awhile my sister ropes me into doing things that are simply ridiculous.  I'm not saying that I don't do the same to her, but that is a whole different post.  This time she actually picked something close to home, there were no babies in sight and the alcohol was flowing so I was in for some...painting.  I've done this type of group outing in the past, but it has been a few years so why not do it again.
The weather was gorgeous so we were able to paint on the patio of Island Life Grill.  Oh and note to the locals, Island Life has a great cucumber margarita.  The class was about two hours which was just long enough that I didn't start to go crazy sitting still.  That brings up a whole different topic, but since the babies I can't seem to sit still for very long.  You would think I would enjoy sitting quietly at the salon for a few hours or with adults only at these group outings, but silly me starts getting anxious about getting home.
Until next time...happy painting.

Favorite Friends

So far this year you have heard me go on and on about the McCotter Family and our trip to Disney, now I would like to reintroduce you to some of our favorite Jacksonville people.  The new house has us wanting to have people over all of the time however all of those other pesky things in life like work, school and chores don't always allow it to happen.  We thought that we were getting everyone together for one last use of the fire pit before the heat started to set in, little did we know that in March we would still be wearing jackets.
No themes of long invite lists this time, just those nearest and dearest to our hearts.  What could be better than a casual night of friends, food, drinks, s'mores, games and thanks to the boys a whole lot of laughs.  Oh and my children who were up way past their bedtime and instead of turning into monsters they turned into a little show of their own.  Home wouldn't be home without all of these fabulous people in our lives.

Aunt Meatball

This is when silly was kicking in.

Grr's girl

And then there is always Tim and no I have no idea what he was doing.

Chase!

Award winning recipe of the night - cookie dough dip=awesome

A matzo ball and a meatball deep in thought.