Spring Break Baby!

So yes, Spring is officially here - shorts, flip-flops, A/C on. It has been beautiful weather, so we've visited quite a few parks. Kylie is a little dare devil, but she can take the hit and doesn't cry if she falls, so that's okay with me. She loved going down this slide and also walking up and over the edge of the park (see video at the end of this post.) So of course I kicked off Spring Break by making the kids do yardwork (and took a picture in the first five minutes when everyone was still smiling.)

The kids helped out for about 1/2 an hour and then headed off into the side yard to build a fort.

Oh, and the reason why they're all in their swimming suits while "working in the yard" is because I promised (bribed) them that if they helped me we could go swimming in the neighbor's pool. The water was FREEZING (no heated pools in Florida), and it was only like 75 degrees outside, but it was the principle of the thing that mattered. The girls each jumped in and then spent most of their time lounging on the side. Actually I think we spent most of the time in the water trying to re-screw in this waterfall thingy after Kate played with it and made it fall out.

Saturday was Aly's game. Aly is still loving soccer and I've seen a lot of improvement in her skills too: passing, dribbling, team work, etc. She usually plays mid field, which gives her a lot of play time - perfect! She loves it so much that if anything ever gets rained out (which has happened a couple of times) it ruins her whole day.

Can you tell the kids were chomping at the bit to get in the water/go to the beach? We had friends over, and since we couldn't go to the beach, the kids had a waterfight and made our front yard the beach. I think they might have mentioned they were playing mermaids too, or something like that.

When Stawberry picking got cancelled, me and a friend went to the park to let the kiddos play. Kate and Lise were fighting in this tree and I said, "Man, that would be such a cute picture if they weren't fighting." So I asked them to say cheese and they performed beautifully. Don't they look like they're having fun? (Oh, and P.S. I was still able to get strawberries, thanks to my other friend, and so I did make a ton of jam during the course of the week as well - I stayed up until midnight one night finishing it, because we were too busy having fun during the day to do it!)

Other things not shown are that we went to another pool party at a friends (water still freezing, kids still crazy and jumping in), and the kids had another art lesson making treasure boxes. We decided to be done with art for awhile though, piano and soccer just don't leave room for much else.

We did the McDonald's playplace with friends one day when it was pouring rain. I think those older girls are getting a little big for it though! Kylie loved pretending she was playing this video game, but one time she misjudged her distance and totally landed on her head and got a fat, bleeding lip. Poor baby. But she was back up on it in five minutes, so yeah.

On another rainy day (it was a big storm) we went bowling. And the best part is that CHRIS GOT TO COME WITH US! He had been gone the week before and was set to leave for three more weeks, so luckily we got to hang out with him during his one week he was around. We all did much better on our bowling this time, with a fair amount of strikes and spares. Kylie loved just dancing around and going up and down the stairs. The other crazy thing about this bowling experience was that when we got our shoes, Aly got a bigger size shoe than me. She's in a size 7 women's!

And last, but not least, the girls finally got their wish and we made it to the beach. It doesn't get any better than that. And I think it was up to 80 degrees by this point, so they actually swam.

I should also mention that I had a wonderful Spring Break because of how much fun time I got to spend with my hubby that week. I got a lunch date after an FRG meeting, a "Yippee! The kids are in bed" date, cuddling up with "Once Upon a Time" and smoothies, and a Friday night date to see "Hunger Games". I just love hanging out with Chris. He is so much fun - we were actually be-bopping and laughing our heads off at the restaurant after the movie because our waiter told us he was "cleansing his pores" from the steam coming off of our apple crisp a-la-mode dessert. Lovely. I love being married to my best friend.

As you can see, we all love and miss our husband/daddy. We can't wait to see you soon!!

I love how Kylie always "sticks the landing" and wants everybody to cheer for her. It's so cute how proud she is of her accomplishments and how much she enjoys life. Love that little girl.