North Carolina Trip!

For Christmas, we gave the kids a box with snow pants, a snow globe, and a map from our house to a cabin in North Carolina. Then we told them we were taking them there to see snow from December 28-30, 2014. They were THRILLED!

Love Bailey's shocked face!!

We loaded up the car (thank GOD we have a van, LOL) and headed out early on December 28. We reserved a little log cabin that was really exciting for the kids. This was also their first road trip and first time seeing mountains.

Unfortunately it rained for two days and wasn't quite cold enough for snow. We did get to visit Grandfather Mountain and walk across the mile-high swinging bridge, though! We also mined for gems and saw people skiing on Sugar Mountain.

We contemplated leaving early and heading somewhere else, but we decided to stay and do snowtubing at Hawksnest on the 30th. I'm glad we did because it flurried that day AND we got to snow tube, which was a first for all of us! It was loads of fun, too!!

I'll have to scan the photos of snow tubing and upload those as well. I think we had a very nice time and hopefully made some great memories.

Christmas

Once again we had a wonderful, blessed Christmas. Santa was very good to us and I was thankful that the kids let us sleep until 7:00!

Here are some of the highlights:

Later we'll go to Mimi and Grandpa's house to have Christmas with the Blom side. So far, it's been a wonderful day.

Happy 9th birthday, Emily!

Today my sweet girl is 9 years old. Nine!! We had her birthday party about a week ago at Chuck-E-Cheese's. She was thrilled with the party but I wasn't impressed. They are like a party machine in there. Very militant--pizza NOW, cake NOW, etc. But it was what she wanted and I think she had a lot of fun. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

Lunch Date!

Today I took my crew to the Altamonte mall for lunch and some shopping. We had fun browsing the shops and looking for shoes for the girls. We also had lunch from Subway (girls) and Chick-Fil-A (Liam).

We finished our outing with delicious gelato from a French pastry shop. They even had mango sorbet for Liam! What a yummy day!

Playing in the Rain

Here in Florida, it rains almost every afternoon. Unfortunately for us, most of those rainstorms are also thunderstorms, so we have to stay inside. Today, however, there is a hurricane off the coast and we are getting some of the outer rain bands in our area. The kids have been asking me almost every day if they can play in the rain, so today when it started pouring, I said, "GET YOUR BATHING SUITS!"

I think they had a blast splash! :)

A Train Ride

Yesterday we packed up our stuff and boarded the SunRail for a visit to Winter Park!

The kids were very excited about riding on the train. On the way to Winter Park we managed to find four seats across from each other and squeezed in there. On the way home, though, the train was MUCH more crowded and the kids and I all squished into two seats! Poor Susan had to sit behind us.

We walked around downtown Winter Park and visited some shops. Everyone got something special from a quaint toy store and we had lunch at Panera. Then we finished our day with slurpees and of course a cramped train ride back to Lake Mary!

Here we are waiting for the train to arrive!

Liam goes to the movies!

Today Liam saw his very first movie in a movie theater! We got to see The Lego Movie, which was really funny! Liam did a terrific job. He sat nicely almost the whole time, told me when he had to go to the potty, and was quiet when the movie was on. I am so proud of him!

This terrible shot was taken inside the theater. It was just too dark to get a better picture.

Here he is after the show!

Dress up

There is a story that goes with this picture. Liam got all decked out in his cowboy gear and announced, "I [am] the KING!"

So Bailey said, "And I'm the queen!"

Liam replied, "No, you [are] the servant!"

And Emily added, "And I'm the fashion designer!"

LOL! These kids are a riot!

Sea World

We had a great day visiting Sea World with our friends! Here are some of my favorite photos from the day:

 Every time we go, we pose on this rock! Next time it is going to be the moms' turn! It is so beautiful there.

Crazy girls on the Ocean Commotion ride!

Time to pet some sting rays!

Trying to touch the dolphins. They are hard to reach and they are super smart-- they knew we didn't have food for them.