These last two weeks have been pretty busy though it wasn't always because of bucket list fun.
Friday we had friends come into town to stay with us for the night. They were at Disney all day and instead of driving home, they stayed with us. It was a ton of fun. The kids had a blast. I had our Secret Sister reveal at church so I missed a lot of the fun but I was told they had a great time.
We started our weekend (two weeks ago) by getting ready to see Kenzie dance in her dance recital. She was in the 4pm show so we spent the morning having a fun breakfast at Chick Fil A but had to be home to start getting ready pretty early. The recital was great! Kenzie and her fellow dancers did an amazing job. You can read a short recap of Kenzie's dance year (seriously, it's super short and mostly pictures) HERE if you are interested. We are so proud of her. Each year she is growing as a dancer. And she still loves it. =) After the recital we went to dinner at Ale House with the family. It was a good time hanging out more with the family. Will was super hangry before dinner though so he was a bit on edge until the food arrived. At which point both him and Kenzie scarfed down food like we have never fed them. (He spent most of the meal before his food arrived whining because we ran out of calamari... which he ate most of by the way... and having a fit that we wouldn't order him any more.) Then after dinner he was overtired so he was a bit of a mess. He did okay for all of that going on, but we had a moment when we went over to Barnes and Noble after lunch to try to find a Bible cover for the new Bible that Ms. Barbara sent to Kenzie and he didn't want to leave the train table. Steven had to carry him out screaming. Not cute.
Sunday was supposed to be a day that we did something bucket list related but the kids were so tired from the weekend that we decided to scratch it. We went to church in the morning and then had "Dinner on the Grounds" after church which was yummy. We were supposed to go see The Incredibles after that, but instead Steven and I worked on the yard while the kids played outside (and then eventually inside because it was so hot). We were almost done when a massive storm rolled in with some serious lightning that made us run for cover. I ended up finishing it on Monday while Steven was at work.
Monday we did swimming and some errands. Nothing too big. The kids did well during swimming. Will cried through the entire thing but did everything he was told to do. Kenzie finally swam across the pool with rolling to her back and everything with absolutely NO help. It only took her a few years to get used to being on her back. She doesn't like that part. Or at least she didn't. We went to the pool in the evening and she floated and did the backstroke like crazy. Like she has been doing it all her life.
Tuesday was... interesting. Steven made it to work and turned around immediately with some gastrointestinal issues. We eventually decided it was food poisoning but it took him OUT for an entire day (plus just a lasting residual "yuck" feeling most of the rest of the week). He was so done. He slept most of the day. I kept the kids out of the house as much as possible. We took some photos of Kenzie in Winter Garden in her dance costume. The kids played on the playground. We did some shopping. We had lunch. We picked up our state park pass since we need it for the weekend. Then I was exhausted so we came home and found Steven somewhat better but still sleeping most of the time.
Wednesday was more swimming, library time, and then a meeting at church in the evening. It was probably our least crazy day. Thursday we went swimming at a friend's house. The kids had a blast playing with the other kiddos. Kenzie and Will both swam in their pool and Will even requested help coming off the steps and insisted on diving for toys. So different from the kid we saw at the beginning of the summer. Worship rehearsal finished up the day for me.
Friday we were able to start our fun weekend a bit early. First we had swimming where our little fish rocked it. We did some shopping to buy some final pieces to make a dress up cabinet. I asked Steven to go grab this cute white shelving thing off a neighbor's trash pile basically after they posted some pics of furniture in front of their house they were getting rid of and we decided to turn it into a dress up cabinet. It turned out so cute! I'm pretty excited with it and I think the kids are too. Then once Steven got home a bit early, we headed out to the movies. As a bucket list item, we wanted to see a movie in a theater together and Incredibles 2 was a great pick. The kids LOVED it. Steven and I loved it. It was a really good movie. Totally recommend it. Worth waiting 14 years for. =) We ended up getting a large popcorn which our family polished off during the movie. We were able to get one refill so we did that as we were leaving. That's right. We came home and saved the entire large popcorn that we got the refill on. We are all about free food. Haha! We had some pizza for dinner which the kids ate surprisingly. We thought they would be full of popcorn but they ate plenty for dinner somehow. It was a fun afternoon and evening.
Saturday morning started really early. We packed up the kiddos around 7am and made our way over to De Leon Springs State Park. This was an item on our bucket list this year. Last year in April we went to this park and realized how awesome it would probably be to eat at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill restaurant inside the park. You sit at tables with griddles in the middle and make your own pancakes. So cool. It was about an hour drive and we heard that you wanted to get there right when they opened at 8am or you would likely have quite a wait to be seated. It's a small place and because you make your own breakfast at your own speed, it takes a while to eat. When we got to the park, it was about 10 minutes before it opened and the line already had about 25 cars in it waiting to go in. We got in line and waited. We ended up pulling into the park around 8:15 and were in the restaurant by 8:20. We were seated right away but it was already at least half full. By 8:30, it was full and we overheard them tell people around 9 that the wait was around an hour and a half. Wow! The kids thought this restaurant was the coolest. Kenzie said, "Best. Restaurant. Ever." We ordered the all you can eat pancakes. Kids are free apparently which was nice. We also ordered a few orders of bacon. We debated getting chocolate chips but didn't. Next time I think we will get an order. They give you two pitchers of pancake batter. One was regular pancakes and one was whole wheat. It is all you can eat though so you can always ask for more. The kids loved making pancakes and insisted on helping to flip them. They each ate a couple pancakes and most of the bacon. Steven and I polished off quite a few pancakes. The only real downfall was that you sit right on top of the griddles so after being there a while, it was HOT. We were right by the door but it was thankfully not too hot that morning and there was a breeze coming inside. Next time we want to try to go when it is cooler out and maybe have family come with us. So much fun. After we ate, we walked over to test the water in the spring. At a constant 72 degrees year round, it is much too cold for us. Well, Kenzie would have been in it if we let her but we put the kabosh on that. Will refused to even put his feet in it when he realized how cold it was. Definitely his father's kid. We got out after a few minutes (we were only ankle deep) and went to the other side of the spring to watch a gator that was maybe about 6-7 feet swim around debating how close he wanted to get to a guy that was fishing. He was on display as everyone ran over to see him though so he thought better of it and turned around to go the other way. There is a very small nature center type place and the kids picked up coloring sheets to do later. We went over to do the nature walk as Kenzie kept calling it. It was an almost 1 mile loop that was either paved or a boardwalk so we didn't consider it a "hike"... until we tried to go to see Monkey Island. It was a bit more treacherous. Kenzie even fell once but it was mainly because she doesn't watch where she is going. We made it more than half way down and the trail was flooded ahead of us so we had to go back but the kids really liked the less traveled trails. We were actually talking about the possibility of going to the Blue Ridge next summer so the kids can do some real style hiking. We think they are finally ready for short trails like that. When we got back to the park itself the kids asked to play on the playground so we let them do that for a bit before making the drive home. We attended a friend's birthday party that afternoon and then met up with Grandma and Grandaddy for dinner to celebrate my birthday. We had a yummy dinner at Logan's.
Sunday we had a great morning at church before meeting up with friends for dinner later in the day. We tried out Burger Fi for the first time and we will definitely be back. It wasn't cheap for a family of four, but it was really good. I'm always up for a good burger. One of my favorites.
Monday was my birthday. The kids and I got up the normal time and went to swimming lessons first in the morning. They did really well and I was so proud of them. We stopped at Starbucks on the way to the mall after that to pick up my free birthday drink. Venti shaken iced black tea sweetened for the win! So good. I used to be really into frappacinos but they are just too much for me most of the time now and their iced coffee is okay but not my favorite. It's too hot for real coffee in the middle of the day right now. A few months ago I tried the shaken iced tea for the first time and it is my go to now. So good. I took the kids out to the mall to run a few errands and let them play at the play area in the air conditioning. We had lunch in the food court and they were really good. For dinner I made chicken parm. Yeah, I decided to cook on my birthday. We went out quite a few times over the weekend so it seemed best that I cook. I was going to make my favorite garlic chicken but no one in the house really likes it so I made my second fave, chicken parm. Steven came home early (for him) and ate dinner with us. Then we went to pick up some fireworks. We went to one of the stands on the side of the road and picked out some good ones. We stopped at Rita's on the way home. I tend to ask to stay away from too much cake as July is so jam packed with cake for us that I don't want too much of it usually. They did have birthday cake Italian ice though so I had that. Steven had lemon, Kenzie had smores, and Will had cotton candy. We all enjoyed it. After the kids went to bed I got a chance to fully test out my new Garmin Forerunner 35 that I got from Steven and his parents (I've been wearing it as my normal watch and activity tracker since getting it and had done a walk with it but not actually run yet) and ran 3.4k to celebrate turning 34. It was a great birthday.
Tuesday we hit up the pool in the morning for a couple of hours with the neighbors. That was about it though. We were mostly home all day after that but we did get about an hour of outside play time between rain storms. Well, after a rain storm. It never rained again later in the afternoon but it did sprinkle off and on right before we came inside.
Wednesday was the 4th of July and we checked off another item on the bucket list first thing in the morning. Our annual 4th of July 5k as a family. Steven did absolutely amazing and ran his fastest 5k ever! He finished in 30:41. He ran in a tank top for the first time ever. It was the shirt they gave away and while he is definitely not a tank top kind of person, he wore it because he always wears the race shirt. I told him it was sleeves slowing him down before apparently. I almost always wear tank tops though so I don't know what my excuse is other than super short legs. (Side note: Our watches give us our average stride length. Mine is .77 meters. Stevens? 1.09 meters. No wonder he leaves me in the dust.) His new goal is to finish a 5k in under 30 minutes. I totally know he can do it. I pushed the kiddos and ran a 14:19 pace so I'm pretty happy with that. Not too shabby for pushing 80+ pounds of kids in a non-jogging stroller. Both kids ran the kids' race. Will ran first and I didn't get a video of the little guy because the poor thing was crying hysterically when he came down to the finish line I was standing at. Steven had him by the hand and I learned after that he had fallen almost immediately after his race started. He started out so well on his own but he fell and then needed Daddy. Steven said he got back up and kept going so we told him how proud we were of him for doing that. He wasn't really hurt. Some minor scrapes on his knees and hands. We think a little one stopped in front of him and he couldn't stop which caused a domino effect and he fell over him. Kenzie ran her race all on her own, which is what we would expect of her at this point. For goodness sakes, she did a real race for a 1/2 mile so going 200 yards wasn't anything major for her. She came blazing through the finish line. We are always so proud of both of the kiddos and we are so excited that they seem to enjoy running like we do so we hope to continue to instill that love in them. We had some watermelon after the race and then had McDonald's breakfast which was very exciting for the kids. Haha! That afternoon we ran out to Racetrac to check off another bucket list item. Sort of. We initially had getting fro-yo at Sweet Frogs as a bucket list item but when we found out that Racetrac was going to do free ice cream for kids this summer, we left the bucket list reading Sweet Frogs but knew we would do Racetrac. The kids enjoyed it. That night we grilled sausages and the kids had hot dogs before we went outside with neighbors for a fire pit and some smores (another bucket list item). We waited until it got a bit darker out and lit our fireworks. The kids thought they were awesome. Kenzie loved the sparklers. Will thought they were cool but despite doing them last year with no issues, he was not so into holding a flaming stick this year. Oh well. There is always next year for him to change his tune... again. We were waiting outside to watch the city's fireworks as we can see them from the house but we were all getting bit up by mosquitos and eventually I took Will inside because he was getting it the worst. Kenzie and Steven came inside a while later with news that the city cancelled the fireworks because of issues with the company that was supposed to do them. Glad we didn't pay to go over to the park to see them...
Thursday we had an eye doc appointment for Kenzie where we learned she needs a slightly stronger prescription. Thankfully the doc made it to where they are going to change our her lenses at no cost to us. The kids and I ran some errands and that was about it.
Today we are heading out to Nana and Papa's house for a super fun weekend! Staying with them is another item on the bucket list and we have been planning this weekend for quite some time. We are celebrating July birthdays on Saturday (at least the early ones) and then Sunday we are going over to Rick and Danielle's house to play at their neighborhood splash pad and pool. I wish our neighborhood had a splash pad. Should make for a super fun weekend!
Friday we had friends come into town to stay with us for the night. They were at Disney all day and instead of driving home, they stayed with us. It was a ton of fun. The kids had a blast. I had our Secret Sister reveal at church so I missed a lot of the fun but I was told they had a great time.
We started our weekend (two weeks ago) by getting ready to see Kenzie dance in her dance recital. She was in the 4pm show so we spent the morning having a fun breakfast at Chick Fil A but had to be home to start getting ready pretty early. The recital was great! Kenzie and her fellow dancers did an amazing job. You can read a short recap of Kenzie's dance year (seriously, it's super short and mostly pictures) HERE if you are interested. We are so proud of her. Each year she is growing as a dancer. And she still loves it. =) After the recital we went to dinner at Ale House with the family. It was a good time hanging out more with the family. Will was super hangry before dinner though so he was a bit on edge until the food arrived. At which point both him and Kenzie scarfed down food like we have never fed them. (He spent most of the meal before his food arrived whining because we ran out of calamari... which he ate most of by the way... and having a fit that we wouldn't order him any more.) Then after dinner he was overtired so he was a bit of a mess. He did okay for all of that going on, but we had a moment when we went over to Barnes and Noble after lunch to try to find a Bible cover for the new Bible that Ms. Barbara sent to Kenzie and he didn't want to leave the train table. Steven had to carry him out screaming. Not cute.
Sunday was supposed to be a day that we did something bucket list related but the kids were so tired from the weekend that we decided to scratch it. We went to church in the morning and then had "Dinner on the Grounds" after church which was yummy. We were supposed to go see The Incredibles after that, but instead Steven and I worked on the yard while the kids played outside (and then eventually inside because it was so hot). We were almost done when a massive storm rolled in with some serious lightning that made us run for cover. I ended up finishing it on Monday while Steven was at work.
Monday we did swimming and some errands. Nothing too big. The kids did well during swimming. Will cried through the entire thing but did everything he was told to do. Kenzie finally swam across the pool with rolling to her back and everything with absolutely NO help. It only took her a few years to get used to being on her back. She doesn't like that part. Or at least she didn't. We went to the pool in the evening and she floated and did the backstroke like crazy. Like she has been doing it all her life.
Tuesday was... interesting. Steven made it to work and turned around immediately with some gastrointestinal issues. We eventually decided it was food poisoning but it took him OUT for an entire day (plus just a lasting residual "yuck" feeling most of the rest of the week). He was so done. He slept most of the day. I kept the kids out of the house as much as possible. We took some photos of Kenzie in Winter Garden in her dance costume. The kids played on the playground. We did some shopping. We had lunch. We picked up our state park pass since we need it for the weekend. Then I was exhausted so we came home and found Steven somewhat better but still sleeping most of the time.
Wednesday was more swimming, library time, and then a meeting at church in the evening. It was probably our least crazy day. Thursday we went swimming at a friend's house. The kids had a blast playing with the other kiddos. Kenzie and Will both swam in their pool and Will even requested help coming off the steps and insisted on diving for toys. So different from the kid we saw at the beginning of the summer. Worship rehearsal finished up the day for me.
Friday we were able to start our fun weekend a bit early. First we had swimming where our little fish rocked it. We did some shopping to buy some final pieces to make a dress up cabinet. I asked Steven to go grab this cute white shelving thing off a neighbor's trash pile basically after they posted some pics of furniture in front of their house they were getting rid of and we decided to turn it into a dress up cabinet. It turned out so cute! I'm pretty excited with it and I think the kids are too. Then once Steven got home a bit early, we headed out to the movies. As a bucket list item, we wanted to see a movie in a theater together and Incredibles 2 was a great pick. The kids LOVED it. Steven and I loved it. It was a really good movie. Totally recommend it. Worth waiting 14 years for. =) We ended up getting a large popcorn which our family polished off during the movie. We were able to get one refill so we did that as we were leaving. That's right. We came home and saved the entire large popcorn that we got the refill on. We are all about free food. Haha! We had some pizza for dinner which the kids ate surprisingly. We thought they would be full of popcorn but they ate plenty for dinner somehow. It was a fun afternoon and evening.
Saturday morning started really early. We packed up the kiddos around 7am and made our way over to De Leon Springs State Park. This was an item on our bucket list this year. Last year in April we went to this park and realized how awesome it would probably be to eat at the Old Spanish Sugar Mill restaurant inside the park. You sit at tables with griddles in the middle and make your own pancakes. So cool. It was about an hour drive and we heard that you wanted to get there right when they opened at 8am or you would likely have quite a wait to be seated. It's a small place and because you make your own breakfast at your own speed, it takes a while to eat. When we got to the park, it was about 10 minutes before it opened and the line already had about 25 cars in it waiting to go in. We got in line and waited. We ended up pulling into the park around 8:15 and were in the restaurant by 8:20. We were seated right away but it was already at least half full. By 8:30, it was full and we overheard them tell people around 9 that the wait was around an hour and a half. Wow! The kids thought this restaurant was the coolest. Kenzie said, "Best. Restaurant. Ever." We ordered the all you can eat pancakes. Kids are free apparently which was nice. We also ordered a few orders of bacon. We debated getting chocolate chips but didn't. Next time I think we will get an order. They give you two pitchers of pancake batter. One was regular pancakes and one was whole wheat. It is all you can eat though so you can always ask for more. The kids loved making pancakes and insisted on helping to flip them. They each ate a couple pancakes and most of the bacon. Steven and I polished off quite a few pancakes. The only real downfall was that you sit right on top of the griddles so after being there a while, it was HOT. We were right by the door but it was thankfully not too hot that morning and there was a breeze coming inside. Next time we want to try to go when it is cooler out and maybe have family come with us. So much fun. After we ate, we walked over to test the water in the spring. At a constant 72 degrees year round, it is much too cold for us. Well, Kenzie would have been in it if we let her but we put the kabosh on that. Will refused to even put his feet in it when he realized how cold it was. Definitely his father's kid. We got out after a few minutes (we were only ankle deep) and went to the other side of the spring to watch a gator that was maybe about 6-7 feet swim around debating how close he wanted to get to a guy that was fishing. He was on display as everyone ran over to see him though so he thought better of it and turned around to go the other way. There is a very small nature center type place and the kids picked up coloring sheets to do later. We went over to do the nature walk as Kenzie kept calling it. It was an almost 1 mile loop that was either paved or a boardwalk so we didn't consider it a "hike"... until we tried to go to see Monkey Island. It was a bit more treacherous. Kenzie even fell once but it was mainly because she doesn't watch where she is going. We made it more than half way down and the trail was flooded ahead of us so we had to go back but the kids really liked the less traveled trails. We were actually talking about the possibility of going to the Blue Ridge next summer so the kids can do some real style hiking. We think they are finally ready for short trails like that. When we got back to the park itself the kids asked to play on the playground so we let them do that for a bit before making the drive home. We attended a friend's birthday party that afternoon and then met up with Grandma and Grandaddy for dinner to celebrate my birthday. We had a yummy dinner at Logan's.
Sunday we had a great morning at church before meeting up with friends for dinner later in the day. We tried out Burger Fi for the first time and we will definitely be back. It wasn't cheap for a family of four, but it was really good. I'm always up for a good burger. One of my favorites.
Monday was my birthday. The kids and I got up the normal time and went to swimming lessons first in the morning. They did really well and I was so proud of them. We stopped at Starbucks on the way to the mall after that to pick up my free birthday drink. Venti shaken iced black tea sweetened for the win! So good. I used to be really into frappacinos but they are just too much for me most of the time now and their iced coffee is okay but not my favorite. It's too hot for real coffee in the middle of the day right now. A few months ago I tried the shaken iced tea for the first time and it is my go to now. So good. I took the kids out to the mall to run a few errands and let them play at the play area in the air conditioning. We had lunch in the food court and they were really good. For dinner I made chicken parm. Yeah, I decided to cook on my birthday. We went out quite a few times over the weekend so it seemed best that I cook. I was going to make my favorite garlic chicken but no one in the house really likes it so I made my second fave, chicken parm. Steven came home early (for him) and ate dinner with us. Then we went to pick up some fireworks. We went to one of the stands on the side of the road and picked out some good ones. We stopped at Rita's on the way home. I tend to ask to stay away from too much cake as July is so jam packed with cake for us that I don't want too much of it usually. They did have birthday cake Italian ice though so I had that. Steven had lemon, Kenzie had smores, and Will had cotton candy. We all enjoyed it. After the kids went to bed I got a chance to fully test out my new Garmin Forerunner 35 that I got from Steven and his parents (I've been wearing it as my normal watch and activity tracker since getting it and had done a walk with it but not actually run yet) and ran 3.4k to celebrate turning 34. It was a great birthday.
Tuesday we hit up the pool in the morning for a couple of hours with the neighbors. That was about it though. We were mostly home all day after that but we did get about an hour of outside play time between rain storms. Well, after a rain storm. It never rained again later in the afternoon but it did sprinkle off and on right before we came inside.
Wednesday was the 4th of July and we checked off another item on the bucket list first thing in the morning. Our annual 4th of July 5k as a family. Steven did absolutely amazing and ran his fastest 5k ever! He finished in 30:41. He ran in a tank top for the first time ever. It was the shirt they gave away and while he is definitely not a tank top kind of person, he wore it because he always wears the race shirt. I told him it was sleeves slowing him down before apparently. I almost always wear tank tops though so I don't know what my excuse is other than super short legs. (Side note: Our watches give us our average stride length. Mine is .77 meters. Stevens? 1.09 meters. No wonder he leaves me in the dust.) His new goal is to finish a 5k in under 30 minutes. I totally know he can do it. I pushed the kiddos and ran a 14:19 pace so I'm pretty happy with that. Not too shabby for pushing 80+ pounds of kids in a non-jogging stroller. Both kids ran the kids' race. Will ran first and I didn't get a video of the little guy because the poor thing was crying hysterically when he came down to the finish line I was standing at. Steven had him by the hand and I learned after that he had fallen almost immediately after his race started. He started out so well on his own but he fell and then needed Daddy. Steven said he got back up and kept going so we told him how proud we were of him for doing that. He wasn't really hurt. Some minor scrapes on his knees and hands. We think a little one stopped in front of him and he couldn't stop which caused a domino effect and he fell over him. Kenzie ran her race all on her own, which is what we would expect of her at this point. For goodness sakes, she did a real race for a 1/2 mile so going 200 yards wasn't anything major for her. She came blazing through the finish line. We are always so proud of both of the kiddos and we are so excited that they seem to enjoy running like we do so we hope to continue to instill that love in them. We had some watermelon after the race and then had McDonald's breakfast which was very exciting for the kids. Haha! That afternoon we ran out to Racetrac to check off another bucket list item. Sort of. We initially had getting fro-yo at Sweet Frogs as a bucket list item but when we found out that Racetrac was going to do free ice cream for kids this summer, we left the bucket list reading Sweet Frogs but knew we would do Racetrac. The kids enjoyed it. That night we grilled sausages and the kids had hot dogs before we went outside with neighbors for a fire pit and some smores (another bucket list item). We waited until it got a bit darker out and lit our fireworks. The kids thought they were awesome. Kenzie loved the sparklers. Will thought they were cool but despite doing them last year with no issues, he was not so into holding a flaming stick this year. Oh well. There is always next year for him to change his tune... again. We were waiting outside to watch the city's fireworks as we can see them from the house but we were all getting bit up by mosquitos and eventually I took Will inside because he was getting it the worst. Kenzie and Steven came inside a while later with news that the city cancelled the fireworks because of issues with the company that was supposed to do them. Glad we didn't pay to go over to the park to see them...
Thursday we had an eye doc appointment for Kenzie where we learned she needs a slightly stronger prescription. Thankfully the doc made it to where they are going to change our her lenses at no cost to us. The kids and I ran some errands and that was about it.
Today we are heading out to Nana and Papa's house for a super fun weekend! Staying with them is another item on the bucket list and we have been planning this weekend for quite some time. We are celebrating July birthdays on Saturday (at least the early ones) and then Sunday we are going over to Rick and Danielle's house to play at their neighborhood splash pad and pool. I wish our neighborhood had a splash pad. Should make for a super fun weekend!
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