To Florida We Go

For Kate's twelve year old trip she wanted to go visit Spencer and Keeley in Florida.  Florida also had the appeal of Harry Potter World and being a state that no other siblings had visited.

She finished listening to the 6th Harry Potter on the plane, got lots of snuggles, then got to eat Chick-Fil-A on the beach for dinner while Kenzie played at the play ground.  Good times.

The next morning we were up early to get to Universal Studios.  We went straight to Ollivanders to get Kate a wand.  

All over the park there were places to use your interactive wand.  You could make the fountain spray water, feathers float, creatures dance, all sorts of things.  It came with a map to guide you to all the magic spots.

Diagon Alley and Grimmauld Place

We made a call to the Ministry of Magic.

Then headed to King's Cross Station to catch a ride to Hogwarts.

The ride on the Hogwarts Express was fun.  We left the Dame's behind and came to explore Hogwarts  and Hogsmeade on our own.

Kate definitely enjoyed the food.  Butterbeer ice cream was her favorite form of butterbeer.  But our favorite drink was Pumpkin Juice - yum.  

We had to stand in a long line to get to see inside of the castle but it was worth it - so fun to see all the details inside the castle.  Kate also loved shopping in Honeydukes for treats to bring back to the kids.

Then we hopped back on the train and took the return trip to London to meet back up with the Dames.  I loved Hogsmead - especially all the snow capped buildings. It was fun on the train to enjoy two different rides.

Back with the cousins we caught a Deathly Hallows show and sprayed each other with water - it was so hot!

Spencer led us to the Curious George area - Kate was surprised by how much fun we had shooting balls at each other and enjoying an epic water fight.  Spencer and Kenzie were soaked through.  Kate stopped before she was too wet.

However, her shoe were soaked and she didn't like how they squished.  She wanted to switch shoes with me (we are the same size right now) and since it was her special day I did it- nice look huh?

We stopped for a quick donut (Yummy) and some delicious Italian food then we headed back to Spencer's house.  It was a long day and we got home late but it was Kate's favorite part of the trip.

Kate wanted to see manatees so the next morning Spencer made it happen.  This river is packed with manatees in the winter but the rest of the year it is home to these three injured manatees.  We got to watch them eat and swim around a bit - they were so huge!  

We got to see a lot of other animals on the nature walk.  It was pretty fun.

Then we headed to see "Winter" the famous amputee dolphin.  It was cool to see Winter but the rest of the aquarium wasn't very exciting.

When Kate and I planned the trip she really wanted to go on a dinner cruise.  Spencer's kids weren't up for it so they dropped us off and headed home.  Kate got on the boat and ate, then realized the cruise would be three hours long and she wanted off.  She missed the little girls and wasn't thrilled with the idea of being stuck on a boat with just me and a bunch of strangers for three hours.  It was a bit of work to keep her happy for the duration, not a highlight of the trip but it could have been worse.  I actually liked seeing the city and the sunset was beautiful.

The next morning Kate had time for a quick swim and lots of snuggles before we headed back home.

We weren't even on the plane yet and she was asking when we could come back.  She loved spending time with her cute cousins.  Till next time!

We had a two hour layover in Houston - just long enough to leave the airport and take an official step onto Texas soil - 2 new states for Katers!

Super Mega Wowie Birthday Party

Between March 4th and May 11th Val and I celebrate 7 our our collective 11 children's birthdays. Neither of us do huge birthday parties so the cousins ARE the party.  As our kids have gotten older scheduling has gotten more difficult and it has become nearly impossible to make it to all the celebrations. And with Grandma and Grandpa in Arizona for the winter they actually missed most of the spring birthdays as well.  So Val and I came up with a brilliant plan.  Last year after failing to making it to all the parties we decided not to try any more.  All the kids with spring birthdays would have to wait till school was out for the Super Mega Wowie Birthday Party to be held at Grandma's house. (We still celebrated at home- sans cousins and grandparents) We sold this plan hard and had to do some convincing but eventually they decided to give it a try.  So after the bells rang on the last day of school we headed to Ontario.  

I made over a dozen mini cakes so they all got to pick their favorite flavor and decorate it however they wanted.  Some kids spent hours on it, some no more than 5 minutes.

Kate and Abby decorated two cakes each.

Emily wanted fondant so I made some and she went to town creating her own unicorn cake.  It was pretty great.  Lily loved the decoration options (she may have hand picked most of them at the store).

After cakes they enjoyed a piñata and swimming.  I filled a bunch of water balloons and we played capture the flag with water ballons for weapons.  We had such a blast.  The little kids didn't play long so the adults and the big kids had a lot of fun till the balloons ran low.  I loved watching Andrew and Luke take care of what was left.  Val provided a crowd pleasing dinner, they played night games, opened presents,  and had a sleepover.  

The next morning Grandma served pancakes and Natali did make overs.  We sang happy birthday complete with candles. They ate more cake and ice cream, and treated themselves to Grandma's ice cream novelties.  

And did I mention more swimming!  The kids had a blast.  It was a great way to kick of summer, welcome Grandma and Grandpa back from Arizona and celebrate a bunch of wonderful kids.  Hopefully, they will let us to do it again next year.

Kinder Graduation

My last kindergartener - now shes on to full day school!  So excited for Lily but sad to see this season of my life end.  I'm looking forward to more time to myself but will sincerely miss the slow lazy mornings reading books, playing games, and just hanging with littles.

Here she is racing up the inflatable for field day (everything had to get moved inside because of rain).

Luckily the 3rd graders got to do arts and crafts with the Kinders.  No complaining from these two.  I love how my Emmy is such a great big sister to Lily.  She waits for her, watches out for her, sits by her, stands up for her, plays with her, just loves her so much - it makes my mama heart so happy.

The day of graduation Lily decided to get all dressed up.  She even asked me to curl her hair.  That never happens so I enjoyed the chance to send her to school looking fabulous.

We were happy to have Grandma back from Arizona.

Big sister had to skip class to watch and steal the hat 😉.