Anniversary weekend part I

So I got a little idea in my head to surprise Mike for our anniversary. It was a week early but it was a good one!! So to give you a little history, Mike loves Porsche! 10 years ago on Valentine's day I planned a surprise for him by renting a Porsche for a day or so. Well when I went to pick up the car someone had wrecked it and they rented us a Corvette instead. Don't get me wrong the Vette was great but NOT what the plan was. So....I found a place in Naples for Exotic car rentals and voila....surprise!! Mom drove me to pick up the car and when Mike got home I pulled up in the driveway behind him in the Porsche!! He isn't one much for surprises or crazy reactions, but I could tell by the look on his face he was happy and surprised! The boy's reactions were priceless also!! They were so excited!! Of course at first they thought I had bought it...uh....no! ha ha...! We had a fabulous weekend driving all around town!

I have more pics to share but I don't have them uploaded yet. So I will have to re post later with the pics!! Saturday Mom watched the boys for us and we took a long drive and went to the tip of an island right off of Ft Myers. It was great, we had a quaint little lunch/snack and drove back. This was our view at lunch and we could see dolphins swimming and saw a guy almost catch a huge fish but it got away.

Later we enjoyed a great night out for dinner. Some great restaurants around here give out great coupons when the snowbirds aren't here to keep the locals coming in. We used our coupon and had a fabulous dinner. I had told them on the reservation that it was our anniversary but never expected this!!

When we opened our menus this was on the inside page!! Wow!! How adorable!!

We enjoyed great food and then a fabulous dessert!! They even gave us a special dessert plate with Happy Anniversary written on it, took our picture with their camera and printed it out and gave it to us in a frame. Wow! I have pics of that also that I will share later. It was great!! Thanks again to Mom for the babysitting! Here are a couple yummy dinner pics. Sushi roll appetizer and a great fish over rice and cabbage dinner. Photo of dessert later!

The boys are still enjoying school and seem to be adjusting well. Dev is still practicing soccer and should find out what team he is on next week. Bry will start soccer practice in a few weeks with the recreational team. Well I think that's all for now. Another post will be coming soon with fun pictures from the weekend!

We made it!!

We made it through the 1st week of school and the boys did great. The jumped up ready to go the first week for sure. The both told me after the first day that it was great and Bry even said it was awesome!! They also said the food is much better than their school last year! This morning on the way to school, one week after school started, Dev told me that he is really enjoying the school and that it is smaller and that you get to do more things and also have Religion which is a good thing! I love his attitude! They both ended up knowing some kids that they had met in summer camp at the Church, also some from soccer too. They seem to have made friends very easily and they said everyone is really nice. They both said they don't have any bad kids in their class. Ha...that's a change from last year for sure! Granted it's only the first week, but I'd almost think that you would know by now if kids are going to act out. I am so pleased that they are truly enjoying their new school and are making friends. It makes my heart smile!!

Dev even decided that he wanted to join the school soccer team. Originally...before school started of course...he told me he didn't want to play for the school. I think once he realized that kids from his class are playing then he wanted to play. We had to go get him some new cleats last night because he has already outgrown the ones from last season. Wow...a size 8 in mens!! really??!! He tickled me so much though because he put the new ones on as soon as we got in the car to go home. Then he put one on his nightstand as he slept and then even put one on the seat beside him on the way to school! I guess he really loves his new cleats!! Too funny!! He is having practices right now to see what team he will be on. There are 30 kids or so and the coach is splitting the team into 3 separate teams based on skill level. We will see what team he gets on in the new few weeks. Nonetheless, he is happy to be playing! 

You have to be in 5th grade to play soccer with the school so Bry will be playing with the same rec league again this year. We really want to get him in competitive instead but with the new school change this year we decided to wait and see how things go. He is excited to play though and it won't be long before his season starts. I was able to get a picture of him yesterday at TKD with his poster!! I love it!!

Bry did come home a little disappointed because the rest of his class knows cursive writing. He did not learn it at his school last year and apparently the kids at his new school did learn it. I asked his teacher for some suggestions of websites that maybe I could print some practice worksheets out. Instead she sent home a workbook that he could practice in and keep at home! wow!! That was great! Let me tell you...he was serious about it. Bry sat down and spent an entire evening up until bedtime practicing on how to write cursive!! The next day he came home with his homework assignments written in cursive!! He was so proud and will tell you in a heartbeat that he learned cursive in 1 day!! He basically did!! :-)  

The boys will also be getting a really good year of work with computers and media at school. Bry is going to be learning the home keys to start to help him with typing. Dev has his own school email address and google drive account. Last night Dev had to do his homework as a document in google drive and then email a copy to his teacher and to his computer teacher...WOW!! I love it!! 

I bought a cute little thing this past weekend. So our refrigerator is not magnetic on the front so I can't put anything up on it with magnets. I found this cute stick on chalk board sticker. It has been working great. I write what things the boys are doing for the day afterschool and also whats for dinner...etc. By the way the dinner is Brats (like hot dogs) not to be confused with brats...(like whiney kids)...LOL... 

The boys were totally confused by this dinner menu...ha ha.... too funny!

I also got adventurous and decided to attempt my tutu for the October race in Disney. I watched a few tutorials on utube and then went out to get my supplies.. yippee!! It turned out really great!! I made sure to make the pieces a little longer. I didn't want the super short tutu.... I need some coverage..ha ha..

It was actually pretty easy!! I'm so excited to wear this with my super cute shirt for the race!

I love my morning drive into work! Not only do I get a beautiful water view but I also am going the opposite of traffic!! YES!!!

We went to the water park again this past Sunday. We used the rain checks that we got from our last visit and Mike went with us this time! The weather was beautiful! The boys were excited to be able to show Daddy all the fun stuff. Bry even got brave and rode the slide in this pic that is on the far left. wow!! He inspired us all and we all rode it!! I have to admit I was terrified but I did it! Mike rode the one on the far right!! No way...me and the boys stayed to the far left! I thought about the middle one but chickened out! Maybe next time though!

Finally headed to get my hair done this Friday!! It is way over due and the gray is taking over!! Ridiculous!! I used to say I'd never color my hair...whatever!! I wasn't gray at the time!! LOL...

Well I think that's all I have for now....hope it's a great week for everyone! Toodles!

Today is the day

 So as of today we have a 3rd and 5th grader! Wow...it's school time!! The boys were so excited! They set their alarms to wake up at 6am! They jumped right up out of bed and got dressed and wanted breakfast and were ready to go by 630! ha! We didn't have to leave the house until 7. They were so excited for their first day! I can't wait to pick them up and hear all about it!!

I'm so excited that things are working out just perfectly at work. Since my hours were cut back it now works out that I can pick them up from school 3 days a week and Mom will get them the other 2 days. No payment for aftercare!! yay!! I also like the fact that I'll be able to be home with them after school to work on homework and hear all about how their day went. I am a very happy camper!!

Last week me and the boys checked out the local water park. It was a blast! The boys loved going down all the slides and especially the lazy river. The storms started to roll in around 230pm and the park temporarily closed. We ended up getting a rain check to come back another day for free. So... 2 days for the price of 1 ..yippee!!

That's all for now. Time to pick up my school boys! Toodles.

What a small world!!

So last week I was in my local Chick Fil A to get lunch and look who I ran into!! WHAT??!!! It's our neighbors and great friends from Olive Branch MS!!! We haven't seen them in about 2 1/2 years since we moved from there! Ironically, Emily was here for a swim meet at the local college!!! Wow!! It was such a shocker and great surprise!!! What are the chances really that we would be at the same place to eat at the same time. Rhonda was gonna give us a call while they were here, but we ran into each other first!!! wow!!

Mike took the boys to watch one of Emily's swims. They really enjoyed it!! Too bad she wasn't standing up straight to see how tall they all have gotten!

This is how Emily and the boys remember each other! wow...Look how they've grown up! Too bad Zach wasn't here too!

Sunday we picked Emily and Rhonda up and headed to the beach. It was a beautiful day!! Everyone had a great time! Emily and I did some snorkeling to find her some shells. We saw tons of live sand dollars! Wow..I've never found a dead one on the beach yet alone been able to see them alive on the ocean floor! It was so cool. We picked one up to look at it and show the boys but then put it back in the ocean. We also saw tons of conchs alive in their shells. I thought they were hermit crabs but in looking it up later online, they are conch. Very interesting!! I found a leg of a starfish also. Too bad I didn't take a picture of it. A guy and his daughter told me and Emily where to swim to see the sand dollars and also some red coral. We were kinda scared but the girl showed us and even swam out to it to help us find it. Wow..who knew there was such bright coral not far off the beach. It was so cool!!

Then as we were leaving the beach parking lot we got to see this!!

It's a gopher tortoise. Thanks to my sis's boyfriend Buckey for letting me know what kind it is. Wow..this guy was chomping down on some serious grass. He wasn't very afraid of me at all. I didn't get too close, just used my zoom. It was so cool to see such a big guy. It was such an amazing day!!

The boys got to experience a roll up window this weekend in a moving truck! They were fascinated with it!! ha ha!!

Last week we did make it to the indoor trampoline park. The boys had a blast! One hour there is plenty of time for them to gett very sweaty! I need to figure out how to get the videos from my phone over here to the blog. They had a blast doing flips and playing some slam dunk basketball and dodge ball.

Bry is on a poster at his TKD school! How cool! He told me they took his picture for it and here it is! I want to try to get a pic of him standing next to it in the school. Very cute!!

The other night Dev and I played several games of Monopoly. This version is really fun and pretty easy to play. Bry tried to play but he gets upset too easy if he starts to lose. Dev had one episode where he got upset and I just tried to explain to him that it's a game and to enjoy. He is getting much better though at playing games and not getting so upset if he loses.

It's a kinda short week again. I get to be off 1/2 days on Wed and Fri. to spend with the boys before school starts on Monday! Wow, I can't believe it's here already! Thursday is the orientation for their new school. I hope the weather is nice so we can try out a local water park afterwards. Hopefully we can get some fun in at the water park before the afternoon rain comes. I think they are excited about their new school. They both got personalized letters in the mail from their teachers welcoming them to the new school year. Dev found out in the letter that he will get to participate in safety patrol. He was a little worried but we explained to him that he will know everything he is supposed to do before they send him on duty..ha ha.. I'm excited to meet their new teachers and I pray for a great school year ahead! I did get to the uniform store and bought them each 2 uniforms. The school is having a used uniform sale this Friday so I'm hoping I can finish up getting their uniforms from the sale at much cheaper pricing! I plan to be there when the doors open to get the best picks..ha ha...

Mike and I are trying to plan our anniversary weekend. I think we might take a short 2 day trip to Miami to be tourists. Neither of us have been there and it's only 2 hours away, so it would be a perfect short weekend trip. I am most interested in seeing the well known "South Beach" and to do some people watching! ha! Maybe we might even see someone famous! who knows...

Well, the next time I'm blogging will probably be pictures of my new 3rd and 5th graders headed to their first day of school!! Wow..time sure does fly by!! Toodles for now.