Fun times

Well the past two weeks have been filled with fun stuff! To start off both boys didn't win their playoff soccer games. It was quite the thrilling night at Bry's game though. The other team's coach and parents were totally out of control. They are the prime example of why parents need to control themselves. They were yelling things and totally acting ridiculous and it got worse as we were getting close to beating them. It's a long story but it was totally ridiculous and I even complained to the director of the soccer program. To top it off the other coach , who by the way was totally obnoxious and totally screaming at the top of his lungs the whole time at the kids, came up to Bry after the game and wanted to meet his parents. He came up to us and wanted to recruit Bry onto his team for next year...uh....as quickly and sort of politely I said "sorry, but not happening" and I walked off with Bry. Are you kidding me...if he somehow ended up on that guys team I would totally protest and demand to be put on another team. That coach and the parents were just so out of control over a recreational 8 yr old soccer game....seriously!! They are setting such a horrible example for their kids that I can't even believe it. Anyway....

On to the fun stuff! Our beach trip was amazing!!  The worst part was that it was too quick!!! The weather was beautiful!! A little cool the first day for our south Florida blood, but it was great weather!! The kids played on the beach and in the pool all day while the adults watched, relaxed, enjoyed drinks etc. It was such a great trip! All the kids got along great, not that I expected any less though. It was sad to leave, I wish we could of had a longer trip!

We saw sting rays in the water right off the beach! It was cool. This is a small one compared to a giant one we saw. If you took your arms and pretended to make a really big circle with them...that's how big it was! I was able to watch him swim away wearing my snorkel mask. It was very cool! The boys didn't get in the water too much, still a little apprehensive and the water was still fairly cool, but they enjoyed it!

One morning we were up early for a walk on the beach and a local fisherman let all the kids reel in fish with his pole. They loved it and they loved digging for sand fleas. I didn't take a picture, but they aren't small like you might think. They are actually about the size of a peanut in the shell! I think they use them for bait.

We also saw several dolphin swimming right off the shore! 

The girls! We had a great time! Lisa, in the middle, only joined us for a few hours one of the days but she brought yummy drinks, cool drink cups and a delicious chocolate cake..yum!!

Denise's Mom was also quite the sand artist! She created several awesome things in the sand! These are a few of them. She also made a really cool swordfish type thing but I didn't get a picture of it..  boo!

This past week we took the boys in for a yearly school check up. Well let me just tell you it was quite the adventure!! They didn't know they were going to be getting shots, actually neither did I. The Dr. suggested a finger stick to check for anemia and a Hep A vaccine. I was fine with it, but the boys were not!! Dev actually did good. He started to cry but as they did the finger stick he realized it didn't really hurt that much and the same with the shot. Bry on the other hand was screaming bloody murder before Dev even started to get his. It was so terrible...Bry was screaming, threatening to leave the Dr. office and everything. It took three of us to hold him down for the stuff. Wow...I felt terrible....we got it done but it was torture! Yikes! He said he wasn't having any of that again until he was 18!! wow....That was quite the ordeal!! I think the shots ended up hurting him worse because he was so tense and squirming all over the place, poor thing...Not a fun visit! Otherwise they are doing good, they are perfect for their height and weight ratio. They are still measuring tall for their age. Dev is in the 75% and Bry is 81% percentile. Meaning they are  taller than most kids their age. wow...I will interested to see if they reach the 6ft tall mark!!

Bry decided he was ready to cut his hair! I'm a little surprised, but I think the heat started to get to him. So anyway, we took a few goofy pictures the night before the hair cut! His hair was so bushy! I don't think the pictures truly show how big it had gotten, which was just what he wanted by the way!! ha ha..

Yep! It's all gone!! Ha! I love his facial expressions!!

He likes it and so do we. He was excited to go to school as the "new boy" today thinking no one will recognize him!!

So a neighbor posted a pic of this gator in one of the ponds in our neighborhood. Yes, it is very common to see gators in almost every pond or lake around here. Mike has even seen one walking on the golf course!! 

Well then a neighbor posted this picture!! yikes!!  The gator is out for an evening stroll! This is right by the clubhouse in our neighborhood! This is exactly why I don't like to run outside before or after dark!! There are too many wildlife species out and about around us!! seriously!!! yikes! He looks pretty good size!

So we had a great Memorial day weekend. We spend a lot of time at the pool and had some friends over for a cookout. It is starting to feel like we are getting back settled into our normal lives again....I'm liking it!

So it's the last week of school. Tomorrow is the last day! Wow..I have to say I'm relieved! It's been a bit of a crazy year so I'm looking forward to new adventures next year and hopefully not so much stress. We are changing schools and I know it will be for the best. The boys seem to be OK with it too. Even though it's been a crazy year they both did awesome! Dev finished out the last quarter with all A's and 1 B! and Bry still managed to get all A's!! I'm so proud of my boys for getting awesome grades all year!

So let summer officially begin!!! Toodles!

Lotsa Lotsa....

So many things happening around here!! Wow..it's been a great week!! We started off with Bry finishing his last prep class for his 1st Communion. Mimi and Gran J arrived earlier in the week and were able to watch some soccer practices during the week. Saturday morning came early and we were up to the church to help celebrate with Bryson. It was a beautiful service!! No photography was allowed during the service but they had a photographer taking pictures throughout. The pictures aren't ready yet, I'm excited to see them! Bry did great!! After the service Mike and Dev had to leave so that Dev could get to his soccer game scheduled for noon! Me, Bry and Mom and Mimi and Gran J went to the reception and enjoyed some cake and light snacks. I'd say Bry was very hungry because he kept eating!! I didn't want to rush him since it was his reception..ha ha... Once he finished we rushed back home to change clothes and head to the soccer field to try to catch the end of Dev's game. We would of went right to the field, but it was 90 something degrees outside and Bry would of melted in his outfit! Bry and I ran in the house and did a superman/supermom change literally!! I don't think we were in the house more than 3 minutes...seriously!!
Here are some pictures from Bry's special day:

My handsome boys!!!  The wind was blowing as you can tell by Dev's tie. Oh yeah, he insisted on wearing a pen in the pocket so he could be like Daddy!! LOL..
Don't let the picture fool you, they are almost as tall as me! I have high heels on here!!

We headed to the soccer field and got there in time to catch the last half of Dev's game. I'm glad we made it, his team won in a tough nail biting game. Then we all headed to Red Robin for some lunch. It was great!! I have been wanting one of those burning love burgers for quite awhile!! so yummy!!  Then, I had to leave a little early to get to a hair appointment that I had scheduled. It was definitely time for a touch up. I love my hair dresser she is wonderful and the place gives complimentary wine!! Oh yes....so relaxing...just what I needed after such a busy morning!!

HA HA!!

Sunday of course was Mother's day! It was a wonderful day! I had both Mom's in town and we ate a wonderful dinner grilled by Mike. To top it off Mike's cousin Len and his family and MIL came in town for the day also..it was great!! It felt like old times having a large family gathering and eating and having great laughs! Loved it!! Thanks to Mimi and Gran J for all their help this week!!

!!

This week started off busy too! Bry had school all day, then TKD, then his TKD competition class, then TKD testing..then a soccer playoff game!! Yes, you read that right....wow!! This was all on Monday afternoon!! It's a good thing he has that young energy level to keep him going!! TKD testing went great and his team won the playoff game. Now he moves onto semifinals this Thursday. I hope his team wins, but he won't be there to play in the championship game this Sat. since we will be at the beach....we will see how Thursday goes!  Dev's team also won their playoff game this week so he will play Thursday night also in the semifinals!!  wow....

 I have some video of the boys breaking their boards at TKD that I will share on here also. 

As you can tell I'm using a new photo app to make collages! Ha...I'm loving it!! 

Bry got a hold of my phone and decided to leave me some selfies!! LOL.. He is such a hoot!!! Love him to pieces!!

So we finish this week off with soccer playoff games, Bry has part of a project due,and I will be packing for our beach trip!! yay!! So excited!! The weather is going to be excellent!!

More school troubles....I won't go into details...it's a long story. But let me just say it's not my boys, it's problems with the school. Good thing I'm on top of things is all I have to say. So Mike and I are exploring other options for next year! We hope to know something soon. Praying God will lead us in the right direction and the right choice for our boys!!

Well that's all I have for now...oh wait...one more photo collage with my new app!!

This one totally cracks me up!!! Have a great week!! Toodles!!

Whirlwind

Wow.. the past few weeks seem to have just flown by in a whirlwind! Let's see...well our dinner night out in Naples was just fabulous. The food was great, the atmosphere was great and our server was the best! We had such a wonderful night!

Easter was great too! The boys were happy with their Easter baskets. Although, they wanted to know why the Easter bunny didn't hide any eggs out in the yard?? hmm....I didn't know he was supposed to! Oh well, that's ok, we hid eggs later out in the yard as a family and they got to hunt them. In fact I think I saw one yesterday in one of our bushes that they must of missed..ha ha...
I forgot to post this one super cute picture of Bry enjoying his bunny car treat!

So Bry had yet another school project due. I have to say I'm not that fond of the school projects. He had to create a habitat. He chose the safari so we printed out pics of animals and added some shrubs from the yard and voila....that's what you get! ha ha..

We are very excited for this upcoming Saturday. It's Bryson's 1st Communion. This is the banner he gets to hang on the Church pew to designate where his guests will sit. He is very excited and has practicing over this past weekend of what he is supposed to do. It's so cute! Mimi and Gran J are driving down to help him celebrate and he is so happy! I had him try on his outfit that he is wearing...oh my...he looked so cute!! It's been awhile since he has been all dressed up...wow ,... my little man!! I will definitely have some pictures to share next week!

I was back in the kitchen again for Cinco De Mayo today. I made sombrero cookies!! Of course some people at work had other ideas of what these were...LOL....

I've been able to have a little time off from work and  finally had a chance to work on some projects. I'm happy that the house is finally starting to feel more like our home.  

The weeks have been filled with the usual stuff, homework, soccer practice, TKD practice, soccer games, a birthday party and all the usual house chores. 

Only two weeks and we will be enjoying the sandy white beaches of Destin with great friends! Dev is so happy to be able to see his BFF since preK!! He hasn't seen him since 2012!  It will also be nice to see the white sandy beaches again! The beaches here are very nice, but the sand just doesn't compare to the panhandle beaches! I hope the boys finally get more in the water and enjoy jumping those waves!!

I'm back to getting up at 4:30am to get to the gym at 5am before work. YUK!! I tried doing my workouts and running in the evenings instead. It was OK, but so much easier to get busy with other things and not do the workouts. So...back to the early grind! I hate it honestly, but it gets the job done and I feel good for the day and I don't have to worry about fitting it into the evenings. sigh......

Well you would think I would have more to share since it's been a few weeks since my last post, but this is all I have. I will have fun stuff to post in the next few weeks though. 

Oh yeah....I can't believe there is only three weeks of school left!!!!

Toodles....

Treat time again

Well it's almost Easter so that means I've been working on some fun treats!! yum!!

First a trip down memory lane from when I put those cute bunny ears on the boys and took their picture!! Gotta love it!! I think they were both around 6 months old here in the pictures. Can you tell who is who?? I think it's pretty obvious but of course I'm the Momma!!

So this morning I made boys these cute little Cinnamon roll bunnies. I have to admit in person they look pretty funny since I used Halloween eyes, so the rabbits have blood shot eyes! ha ha.. But they loved them anyway!

These cute little bunnies and chicks were fun to make, but I admit they really took some time to do. I left some home for the boys and took some to work. I think if you click on the picture you will be able to see the picture larger if you want. These are just colored chocolate disks that you can buy at Michael's or Hobby Lobby and pretzels. Then you just decorate with whatever you can find..ha ha.. I also made my yummy homemade carrot cake for work. It's the first time I've taken it to my coworkers here in Florida. I'd say they loved it because it was totally gone by lunch time! The boys were hoping for a left over piece, but not to worry, I'm making our own family carrot cake for Easter. :-)

Of course yummy chocolate covered strawberries! yum...the berries are so fresh and juicy, these are delish!

I got creative and made each boy their own plate with a giant selfie strawberry! ha!

The neighborhood egg hunt is tomorrow. I thought it was last weekend, but I got confused with the dates. I'm trying to decide what treat to bring. They are asking people to bring pastel colored treats....I'm trying to decide....  They are also having a funny hat contest..too bad I didn't prepare more for that one. I definitely would of entered...ha ha....! They have collected over 1,000 plastic filled eggs for the hunt!! wow...although Dev just makes the cut off for the hunt, up to age 10. Wow...sad that he is growing up so fast and about to hit the preteens!! eekk!! Next year he will be in the tween/teen group! yikes!!

Saturday will be busy with soccer games early in the morning, the egg hunt and then later Mike and I are headed out with another couple for a couple's night out. I'm looking forward to the dinner. We are going to a place called Roy's that is in Naples. Mike has been to one before but I haven't. Last time we did a fairly casual dinner night so this one is a little more on the dressier side. I should of planned better though with it being the night before Easter! I will have to make sure I'm prepared ahead of time, I think we will be out fairly late. I also had wanted us to go to the early 7:15 Mass since we are usually up early anyway. Last year we went to the later service and it was standing room only and we stood the whole service. Yes, we did get there early too! I have great plans, let's see how it goes!! 

Last weekend we ventured out to try another nearby beach. We have quite a few beach areas around us and we are trying new ones to see which one we like the best. So far, I think this one was the best. It actually had some soft powdery sand unlike most of the others we've been to so far. It also had a lot of shells if you wanted to collect shells. Check out Mom in the bottom picture jumping in the air! Hysterical!

The boys loved just digging in the sand and playing in the water. They aren't totally comfortable with going much past their waste just yet. I think the more often we go, the more comfortable they will get. They are too worried about fish biting them right now...ha ha..

After the day at the beach, this was the car ride home!! yep!!! Snoozing!!

If you like Margaritas..have you tried the new mini cans? They have regular flavor, strawberry, mango, and raspberry. I had only tried the regular and strawberry and like the regular flavor best. Well now the local stores have where you can buy just singles of these. So last week I picked up the Mango-rita to try it out. I really liked it and so did Mike. The other day I saw this one and picked one up to try. Not my fave...it's ok. but my faves are the regular Margarita and the Mango flavor, very yummy. The trouble though, they are much to small!! I need a big can!! ha ha...

So if you haven't noticed, Bry is letting his hair grow out!! He wants an afro according to him! His hair has gotten pretty long in the past, but I think we are probably at the longest his hair has ever been! We played around the other night and even got some small pony tails in it! wow! I'm not sure his motivation for the hair style. Although, he has been pretty intent on watching Michael Jackson on Utube from the Jackson 5 days. He knows several of the songs by heart now, so maybe it's where he is getting his inspiration. He loves to sing the songs so I hope to try to get some video of him one day. He gets too shy to perform for the camera, but I'm getting him closer to agreeing to it! LOL...

Ha ha..Dev is the opposite. We just got his hair cut really short all over! I'm wondering with the heat factor how long Bry will tolerate all the hair. We shall see! 

 So on a side note if you watch either of these shows....these are my winner predicitons.

American Idol...... Caleb with Jena in 2nd place

The Voice......this is tougher, there are several good ones. At the moment I'm going with Josh on Usher's team. The  short guy with the hat that sings bluesy... But I do think that each judges' team has strong people on it, so it could be very tough!

In case you want to try a new recipe. I'm not sure if I've posted this before or not. We really like this and even the boys really like it! 

For the link click here:

Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 small cabbage, chopped
• 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) diced tomatoes
• 1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
•  
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar or wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• dash nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sea salt

Preparation:

In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add the ground beef and onion and cook, stirring, until ground beef is no longer pink and onion is tender.

Add the garlic and continue cooking for 1 minute.

Add the chopped cabbage, tomatoes, tomato sauce, vinegar, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, and salt. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or until cabbage is tender.

Very yummy!!  Well that's all I have for the moment. I hope everyone has a very happy and blessed weekend!! Toodles!

Proud parents!

So it's Honor roll assembly week! We are so proud of both boys for getting such grades. They are even busy three nights a week with TKD, soccer, and Church and they still made the Honor roll!! Dev told us that only 4 kids in his class made the honor roll and he was one of them!! Great job!

In Bry's class there were only two boys that made the honor roll and he was one of them! I'm so proud of him!! We told them that it is super that they are able to do sports and get good grades!! Only one quarter left so I hope they hang in there and don't let summer fever take over!

Bry had a book report project that he needed to make a character out of a soda bottle. Here is the finished project. He decided he wanted to do Albert Einstein since he had just gotten a book from the book fair about him. I think it turned out pretty good.  I did the hot gluing part but he did the rest of the gluing and painting and telling me what he wanted him to look like. Thanks to Mom for finding the great hair! He even cut out the design for the tie. 

Now onto my bragging rights...I WON THE BRACKET CHALLENGE  at our house! Oh yes!! I picked the overall winner and got the most points for games picked that were right! Hee hee...it's pretty hysterical since I don't know much about the teams. I even almost picked the final game teams since it was almost UCONN and Wisconsin in the final, but Kentucky beat Wisconsin. That's ok, I picked Uconn to win it all and they did!! But Mike told me that even a broke clock is right twice a day...ha ha...I guess he wasn't as happy as I was that I won!! hee hee... Love ya baby!! :-)

So now this lizard...or should I say Iguana. Mom and I were having lunch at my work one day and I saw this guy from across the parking lot. He was huge!! I wanted to get some pics so I kept getting closer taking some pics with each step in case he ran off. Luckily he didn't jump on me or anything. I can't believe how big he was! You can kinda see the size by comparison if you look at the jeep mirror in the background..wow! Needless to say it made lunch pretty interesting!

Last weekend was great and I got a few of my projects done that I wanted to. I thought I was going to be off on Friday and be able to get my painting done, but it didn't work out that way. That's ok. We did make it to the pool on Saturday and it was so relaxing! I could just sit out there all day! Bry scored an awesome goal at his soccer game on Saturday. Dev played really well also, but no goals this time. 

Random thoughts:

I hope I can get the living room painted this weekend

I'm not sure what animal is eating the bark off our tree in the backyard

Only 5 1/2 weeks till our trip to the beach with friends

I hope to get a run in tonight while the boys are at Church

We have been watching the show Resurrection....whoa...wierd..

The neighborhood is having an Easter egg hunt this weekend

Missing all my girlfriends 

Well I think that's all for now. Hope everyone has a great week and weekend. Toodles...

Gardening fun and more

So the creative bug hit me again. I saw this cute idea in a magazine. I decided I would go for it. I love how they turned out. I'd say the hardest part was finding what plant I wanted to use for everyone's hair. As you can see I didn't do mine yet. 

I even did one for Mom...ha ha....

Ok but here's where the lesson comes in. So I didn't read any directions for the project just saw the picture and did my best to copy. So here is what happened after I watered plants!! wow...the zombies came!! LOL...so now I know that next time I will have to either laminate the pictures first, not tuck the paper over the top into the soil, or according to a friend if I printed the pics with a laser printer then the ink would not of ran. Oh well...at least I got some pictures of them before the water took over! So I really did like how they turned out so I will have to redo them and this time I will do one for myself also. We could have our own plant family.

As I said I'm in the creative project mode. 

#1 I planted some more flowers out in the yard yesterday and I want to add some more to the back yard this weekend. 

#2 I bought a few solar lights to add to the landscape also. 

#3 I also picked up two paint samples to see what color we want to paint in our living room/kitchen area. I'm going to pick up the paint today and hopefully be able to get the painting done this weekend. 

#4 I bought some mirror trim pieces to spruce up our guest bath mirror. It will add a beveled edge to our boring builder grade mirrors. Then I want to paint the bathroom.

#5 Picked up paint swatches to decide on a color to paint a wood bench that I picked up along the street that a neighbor had put out for trash. I want to repaint it and add some decorative pillows or something to it.

#6 I took the handles off our bedroom furniture and had Mom paint them for me. I didn't like the color of the handles anymore and the new color gives the bedroom furniture a whole new look!! Simple DIY or should I say HSDIFU (have someone else do it for you...ha ha)

I better not get too carried away, too many ideas and not enough time!!

Well the weather is supposed to be a beautiful weekend and hopefully I can squeeze in time for us to hit the pool also!! 

On a side note: I have been watching American Idol and The Voice. I have to say that I think the Voice has better singers on it than American Idol!! My two faves on AI are Caleb and quirky Alex if you watch the show. Malaya is good too, she is just still very young and needs some more training, but her voice is awesome. The rest of the people I think are just so-so, they have good and bad weeks in my opinion. 

Happy Friday!