Our trip to Nick Hotel-

We decided to take one last weekend trip away before school and football/cheerleading starts, so we took the kids to the Nickelodeon Hotel. This is going to be a post of mainly pictures that will simply tell it all...

Here was our hotel:



This was the water park by the pool area...

which is where this little guy spent most of his time:

Her...not so much.

This is where Ellie liked to spend most of her time...

going down the slide and...

and getting soaked by the bucket waterfall:



Here's Jacob shooting a few basketballs:

and then to their favorite time of the day.

This big bucket just under Sponge Bob was filled to the rim with slime and then the countdown began...10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1....

and then it was .....SLIME TIME!!!

By the time I got to them through the crowd, most of the slime had already slithered off their slick bodies, but in these pictures, you can still see a little bit of the slime on them.

I was really there...here's the proof:

Ellie in Blue Clue's thinking chair:

Ellie with Dora, whom she had to high-five every time she walked by:



Jacob and Ellie in front of the Rugrats:

Then we met the Aunt's/Uncle and had a nice dinner out at...

RUN FORREST RUN.....

The Bubba Gump Shrimp giving Jacob the bunny-ears:

After dinner, we went to play putt-putt and watched some of the other visitors feed/tease the gators in the pond...

A picture of the best two golfers around....

and lastly, a picture of Ellie with the ladybug she caught on her hand. I just thought it was a cute picture and wanted to share (you'll have to double-click the picture to get a good look).

That's about it for now. It was definitely too quick and we were back to the work/school grind before we knew it.

Happy Monday!

Is it already here...really?

The summer flew by and today came much too quick, but they're off and today marks the official start of the 2009-2010 school year. So, to keep up with yearly tradition, here are the first shots of our 6th grader (do I really have a kid going into middle-school?) and our 1st grader....

Any different from last year? They are certainly growing up... I will upload more pictures later, but I'm at work and these are the only two pictures I got on my phone, so they'll have to work for now.

Although both seem rather excited, we have many new beginnings this school year....new schools, new teachers, new nurses, changing of classes, bus rides, etc... Admittingly, Mommy was actually a little nervous for my two favorite people this year, although I would never tell them that.

With a year full of many new "first," we had one that was a tad more nervous than the other, and I'm sure you can only guess who. I really think our Bubbe was more nervous about the bus ride than anything else. There was a lot of..."what if I miss the bus?" - "what if I forget what building to go to?" - "what if I don't know to get off at the right school?" Yep, he even asked that. Granted, his bus is stopping at Northport too, but my dear son, I think you will know the difference. Sigh...

Todd said he had a mini-breakdown on his way to the bus-stop, but I'm sure it's just all nerves. Jacob's bus # is 2629 and the first bus that pulled up at his stop was 2926. Thankfully, Todd was there with him and discovered that Mommy didn't write the numbers down incorrectly, it simply wasn't the right bus. Way to go, Transportation Dept., and confuse a kid who is already a nervous wreck. Couldn't they of picked a bus with numbers that weren't so much alike? Geez...

As far as the little girl, she told me she was "a teeny nervous, but not like Bubbe." I didn't even have to walk her to her room. We went through the drop-off line and she walked up to the school on her own like a very BIG girl.

Well, I'm sure there will be lots more to tell a little later this evening. For the time being, I guess I will watch the clock and anxiously await for my day to end.

I love you, Jacob and Ellie. Mommy is SOOOO proud of both of you and I can't wait to hear about your day!

The things kids say~

So, it's a hot, summer morning and Ellie's outside running around and playing with her little friend, McKenzie. The next thing I know she comes storming in the door all hot and sweaty asking me if she can have one of the diet grape sodas that her Daddy bought for her yesterday. I check the soda and it contains 0 caffeine, 0 carbs and 0 sugars, so I say, "sure." A couple of minutes later I go out to the laundry room and see both Ellie and her little friend sipping on one of the sodas. Because of Ellie's circumstances, I've learned that it's always important to ask before giving food/drinks to other little ones....you just never know if it's something they can't have. So I asked Ellie if McKenzie's Grandma said it was okay for her to have the soda and, although I didn't know why at the time, they both stood there with the deer-in-the-headlight frightened looks on their faces. I'm sure Ellie's frightened look was because she knew she didn't ask, but McKenzie quickly puts the soda down on the shelf and says, "I can't have it if it's got diabetes in it." All I could do was chuckle....how do you respond to that?

We are leaving soon for our last weekend get-away before school and football starts. I'm looking forward to spending a weekend away with my two littles at the Nickelodeon Hotel watching them get slimed...ha!

Happy weekend to all!

A few weeks ago, I talked about...

a little beach time;
relaxing in the sun;
getting a little tan;
listening to and playing in the waves; and
wiggling my toes in the warm beach sand.

Well, now that we got a LITTLE break from all the baseball craziness, we finally got to do that today! Here are my toes doing the wiggly in the warm beach sand...



It was a beautiful day at the beach, so we soaked in the sun, played in the sand and waves, relaxed and enjoyed the day. Here are a few pictures to share:

The kids building a little castle...







Ellie was catching a lot of these snails and giving them all names. I think this was Eddie, or wait... maybe this was Fred?



Ellie made me a sign in the sand. I know it's hard to see, but it says Mommy above the little heart :)



Jacob, or is that Ellie, picking his/her head up off the ground.



And the boys taking action on their plan to soak me with a pail of water. Daddy, who I'm sure was the master-mind behind it all, was taking the picture while sending Jacob off to do the dirty work:



One of me and my favorite girl:



A cute one of Ellie...



and one of Bubbe showing off his physique while doing a little flexing for his Dad.



Definitely not a bad way to spend the day with the ones you love....



Hope your day was as good as ours!

XOXO