Two packages arrived via the postal service today. It seems Nolan’s birthday week is still going strong! We sat out back as he opened them. Once again, Lincoln was his trusty helper. Then, we were surprised by a visit from Aunt Larissa. She came bearing two more presents for the big little guy to open. What a lucky kid! We now have both a doctor and a fire fighter in the house should anyone need their services.
As an end of the year outing, the preschool takes a trip to a local farm. This year, I was able to go along as a chaperone. 🙂 We boarded the bus in the morning and headed beyond the city limits. The great thing about the farm we visited was that we were the only group there. Once we all de-bussed, the kids split into two groups – one went on the “trolley” ride behind the tractor first, the other went to look at the animals. Then they switched. The farm even had a huge fenced in play are for the kids to explore. After the complete tour, everyone ate lunch and then we loaded onto the bus for the return trip home.
I think Nolan enjoyed himself. He wasn’t too keen on trying to feed the animals by himself, but he did let me hold my hand under his so that the goats could eat the alfalfa pellets. Not surprisingly, he liked the cats the best – probably because those were the animals he was most familiar with. The trolley ride was a big hit with him too because we got to see the farm’s “pirate ship” that is open for play during the fall. We may have to make a return trip later in the year…
The boys were by the dining room table and Nolan said to me (while I was in the kitchen,) “Mom, take a picture of us!” Well who can resist that? I know I need to take advantage of their willingness to be photographed, because I’m sure when they are teenagers, the opportunities may not be as frequent. And yes, that’s half of an plastic Easter egg on Nolan’s head. (The main reason he wanted his picture taken.)
We took the kids to the local indoor playground to celebrate Nolan’s birthday. This was his request. He and Lincoln had a pretty good time. Afterward, we asked what the birthday boy wanted to eat for lunch and he decided on pancakes. We headed over to IHOP and stuffed our tummys. When we returned home, we let Nolan (with Lincoln’s help, of course) open his birthday presents. It was a laid back, family-filled, fun day!
Fun with frosting, sprinkles & toothpick decorations! After we made and decorated the funfetti cupcakes, Nolan suggested we bring a cupcake to our backyard neighbor, Kitty. She’s the sweetest lady – always has some sort of treat for the boys. Sometimes it’s candy, other times it’s fresh raspberries from her garden – yum! She was pleasantly surprised by our visit. And the boys were happy to share their St. Patty’s Day treats with her. I love that my kids think of others and I don’t even have to suggest it!
Random shots of the boys playing in the toy room. Lincoln is getting quite good at scaling all sorts of things we’d rather him stay off of.
Days 6-8. After our visit to Orlando, we drove a few hours southwest to see my first babysitter, Lois (who turns 95 this April!) and her daughter, Kathi. We lovingly call them Grammy Lois & Auntie Kathi 🙂 They hadn’t seen Nolan since he was about 13 months old and had only seen pictures of Lincoln. Needless to say, they were excited to see the boys! We spent 3/7 – 3/9 in in Cape Coral. It was a pretty laid back visit, which was a nice way to end our time away.
Larissa also accompanied us on this leg of our trip, which was fantastic! It was great to have 3 on 2 defense. While the weather was once again unseasonably cool, we were still able to take the boys to the local beach, where they loved playing in the sand. I think we could plan a whole vacation around the beach and they would be in heaven! We were also able to spot a couple of burrowing owls, which are protected animals in the area. They are probably my 2nd favorite animal. 🙂
It was hard to say goodbye on the 9th, but we left with good memories of our time together. The trip home went smoothly. Both kids slept for a good portion of the flight home. We were all thankful to be back in our own beds. And as an added bonus, we arrived home to most of the snow missing from our yard 🙂
Day 3. Lincoln said he would drive us to Cocoa Beach, so we took him up on his offer. 🙂 Well, sort of. We did go to the beach and the boys LOVED playing in the sand. It was a bit cool again, but the sun was warm and Jake actually ended up getting a bit rosy from it. The boys and I sported our 100 SPF sunblock, so we were in the clear. Jake made sure to enjoy a McRib on the beach (and rub it in by sending a picture back home to an old co-worker to create a little jealousy.)
Special thanks to Bri, Jason’s girlfriend, for several of these pics, including the group family picture we took at the end of our journey to the coast.
Day 2. We had a semi-leisurely morning and headed out for our first trip to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. I’m glad we traveled with Disney “pros” because the whole Disney system is really quite complex: 4 Different parks, regular tickets, hopper passes, shuttles, mono-rails…it’s enough to confuse any first-time visitor if you ask me.
To begin our visit, we rode the ferry across a large lake and at that point, I realized I should have packed the boys’ winter jackets and hats for the day. Here I was thinking we’d at least be able to get away with just sweatshirts. I assumed incorrectly. Mother nature apparently hasn’t been that nice to Florida this winter and we found out later that it had been unseasonably cool for the last 2 months. Oh well, we made due and attempted to hit a few indoor rides/shows to warm up from time to time. By the afternoon, the sun warmed things up a bit. We stayed to experience a couple of rides (Nolan didn’t care much for the Monster’s Inc. show we checked out,) the boys had their pictures taken with several characters, we watched the afternoon parade and had our picture taken in front of the Disney castle. It was a full day and the boys crashed (thankfully) later that night.
