Andrew's 4th Birthday Party!

I scheduled Andrew's birthday party months ago at the splashpad for Saturday morning so the kids could play and then we could grill out for lunch. A week before the party I found out that the start to soccer season got bumped up a week, so we switched the party to late afternoon. We left our house around 3 and it was sunny. It started lightly raining as we arrived at the park, but looked like it would clear up so we started setting everything up. A few minutes later it came a downpour. Rain was blowing into the shelter and a river was running through it. We covered the pinata and cookie cake with towels to salvage them, but everything else got wet. I ended up standing on the picnic table (had a feeling of deja vu from our camping trip) to stay dry while I called our friends to tell them to hold off on coming and meet us at Burger King in an hour. Our sweet friends were more concerned with how I was handling it and what they could do to help instead of being irritated at yet another change in plans for the day. Andrew ended up having a wonderful party and all the kids had a great time!

The original plan

Card from Kate~Andrew picked it up and read "Happy Birthday to Andrew. Love, Kate" It was very cute! (for some reason I can't get blogger to upload it rotated...)

Yummy BK dinner

The cookie cake after being rescued in the rain...still tasted delicious

Happy Birthday to you!

Friends enjoying their cookies

Pinata time!

First Soccer Game

Cute little soccer players

Goal!

Andrew with his team

Birthday Bowling and Lunch

Birthday fruit

Lovin' Wasabi

FBVFD

Evie got to spend a girly morning with Mimi, so we took Andrew to the Fall Branch Volunteer Fire Department to check out all the trucks and equipment.

Opening and closing the huge bay doors

Using the mallet to open the water valve

We had to buckle up in every truck

Scared everyone in the building, including himself, when he discovered the horn

Checking out the lights

Thanks for a fun visit to the fire department Uncle Jimmy!

Soccer Practice

Geared up and ready to go

Andrew's team

Evie's First Day of School

Evie's summary of the day:

I went to all the classrooms and got to play with puzzles and toys

The rain cancelled the playground

I met a new friend. I don't know her name, but her shoes were good. They were pretty sparkly pink.

Little organizer

Andrew picked up all the shoes that were downstairs and organized them by owner. Love the way his little mind works!

Family shoe collection

Cape San Blas

Jason's aunt and uncle live in Cape San Blas and were so gracious to have us for the weekend. The moment we walked through the door we were hugged and welcomed just like family. We had lunch while waiting out a storm and then headed out into the bay to go scalloping. I am so proud of myself for actually getting in the water twice and collecting a couple dozen scallops. On Sunday I elected to stay back and go to the beach while Phil went fishing. Good decision on my part because they were out on the boat for over 5 hours and had to outrun some storms, but Phil loved every minute of it...except maybe the minute that his 11 year old UT national championship hat was buried at sea. We headed back to Tallahassee and got to sample the scallops and a fish that Jason caught. Yummy! We had a fabulous weekend getaway. A huge thanks to Jason& Alyssa for inviting us, Butch&Marsha for welcoming us into their home, and Nana&Papa for keeping the kids for 5 days!

The view from our room


Gorgeous sunset on the beach


Phil snorkeling in the bay

Tallahassee

Phil and I got to take off for a long weekend to Florida to visit our friends, Jason and Alyssa. We drove down on Thursday, had dinner at Ted's Montana grill, and got a quick driving tour of the city to see the capitol building and FSU. Our friends were working on Friday, so we slept late ( a real luxury as parents of preschoolers!) and went exploring. We shared an eclair at Au Peche Mignon, walked around the downtown area, had a steak lunch, and relaxed for the afternoon. That evening was really interesting. Their friends were having an annual mojito party at their home in a co-op. We got to hang out with an interesting group of people, go on a boardwalk tour of the swamp in the dark(creepy), and had a total stranger ask if we were virgins...no we have two kids, but that is how we want our drinks :) Definitely a good time in Tallahassee, but we knew we were headed to the coast on Saturday morning. This felt like two different vacations, one in the city and one on the gulf, so they each get their own post!

State Capitol

Downtown Tallahassee

Really Way Back Whensday

Chillin' out~Summer 1984