Marble racing

What do you do when it's the last week of summer and you are running out of steam and ideas to entertain the kids and it's about 100 degrees outside?

Well it involves marbles and pool noodles....

I got the idea on pinterest and it was so easy and fun. You just cut the noodles in half and keep them together with tooth pics. Simple as that!

Of course engineer Boston decided to change the track and make it even better. I know he's gonna be some kind of architect or engineer when he grows up. It's amazing how his brain works.

Best part: this entertained them for hours. $3 spent = SCORE!!!

Meet the Teacher 2011

It's the time of year again....back to school!

Tonight we had meet the teacher and I'm excited about the boys teachers for this year. I cannot believe they are going to be in 1st and 3rd grade this year. Time flies!

Boston with his teacherDallas with his teacher

After meet the teacher we headed over to Perkins, like we did last year, for dinner. I guess that has become a tradition now.

Universal with new friends

Sunday we met our new friends at Universal for a day of fun.

We have been so many times and never seen the Mystery Machine! And my boys LOVE Scooby Doo
Here we are on Jaws.

Took up three rows on the roller coaster and 4 of us weren't riding. I think if we all had gone we would have taken up the whole thing.

Wheeee

Not a great pic because these were all iphone pics and this one didn't have a lot of light. But I wanted to capture them on the Jimmy Neutron ride since it will be closing soon.

We will miss our new friends! But we will look forward to next summer and planning a week at the beach again together!

Last days at the beach

Wow what an awesome trip we had last week. I was so sad to see it end. The older the kids get the more fun things they are able to do at the beach and it's just so fun to watch them explore and enjoy the beach.

We met an awesome new friend and her 3 kids and all 7 of the kids got along so well that we did most everything with them. Below is a picture of everyone except Sydney.




There was lots of crab huntingAnd wave jumpingand boogie boardingand playing with friendsand sand castle buildingMy dear friend Lynn came out with her two friends on Thursday and that just added to the fun!And here is my handsome hubbie who was such a trooper all week with so many women and kids9 kids hanging out at our place waiting for lunch Sean went and picked up some yummy subs from the French Bakery and chocolate eclairs and we all ate outside together!

There were lots of memories made this year

Thursday night we took all the kids to the new ice cream place Smores and there was this beautiful full moonAnd here's the kids waiting for their ice cream at the fire pit Friday night Sean's parents were nice enough....and brave enough....to babysit all 7 kids so us adults could go out! They even brought them KFC and doughnuts and ice cream from Dunkin Doughnuts and they all enjoyed a movie together.

Us adults on the other hand had a beautiful dinner at Oceanside on Flagler Ave complete with cocktails. We saw dolphins and a manatee and enjoyed some fun adult conversation. And I'm so happy to have made a new lifelong friend!

Another day at the beach

Lots of wind today at the beach which kept things a little on the chilly side after you were wet. But that didn't stop us from lots of fun. And the kids have met some great new friends...and a bonus is that their mom and I have hit it off. It's always fun with more friends on vacation!

I had a great idea for a picture with a frame on the beach. Dallas was my only child willing to entertain mom's creative juices. And he did such a great job posing for me....at least for the 10 seconds that he did and I was able to quickly catch this shot!

The moon and the lifeguard chair.
We went down to the beach after dinner at Manny's. Sean's idea was to take the kids for a walk to find some shells. Of course I saw an opportunity to bring my camera down to the beach.

Boston Dallas

Asher

My goal was to capture a shot of the kids all together. I take pictures of families all the time and find it so easy to get the kids to cooperate with me. Of course like all professional photographers know....photographing your own kids is TOTALLY different.

So...here's the best shot I could get. The boys wanted to pretend they were lifeguards looking out. At least they weren't pushing each other off the stand! And Sydney was having too much fun to stop and look at me.

And here's a nice behind the scenes of me trying to get them all in place.

All my favorite boys

Crabs, waves and rain, rain, rain

Monday was a great day to start until the rains moved in. Before that I was able to capture a few shots.

Sydney sure loves her daddyand the sand!

The boys and Sean LOVE to catch crabs. They look for a hole and dig to China to find it. Then they watch it try and pinch them and run around. It's very entertaining to watch!

I love the smile on Boston's face

And here was the catch of the day.

Yep....my camera just can't resist this little girl...and her cub legs!

Walking ALL over!

Watching her crazy big brothers.

Dallas and Boston are having a blast in the water. There's not as many pictures of them because they are usually in the water boogie boarding and you can only take so many pictures of that. :-)

Asher was very busy building things with the sand, digging holes and filling them with water and running around in and out of the water. Next year he will probably be out there boogie boarding and jumping waves, but for now Mama loves watching her busy little boy running around in the sand.

And then Sydney found the birds and they became a whole new game!

When the rain came we spent a lot of the day inside until finally the thunder and lightning left and we were able to let our energetic boys bounce out of the condo. Who cares if it was still sprinkling. But my little Asher cared. He did not want to get wet. So I put his hat on and then wrapped him in a towel and he was more than willing to head down to the beach and sit under our tent and build sand castles.