February 20

With this, I am officially caught up with the blog. Don't look for a post for February 21st; there isn't one. Maybe I'll have something for you after the 22nd. (It's National Drink a Margarita day, you know!) And then my birthday is the 24th, and I like to think that day is unofficial Drink a Margarita day, so we have an exciting week ahead of us. Plus, we need to get back into the groove of school and life as usual. 

Today, though, was Caleb's "Blue and Gold" Boy Scout banquet. Chris and I both thought it sounded lame and didn't want to go, but Caleb really wanted to attend. Our compromise was that just Chris and Caleb went, while I stayed home with the little ones. 

Before they left, though, they sat at the table while the rest of us ate dinner. 

Actually, Eli and I ate dinner. The girls refused to eat the grilled chicken, green beans, and roasted potatoes. Whatever, girls.

But Caleb really wanted me to photograph his most recent Lego creation, so I did.

The driver is Emerald Haroldson, his favorite minifigure.

And then it was time for the boys to leave! 

Doesn't Caleb look handsome in his Cub Scout uniform? Doesn't Chris look handsome?

This image may be more accurate. I sure do love my boys!

February 19

We really were going to get back to school and life as usual today, but then Amber messaged me about a playdate, and the temperature was in the 70s, and I just couldn't say no. So I decided that today would be a well-earned transition day, and we would start school back up on Monday. I have decided that we just had our Spring Break in February, and when the local schools have their Spring Break, we will continue learning. That's fair, right?

I spent the morning uninstalling car seats, vacuuming the van and seats, and re-installing the car seats. Lily is back to her old spot, rear-facing next to Eli. It's for the best; it is safer for her, and I discovered on the trip that it is much better for the big kids to be as far apart from each other as possible, or they start kicking and fighting.

Once the seats were in, we headed to the park. I was happy to see Liz and her boys there (Hi, Liz!) and I settled in to talk with Amber and Jen while our children ran around like crazy people.

Since our last visit, they had installed a new swing on the playground, and Daisy was keen to check it out.

Eli is always up for swinging, so he was happy to join in the fun.

Daisy loved it, but was frustrated that it was so much work for her to swing high. In the end, I helped her with some pushes.

Meanwhile, Caleb climbed this giant rock. He was so proud of himself, but was equally terrified about getting back down. He asked me to take this picture and send it to Daddy. Funny boy. Then he wanted me to help him down, but I refused. Eventually, he figured things out and made it down safely. Way to go, Caleb!

We ate lunch at the park, then headed home for naps. Eli woke up first, and this precious moment happened:

This video is probably too long, but I just couldn't stop filming. So it goes. Feel free to stop it when you get the idea; nothing else exciting happens.

February 18

Our bed is fabulous.

There is nothing like being gone for a week and sleeping in a less-than-ideal bed to make a mama appreciate her own bed.

Eli definitely appreciated our bed. It's a grainy picture because it was still dark, but this boy slept until nearly 8 am today! He woke up at one point, then flopped over and scooted back until he was snuggled up next to me. At first I thought he was just snuggling, but soon I realized that he might have actually gone back to sleep. I took this picture to verify that he was, in fact asleep. I will treasure it because I am hopeful that soon Chris and I will begin working to get Eli sleeping through the night in his own crib. I certainly love snuggling with Eli and nursing him through the night, but Mama needs sleep. Plus, Chris and I are planning a long weekend away in about a month, and we want Eli to be prepared to sleep without me! I am hopeful that the transition will go smoothly, but realistically, I know it will be tough.

When Eli finally woke up, I showed him one of the birthday gifts Maggie gave him.

He was fascinated with this letter E!

(Don't worry, Mom, the bulbs were cool to the touch. He didn't burn himself.)

Thanks, Maggie!

It was a preschool day for Daisy, so she took a shell in to show her friends. It was also a MOPS day for me, so it was pretty hectic overall. We ended up not doing any school today; I suppose that is justified, since we just got home from vacation last night?

February 17

Florida, Day 7

Read about our trip from the beginning here.

So, actually that is a bit misleading. Today was the day we drove home from Florida. Just like we did on the way here, we packed the van, put the kids to bed, and went to sleep. At 12:00, Chris woke up, showered, and brewed coffee, then woke everyone else up. We loaded into the van, and took off.

17 hours later, we were home. It was a whole lot of this:

(They were only sleeping during daylight hours because I turned the DVD player off. Some kids will fall asleep during a movie; mine are glued to the screen. Also, on the drive to Florida, they were too excited to sleep for the first three hours. On the way home? Totally different story. We loaded the kids into the van, and they were asleep pretty quickly. And yes, each child had their own box of tissues. We had a lot of runny noses this week, so tissues were necessary.

The big kids travelled really well, but Eli? Not so much. 

Sometimes I had to climb back to sit in the seat next to his and entertain him. I think he really hoped I would unbuckle him and hold him, but I just couldn't do it.

Instead, I tried my best to distract him with whatever items I could find. Like a water bottle.

Or my iPhone. (This is why I buy expensive cases for it.)

Or a light saber from Aunt Maggie.

My little Jedi in training!

Not pictured: the hours Eli spent screaming, for no particular reason. The last few hours of our drive were very stressful for me.

We made it home around 6:30, with plenty of time to unpack before putting the kids down for a normal bedtime. It was perfect, and we were so glad to be home!

February 16

Florida, Day 6

Read about our trip from the beginning here.

Yep, Day 6. Dear Maggie was such a gracious hostess; we totally invaded her life and her space for a full week, and she managed to convince us that it was a delight, and not a major inconvenience. This was our last full day in Florida, so we decided to do something fun. Maggie had heard that Mixon Fruit Farms were worth visiting, so we hopped in the van. It was a 30-minute drive, and the kids were... not at their best. While we drove, I hopped on my phone and purchased a Groupon for a tour of the farm. When we finally arrived, a very grouchy cashier told us that the tour was all sold out, and we might as well go home. We were so annoyed, but luckily another employee overheard us and told us that the cashier was a jerk, and that there were other tours, including one in an hour. Crisis averted! We sampled some orange juice, then picnicked and played in their outdoor kids' area until it was time for our tour.

There was a giant sandbox, which made everyone happy.

This girl. All  knobby knees and sharp angles. Goodness, I love her.

I think the kids were overwhelmed by the sheer number of toys available to play in the sand with.

Picnic. Chris is eating, Eli is just chilling. It's tough work being a baby.

Happy girl! I love when Daisy is cheerful!

(I will remind you of the nursery rhyme I often quote about Daisy: 

There was a little girl

who had a little curl

right in the middle of her forehead.

When she was good,

she was very, very good, 

and when she was bad, she was horrid.)

Carrots. Yum.

Hi, sweet Lu! She didn't want to eat lunch, but we made her.

Finally, it was time for our tour! 

Eli was wrapped on my chest, so I only got these four in the picture.

Just like with our gator boat ride the other day, Eli started crying as soon as the tram started moving. Thank goodness for babywearing! By the time we made it through most of the citrus groves, Eli had a full belly and sound asleep on my chest.

It was perfect timing, because right after he fell asleep, the tram stopped and this happened: 

Yes, that sign says, "CAUTION live crocodiles".

A wildlife rescue operation happens to be based out of the fruit farm, and they had a whole menagerie of animals for the kids to interact with. Daisy was fascinated to watch the keeper feed the crocodiles some raw pork.

Up next: a boar. The kids were really brave and fed it apple slices through the fence.

Then, a white skunk! See Daisy's hand reaching up to pet it? The skunk had been de-scented, so the kids weren't scared.

Look at Caleb, being brave!

Even Lily got to pet the skunk!

Meanwhile... 

Eli snoozed away.

Then the keeper brought out a baby alligator. 

Look at the focus in Caleb's eyes. He was totally into that little gator. Sadly, he wasn't brave enough to touch it.

Daisy was, though! She said it felt bumpy.

Then he brought out a Burmese Python! 

Can you see Lily and me (and a little bit of Eli!) reaching out to touch it?

All three big kids really enjoyed the turtles

And then our tour was over. The kids enjoyed some ice cream before we drove back to Maggie's for naps. We spent much of the evening packing and loading up the van, and the kids all said goodbye to Maggie before we put them to bed. Then Chris and I went to sleep, knowing we had a long day ahead of us.

February 15

Florida, Day 5

Read about our trip from the beginning here.

We checked the weather at the beginning of the trip, and today was the big day: beach day. Yes, we had already visited the beach twice, but today was going to be the day that we spent all day at the beach. We brought a beach tent, chairs, a cooler full of food... we had it covered. I was confident that with the tent, the little ones would be able to nap at the beach and we could spend all day playing. The forecast said that it would be cloudy, but still the warmest day of the trip.

Can you guess where this is going?

Yeah, it didn't work out so much.

It ended up being obscenely windy, and without the warmth of the sun, the high of 76 didn't feel very good at all. 

It was so windy that we couldn't get the tent set up.

It was so cold that the kids were chattering and blue. 

And then there were the seagulls, who prevented us from eating any of our food.

I am not even exaggerating when I say that they attacked Eli. The poor baby had a cheese stick in his hand, and the stupid birds must have thought it was a piece of bread, because they just kept coming after him, hovering near his head, and attacking. It was awful, and when I picked him up to protect him, they ended up attacking both of us. That was enough for me, and we packed up and headed back to Maggie's house. Luckily, there is a heated pool in her neighborhood, so after the little ones napped, we did some serious swimming. It wasn't the beach, but after the visit we had that morning, we didn't mind at all.

February 14

Florida, Day 4

You can read about our trip from the beginning here.

We celebrated Valentine's Day by checking off my two goals for our vacation: a visit to the botanical garden, and sunset at the beach.

My dad gives us a membership to the Missouri Botanical Garden every year, which we love. One of the perks of membership is that we automatically receive reciprocal membership benefits at over 300 other botanical gardens. When we started planning this trip, I immediately began searching to see if there were any reciprocal gardens nearby. It was pretty easy to find that the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens were close, and offered reciprocal benefits. The kids were really excited when we told them that we would be visiting a new botanical garden in Florida, and Maggie had been hoping to visit the garden, too, so she joined us for the morning.

Caleb and Daisy were delighted to find koi fish at the Selby Gardens, just like the koi fish at our Garden! Granted, we have more, bigger fish, but still.

Our first stop was the children's garden, which was set up like a rain forest. I loved that my normally timid and hesitant children came alive here; it was like the garden was already a familiar place to them, and they immediately felt at home.

This swing was a highlight of the trip for Daisy.

This one was, too. I'm pretty sure Chris pushed those kids way higher than was recommended or safe.

Whoa! Daisy captured a wild leopard!

This hammock swing. You guys? I need one of these in my life. I am not even kidding. Where does one find a swing/chair/hammock like this?

Oh, and this botanical garden? Yeah, it looked out over the ocean. Our garden can't even compete in that area. The kids posed for this picture for Grandpa.

And Maggie snapped this one of our silly family. I love it. Daisy's outfit might be my favorite part: leotard, layered over a long-sleeved, sparkly shirt, with a pair of skinny jeans and ginormous turquoise velcro shoes. My girl is rocking that outfit!

This boat out in the bay made me cock my eyebrow; can any more boat-savvy people tell me how on earth it is remaining upright, with no water to support it? Is it a trick boat, or can boats do that?

It was so much fun to have Maggie with us, and Lily took full advantage of the time to further wrap Maggie around her finger. Those two were best buds!

And somehow, without me even realizing it, Eli fell fast asleep on my back. What a good baby.

A highlight of our trip for Caleb was this: 

He found an actual coconut on the ground! We started our trip by doing some research googling on palm trees; Caleb wanted to know why he saw so many of them, but none had coconuts. We soon learned that all coconut trees are palm trees, but not all palm trees are coconut trees. When we found this coconut on the ground, we looked around and finally found a coconut tree! Caleb desperately wanted to keep the coconut, but we instead decided to leave it at the Garden and instead find a place to buy one later on. He was satisfied.

Aren't they cute? Daisy was  nearing nap time, and feeling very annoyed about everything. Otherwise, this could have been a darling picture. We took that as our cue that our time was up, and headed home.

While the girls napped, Chris did a little bit of grocery shopping and brought this home for Caleb: 

His very own coconut! We watched several YouTube videos on how to open a coconut, but only succeeded in draining it of the coconut water. It is much harder than it looks, and our lack of a hammer proved to be our fatal error. The coconut stayed closed.

After the little ones woke up, we packed up a picnic and headed to the beach. A sunset beach picnic with my family on Valentine's Day? Yes, please.

Unfortunately, everyone else in the world seemed to have the same idea, and we sat in beach traffic for about 45 minutes. When we finally got to the beach, the parking lot was packed. As in, not a single spot available, anywhere. It turned out that, while beach sunsets on Valentine's Day are a thing, the big thing was a mass wedding vow renewal ceremony. This is a lame video, but you can see just how many people participated in the vow renewals. Click here.

So we changed plans, and headed to the one other public beach we knew of. We made it just in time for the sunset. 

The kids tried to eat the heart-shaped PB&J sandwiches I made them, but it was cold and windy.

Also, you can see lots of other couples had the same idea. There was also a random man there with his parrot. He took pictures with the bird at sunset, which was both funny and sweet, but mostly funny.

Beautiful, isn't it?

It was a short-lived picnic, but it was lovely.

This was exactly what I was hoping for, and I was happy.

Selfie!

Hi, Eli!

Proof that Chris and I were there together. This is how we celebrated our 17th Valentine's Day together. Pretty perfect, if you ask me.

Yep. Definitely perfect.

Once the sun set, we packed up our stuff and headed to the van to finish our meal. It was just too chilly. As we left, we passed an elderly couple who had been sitting behind us. The man said to us, "You have a beautiful family! You certainly are blessed."

I couldn't agree more.