Thursday, June 30, 2016

June Randoms

We’ve spent a lot of time at Pappy’s pool so far this summer. We’ve been lots of afternoons during the week, several nights after dinner and it’s the best place on weekend afternoons if we’re home. IMG_8319IMG_9873
DW is always the most popular at the pool with our littles. He’s always catching one, throwing one, or got two hanging on while he’s racing the other one to the other side. IMG_8248IMG_9796IMG_8209
I used to think their preference for him in the water was because the felt safer with him, but I’m pretty sure it’s the craziness that he encourages and participates in that keeps him at top of their fun-list. Ha.

I keep saying it, but it really has been the summer-of-the-goggles for Mamie. (and she ALWAYS, no matter what, wears them upside down. IMG_8199
Pool days always lead to the best naps, too. I found Mames asleep like this one afternoon after a couple hours of swimming. IMG_8558Bless her heart, her little toes were raw from rubbing the concrete.
Someone tried on Grammy’s reading glasses and thought he was so funny…
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At the end of the school year, at our house, there’s always a big prize if you’ve had a good year. AB got all purple and green behavior and straight A’s, so a prize was definitely in order! Last year, she got her kayak, this year she got a mermaid tail. The day it came in, we had to try it on!
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We ran into the Chick-fil-A cow one day at the mall. Tucker loved him and kept trying to give him a high-5. We’ve got to get that boy back to Disney World.
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We’ve celebrated a lot so far in the month of June. Several birthdays, including dinner out one night for Nen’s 31st. Raise your hand if you knew chef pants look like pajama bottoms/scrubs? I did not, and I was so confused when the chef came out playing a saxophone in his pajama bottoms.
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AB and I met Carrie & Allie in Lake City one week night to celebrate Carrie’s bday early. The girls had the best time. IMG_9944We took them to Claire’s and Bath & Body Works after dinner,  and I think they both declared it the best night ever. I can’t figure out how to get this pic back to color…???IMG_9948
At the beginning of the month, we also celebrated my cousin’s oldest daughter’s graduation. Sara always throws the best parties, and this one was no exception. I wish I’d taken pictures of every little detail. Of course my kids’ favorite was the candy bar with all the personalized M&M’s, cookies, & Hershey kisses that they got to stuff a bag and bring home with them. :)  The only pictures we took were in the photo booth…IMG_8194
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June’s almost over! Crazy!
~amw~

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Lego Land

With Garrett and Caroline down, mom wanted to do something fun with all the kids. We decided on Lego Land because we’d never been down there before and we hoped it wouldn’t be as crowded as any of the Disney parks and Sea World. IMG_9323

I hit the Redbox and rented the Lego Movie for our drive down, and stopped at Walgreens and got all the kids a Lego Minifigure for trading in the park. I didn’t know anything about this until the night before when I was doing some online research and mapping out our day. It’s the cutest thing, though. You take any mini-figure into the park with you and you can trade them with any of the park employees. They wear name tags made from Lego boards and have little mini-figures stuck on them. They also have a couple stations for trading in the park and their collections are amazing! The only mini-figures I could find at Walgreens were “The Simpson’s” themed (yuck!), so of course the kids all traded as soon as they could. We ended up with some fun ones. Mamie and Annabelle got a Mickey & Minnie Mouse and Tucker got a cowboy one.

We knew it was going to be hot. Hello, its Florida in June. We were mentally prepared and we’d decided to keep our expectations at hitting three rides, seeing a show and letting the kids get a prize. If the heat or crowds got too bad, we’d call it a day.

It was so hot, but we ended up getting to do way more than we’d hoped and really had the best time.

We got to the park right at opening and the crowd wasn’t bad at all.

We hit the first ride we came to, which was like a sky view that rotated around in a circle so you could see the whole park. Apparently it was part of the old Cypress Gardens Park. IMG_8859

We took the kids’ picture with the giant Emmet & Stylus figures made from Legos… IMG_9326

and were excited to see that they even have some of the Lego characters in the park for meet and greets. I didn’t know how Tucker would do with them, but he loved it! He was high-fiving them, and wasn’t scared at all. IMG_8914

We hit the carousel next. IMG_8875IMG_8879The carousel is the cutest, it’s made to look like the big Duplo blocks. IMG_8891

Everything in the park is either Lego themed or made from Legos. It really is neat to see and if you have a Lego lover, it’s the perfect park. IMG_8938

Our girls have a couple sets of Lego Friends Legos and they were excited to see a lot of the Lego Friends themed things, too. IMG_8912IMG_8902

We spent the morning riding rides and checking out the Lego displays. IMG_8942IMG_8987

They had the cutest little waiting area for the little siblings who weren’t big enough to ride the bigger rides. And even a washy-wash station, too!

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Mom took the littles on some smaller rides, while I took one for the team and rode the scary rides with Caroline. IMG_9031They were actually pretty fun, except one. IMG_9065

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We got lunch at the cutest Lego Construction themed burger stand and enjoyed eating in the A/C, even if it was pretty crowded.

Cypress Gardens was famous for it’s ski show, and when the park was converted to Lego Land, they brought the ski show back. IMG_9086It’s really cute, and I was so impressed with the skiers wearing the big Lego costumes on skis! IMG_9091The show is pirate themed and even has a giant pirate ship. IMG_9108

They have a section of the park that loops through some of the gardens of the old Cypress Gardens park, but we didn’t walk through.

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We made our way to the other side of the park for a few more rides, and driving school. IMG_9044IMG_9127IMG_9133IMG_9144The driving school was cute, but took forever. At the end, you have the option to purchase your “license.” Garrett and Caroline chose to spend their souvenir money on them and they were really cute. IMG_9315

TDW gave in to the heat and caught a little nap in his stroller. IMG_9156

When we were walking back to the other side of the park, a little boy, about Tucker’s age came up to us, crying. He was lost. It was pitiful and scary. He immediately went up to my mom to hold him, which she did, and we went and found a park worker. The employee said she’d keep him, but he didn’t want to go to her, so mom said she would wait with him while they found his mom. I was so proud of how concerned our kids were and how sweet they were to want to help. The kids and I started looking around for his parents, we figured it was only a matter of time before they realized they’d lost him and we were pretty sure they’d be easy to spot when they realized it. Sure enough, it wasn’t long and a mom started yelling his name and frantically searching for him. We were glad we were there and could help.

After riding a couple more rides, we did our final mini-figure swaps, and then spent a little time in the Duplo Valley part of the park. IMG_9318

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IMG_8866It’s for the toddler age kids, so Tucker was loving everything. IMG_9172The big kids rode with him on everything, and really had just as good of a time as he did. IMG_9178IMG_9181

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It was the cutest part of the park, to me, and Tucker really enjoyed it. IMG_9215IMG_9199

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After a while there, we hit the gift shop. The girls (& Tucker) spent their souvenir money from Grammy there. IMG_9171They all picked out a Lego set. Lego Friends for the girls and a construction Duplo set for TDW. IMG_9311

We made one last stop to see a couple of the Lego stars. IMG_9293

We got in the car around 5:00 and I couldn’t believe we really had made a whole day out of it. IMG_9158

It was a great day, and we’d love to go back again, just in the Fall or Spring next time!

~amw~