Audrey Play's Tennis

Audrey has taken up the game of Tennis. It started up at the begining of March and will go through the end of May then pick up again in September.They practice twice a week and she loves it! She is doing really well so far and is able to hit the ball most of the time. At the first practice all the parents are standing by watching and talking to one another to figure out who's child belongs to whom. Normally I would say the red head is mine, but this time there are four of them taking lessons! Crazy Funny! So I had to say the red head in the red shirt! And I thought red heads were rare? I guess in the sport of tennis in Deltona that is not the case!

Audrey's 7th Birthday!!

It's official you are looking at a 7 year
old. This was one eventful day! It started out down in Clearwater Florida watching her brother swim at Junior Olympics. Lucky for her there was a park to play on. We were able to find a bench in the parking lot so that she could open her presents there. After we left there we went strait to Disney's Hollywood Studio's. Where all day she was treated like a princes! The grandparents bought her a crown for her birthday and with the button that was given to her at the beginning of day at the park she was wished Happy Birthday at every turn! She got so accustomed to hearing it that after a while forgot to say "Thank You". I know that I will remember this day and I think she will too! Later in the week we made her a cake and sang "Happy Birthday". Yum! The cake was still warm when we ate it. It was delish!

Short Course Junior Olympics 2010

For the girls the best part about a far away swim meet is the hotel and its pool and hot tub! Donovan did pretty well he qualified for the 50 free, the 100 free and the 200 back. The 50 free his time was a 25.10 he decreased by .71 from his last time and this time last year he had a 33.93 what an awesome improvement. The 100 free was the same way his time was a 55.64 he decreased his time by .20 and last year at this time had a 1:01.75. The 200 back there is a story to tell. First the place is so crowded that there is nowhere to sit even if you arrive a little early. So Papa, Dad and Donovan woke up super early. I think they were there 4 hours before the event started. They were able to save seats and they were prime or so they thought. The day before the boy's swimming was right down below the seats that they had saved. However they switched sides and were swimming clear at the other end and you could not see from the seats that were saved. Now us girls thought it would be nice of us to bring the men some breakfast in letting us sleep in and saving us seats at the event. Well, Donovan woofed down a egg sandwich that I lost my marbles and forgot that he does not like eggs as well as a large OJ and he started to feel sick right before his 200 back. Lucky for him there was a garbage can close by! If you get what I mean. Then he raced came in dead last increased his time by 4.82 seconds from his qulifying time and got a 2:18.59. He had to revisit the can right after the race. Note to self it is better to swim on an empty stomach than to put something heavy in the belly at Junior Olympics. However that is still an improvement over last years time of 2:35.42. If he keeps improving every year as much as he has this year who knows what this sport will do for him!?!

Disney with the Grandparents

Disney was so much fun!!! However I think it was even more special that we were able to experience it with loved ones that we had not seen in a while. In the rollercoaster picture is Audrey's first time on Space Mountain. Her First real roller coaster! She wanted to sit in the very front. She has been waiting to be tall enough for years! After her ride which by the way she was able to keep her arms in the air most of the time. Nothing could stop her. She rode on Rockin' Roller Coaster as well as Everest about 4 times and well if Audrey the youngest was going Nana had no excuse to stay off the ride and had to go! So while Audrey's screams were of excitement, Nana's screams were of fear! Everyone took turns sitting beside Nana because it was so much fun to hear her scream during the ride, you were laughing so hard that you forgot all about being on the ride yourself.
Now in the next picture was in the Swiss family Robinson tree house. Shauna and I posed for Audrey the photographer and it did not turn out too bad! Now I want to point out that Shauna and I are both wearing jackets and I am also wearing a sweat shirt and two layers of tops. People this is Florida it is not suppose to be in the low 50's in the middle of the day! Most of us were cold, even Nana was cold one day. However I was freezing.

This is in line in front of our small world. Not as good as California but Nana noticed that you were able to get a lot closer to the attraction then California. Awe!!! The Grandparents are they too cute! It was so much fun to spend time with them. Audrey held onto Papa's hand almost the entire time we were at Disney. I think she will remember the trip.




I love this picture the best! We finally are all in one. This is in front of Muppet's 3-D. It goes to show that we were all having a wonderful time, not a tear or a grumpy face among us and it is the end of the day. Amazing!







What a great looking group! Shauna, Audrey and Nana rode the tea cups together. I believe that this was taken right after that and right before Its a Small World.

Now this one I took the picture and forgot all about getting the Mickey head in the photo. Who can blame me when you have such great looking family members to take pictures of!

All in all I think everyone of us will remember and talk about this trip for a while and I hope it will last us until the next time we see each other!

SNOW in FLORIDA?

OK... It has been so cold here! We have seen the temperature as low as 19 degrees but it has been below freezing every morning for a week now. I don't know if our plants will survive. We have wrapped them all in sheets in hopes of keeping them a little warmer. But that also means that they have not seen the sun in a week. Tricky! Don't know how the plants or I will survive this cold weather. Saturday morning the conditions were right and it snowed or sleet fell as most weather men would say. But to the kids it was SNOW and enjoyed catching it in their mouths while it fell from the sky. I even tried to take a picture of it as it landed on the seat of the swing.

Christmas 2009

We had a very memorable Christmas this year. We had a new added tradition put in motion this year. I know that we will do it again. We had what I call "Mom's Dirty Rotten Christmas"! There was a lot of gifts under the tree with no names on them big ones, small ones, hard ones and soft squishy ones! Everyone took turns opening one gift of their choice. The catch was that you could either choose from the pile or steal from someone else and then they choose from the pile. It was hilarious! Donovan continually opened little girl pink stuff and Audrey continually opened boy things! Shauna, Audry and Donovan all stole from each other and laughed until everyone's sides hurt.
Christmas Dinner was wonderful too! I worked hard the day before as to not have to work too hard on Christmas day yet was able to enjoy eating as if I had. Shauna made origami flowers for each place setting and the table was very beautiful. We had set one extra place setting and we told the kids that we were having Christ dine with us and we all took turns talking about that beautiful day when the Christ child was born.

Thanksgiving Parade

Shauna is in a Environmental Club at school and does a lot of great things with them. This activity was pure fun. The city of Deltona had a parade and the club got to participate and walk in it. Audrey and I had the joy of waiting curb side anxiously awaiting to see big sister in the parade.