celebrating anniversaries, 2010

on the day of my parent's anniversary WE were at magic kingdom.

my parents enjoyed a nice dinner that night at Emeril Lagasse's restaurant, but we were never really able to celebrate their anniversary during the chaos of our vacation.

we decided to celebrate with them last weekend instead. we all got together at their house for dinner and then celena and i surprised them with cake and presents.

cheesecake factory cheesecake, courtesy of celena

dad reading our cards out loud
a monogrammed vase for the flowers i bought them


we bought this personalized frame for their anniversary 2 yrs ago, but i never put any pictures in.
i decided to steal it from their house, add the pictures and then re-gift it :)
my plan was successful -- they loved it
natalie wanted to wrap a present for grandma to open too:
princess flash cards!
russell's turn to wrap a present

opening it with daddy

watching tv in gma and gpa's bed

this is always a sign that it's late and time to go home :)

35 years together

the beautiful flowers

(and my beautiful parents)

this is the picture from orlando on their actual anniversary,

on their way out to dinner

WE LOVE YOU MOM & DAD!

our anniversary is only 5 days after theirs

we went out for dinner that night and ate at the restaurant where we had our first date

*celebrating 6 years of marriage*

camping out with ryan

earlier in the summer we promised natalie and russell that we would let them camp out in the back yard with dylan. you may remember the day that was to happen, natalie was sick and instead, they "camped out" inside the living room. they still had fun but of course, it wasn't the same.

last friday, we invited our older nephew ryan over to camp out with us. it was a hot night but they had lots of fun making s'mores, eating them, playing UNO and reading Toy Story books in the tent with a flashlight, before they eventually went to sleep (which was REALLY late).

roasting marshmallows

natalie and russell tried it but then got afraid of the heat,

so gave their skewers to dad and ryan

assembling the s'mores

tasting their treats

their bed for the night

the hands on museum

last thursday we met up with my wonderful friend heather and the kiddos. i had promised the kids i would take them to this children's museum some time over the summer and before i knew it the summer was almost over! so this was my attempt to keep my promise AND squeeze some mommy time in at the same time.

heather and i don't get to hang out as much as we would like and i miss her a lot. playdates with the kids is most definitely for OUR benefit too. but with both of us having a family and living such busy lives, getting together ends up being a rare occasion.

as luck would have it, this trip to the museum turned out to be pure chaos. there were THREE different summer camp groups there on a field trip, in addition to the people who just walked in, like us. i felt so overwhelmed with trying to keep up with both of my kids who continuously went in separate directions. (why can't they stick TOGETHER?). meanwhile, my plan to catch-up with heather totally went down the drain.

fortunately (for my sanity), the camp groups left about half an hour after we arrived and things finally calmed down for us. heather and i got to chat, watch the kids run around and goof-off, and we even got to snap some pictures (imagine that!).

it really is a fun place for kids and hopefully we can make it back there soon.

firefighter natalie

inside the pirate ship:

they were in there forEVER. it was like they were digging for gold

selling train tickets

all aboard!

the ever adorable lauren and russell in the police car

my favorite picture of the day

i love logan's face here:

she is SO cute!!!

i love that russell is climbing this shelf

while heather is taking the picture :)

working in the bank:

and natalie's favorite part,

THE DRESS UP STAGE

(this section was closed the last time we were there

and she was devestated)

***all of the high quality pics above were taken by heather

random summer fun

hanging out on the driveway

daddy making a birdhouse!

natalie helping :)

our new swing!

we found it at ikea and daddy built it on to the tree in the backyard

we've been wanting to build a swing for loooong time
and this was a steal at ikea!!!

russ, his brother (on the right) and a friend

at their last softball game of the summer

(all nice and sweaty)

sadly, they lost that game

at the park in the beautiful area of san marco

(um, can i have that house? i'm sure it's no more than a million dollars, give or take)
my little monkeys

the missing card revealed

my debit card went missing yesterday...

i was on my way to publix AND target with my lists in hand and both kids seated in the car when i suddenly realized it was NOT in my wallet.

after lots of searching and some prayers it STILL didn't show up. i thought maybe it fell out of the car the day before when we were on the other side of town, so i got nervous and made a trip to the bank (w/ both kids) to cancel it & get a new one.

just now, natalie (who knew i was looking for it yesterday) approached me & said "oh, HERE'S your card, mom!"-- it was in little russell's cash register!!! this isn't the first time he's taken it to play with, so i really should have known better...

at least i know where it was "lost".

thank you st. anthony. he always comes through for me, even though it was a few hours later than i wanted, but hey, it's not up to me!

*prayers of thanksgiving*