Neighborhood Friends

I am so thankful that we bought the house we did.  The neighborhood is wonderful and we've made some close friends already.  Our neighborhood in Pensacola was not the friendliest of places.  The people were nice enough, just not out every day looking for playmates like we were!  People here are outside just as much as we are and they want to talk and play and get to know each other.  We've made 3 close friends who all live within 1/2 mile of our house.  We see all of them most everyday, whether it be walking down the street and running into them, playing Tball or gymnastics, borrowing something from someone or getting together and playing.  Bryce's friend Nick that has been in my last two posts is one of Bryce's friends (and he has a younger sister close to CeCe's age, Julia).  Sopia and Michael are another brother/sister pair that we enjoy playing with.  CeCe's closest friend lives just 3 doors down. 

Meet Sophie.....isn't she the cutest? 

They get together and run around and giggle and play so well together

Having best friends is so special, and to have them live so close to you is the best!  I had two BFFs that lived super close to me growing up and they are still two of my closest friends.  I hope these two stay close too. 

Ft Pulaski

Bryce's friend Nick came over this afternoon.  After they played here for a while we decided since it wasn't raining (still windy but sunny!) we would head to Fort Pulaski.  Bryce is really interested in war/military/forts now so this being so close to us is great.  It is a great Fort with lots to look at and play on.  Yesterday we went to Fort McAllister in Richmond Hill (it was super windy but we still enjoyed ourselves, and had the place to ourselves, haha!)

Bryce and Nick on one of the cannons

Ready....Aim.....FIRE!



Last Tball game

Bryce had his last Tball game on Thursday.  He played great and had a good time as usual.  Kiki and Papaw Duke came in town Thursday afternoon so they were able to see Bryce play! 

Bryce and his good buddy Nick after the game with their trophies. 

Papaw Duke wanted a picture with Bryce in his uniform.

CeCe and Papaw Duke got some good cuddling time in this weekend.

They left a little earlier than they had planned because of the tropical storm.  It was super windy here yesterday and our backyard looks bad from all the limbs that have fallen, but so far we haven't had much rain at all.  The sun is actually shining right now!  We aren't in the clear yet, but so far this storm hasn't been nearly as bad for us as it has been for people even 20 miles south of here. 

The wormsnake

Bryce spotted a worm in the driveway yesterday.  Both kids were very excited about their new friend.  CeCe knows it is a worm, but keeps calling it a snake! 

CeCe is doing her worm dance here!

Bryce really wanted to pick it up but got a little freaked out when it moved on him

But then he got brave and grabbed it.  He was so proud of himself

This one (and her mama) never would touch it, but she sure enjoyed watching it.  Today she kept looking for the wormsnake and when she didn't find it she pouted and said she really missed him.  

All You Need Is Love

I found this on our playroom chalkboard. 

I love it!  We've listened to many many songs in the playroom and he picked this one to write out.  I think that is so neat! 

LEGOLAND

Bryce is very into Legos right now so this place was perfect for us!  The rides are geared towards kids aged 2-12 so almost all of them were great for Bryce.  CeCe was able to ride more than I thought she would but after going on one semi dark, scary to her ride she didn't trust me to take her on any others except the carousel!  She was content to ride in the stroller though.  She woke up not feeling great that morning (same exact thing that happened the day we went to Bush Gardens last January) but was such a trooper about the long hot day.  The longest line we waited in was for the Dragon coaster (Bryce's favorite of the day) and the line was only 15 mins long.  Everything else was 0-10 minute wait.  The park isn't huge but there is a lot to do.  We were able to do everything we wanted in the 7 hrs it was open.  I definitely recommend Legoland as a fun family trip. 

We timed it perfectly and walked in right when they opened at 10

Rescue Academy where we all worked together to put out a fire and catch a robber. 

Boating school

Outside the Coasterasaurus roller coaster.  It is an older wooden coaster that was a little loud and intense for Bryce.  He was smiling when he told me about it, but didn't want to ride again.  (I'm not a roller coaster fan so I was happy to sit out with CeCe)

Safari Trek

Beetle Bounce.  Bryce loves this kind of ride, you can tell his Daddy does too! CeCe was tall enough to ride this one but chickened out right before the ride started

On the 2 story carousel.  CeCe was excited to get to ride 'up top'.

Kid power tower.  You pull yourselves up this tower with a rope (it goes pretty high!) and can then let go and free fall down.  Fun ride. 

Technicycle.  The faster you pedal the higher you go.  Bryce really liked this one. 

So he went twice!  Once with me and once with Cappy

While we were riding the technicycle, this little one passed out in the stroller with Anthony pushing her around.  Sweet thing!

She woke up just in time for the pirate ski show.  It was GREAT!

CeCe fell in love with these skiing lego soldiers.  It was so funny, she would wave to them everytime they came out and just grinned at them.  She was so excited to have her picture made with one of them!

Then Bryce decided he wanted a picture too.

Miniland was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  It was replicas of US cities completely made with legos.  We made the mistake of saving this for last.  It was HOT and we were exhausted but it was so awesome we wanted to look at every little detail but didn't have it in us to stay any longer.  We got to see it all, just not study it the way Bryce would have liked to. 

We took this one for Uncle Sauce (Blakeley's husband Hunter works at NASA)

Bryce's current obsession is US Presidents.  He was so excited they had a mini Washington DC to look at. 

On our way out we stopped in the lego shop to browse and both kids came out with great lego sets from Cappy!  CeCe chose a Cinderella castle (duplo blocks for her) and Bryce got a great Marvel Hulk superhero set.  

Liki Tiki Village-Orlando, FL

The main reason for Cappy's visit last week was for her to join us on our adventure to LEGOLAND!  We decided to do this sometime this spring and it worked out perfectly to go on my birthday weekend!  It was such a fun way to spend my birthday.  There aren't many hotels in Winter Haven, FL where Legoland is located so I searched on google for a hotel in Orlando with waterslides.  I came up with a few but Liki Tiki Village stood out to me.  Mainly because it was only 35 mins from Legoland and was super cheap!  We had a two bedroom two bath condo with a full kitchen for a great price.  And there is so much to do right on the property.  The pool area was great for little ones.  Bryce loved the water slides and CeCe had fun dancing around in the zero entry pool. 

We wasted no time on Friday afternoon, we walked in, put our bags down and got ready for the pool!

Saturday was spent at Legoland (next post) but CeCe couldn't wait to get back to the pool that afternoon.  As tired as we were we took them to the pool that evening.  No pics of that pool time though.  It was all we could do to get ourselves there, we were so tired after a full day at the park. 

Sunday morning we had a few hours before we needed to hit the road so we checked out the other ammenities at Liki Tiki.  This Surrey bike was a big hit with everyone.  

As were the pedal boats

Bryce and Anthony playing putt putt

There was also a great playground and I'm shocked we don't have any pictures of that, the kids spent lots of time on the playground all 3 days.  Great place to stay, lots to do and great price.  Thanks Liki Tiki!! 

Gymnastics

I finally took my camera to CeCe's gymnastics class yesterday.  We've been going since late January and she still loves it.  The program is wonderful and she has improved a lot since we started.  (by improving she is trying more things and getting stronger, I'm by no means looking for her to be a star gymnast, this is purely for fun!)

Waiting for class to start, practicing her ballet moves.

Stretching

Doing her 'table'

If you know CeCe you aren't surprised at all that she takes babies to class with her.  This week YaYa was the lucky baby to go.  Here is CeCe showing YaYa how to do a forward roll. 

Pit time!

The rings are still her #1 favorite thing.  She loved them in her old class in Pensacola and she still gets so excited about them here. 

She also loves this fun roller coaster

And hanging from the high bar!