Spring Break has Begun

That's right! Spring Break is here and Eli and I have been trying to make the most of it. We've already been out for a couple of play-dates. It is nice not having school or tutoring to keep us from scheduling fun outings.

Today, we headed to the Junior Museum with Eli's buddies, Lexie Kate and Kent. Of course, the mommies and baby sisters came along too.

The three kids were just adorable and played pretty well together.

They loved looking at and calling to the farm animals. Here they are yelling and "moo"-ing at the cow in hopes of getting her to turn around.

Off they would run and then stop at each bench for a break. This bench seemed particularly interesting as it was over water.

Great photo op, but try getting three 2 year-olds to look and smile at the same time. A nearly impossible task...

Before leaving for lunch, we hit the playground. It is a great one with so many different things to play on. This was a rare moment when all three were playing in the same spot.

Call us silly, but the moms decided that we wanted lunch before heading home...and not fast food. So we braved Applebee's with our exhausted toddlers and the two babies. We survived despite loud music, spilled drinks, chair hopping, and crying. Thank goodness they sat us on the porch! :)

Eli crashed on the drive home and napped for over 3 hours!!! I guess we sufficiently wore them out.

(for more pictures and another take on the day, hop on over to Jill's blog!)
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A Happy Birthday Weekend

We went to the beach to celebrate Aunt Kristi's birthday with her this weekend.

a yummy homemade ice cream cake...the cookie crust is too thick to put candles in

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT KRISTI!
We love you!!!

The weather was not perfect, stormy on and off all day and very windy, but as we like to say....A rainy day at the beach is better than a rainy day in Tallahassee! Friends came to join in the celebration and the fun. We are lucky that Aunt Kristi is friends with Lexie Kate's parents...Eli lucked into a playmate for the day.

The sun finally came out on Sunday...enough for us to get down on the beach and enjoy it. It was still a bit breezy and a little chilly, but that has never stopped Eli before. This time, Daddy and Eli had fun digging holes and burying Eli up to his chest...

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and later his neck!

He loved it.

What a wonderful way to kick off our Spring Break! Thanks for including us in your birthday weekend, Aunt Kristi!
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A Blue Jay in Training

We had a super fun time down in Dunedin this past weekend. It was great to visit with the Carson family, even if it was only for a quick weekend jaunt. The bulk of our Saturday morning (and more time after nap...) was spent at the Blue Jay stadium taking in batting practice and a bit of a Spring Training game. Eli got V.I.P treatment with a pass that allowed him the freedom to go wherever Grandpap would take him.

Here they are in the locker room.

Then they headed out onto the field to watch batting practice after meeting Cy Young award winning coaches.

Up close and personal! What a treat!

Eli had a terrific time playing in the sea of empty seats.

Before leaving, he managed to get two baseballs given to him...one from catcher Rod Barajas and another from pitcher Jesse Litsch. The latter after Eli waved to him. Litsch waved back and tossed him the ball.

Despite being around baseball a lot, it still was incredibly awesome to get to see Cy Young award winning pitcher, Roy Halladay, warming up before the game.

And then, after Eli's nap, we made it back in time to watch the Blue Jays try to make a comeback against the Astros in the 9th inning. It was a fun-to-watch, hit-filled inning. If only they could have pulled off the victory. Oh well... And it was likely best we didn't try to watch the whole game. Eli wasn't all that into sitting still for the game. (Especially after having free reign of the place earlier!) He still had fun cheering along with the crowd after each good play.

The rest of our visit was not captured on film. I was having too much fun swimming to get out and snap a few frames of that fun time. And otherwise, I just forgot to grab the camera. I think the Carsons plan to make a trip to to Tally next time. We look forward to it!
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Proof it is Spring

In case you need some....

Exhibit A
FRIDAY FUN-DAY

Friday was a very fun day, indeed. After school, Eli and I picked up our friend, Michelle, for a "lunch and park" date. It was great to catch up and visit with Michelle who was home from UGA on Spring Break. We feel lucky that she made time for us on her vacation. We had yummy sandwiches and then headed to the park. Basically, Eli had Michelle and I following him all around to each piece of equipment.

And if the beautiful day isn't proof enough that spring is here...check out the "pollinated" tush from sliding.

Yup, the azaleas popped this week. It happened overnight...honestly!

Later, after nap, we headed over to the Pope's for a little finger painting fun with Eli's buddy, Kent. The finger painting quickly turned into body painting.

Is this how you do it, Kent?

The boys decided that this was much more fun. Luckily, Jill and I had already stripped the boys to their diapers in case of such events.

They were too cute!

From there, we took them straight to the tub, got them cleaned up, and then decided to stay for pizza. It was a lot of fun to watch the boys play so well together. Eli and Kent tried playing/hiding under the table to delay the inevitable.

We did finally head home for bedtime. Thanks Jill, Bert, and Kent for having us over to enjoy some Daylight Savings Time with you all!

Exhibit B
CAR WASH SATURDAY

Remember when I said that the azaleas bloomed this week? Well, that means pollen . . . EVERYWHERE! We tried to discover the true color of our cars again....you'd think they had a yellow tinted top-coat on them this time of year. And, of course, Eli wanted in on the action.

Scrubbing is fun and all, but you know what?
The buckets are definitely MORE fun.

The sun is warm, but the shade is still chilly. Not sure if you can tell, but Eli's lips were blue by the end. Standing in the shade, dripping wet will do that to ya. I quickly got him inside to find some dry clothes and warm up.

With all that proof, I'm not sure what else one would need to be convinced that spring is officially here. But just in case you need more....

...the cars were yellow again by morning. *sigh!* Oh well...

Happy Spring!
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Better Than Decent

So, our first adventure in competitive cooking did not end with us walking away with a trophy or a giant check. Instead, we have a fun-tastic day to remember. A new tradition has begun.

Our competition batch of chili turned out perfect. I, speaking for myself, think it was the best one we've made to date. We could not have expected more from our efforts. The judging is quite subjective....but they did let us read the comments from the judges. "Excellent meat," "Too soupy," "Nice flavor," "Too mild," "No"...the last one being my least favorite. Three of the judges from our table had us ranked in their top 3! Unfortunately, that was not enough to get us into the finals. We were also allowed to taste the winning chilies. We took notes and are determined to come back next year and try again.

Eli found ways to keep himself entertained after stuffing himself full of chips and funnel cake.

It really was a lot of fun. We were thrilled to see so many familiar faces in the crowd. Lots of friends and even some family stopped by to sample our salsas and chili. We received a lot of positive feedback...from those that could handle the heat. Ours is a wee bit spicy! :) Knowing that this was our first try at a competition, we were not really expecting to come out on top when over almost 70 teams were competing...it would have been nice, but we were realistic with our hopes. But honestly, after such positive feedback from our friends (....maybe they were a bit too nice....because they are our friends....), we started to feel a tad overconfident. Going into it all, my only real goal was to have at least one person tell us it was their favorite of the day....and we got it! Well, kind of... Some friends said just that, but a non-friend bought a bowl to take home with him, and came back after sampling all the chilies (that didn't run out before he got to try it...) and told us ours was in his TOP 3!! It truly made my day....Too bad he wasn't one of the judges, right? All in all it was a blast, and we raised about $100 selling our chili for the Volunteer Fire Department.

And in addition to all of the cook-off fun, it was glorious beach weather all weekend. Just as was predicted and hoped.

Sunday, we made sure to spend the rest of our time ON the beach. Eli, as usual, loved playing in the sand. It was so much fun watching him play and how it differs from how he played in the sand a year ago. His playing has matured. (Sounds funny to say, but it is true!) The water was ICE COLD, but that didn't stop Eli from playing, jumping, and running from the waves.

We can't wait to go back in a few weeks.
Yay for the start of Spring! Beach Season is officially here!
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Chili Checklist

CHILI COOK-OFF WEEKEND IS HERE!

I think we're ready. We've been having dreams each night; some nightmares including: late starts, missing ingredients, and forgotten recipe. Thankfully those were just dreams. I'm confident that nothing like that will actually happen.

Last night, Matt began to gather the items on our checklist. I think he got everything!

Supplies------------------------check!



Pots----------------------------check!



Stove and tent------------------check!



Propane------------------------check!



Chairs--------------------------check!

Secret ingredients--------------check!



T-shirts------------------------check!



Bags all packed-----------------check!



Entertainment (i.e. cornhole)---check!

Recipe-------------------------check!

Perfect weather----------------check!

Competitive spirit--------------check!

Desire to succeed---------------check!



Checklist--------check & double check!

Yup! We're ready, alright. As soon as Matt gets home from work, we plan to load up the car, pick up super FRESH ingredients, and hit the road. And the weather really is expected to be picture perfect! Mid-70's and SUNNY! We could not have asked for better. Check back early next week for the report from our first adventure in competitive cooking.

YAY for DECENT CHILI!

P.S. I know the last post had no Eli pics...so for those who can't get enough (....we know who we are....)

This little guy is eager to get to the beach! He has been excited all week!

Whenever he pretends to "go," I ask him where he's going. Almost always, it is, "THE BEACH!"
It is about time, right Eli?

The Final Countdown

I have had so much going on so far this week...and it is only Tuesday. I have been desperately trying to update the blog for the past 3 days, and I'm just now getting to it.

Saturday, we celebrated my mommy's birthday. She's a Leap Year Baby, so no actual birthDAY for her this year...but we had a great time eating a yummy dinner at Bonefish with cake and presents back at the house. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDMA! We are so glad we got to spend the evening with you and hope your day was perfect!

This coming weekend is the chili cook-off we have been preparing for since the fall. Our t-shirts arrived last week and got us really excited.

our logo

On Sunday, we picked the coldest and windiest day to do our dry run, cooking outdoors, in preparation for the big day. (In other words, we waited until the last day we could...and it happened to be SUPER cold...by Florida's standards. High of 47 with a windchill making it feel closer to 37 degrees.) Due to the crazy weather conditions, we actually cooked in my parents' garage to keep out the biting, cold wind. (We've been watching the weather for this weekend, and it looks like the weather will be perfect: 70 degrees and sunny...only a 10% chance of rain!) To be sure we are ready, we prepped and cooked outside within the time limits. No problems!

So that's it! This week, we'll finalize little details to be sure our booth looks nice and that we have entertainment and all the amenities for that day. We hope to see lots of friends and family come out and support us...and a good cause. All the proceeds from chili sold (after some is turned in for judging...) goes to the St. George Island Volunteer Fire Department. You should be able to find our booth near the lighthouse. Just look for our DECENT CHILI t-shirts! We hope to see some friendly faces in the crowd.

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What? It is March already? Well, that being said, here is the link to Feb's Pictures. Eli is feeling much better this week. No more icky sickies for him. The crud is still going around though, so here's hoping he doesn't get anything else.