Destin

After an uneventful week, we headed down to Destin for the weekend. The forecast was good and we were all looking forward to a day at the beach.


The weather was glorious and we all got rather too much sun, well Nick & I did anyway. Obviously we remembered to reapply sunscreen to Tom & Lily but neglected ourselves, so my back is slightly red and Nick has a red forehead and sunburned feet. Oops. We had a lovely day though, lots of wave jumping as the waves were big and there was a strong current for a change. Sandcastling and general lazing on the beach then off to Dewey Destins for a delicious lunch of fresh grilled fish.

Today is Lily's 7th birthday so we went out for breakfast then came back to the camp and she opened her presents before the drive home.

After getting home, Lily & I went to the store and bought an ice cream cookie cake for her birthday. I can confirm it tastes delicious, and luckily there is plenty left over. Now we are off for a quick swim in our pool before having a barbecue dinner (Tuna & Steak - Lily's choice) and more cake.

Double Birthday Party Day Arrives

After a quiet week it was finally the day of the birthday parties. Emily had come home from school with Lily on Friday and stayed for a sleepover. They had a great time. Lily's party started at 1pm while Tom was away at a football game. Aimee, Lauren, Willa & Emily were here for it. We had a treasure hunt and a game of pass the parcel. The rest of the time the girls played nicely and quietly...
We had also hired a large bouncy castle for the day.

So what with that and the pool, it was easy to keep the girls occupied.

Setting up the bouncy castle.

3pm dawned and the boys started to arrive for Tom's party. Suddenly noise levels rose along with stress levels. After an initial frenzy of bouncing and splashing in the pool we rounded up the boys for their treasure hunt. Then there was more mucking around in the pool before calming them down with a chocolate eating game. Unfortunately my photos of this didn't turn out as I neglected to check the settings on the camera after Deanna had been using it. (Deanna is a serious photographer so actually uses the camera properly, whereas I just use the automatic setting all the time). The last game the boys played was the beachball challenge - if you read this regularly you know what the game is. We throw the ball at them as they jump off the diving board and they have to catch and keep hold of the ball until they reach the side of the pool - deceptively difficult but great fun and energetic enough to keep the boys happy. Finally 5pm came and the parents started to arrive and take the boys away. The bouncy castle was packed away with the help of Tim, Shaun & Dustin and peace ensued. Bliss. Unfortunately we didn't have time to enjoy it.

After tidying everything up, giving the children something to eat and jumping through the shower Nick & I were off out for the evening with friends. Luckily, it was a relaxed evening and we were home by midnight and tumbled into bed. Now we have Sunday ahead of us with nothing to do except relax and enjoy the day.

Our good friends and magnificent helpers, Deanna & Tim.

Happy Easter

After an early dinner on Thursday Tom, Lily & I drove up to Oak Mountain State Park for the weekend as Friday was a school holiday. We had a lovely day on Friday, the children did lots of biking and we went for a couple of walks through the woods and did lots of relaxing. Everyone else arrived round about 4.30pm and we all got together for drinks....

On Saturday it was Tom's 9th birthday. After opening his presents we went into Birmingham for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. I had shrimp and angel hair pasta, it was really garlicky and totally delicious and was just what I was needing. After lunch we went back to the cabins and everyone either went horseriding or for a walk or just played around with a ball. I got to sit and read my book and have a nap. Once everyone was all back together again we got out the birthday cake for Tom and then Dorothy brought out some marshmallows so the children all got to make smores by the fire(which we needed because it was unseasonally cold).

Sunday morning it was time to pack up and come home again, Tom was keen to get back to start building his new Lego that he bought when we went shopping and I needed to tidy up the house and get organised for the start of a new week. Nick stayed up at Oak Mountain for a round of golf with Neil, Ross & Anthony so I expect him to appear in an hour or so.

Football & Easter Egg Hunts

Well, the bad weather never materialised, or at least not until Sunday when the sun room flooded again. I scooped out 3 bucketfuls of water from the carpet before the rain stopped. After that, it cleared up and the children were able to enjoy a pool party round at Jordyn's house in the afternoon.

I forgot to mention in last weeks blog about Tom and his football. He had 3 games in 3 days and in the second game he scored 3 goals. Way to go, Tom. As you can imagine he was very pleased with himself, and rightly so.

This week I finally went to the dr's about my elbow pain as I was so bad at tennis on Monday. I have been put on a 6 day course of steroids so hopefully that will clear it up. I am not too keen to be on steroids as I have visions of large muscles and excess hair appearing. Yuck.

Yesterday at school the children had their Easter Egg Hunts, I was one of the helpers for Lily's class.

Thankfully it was a lovely day and the children all had a great time.

Now I need to go food shopping and pack for our weekend away at Oak Mountain State Park up near Birmingham.

Birthday (and crappy weather) Season is upon us

Lily was appalled when she discovered that her daddy still had to go to work on his birthday, but we still managed to celebrate with a nice hat (courtesy of Burger King) and a cake. There was even a modest pile of parcels for him to open.

On Saturday we were off to a belated St Patricks Day party up in Prattville. I was driving as Nick had spent most of the day watching the Six Nations Rugby on a large screen round at Scott & Emma Notman's house. This obviously involved drinking from around 10am and eating lots of delicious food. I picked him up from there around 3pm so he could come home and have a nap before the party that night. Then a few hours later went back round to pick up the Notmans and take them to the party too.

Sunday morning I went out for an early morning run since I was feeling fresh as a daisy from not drinking the previous day.
Tuesday night we had friends round for dinner and I was drinking, oh dear. They left after midnight having consumed large quantities of alcohol and I got to bed at about 1.30am, only to have to get up 5hours later to organise the children for school. Needless to say I was not feeling very fresh on Wednesday and did not go running.

Then on Sunday we had the Frantz's and the Arnold's round for a long and boozy lunch...Needless to say I was not feeling very fresh on Monday and did not go running.....Hmmm, something of a recurring theme there. Will I ever learn that 'everything in moderation' is the way to go?

Currently I am waiting for more bad weather to hit this afternoon, we have had masses of rain and thunderstorms over the last 2 weeks, very unseasonal but at least we have finally had enough rain to take us out of the drought status we have been in. The school has been in touch to say the children are being let out of school early today so we can get them home safe before the tornado sirens start going off and everything goes a little crazy, again.