The 9th Circle of Hell...Chuck E. Cheese

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My little guy turned 7 yesterday, but his aunt wanted to give him a surprise party Sunday at Chuck E. Cheese.  I don't do parties, so I told her if she wanted to do it, then go for it!

So Sunday morning, I told Aidan I had to go shopping...we checked out Michael's, then he said he was hungry. What to eat...hmmm...how about let's go to Chuck E. Cheese?  I told him he'd been good so we could go eat there and he could play around for a while.  

We walked in and were immediately overwhelmed by the noise and crowd.  We walked to the back and he saw his aunt...then some friends...and suddenly he just broke down, and not in a good way.

He wanted to go home...

 His friends tried to get him to go play with them, but all he did was sit there and cry.

 Even seeing his Spongebob cake didn't make him stop.

But finally...finally...he stopped and started having fun.  Lots of his classmates showed up and he got lots of presents.

Everyone seemed to have a good time, including Aidan.

Though there were a few moments that he looked kind of lost.

Overall, it ended up being a fun time.

Even Sam had an ok time, though he did manage to cut out early.  Truth be told, I hate that place...I do not want to go into another crowded restaurant or anything again for a long, long time...I've had my fill!  My friend, Heather, got it right when she called that place the 9th circle of hell.  I'm sure that 99% of the staff developed a drinking problem after working their first weekend in that place.  BUT, the kids DO love it and that's what counts.

So Happy Birthday, Aidan!  You're growing like a weed...my Sugar Berry Peanut!

Sunset at Matheson

The other evening, my husband wanted me to see all the hard work they had done at Matheson Hammock Park & Marina, getting ready for a ceremony in which they received a "Clean Marina" title. This is supposedly a big deal for marinas to get.

Anyway, so we loaded up and drove 5 miles to one of the prettiest places in Miami.

My stupid camera stubbornly refuses to capture the true colors of what was a really pretty sunset.

I think this sign was hung in anticipation of the short one's beach visits.

Staples- without hitting the "Easy" button

Wednesday, my littlest one slipped and ran into the corner of the kitchen wall.
Ouch!

Waiting for the doctor at the Urgent Care Center (much better than going to an ER).

Doc says staples not stitches...so...

All done!

He looks worn out, but after 5 minutes he was running around, back to his old self!

If this is any indication of the way his 5th year is going to be, I'm in big trouble!

Strangers in the Night

1:48am, I am watching some show on the Travel Channel about these two guys who go live with natives in the woods. I see a shadow out of the corner of my eye...it is my oldest and he's walking into the living room holding something...

Sam: Look who was sleeping in my bed.

Me: Oh my God! Is that Steve?

Sam: Steve is the only white snake around here.

Me: Wow! Out of this whole house, he escapes and ends up YOUR BED?!?!?!

Sam: Yup.

We put the wayward escape artist back into his home, placed the bricks back on top (someone had left them off) and Sam went back to bed, and I went back to the Travel Channel.


Some people would've completely freaked to be sleeping in their bed and have their foot touch something that shouldn't be there, especially a 3 1/2 foot snake. But not Sam. The whole thing was a little surreal and yet, seemed completely normal. Yeah, we're weird.

Happy New Year, Happy Birthday

20 years ago today, I gave birth to my first son. It seems like only yesterday! I wanted to do something special for him today, but he was insistant on not making a big deal out of it....so we ended up at the zoo. We hadn't been in ages and it was fun to see all the changes and new animals. So the following are random shots from our day at Metro Zoo...


Obligatory elephant shot. (But I do love them!)

This Alligator Snapping Turtle was funny. He kept his mouth open like he was posing for the camera. See the little pink thing in his mouth? They wiggle that and it looks like a worm, thus luring in unsuspecting fish.

Gaboon Viper! Really a very beautiful snake.

Western Diamondback

A Rainbow Eucalyptus!! One of several, actually in the zoo's Australian area. Beautiful! I can't wait for mine to get bigger and start coloring.

A gorgeous Harpy Eagle!

There is a pond filled with all kinds of freshwater fish and turtles. This remote controlled camera was there being run by some other folks.

A Great Horn Bill (very fun to watch!).

Meerkat!

Malayan Sun Bear

A very cool Cassowary

Please excuse any mispellings. I'm tired and too lazy to double check anything right now. I took alot more pictures, but of course, once I got home and downloaded them, I saw that most were blurry messes. I really hate my stupid camera.

Hope everyone hasd a healthy, happy, wonderfully blessed New Year!

A Visit with Santa

My friend Sandcastle Momma has a post about seeing Santa at BassPro Shop. Well, we took Aidan to BassPro to see Santa over a week ago and I completely forgot to post the picture! So, here it is...



Now Ann did a much better job and posted lots of pictures that show how really wonderful the whole set up is. Eventhough we went to two different BassPro's, the main loook is the same. So if you just pop over to her place, you can see basically the same things we saw. (Stupid me didn't think of bringing a camera, d'oh!). It is much more elaborate than any Mall Santa set up ever could be...it is just beautiful. Plus, when we went, it wasn't crowded at all! 2 kids in front of Aidan and 2 after him. Santa was able to take the time to really talk with him and listen to what he said. I think it was very special.

Oh, and what was the numero uno thing that Aidan asked Santa for?

"A big, big kitchen!!!"

"A big, big kitchen? If I bring you one, you have to promise to bake me lots of cookies!"

"Ok, sure. I will. I promise."


I think it caught ole Santa a little off guard, but hey...I think there is not one thing wrong with a male wanting to cook. In fact, I think it is wonderful!


Yes, I think he is going to become a world-class chef one day. Watch out Gordon Ramsey!

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And while it's there, click on the link on the left about Burger King creating a meat scented body spray. That is just wrong on so many levels...

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thursday morning, we left to go to our place in Lake Placid (just south of Sebring). On the way up, a familiar nasty smell hit my nose...burning cane fields. If you've never smelled it, consider yourself lucky.

The house below was not on fire. It's a sugar cane field far behind it.

We arrived at our home away from home and found the resident golden orb had moved from the back of the porch to the front. She's also grown quite a bit! None of us had the heart to disturb her, so we left her and her man-harem alone....until I couldn't stand her big, old web any more and swept it aside. It must have pissed her off because the next day she was gone. I'm sorry!

Thanksgiving day, we headed over to my mom's house in Okeechobee, about a 45 minute drive. I had my GPS with me and saw that we would be going right by a cache, so we stopped for it. Driving into a park by Lake Istokpoga, we were met by 3 Sandhill Cranes. Sorry I didn't get a better picture...

Who says we don't get to see Fall colors down here?!?

Looking for the cache... the area was so pretty. Lots of Cypress and moss-covered Oaks. It smelled like Christmas!

Finally at Mom's and getting ready to eat!

We had all the smaller stuff on the table, while the turkey, stuffing, greenbeans, etc. stayed on the kitchen counter. Just not enough room at the table for all of it!

My sister's delicious sweet potato souffle. YUM!

The day after Thanksgiving, we did chores like cutting the grass and burning leaves and branches. Then...Saturday we went to Disney World! It was Aidan's first time and he was SO excited!!!

In line for our first ride, "It' a Small World".

Next was the Haunted Mansion, my second favorite after Pirate's of the Caribbean. Aidan was scared to death, but I think he kinda liked it in the end.

Checking out stuff on Tom Sawyer's Island.

Mickey Mouse's Bedroom!

Can anyone tell me what kind of "palm" tree this is?

While waiting for Aidan and George to get off the carousel, Sam had to try removing the sword from the stone. He didn't quite get it out. Maybe he should've used both hands?

At night, they lit Cinderalla's Castle in blue lights topped with white "snow" lights. It was so pretty! Then, the colors actually changed from blue to pink and purple. It was really, really nice.

Toward the very end of the night, you could see all the colors. Isn't it gorgeous?

We left at 11:30pm. Aidan was asleep before we left the parking lot. It was a long, tiring day, but we all had tons of fun...Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Pirate's, Smnall World, the Jungle Cruise, the Speedway (Aidan's favorite), and many more. Oh, and I have to recommend the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. Not a ride, but a really cool comedy show. I don't know how they do it, but you sit down and watch a cartoon that actually interacts with the audience! Pretty dang cool. I didn't think I'd like it, but it ended up being one of the coolest things there. Oh, and I don't know how long ago they did this, but they've added Captain Jack Sparrow to the Pirate's of the Caribbean ride. He looks life-like and very much like the real deal.

I wanna go back!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!