she turns 13

My little baby sister is a teenager!!!!! Where has the time gone? What happened to the little curly hair princess toddling around calling "SISSAAAAAAAY!!! Where are you SISSAAAAAY?".

Now she's a little woman! I was the same age when she was born - 13 years apart. Hard to imagine.
I can still see the adorable little girl she used to be in the sparkle of her eyes....
What a gorgeous little woman you have become. Happy birthday little sister!

A BIG success!

Randy's art show went really really well! We had quite a turn out! I forgot to bring out my camera to catch the huge crowd that showed up but here are some images of the set up for those of you who were unable to make it...

Here are a couple paintings that now have new homes:

Fighting the Day

Don't Turn from the Delight

Song to My Soul

Its a hard thing to put yourself on display for others to judge and we are so proud of Ran for taking that step. It's given him the confidence to to take the next step to bring his portfolio to galleries around town and to sell his artwork online.

And a HUGE thank you to those of you who came. Your presence and support was appreciated more than you know!!!

ticks

Kaiden, while cuddling durring bedtime, asks:

"Can I check your boobs for ticks?"

Where does this kid get this stuff from?

August 10

Kaiden prepared a tasty tree house picnic dinner last night.

He made all the pb&j sandwiches himself (check out those dirty fingers!), made sure everyone had a drink, and included a full can of whipped cream for desert.....mmmmmm. It's the thought that counts, right?

A cute one of Ran. Kaiden and him bonked heads pretty bad while swinging into the river on the rope swing and the result was a black eye. You can see the yellow in the picture.

We made a trip over to Marina Jacks to meet a friend for lunch today. It was a scorcher but we still had a relaxing time chatting, playing in the fountains, and collecting things from the ocean. Kaiden's biggest find was a big piece of wood, probably off of a pirate ship!

the dreaded question

"How does another person grow inside your belly, Mom?"
After about ten minutes of me trying to give Kaiden the answer he was looking for and failing miserably he finally asks,
"No Mom, how does the baby actually GET INSIDE of your belly?!?!"
I begin to fumble with my words, trying to think of the right way to say it...
"Well Kaiden, a baby is made when a sperm and an egg meet."
"Oh Look!!!! A fire truck!!!!"
WHEW! Saved. I'll have to think of a better answer for the next time the question comes around. We have no problem giving him an educated answer but sometimes you're just caught off guard and don't know what to say! Ha ha ha....any suggestions?

Santa Fe River Trip

What a wonderful trip we had!!! We have so many pictures to share because it is impossible for us to put the beauty of the river into words...

Every morning we were greeted by this magical sunrise.

We spotted this big man hanging out on one of our rafts. Not too glamorous, you might say, but we were excited to see any and all wildlife! His size was very impressive and were were very surpirsed to learn that he wasn't full grown! We found a couple durring our trip that weren't so scared of us and wanted to be friends. they would climb all the way up your arm and didn't want to get off!

Stopping for a break on a walk through the woods.

Checking out a sink hole.


Kaiden was really good at spotting alligators! Can you see him?

Oops! Crystal dropped her glasses in the river filled with alligators - very typical of her. Vee saved the day and climbed down and rescued them. What a valiant gentleman!

While on his rescue mission Vee discovered this beautiful egg.

This is called the river sink. It's where the Santa Fe River disappears underground for 3 miles and then reappears at the river rise.

The local mechanic, grocery, video rental, boat rental, gas station, bait, antique, and medical supply center. Watch out Walmart!

We found this pretty lady on one of our adventures.

1, 2, 3, JUMP!!! Kaiden learned how to jump off of a rope swing and it seemed to be the highlight of his trip!

Kaiden's clay creations.

There are so many other things we want to share!

Like, while we were tubing down the Santa Fe river spotted a pod of manatees and we floated right through the middle of them while they were coming up for air! If the current in the river wasn't so strong Randy would have hopped into the water and swam right along with them and made a new title for himself - The Manatee Whisperer!

And, during all the excitement of trying out the rope swing Vee decided to give it a shot. Wanting to outdo Randy, he became a little overzealous and wound up breaking one of his fingers!!!!! None of us knew where the nearest hospital was and no one seemed to be in a rush - Randy taking a leisurely shower, Jenn blow drying her hair, and Vee standing around waiting for someone to take some action- very politely of course!

Canoeing, snorkeling, spotting deer in the woods, fossil hunting, spiders in bed, painting, lazy day naps, arts and crafts, cookouts, board games, finding hidden treasure, soccor games... good times with great friends!!!

loading up, heading out

Loading up the car, getting ready for our trip tomorrow. We'll report our adventures when we return on Tuesday!

Happy weekend friends!

July 31

We've been busy bee's preparing for our yearly trip to the Santa Fe River, in North Florida, on Friday. Yesterday was a fun filled day of running about town gathering supplies - bugspray, sunscreen, waterproof camera, water shoes..... We're going go tubing down the Itchituknee River, visit local springs, fossil hunting, hiking, cookout, games, and the best part - swinging from a really long rope into the middle of the river. Ahhhh......memories.

Yesterday also held many random questions from a curious little bird...

Why is there breakfast and dinner?
How did you grow up so fast?
How does fire start?
Why can you die if you don't eat?
Why are mean people brown?
Why is a word called a word?

Kaiden is always very inquisitive but sometimes he will ask 10 questions like these all within 5 minutes! And "why are mean people brown?", where did that come from???? I think there was a boy at the park that took his ball away that was "brown" and made his little mind start working.

Kaiden threw me a party last night celebrating the "day I was born", making sure we had all the right ingredients for a good party-

Food and drinks: cookies with Shrek sprinkles and orange juice
Party favors: party blowers
Fun games: ring around the rosy and a juice drinking competition
Gifts: an awesome drawing of a man crying and my very own birthday story being told to me at bedtime.

He was so proud that he organized such a great party and asked if it was my best party ever about 30 times while drifting off to sleep. First thing this morning he was ready to throw another party!