living, loving and learning in our home . . . and beyond

Florida: Day 4, Monday the 26th

eating at the food court--Thanks Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Jimmie!

driving school

While they were here eating ice cream, a lady a bit older than us walked by and stopped. She said the next time she had kids, she was gonna have kids like these! Only Jess and I were sitting here, seemingly the happy parents of of six children!!!

4D Clutch Powers Adventure movie

DQ after LEGOLAND! Thanks Grandma Helen and Uncle Mike!

Florida: Day 5, Tuesday the 27th

Sophia, Sarah, Harper and I got to go shopping with Sarah's good friend, Michelle and her little baby, Collins, at the Wire Grass Mall. It was a beautiful mall! And, Michelle and Collins were really nice.

Earlier that day, Sarah and I enjoyed shopping at their big, nice Goodwill, enjoying coffee at Dunkin' Donuts and getting groceries at Aldi. I love shopping so this day was quite a treat!

Florida: Day 6, Wednesday the 28th

feeding the huge fish at the lodge

I was a nervous wreck there with Harper. She is fearless!

Isn't this lovely? This is part of their set of "neighborhoods", all of which make up the "community"--a normal layout of homes for down there I believe. We were chatting with some of Sarah's friends one day. One particular woman is in real estate and she told me that of all the many communities that she sells homes in, this one is the best, has the best ammenities and so on. I told Sarah and she said it was all God--how they got there. He is so good!

I loved the lily pads!

Sophia liked to push Harper on the swing at the lodge park.

Sophia applied her new makeup she received on Christmas!

Pearl peeking out of the tree stump door at the lodge

Henry shared his giant coloring pages from Uncle Mike. The kids seemed to really appreciate how neat these pages were; they were so careful--each of them.

Pearl got to teach a bit to the kids but I'm sure it wasn't worthy of all the preparation she has done for this week!

Florida: Day 7, Thursday the 29th

remote control cars

visiting University of South Florida (USF) to see where Uncle Clint works

It is a beautiful campus. Notice the many palm trees.

I saw this flower there. I think it is a dandelion but it looks different than ours. The leaves were like a dandelion's though. The petals are paler and there are seemingly less petals--spread further apart and I don't remember the center of the dandelions here looking like that.

The USF bulls--under construction. Jess is off to the left.

climbing on a sculpture . . . shh . . . not sure we were supposed to do that?

getting in a swim while us Moms drop by the stores for gifts and Aunt Sarah bakes a cake

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Philip's Birthday Party at the lodge!

Aunt Sarah made a yummy cake and even bought decorations for the cake and for the party! It was definitely a special time for him! Philip also got to have one of his favorite ice cream flavors: birthday cake ice cream!