Happy Birthday Girlies!

Last week was the week of birthdays with Calleigh celebrating her 10th(!) on Wednesday and Aubree her 8th on Friday. Yes, we are on to double digits. Unbelievable but true. My 10th was one of the few birthdays I remember as a child although I really only remember the non-birthday things that happened on that day rather than any actual birthday celebration. I was at my Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry's house in North Attleboro, MA and the Patriots played the Bears in the Super Bowl. They got trounced 46-10. I distinctly remember Uncle Terry having to go upstairs because he couldn't watch it downstairs with the rest of us because of the stress. I'd say he must have been up there for most of the evening!

Fortunately, Calleigh's 10th birthday was much more pleasant and look, the Patriots even won the Super Bowl in the year she turned 10 unlike her mom! Her birthday fell on a Wednesday which is homeschool PE day. I knew Calleigh would somehow find a way to tell the teacher it was her birthday and sure enough, about halfway through, they all started singing "Happy Birthday." Because of her big day, she got to be a captain of one of the teams as they played "Jedi." It's a super fun game that Brady wanted to play so badly. They played the last week in April and Brady signed up the beginning of May. They hadn't played it yet and this was this last week of class (other than a picnic) so I was so happy he got a chance at it. Calleigh picked both of her siblings first, of course, and then I was impressed that she proceeded to pick all of the younger kids next instead of the older, bigger kids that are probably "better" at the game. Her team ended up winning two out of three games so I guess it paid off anyway!

Teacher Rodney explaining to the kids how they're going to sing "Happy Birthday."

Brady in black holding the yellow ball.

We had to tear out of there right at 11:00 am when it finished because Calleigh's surprise outing was to go to Disney Springs to see the movie "Born in China." It's a documentary set in China that follows four different kinds of animals in their habitats...most notably a snow leopard, monkey (not sure which exact kind), and a panda. I chose to go to the theater in Disney Springs because it's called a "dine-in" theater and in my mind, I was thinking it meant it was like the theater in Winter Park we had been to a few months ago when we saw a creation movie. That theater had recliner seats that had trays so you could easily eat while watching a movie. Alas, it had no trays at all. Apparently the "dine-in" name is because they have additional food items and you can order food in the actual theater (not an option at this movie). I think it's odd that they wouldn't put trays at seats considering this but oh well! The theater was mostly empty so we were able to just put our food in the wide aisle in front of us and make do that way. The movie was very good but also sad because **spoiler alert** the mom snow leopard dies at the end.

Wednesday evening Grandma and Grandpa came over and we had crepes for supper (per Calleigh's request) had cake and opened presents.

Very excited about some Spy Gear video walkie talkies from Papa and Gigi.

New hat from Grandma and Grandpa

She may be turning 10 but she still loves to play with toys.

New walkie talkies from Mom and Dad. After our trip to Camp Kulaqua and seeing some other kids with these, they decided they needed them for the next trip there.

Sporting their new skirts from Uncle Shawn and Aunt Camille

Love this girl! Oh how happy I was when I learned I was pregnant with a GIRL.

Two days later, it was on to Aubree's birthday. Thank goodness Aubree is into yard sales like I am so that we could still do them. Yard sales have been very weak the last few months...I don't know why. But it was a good day yesterday. We saved our "fun" thing to do until Duncan was out of work and then hit the mini golf course. Other than mini golfing a little bit on our cruise, the family has never been so it did turn out to be a special birthday treat. Man, it ain't cheap! It's $13.49 for an adult which starts at age 10 and up. So here I was already having to consider my newly minted-10 year old an adult. Yikes! Despite the price, we did have a great time. I could have just watched Colby "golfing" the whole time and wold have been happy. He had such a crazy way he was holding the club. Sometimes it would take him so long to get the ball into the hole that he'd just pick the ball up and drop it in the hole and he'd be so excited that he "got it in." Aubree really wanted crepes for her birthday too so this time we want out to the Crepevine so I could skip the cooking. That place is so delicious. The only drawback is that it is REALLY hard to cut the kids' crepes. I even brought my own sharp knife from home but I should have brought a fork too. Those plastic ones just don't cut it. Pun intended.

Look at how he holds his club. We tried helping him but he just went back to it so I finally gave in.

Binoculars from Papa and Gigi

Her dream come true! An iPod!! It's kind of a gift that's not really needed since she has an iPad but since we gave Calleigh an old iPod of ours that we found like a year and a half ago, Aubree has had it in her mind that when she turned eight, she would get an iPod. Who are we to disappoint her? Plus, they're only like $32. They love to listen to Jonathan Park on them at night as they lie in bed.

Can you see Aubree's tongue covering a tooth? It's actually a place where a tooth used to be. The most exciting thing about her birthday for me was that she let me pull out her front tooth that has been hanging there at a weird angle for weeks. It's been driving us crazy because she wouldn't eat a lot of stuff with it like that. Oh, and she doesn't even like Hello Kitty but this was the only ice cream cake I could get that wasn't chocolate!

Love this one too! I'm pretty sure I gave a fist pump when I learned the second baby was also a girl. My dream was to have at least two daughters since I don't have a sister.

We were not satisfied with celebrating just on their birthdays so this year we decided to celebrate with some friends. I am such a curmudgeon about parties that we haven't had one with friends in several years. But, considering this was Calleigh's 10th, I relented and let them invite three girls each to go out to lunch and then to get mani/pedi's which was their idea. Calleigh invited Braelyn, Marley, and Danica and Aubree invited Eva, Maddy, and Abby (Danica's younger sister). The girls had never been to Keke's Breakfast Cafe so that added to some of the fun. A great time was had by all. Meanwhile, Duncan took the boys on a "boys" adventure which included REI, the Apple Store, Lowe's and Lucky Monkey.

We head out for the day's festivities and I look behind me and see both girls with earphones in. So much for conversation! Both listening to Jonathan Park. Highly recommended if you haven't listened to his adventures.

Keke's. Aubree ate an entire adult French toast with fresh fruit on it. I guess you're appetite increases when you turn eight.

Jennifer brought her delicious cupcakes.

This place did a great job because they were able to do all eight girls at the same time.

Whose feet are whose??

Calleigh and Marley

Calleigh and Braelyn

Aubree, Eva, and Maddy

I noticed that we didn't really have any pictures with Grandma from the actual birthdays so I wanted to get one in!

REI. The store just opened last week in Winter Park.

Lucky Monkey

Going back to earlier last week, it was Mother's Day last Sunday. I had my usual day of Goodwill shopping by myself. A few weeks earlier on a Sunday I had gone to drop off a bunch of stuff at Goodwill and stayed to shop for a short while. Goodwill closes at 6:00 pm and I noticed that they didn't make any announcements that it was closing (this drives me nuts because they repeat it like every 10 minutes or so). As I left the store shortly before 6:00 pm, I looked at the sign on the door and noticed that it now said it closed at 8:00 PM on Sundays. This was HUGE!! It irritates me every time I have a "Corey" day that it closes so early on Sundays compared to 9:00 pm during the week. I was very excited to take advantage of this later closing time on my Mother's Day outing.

While I was on my outing, Duncan took the kids on the Apopka Wildlife Drive for the second day in a ROW. They are now all into birds that they begged to go back a second day. Crazy! Grandma and Grandpa went this time and they had such a great time. Duncan and the kids went again yesterday so that's three times in eight days.

A special outing to eat at the Rainforest Cafe.

Awaiting for me when I returned from my day out were David, Yully, and Karlie visiting from Massachusetts. They stayed here for two nights while they visited their former state. We were happy to spend some time with Karlie who just turned one a few weeks ago.

Some other pics...

Ran into some friends, Cynthia and Nancy, visiting from Vermont. They are family friends and Cynthia was also the photographer at our wedding almost 15 years ago.