Pumpkin to Jack-O-Lantern!

Tonight was the perfect evening for carving our pumpkin!
We started outside at Gram's and I let Abigail pick out the design.
While she got to help, Mommy did all the actual cutting.

I'm afraid our little girl has a little OCD complex in her.
She HATES the feeling of some textures, especially ooey, gooey
ones. I knew we would only get one shot to capture
a good picture of her cleaning out the pumpkin guts.
She gagged for 10 minutes until Gram hosed off her
hands and leg.

All finished! No worse for wear and the jack-o-lantern
turned out pretty good! What is with the
one shoe on, one shoe off? Did I mention we think
she is a little OCD?

Fall Fun

To start off our new adventure living with Grandma, we make Halloween rice crispy treats. Abigail really enjoyed stirring and decorating the treats. She liked eating them too, but thought they were a little sweet for her taste. More for Mommy & Grandma!

She is so proud of her decorated treats! Although she had more fun picking off the little candies!

Tall, Tall Ships

We headed to downtown Tampa earlier this week to tour a couple of visiting ships. They were massive indeed! Gram called and said she thought Gabriel would really enjoy touring the ships and learning about life at sea. The ships are actually sail boats (huge boats!) belonging to Columbia & Uruguay. Each ship has a unique history, but now both train Navy recruits during publicity appearances around the world. The recruits learn about life at sea, ship maintenance and sailing.  One of the young crew members absolutely fell in love with Abigail! He tried to pin a button on her sirt - she was quite cooperative - but he was a little embarrassed I think! His limited english speaking skills weren't helping matters either. But it was so cute!

Before embarking on our adventure, Gabriel stated over and over that he wanted to join the Navy and work on an aircraft carrier. However, just while we were at dock - with very little wind or sea movement I might add - poor Gabriel got very sea sick. While touring the Gloria, he turned quite pale and began sweating, was dizzy, etc. I realize it was quite hot, but Gram nor I felt any movement at all! I thought he was going to throw up - or pass out! He is rethinking his career in the Navy...

We enjoyed ourselves immensely and Abigail loved climbing the narrow stairs to each level of the ship, although Gram didn't ~ and later required a visit to her massage therapist to work out the kinks in her hip. We ended our day in downtown with a visit to Champs restaurant  for lunch and cool drinks. It was a really hot day & I ended up with a few new blisters for all the walking we did, but what a great day it was!

Gram, Gabriel & Abigail on the ARC Gloria from Columbia.

Abgiail wanted to steer the ship - but they had the helm tied down tight. Good for them!

By this point Gabriel is ready to get off the ship! But Abigail is just getting started!

and after a long, hot day touring ships, Abigail found her favorite place ~ right in Grandma's lap!

First Trip to the Dentist

Today was Abigail's first dental visit. She was a little nervous at first, but did really great! She only started crying at the very end when the doctor came in. Other than that she was all smiles. She was REALLY happy to get her new Dora toothbrush - Dora is her favorite show and character - so a Dora toothbrush was a sweet prize! No cavities to report and only a small chipped front tooth to keep an eye on. It was a good day!

Customize your own picture collage

God Bless the USA!

I hope your 4th of July holiday was super special. Ours sure was! Jen & I had planned to take our families to the Hometown USA festival in Dunedin, FL. We had missed the fireworks locally the week before, so Dunedin was a close alternative. Beside - there was a baseball game, carnival type stuff for the kids to do, an Jimmy Buffet cover band concert & the fireworks. The best part was - it was FREE! We really like that part on our limited income these days. Anyway - when we got there, Jen found our other sisters already there! Stacy and Heather each brought their families as well! Coinky-dinky huh? Anyway - the baseball game got rained out do to the all day down pour. But the concert was still one! Of course the stuff for the kids was called off too, but that didn't stop them from running out on the field in the rain (no dangerous FL lighting to worry about!). They had the time of their lives! Then the fireworks afterwards were pretty cool too. Another year of fun & pictures to celebrate the birthday of our country. God Bless the USA!

Free scrapbooking design customized with Smilebox

Toddler version of falling asleep in the recliner!

We had dinner at Grandma's yesterday evening and Abigail didn't quite make it through! Earlier in the day we had errands to run, so she napped in the car for about 25 minutes or so. I left her at gram's to take her nap & have a few hours of quiet time to myself before returning for dinner (tacos ~ YUM!) Needless to say, little missy here didn't take a nap at all, so she was too tired to even eat! Caught it all on tape! Love having a camcorder! We let her sleep for awhile - only to wake her to go home. Boy that was fun ~ NOT! She is not a happy camper when she gets woke up!

Lawn Work

We've been working on Grandma's yard for the last week or so. It is so blasted hot here that we can only work a couple of hours in the morning before we melt. Anyway, weeding and planting and carrying cement pavers from the store to the car and the car to the backyard and then once again in the right place (only to discover at least half of them had to be moved yet AGAIN) does have its rewards. Yesterday we took time to play in the hose before we wrapped up for the day. Sabrina and Abigail had an absolute blast! I really think it was Abigail's first time playing in the hose. Grandma ran to get the camera because she was having so much fun. Her denim skort was soaked and slowly began to fall down. Just look at the photos ~ it was HILARIOUS! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time! BTW - the yard is almost done!

Abigail discovered that by jumping up and down, she could hit herself with the spray of the water.

See those bags of mulch? Those 20 bags also had to be carried from the store to the car, from the car to the back yard, then distributed to their final resting place. We are not yet finished distributing those 20 bags.

The skirt is going...

going...

GONE! She will love these pics one day!