Beach Bums!

As promised, here's another update on our summer fun...our trip to Panama City Beach (PCB), FL. Luckily for us, my dad and stepmom bought a townhouse at the beach and hurried to have it ready for our arrival in mid-July. We drove down...what an adventure that was...and arrived ready to have fun. On the way down we stopped for gas at 11:30 p.m., 3 kids and a dog in the truck, and when David went to start it up again all we got was this CLICK, CLICK, CLICK....a DEAD BATTERY!!! Of course the first words out of my hubby's mouth were "I KNEW you needed a new battery!" As you can imagine, that didn't make the situation any better. We got a jump, stopped at the next exit to get a new battery at the 24-hour Walmart and were on our way again. What a mess!

While in PCB we went to the beach 4 times (the water is amazingly beautiful there), went to the pool everyday, David & I got to play golf twice (thanks Dad & Lisa for babysitting), played mini-golf twice, ate WAY too much (he he) and got some good quality time with my nephews Chase & Braden.

Our first day on the beach - with Lisa

Dinner at the Treasure Ship

Surfin' the waves - boy did they have fun doing that!

Sadly enough, this is the only family shot we got all week!

One of the best parts of our trip was our day on the Sea Dragon...a Pirate Ship cruise.


Chase, Alyssa & Braden headed for the pirate ship


The Sea Dragon Pirate Ship

The 5 of us were joined by my stepmom Lisa, Braden & Chase for a 2-hour cruise. Boy did they keep those kids busy! They had the boys swab the deck (mop), they all got their faces painted (well not Chase - he didn't think that was so cool!), they read them a pirate story, went hunting for a treasure, got to enjoy the treasure, played limbo, danced with tamborines, and the best part....a real, live water gun fight with another boat. It was hysterical and those kids were drenched when it was over :-)

My lil pirate...swabbing the deck

Braden

Arrggh!

Another fun day was spent at Gulf World where we got to enjoy a dolphin show, sea lion show, and a reptile show. Here is my crazy daughter McKenna holding a Columbian Python. GROSS! She does not get her love for animals from her mommy that's for sure! And yes, he is real!

FORE! An evening of mini-golf

All in all, our time in PCB went by extremely too fast, but we filled every moment with fun things that given us memories to last a lifetime. My kids are still talking about Pop Pop & Lisa's beach house! They can't wait to go back...and neither can I :-)

Alyssa enjoying the weather at dinner - I love this pic!

Chase & McKenna

After we left PCB we headed to my dad's house in Tallahassee for a few days where I got to meet my beautiful niece Madelyn (aka Maddie). I spent hours holding her (no it didn't make me want another one!!) and we got to see my grandma too.

Madelyn Grace

Pop Pop, Lisa and all the grandkids. This was the best shot we could get!

When we left FL we were KID FREE -woo hoo!!! Thanks again Dad & Lisa for keeping the kids - they had such a good time.

David I headed home alone and took a short pitstop in Lake Norman, NC - outside Charlotte. We spent 2 days there golfing and house hunting....we think we've found our future home, but when is the 10 million dollar question!

As always, vacations come to an end way too fast and before we knew it we were back in Simpsonville (what I call where we live) and headed back to work....but we did manage to get in TONS and TONS of golf while the kids were gone. More on that later...

Summer Update

I thought it was time for me to give another summer update since it was 1 1/2 months ago since I last posted! It's been a very busy, but fun summer so I will break these up into several posts so they aren't overwhelming! First...

Warder Family Reunion in July

My mom's family - mom, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews...you get the idea!

Every other year my mom's family holds a family reunion and this was the year for the big gathering!

Our family before the festivities started

The reunion draws people from all over the country and can have anywhere up to 150 attendees....lots of family members to visit with during the weekend :-)

My mom, Brennan and my Grandma (mom's mom)

It starts on Friday night when we go to eat crabs - they were delicious this year. On Saturday we all gather at Marbury Run Park for a day filled with food, fun and laughter. Each family brings a dish and it goes on the table family style - boy did Brennan like that idea! ha ha The kids got to participate in a bubble gum blowing contest,

Alyssa won this contest!

McKenna preparing to eat the apple...with no front teeth!

apple eating contest (no hands allowed), water balloon throwing contest and tug-o-war. The weather, surprisingly enough, wasn't overly hot and we had a really good time. Unfortunately, not as many people showed up this year - especially kids - but that meant my kids got to win lots of prizes!! The big hit all day was the tree swing (man it's old - I used to get on it when I was a kid!!) and the creek - couldn't keep my kids outta there for some reason :-)

On Sunday we went to Capt. John's Crabhouse for another round of crabs and finished up the weekend Monday with a trip to Kings Dominion. Needless to say, the kids really loved that!

Brennan, Alyssa, McKenna, Jayci & Cousin Callie at Kings Dominion

Alyssa rode every wooden roller coaster at the park....Grizzly, Rebel Yell, Scooby Doo...over and over. Unfortunately, McKenna still isn't tall enough so she didn't get to ride all of them. But she still had a good time and really loved the waterslides....especially watching how scared her mommy was on them! ha ha Hopefully next year she'll hit the magical height to ride all the coasters.

Next post...Florida vacation...coming soon!

Where in the world is....

the owner of this blog?! Well I'm here, but having an incredibly busy summer. I'm sorry I've been so out of touch lately - over a month 1/2 now (wow time flies!) - so I'll do a quick recap of the past 45 days.

Alyssa, Megan, McKenna & Brennan

School is obviously over - I can't believe Brennan has graduated from pre-k, is moving on to Kindergarten this fall and will finally RIDE THE BIG YELLOW BUS!!!

With his pre-k teacher, Mrs. Anderson, on the last day of school

I'm happy for him, but sad for me, as it means he's just growing up so fast.

The girls finished 1st grade with glowing remarks from the teacher and principal. They had awesome test scores during the 4th quarter in both math and reading and are ready for 2nd grade...already!

Soccer & tball ended...
Alyssa with her soccer medal

and we quickly jumped into the Swan Point swim team (Alyssa) and that has been keeping up super busy since mid-June. She's learning a lot and doing great...and even won FIRST place in the breaststroke competition last week. I was so proud of her. The best part is she enjoys it and that's 1/2 the battle with her...if not more :-)

Proudly showing her heat winner ribbon from the breaststroke

McKenna took a week long golf class that she thoroughly enjoyed. At the conclusion of the class, they got to play 4 holes at the course I play each week and had a little cookout. It was very cute!

Waiting to make her first tee shot!

Brennan's been busy enjoying his summer at Miss Donna's this year. He finished tball with a bang - he just really improved and had a great time!

Brennan & Daddy with his t-ball trophy

In addition to being busy at Miss Donna's, he's been going to bday parties, swimming and playing his Wii. He's having a great summer and looking forward to our Florida vacation coming up soon.

At the park watching the ducks

This month we have my bi-annual family reunion and a trip to Kings Dominion to look forward to....more golf, eating crabs, swimming, more golf (!!) and before I know, summer will be over and we'll be back to school, homework and oh yea - my convention in San Diego this October. It's amazing how quickly time goes by the older I get.

I'll try to post more often, but in the meantime, I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing day today. So far mine has been great...I got to sleep in (it's rainy and chilly here - perfect weather for sleeping in!) and then I woke up to the smell of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes and biscuits. YUMMMMY!

After breakfast David and the kids gave me some AWESOME Mom's day gifts....

• picture frame


• CD - Leona Lewis


• book


• heart rate monitor watch (I asked for this)


• stepping stone for the garden - Brennan made this at school




• pictures of the girls with magnets on the back - they made these at school


• tote bag with their handprints on it - and their names - they made these at aftercare and it is sooooo cute.

I have a "thing" for any gifts with their handprints on them so this was very special to me. I owe my daycare provider a BIG thank you for being so thoughtful!

We went to dinner with my mom, his mom, Henry, Alexis, Melissa, Jimmy, Megan, Trevor, Jennifer (his sister) and Steve (her boyfriend). I must say - the kids behaved WONDERFULLY throughout dinner....and a trip for ice cream. A complete stranger even complimented on us on how well-behaved they were - really made us mom's (and dad's) proud!

Happy Mom's Day!

The Last Hurrah

Brennan had his 3rd and final bday party last Friday when my dad was here visiting. Maw Maw Barbara, Pop Pop Henry and Alexis also came over for cake and presents. This time the cake was a Carvel ice cream cake - yum! He had a great time and my Dad/Lisa were happy they were here to celebrate his bday with him.

Don't miss the post below...

Family Time

Last week my dad, Lisa and grandma came to visit from Florida. We hadn't seen them since New Year's so it was nice to have them up for a few days.

The weather was absolutely beautiful while they were here and we had such a great time together. The kids found a turtle - that was a HUGE hit. Lisa convinced them to put the turtle under a bush and by dinner time, he was gone. Thank goodness - we don't need anymore pets!

Alyssa & McKenna had soccer games and Brennan had 2 t-ball games so they were able to see all 3 of them play sports.

Lisa & I got a pedicure - so relaxing (!) - and we ate WAY too much good food :-) Pizza, steak 'n cheese, fried chicken, guacamole, chips 'n dip, cake....yummmmy.

Friday & Saturday nights, the kids "camped out" in our basement in the tents that Pop Pop and Lisa got them for Cmas. They thought this was so cool! Needless to say, they went to bed super late and were up super early so by Sunday night, they were worn out.

On Saturday it was my nephew Trevor's bday party - they had a cookout - so we went to that and Lisa came along for the party. We had a really good time and hung out a little longer than expected. But the beer was cold, the food was good and we were having fun chatting so it was hard to leave.

Sunday my cousins came down to visit....Jeff, Stephanie and their daughter Jillian

Kristin and her son Landon

and Andy. We had a nice cookout and great weather so the kids were able to play outside most of the day. The waterslide they got for Cmas from my dad/Lisa made it's way back to us during their trip so they had a blast with that.

My dad played basketball with the kids,

the swingset got a great workout and we played Pictionary Jr. with all the kids.

Of course their time here went by too fast and they headed back to FL last Wednesday. We were sad to see them go, but we're looking forward to another visit in July...and to the kids getting 2 weeks with them while we come back home and try to figure out what to do with our free time...HA! As if we can't figure that one out :-)

Celebration Number 2

Yesterday was Brennan's "official" birthday - so hard for me to believe that he's FIVE years old already.

Showing off his B-Day hat from school

It seems like just yesterday we found out we were having a boy and just like that he's 5 already. He's such a wonderful, funny little boy who brings so much joy into our lives.

His very busy day started with a cupcake celebration in his classroom which his Daddy attended! From there he spent the afternoon with his "Maw Maw Winda (Linda)" who so kindly picked him up from school at noon, took him to lunch at the Greene Turtle, then to Target to buy 2 new toys and then home to get his birthday presents from her. His presents included a new Wii racing game with the steering wheel (boy does he LOVE that!!!), some clothes (which he says are a boring present!!!) and some Iron Man action figure toys.

After a trip to the gym with my mom and I, he went to play his tball game before heading home. Yellow cake with Chocolate icing - yummmmy -

C'mon - gimme some cake!

and more presents finished the day for him! Mommy & Daddy got him a basketball hoop and basketball - can't wait to play - and a new Iron Man dress-up mask and shooter thing (that's what he calls it)!

IRON MAN

Alyssa & McKenna got him some new army tanks, army men, army motorcycle, etc. And Aunt Jenn & Uncle Nick got him the "Playground" game for his Wii. Check out those army toys - aren't they cool?!

Happy 5th Birthday Brennan!