There's Excitement in the Air!!!

Look at what they are forecasting for our area tomorrow night!!!!  Hope they're right!!

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How can someone so cute make this much MESS!

 

 

 

 

Everywhere I look, there's another pile of toys dumped and spread out.  He has the attention span of a three year old!!  :)

I'm off to clean!

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SOCCER... it's that time of year again!

This year we have THREE children playing soccer.  Dave and I talked about it and we've decided to pitch a tent at the fields since that's where we'll be living until the end of May :)

Saturday was "spring into soccer" day.  Cocky, the USC mascot came along with the girls soccer team.  The girls ran skills stations and the kids rotated through all of them. 

Ethan was so excited to get out there and be a "real" soccer player!!!  He's been watching his brother and sister for 3 years and finally, it's his turn.  He is SO proud of his cleats, especially because they match Matthew's.

 

Alyssa scoring on Cocky!

Matthew and Miguel both ready to get out there and play and both needing a haircut!  :)

 

This is just too funny!!  Cocky was letting Gary have it on the field for wearing his Florida Gator's sweatshirt.  I thought it was going to  get ugly!! 

So, here we go again.... if you need any of us between now and the end of May we'll be at the fields on Polo Road!

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OUR WEEKEND WITH THE RACCOONS

We spent the weekend camping at Hunting Island State Park with our friends, the O'Briens. 

We picked the kids up from school at 12:30 on Friday and hit the road.  To say the car was packed tight would be an understatement.  We were looking a bit like the Clampets, but were determined to have a great time!   Alyssa brought her friend Danielle so she would have someone to hang out with.  The O'Briens  have two boys, William, who is in Matthew's class, and Sean who is in 1st grade.  Mary-Elizabeth is 5 and enjoys playing with Ethan as well as hanging out with the older girls.  We arrived at the camp ground and set up our new tent.  It's much larger than our old one and has room dividers which makes it a 3 room "suite."  :)

As soon as we started unloading the car we were greeted by the resident raccoons.   They came through the bushes and walked right up to our stuff beside the tent to see if we brought anything they might be interested in.  Dave chased them away, but as soon as it was dinner time they were back. 

You didn't have to look far and you would see their glowing eyes staring at you.  They were perched in the trees right above us waiting for the perfect opportunity to move in.  Brady, our dog, was going nuts.  Everywhere he looked there was another raccoon!

We made it through dinner and a campfire and packed all of the food and coolers into the van to keep the raccoons from getting to it and we went to bed.   That's when the "fun" really began!!! 

 

The kids were all exhausted and fell asleep quite quickly.  Dave and I laid down and tried to sleep but all we could hear were the raccoons walking around outside.  Brady was on guard all night!! We tried to settle him down, but he was not happy about the four legged animals walking around outside.  At one point we could see the shadow of a raccoon walking right up against the tent.  Brady barked and lunged into the side of the tent trying to get it.   Dave finally quieted him down and we fell asleep.  Shortly after we woke up to the sound of a dog barking outside.  The barking went on and on and on.  I kept wondering who would let their dog do that and not come and get it?!!!  At least 15 minutes had gone by  when I asked Dave where Brady was.  He said, he's right here, but when he reached out to touch him he was not right here!!!! That annoying dog with negligent owners was our dog!!!   Dave had to go out and chase him and get him back inside.  Apparently he got out through the little hole in the back of the tent for the electrical cord to come in.  Finally settled back down and just about to sleep when I heard Dave say,  "What in the world is going on?!"  I sat up and saw the hazard lights flashing on our van.  What????  Dave went back outside to find that one of the windows to the van had not been closed all the way and the raccoons had taken it over!!!  They must have gotten scared when they heard Dave coming and jumped out, but not before they took the bag of marshmallows and a giant valentine cookie that Danielle's mom had sent for us.  They made a mess with the cookie and there were crumbs everywhere in the front of the car.  They also did not wipe their paws before they got in and got dirt all over the seats.   Thank God they hit the hazard button, because if they hadn't they would have been in there all night and the mess would have been incredible!!  Now I couldn't sleep because I couldn't stop laughing at the events of the night.  Didn't matter much though because the night was just about over and everyone was waking up.

The remnants of the valentine cookie.  What a mess!!!  When we turned the a/c on the next day, crumbs flew out of the vents.

Alyssa and Mary-Elizabeth going for a  morning walk on the beach in their pj's.

Alyssa and Danielle reading on the beach

 

 

 

 Our tent site, nestled amongst the palm trees and facing the ocean.  BEAUTIFUL!

 

 

 Yep, Rocky's back again!

Patrick in his camping hat

Dinner prep

Tanya and Patrick made homemade Mac and Cheese and cooked it in their dutch oven on the fire.  YUMMY!

 The boys put several miles on their bikes this weekend.

 

Checking to see if there's anything left in the cooler.

 

 

Sadly, Hunting Island is washing away.  There were several houses "in" the ocean that will probably not be there the next time we visit. 

The boys found a great climbing tree.

Playing Pretty Pretty Princess in the camper

Danielle chopping wood

You know you're a redneck when....  (Patrick watching the Daytona 500:)

Ethan, Danielle, Alyssa, Mary-Elizabeth

How many people can you fit in a pop-up? -----  LOTS when it's COLD and WINDY outside!!

 

 

It was not very warm, sometimes quite cold.  It was windy and sometimes rainy.  BUT it was Hunting Island with our family and our friends and it was so much fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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