I'm Back!!!!

Sorry I am sorry I've been a bad blogger but we've been on vacation. The week of before vacation was hectic- the kids had swim lessons every morning, then their was 4th of July, and packing, packing and more packing to get everyone ready for vacation.
We had a good time, on vacation. It was an interesting vacation for several reasons- it was our first vacation with three kiddos and it was a vacation with my parents and brother and his family. It is tough vacationing with others even if they are family because we are so different in our parenting styles and attitudes etc... My brother and his family do NO planning, basically fly by the seat of their pants kind of attitude and my parents as they have gotten older have developed this attitude as well. So you can only imagine how that went over with us when we run by schedule etc.. We tried to make the best of it and help the kids as best as we could. The only nights that we ate dinner at a decent/ normal dinner time was when I was in control/ cooking. The other meals were 9:00/ 10:00 pm!!!! I fed the kiddos earlier because they wouldn't eat what we were having anyhoo. Speaking of cooking I made a dessert called Sand Pudding- it was a HUGE hit and it was YUMMY!!! I tricked the kiddos and they really thought it was sand because it looked like sand and  I served it in a sand bucket with a shovel.
The beach house was gorgeous and the perfect set up for us. The kiddos had their own bedroom with two bunk beds- one for the girls and one for the boys; each couple had their own bedroom with a king size bed and a bathroom. The kitchen with big and open to the dinning room and living room. The front porch was FABULOUS!- it had a swing, chairs, picnic table and a hammock. I loved giving L her bedtime bottle out on the front porch watching the ocean and swinging in the swing- beautiful and quiet:)  The backyard had a playground with sand, picnic tables and a private pool.
The kiddos had a BLAST spending the whole week with their cousins, swimming in the pool, playing on the playground and at the beach. We also did a couple fun side trips that included a visit to an alligator farm where ALL the kiddos held a baby alligator:) we also went to an amusement park. H and hubby did go carts on a very cool track; H and I did bumper boats and got SOAKED but he loved it (somehow we got singled out and picked on by some of the others on the boats and they kept spraying us over and over!). M preferred the more "tame" rides like the carousel, train etc... L even rode on the carousel and had a good time.
L did great on the trip! She traveled well and adjusted to her new surroundings quite well- she became a little explorer- loved walking around!!! L wasn't a fan of the pool for any length of time- I think because she couldn't be independent. The beach however was another story- she was my beach baby, LOVING the beach! She loved playing in the sand, finding shells, walking on the beach and chasing the sea gulls- LOL! L did not like the actual ocean, I think she was scared however their was a big pool of water on the beach when tide was out and L loved playing in it and it helped to keep her cool too.
Our last night at the beach we went out to dinner and had to wait almost 2 hours for our table; thankfully the restaurant was on a boardwalk with shops. The girls and I walked around the shops, found a balloon guy and the girls got all kinds of balloon decorations- hats, bracelets etc... The girls got hair wraps and glitter tattoos as well (now when I say girls I am talking about M and my niece G, L was with me and got a balloon animal but that was it)- they had a fabulous time. H hung out with the guys and my nephew D playing on the playground, feeding the fish etc... It was a fun evening. I even tried something new to eat- alligator! I've been wanting to try it so we ordered it as an appetizer- it was YUMMO!!!! H couldn't eat it because it was cooked with seafood and he is allergic:( however I got my niece and nephew to try it by telling them it was chicken and they loved it! You should have seen the look on their faces when we told them it was alligator- LOL! it was priceless!
All in all it was a good vacation with lots of memories.
Now it is back to reality. The kiddos started VBS this morning and seemed to have a good time:) I am going to try and catch up on my blog reading and plan on blogging at least once a week. Cannot believe summer is flying by:( M starts back to school exactly one month from today- YIKES! I am so not ready for school to be back in session! Although I have started school supply shopping.