Peyton - Field Trip 3/10

The ETE 2nd graders went on a field trip to the WAC to watch Magic Tree House, The Musical (based on the Magic Tree House series of books). I joined them (bus ride and all) and enjoyed spending the day with Peyton and the rest of the her class. We enjoyed the show followed by sack lunches in one of the rooms (no park because the trip fell on a very cold day).
Here we are on the bus heading down:

Waiting for the show to begin:

With cardboard Jack and Annie:

If this comes through your town, Peyton and I recommend you see it!

Vacation

We had a great time on vacation in Gulf Shores. Seven relaxing days and nights in a condo at The Beach Club, followed by a crammed packed day and a half in New Orleans on the way home. The Beach Club was great - kind of secluded, it has four towers but each tower has their own pool and there is another large pool at the Club House, so there were times when we had the pool all to ourselves. They had bands at the Club House pool every night, and there were two restaurants, a market, ice cream parlor and gift shop all on site - we only ventured into "town" a few times. Thank you to everyone that gave us suggestions on where to eat and what to do while we were there! Now on with the millions of pictures, I tried to only post a few from each day and since a picture says a thousand words, I'm not going to write too much (but I have included some links so you can check out some of the places we visited) - relaxing on the beach is exhausting.

Here are the girls running into the water on the first day:

Eating at The Hangout:

LuLu's, Bumper Boats and Go Carts at The Track and Miniature Golf at Pirate's Island:One day on the beach the family next to us spent the day fishing...we got to go see a sand shark they caught and they came over to see the stingray Jason caught (with the girl's little blue net). The second picture was when we let it go, some of us screamed when the wave brought it back towards us instead of out away from us.Hunting for crabs and letting them go:Last day on the beach...Mackenzie was over the sand and salt so she didn't even get in on the last day. On the ferry heading from Fort Morgan to Dauphin Island:
On the boat during our swamp tour - so much fun! Our tour guide was so funny and we did come across two alligators, and a family of crazy people camping with their small children near where the alligators roam.Walking around in New Orleans: Beignets at Cafe Du Monde:
Penguins are one of Peyton's favorite things (since she used to waddle around in her footed pajamas as a toddler and we'd call her a penguin) and I think the penguin in this picture knew it...it just swam up and posed with her. This was at the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans.

On the way home:
Wow - if you are still reading and looking at the pictures and you are not a relative - BLESS YOUR HEART!

I'm Flippin'!

I'm SO excited about my new toy! It's a Flip Video Camcorder thingy...SO much fun. Very easy to use for quick recording. It won't replace my camcorder (it only holds 60 minutes of video and doesn't zoom in very far) BUT it will replace my cell phone or Peyton's camera which I found myself using to get short videos a lot (plus so much more room) and it will take better videos than my cell phone. Also, it has a USB arm that connects the recorder directly to the computer for easier uploads, etc.! All of you moms with toddlers and babies have to get one!

This is a video of Eddie as soon as I opened the box (the girls weren't home)...I took it out popped in the batteries, and started recording:

This video is of the girls as soon as we pulled into the driveway after I picked them up...I kind of put them on the spot...I can't help it, I love things like this and I was excited...