Dentist office

Ryan and Rebecca visited the dentist for a checkup recently. It was Ryan's first visit, and he was very excited to go. The dentist we visit has a great office for kids. It's completely decorated like Finding Nemo, complete with a fish tank containing many of the fish featured in the movie. The kids got their teeth cleaned in a large room, where they could be side by side and see each other the whole time. Ryan did great. He followed directions very well, and laid very still when asked. He was mesmerized by the whole process actually. Rebecca did almost as well. It was a good thing that Ryan went first and showed her how much fun he was having.

Kid City

On Wednesday, we decided to drive to Tampa early enough to enjoy a day at Kid City before Mom's had to go to the airport. We thought this was a wonderful concept and a great iversion for a few hours. This first picture is of Mom pretending to give Ryan a checkup at the doctor's office. He was a very good patient.


This picture amuses me. I asked the kids to give me their best fire fighter pose, and this is what they came up with. Becca is doing her best model pose while Ryan is being a super hero to the resuce.

Ryan loved the yellow brick road and spent a long time singing the song and traveling along the spiral path.

Ryan's favorite building in Kid City was McDonalds. He loved taking orders at the drive-through and bringing people their food.

Becca's favorite part was the doctor's office. She spent a long time practicing walking on crutches.

NCAA womens final four

So, my mom is a big fan of the UCONN womens basketball team which made it to the final four this year. The games were being held in Tampa, so my mom flew down and I joined for a quick getaway. Unfortunately, it poured rain the entire day...and UCONN lost. We still had fun though.



Downtown, in the Channelside area, each team had a restaurant that was decorated to attract fans of their team. We chose to eat at Stuckey's which was the UCONN team's chosen restaurant. These are the t-shirts that all the servers and bartenders were wearing.

Cute kids

Rebecca LOVES getting her face painted. This is her most recent art work done at Sea World.


These are Ryan's favorite sunglasses and every where we go, people tell him how cute he looks.

Easter morning

Easter morning brought wonderful surprises in the Easter baskets. The favorite gifts from the Easter Bunny were rain boots and books. Fancy Nancy books for Rebecca and a pop-up Horton Hears a Who for Ryan. The kids had collected so much candy at other Easter egg hunts that the Easter Bunny decided to hide empty eggs this Easter. We had lots and lots and lots of plastic eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide, so the hunt took a long time and was very exciting because he had hidden them in so many tricky places. Rebecca didn't care one bit about the eggs being empty. She loves the thrill of the hunt. Ryan on the other hand lost interest as soon as he realized there was no payoff to collecting eggs, and left Rebecca to find the bulk of the eggs.

Easter weekend

Nancy and O surprised us with a visit the day before Easter and brought some fun Easter toys for the kids. This one cracked us up. It's a pacifier style lollipop that looks like a bunny's nose and mouth. Too funny.





This is how almost every attempt at taking a picture with both kids and Nancy and O turns out. We'll keep trying!

Best friends

Here are Becca and her best friend Kaitlyn. The two of them almost always dissolve into a fit of giggles when they get together.

Easter events

Gainesville has a plethora of free family events in the fall and spring, and we always try to get to as many as we can. This year, we attended 5. At two of the events, there was a petting farm which the kids loved. The rule with the baby chicks and bunnies was that the children could only use 1 finger to pet. Ryan was very very good about following this rule.


Here are Ryan and Jeffrey getting ready for the egg roll for their age group. Notice how carefully they are paying attention to the woman giving directions (off camera.) The rest of the kids were not paying any attention to the directions. They were getting ready for the race. When the woman shouted, "GO!" all the rest of the kids took off, rolling their eggs as fast as they could across the finish line. Ryan and Jeffrey at first continued to look at the woman for more directions. She of course was moving to the finish line to judge the race. They were very confused until Carol and I shouted, "Roll your eggs!" Then, they got to work rolling their eggs...I think they might have been the last two to finish, but still enjoyed it all the same.

Ryan has a huge sweet tooth. HUGE. He LOVES LOVES LOVES egg hunts, especially when there is candy inside the egg. Ryan has taken home quite a loot at each one. At this particular egg hunt, I allowed him and Becca to have 3 pieces of candy each and then they had to go play with their friends. While the kids played, I enjoyed talking with my friends, while I kept an eye on them playing. I noticed after a period of time that Ryan was all by himself at a picnic table across the playground from where I was standing. He was far enough away that I couldn't tell exactly what he was doing, and I figured he was all by himself because he had pooped. As I was enjoying my conversation, I put off going to get him for a few minutes. When I got over there to change his diaper I realized that he hadn't pooped. He was digging through someone else's Easter basket and helping himself to their candy. He looked up at me with a big smile, and said, "It's OK, Mommy. I SHARING!" Oops. So, we left pretty quickly after that...

At this event, there was a clown who made balloon animals. And what did the boys choose? Swords of course!