Easter and the Copseys

I'm a little overwhelmed here with all that has gone on since I last posted.  This is the problem with letting too much time go by between writing on here.  There's just too much to catch up on.  Nonetheless, I will plod on.

The last time I wrote, it was Friday night of Easter weekend and things were just heating up.  After church and naps, our first bit of Easter festivities took place at the Bergherms were we joined some of the families from our usual group for a potluck supper and a Resurrection Egg hunt in the backyard.  It's a different kind of hunt in that the eggs only have slips of papers in them with numbers ranging between 1 - 12.  You have to find one of each number and once completed, you then match up the number with a corresponding message about the Easter story (no, not a bunny or chocolate but, dum, dum, dum, dum...Jesus).  It was a neat thing because it put some perspective on what it all means instead of getting more candy.  That would come the next day!   My stomach was still a little upset (do NOT read anything into that, I promise) from the small bug I had so I didn't get to enjoy all the food to the fullest but it all looked fantastic.  As usual, Jennifer did an outstanding job with the decorating and hostessing.

My little man at Sabbath School

Calleigh posing at the Bergherms

Sunday morning we went to Ron and Elaine's for our traditional Easter egg hunt and meal.  The Isidros and Bergherms joined us again like they did last year.  Elaine had a big breakfast spread out for us which was delicious (stomach bug was now gone.  Yay!).  The hunt was a success and then afterwards the kids all jumped in the pool despite the 74 degree temperatures.  A little cold wasn't keeping them down.  Once their teeth started chattering though, it was time to call it a day.

The kid's table during breakfast

This year's group.  We just need Brady to even it out.

Lining up by age with the little ones getting a short head start.

Oh man!

Nice picture of Grandma and Grandpa but I wanted to show what their kitchen looks like.  This is no more.  They are in the process of getting a new one as we speak.

After that we zipped home for some naps which only turned into a nap for Brady.  The girls were too wound up (maybe from the candy?) to nap.  Then it was on to our final Easter party of the weekend this time over to the Hilliards out in Apopka for their big shindig.  Doug is my old boss, of course, and I had been to his house a number of years ago but not since they put in their pool.  It was just a gorgeous backyard and as we sat on the grass I felt like we were posing in some kind of home and garden magazine or something.  We had a great potluck meal an then it was on to yet another Easter egg hunt.  Oh but wait.  First the Easter bunny came out.  Calleigh was all excited about it from the beginning but Aubree freaked out a little bit.  But then, when the bunny turned around, she could see the hair on the person's head poking out of the costume so she completely relaxed.  Hopefully this means they'll both be cool with Santa this year.

"This grass is killing me, Mom"

Jennifer and I acting a bit silly.

Oh, we are on to you, Mr. Easter Bunny.

They had this super tall swing in their yard which was so AWESOME.  We must have one of those some day.

And so ended Easter 2012.  Very busy but very fun.  The girls, naturally, ended up with a whole bunch of candy.  That was pretty much all that was in the eggs at the Hilliards whereas at Ron and Elaine's the majority of it was little trinkets.  We let them eat a couple things but then said we needed to save the rest.  It's amazing how short term their memories are in some situations because they maybe had one more piece the next day but then the rest was forgotten.  It's all still sitting in their play baby stroller but somehow they've not asked to have anymore.  Maybe they'll be like me and not care for it all that much!

We had a few days to recuperate from all that and then Wednesday things started back up again.  Uncle Terry and Aunt Toni and then Devin, Leigh, Mia, and Bode flew down Tuesday night for the purpose of going to Charlie Cutler's wedding.  They made it into a nice vacation though with Toni and Terry staying for two weeks and Devin and family for a week.  They got this great 4-bedroom townhouse down in Kissimmee with a giant community pool (kind of like the place we stayed at down in Kissimmee with my mom).  We drove on Wednesday morning to see them and just hang out at the pool.  We hadn't seen them since Christmas and of course, Bode has gotten so much bigger and, as expected, despite being only 6 months to Brady's 10, completely outweighs him.  The girls had a super time in the pool as usual.  The townhouse even had it's own tiny pool out back and the girls went in there after they tired of the big pool.  Yup, they were pretty much in one of the pools the entire time we were there.  With Mia!  What is the coolest thing in the world to a 2- and 4-year old girl?  A 10-year old girl!!  They just love her.  We would have stayed longer but then I had to get them up to the church for their last Adventurers meeting.  All I can say is..thank goodness for the 429!  It makes the commute between Kissimmee and Apopka so much easier.

Bode taking a little siesta.  He's so cute.

The pool at their townhouse.

Thursday they went to Disney (a big "No thank you" on that one) and then Friday to Sea World (which we abstained on this time) and then the crew came over our place for Friday night supper.  Aunt Sherrie and Uncle Kevin arrived in town that evening so they joined in along with David and Yully.  We were very happy to have our new table.  The girls ended up sitting outside on the back porch at our old table that we moved out there.  Now that we have no dogs taking up the porch, it's like we added some new living space.  Calleigh especially loves to sit out there and do crafts and I'm happy because all that stuff is out of my way.

Bode taking another siesta.  I just love how babies can sleep any where.

Sabbath afternoon was Calleigh's Adventurer Investiture program.  In other words, "graduation" to the next level.  It's a program that runs a little more than an hour and they give each child a "diploma" and they show a movie of picture clips from the year.  Aubree actually received an honorary "diploma" for having attended all the meetings along with Calleigh so that was quite exciting.  And then even more so, was when they called Calleigh's name for winning "Little Lamb (what the group of four year olds are called) of the Year."  That award is given to the kid who gets the most points which you get for attending meetings, dressing in your uniform at church and collecting the offering at church.  That prize came with a $10 gift card to Target which Calleigh was exceedingly excited about spending!  She's already vowing that next year she will get TWO of those cards so she can buy more stuff (not that that's possible).

Calleigh, Braelyn, and Danica.  Such proper young ladies.

 

Or not.

Aubree just wants to be part of the group.  And to think it's still a whole year after this next one before she can even officially join.

All the Little Lambs.  A bit blurry but you get the picture.  

Brady got in a little picture time.  He now points.  Yay!  He's not autistic!!

We went to Target on Wednesday and she's holding what she got.  Polly Pocket and a Strawberry Shortcake both of which Brady has already tried to eat.

Saturday night the grandparents (Ron & Elaine and Terry & Toni) came over to watch the five kids so that Duncan and I could go out with Devin and Leigh.  We went to see "The Hunger Games" which, okay, I'll admit I read.  It's not something that I think I would normally read but the premise reminded me of this story that I had read in English class in high school called "The Most Dangerous Game" where this man gets shipwrecked on an island and this other man and his huge servant that inhabit the island hunt him down in some sort of twisted game.  Anyway, I thought it very intriguing so this sort of similar book caught my eye.  
I will say that it was just slightly disconcerting when we noticed parents bringing their roughly five year old daughter into the movie for a 9:15 pm showtime of a movie that it certainly not appropriate for that age group in any way, shape, or form.  Our only hope is that she fell asleep as soon as she sat down.  I did enjoy the movie but as cliche as it is to say, the book was so much better.

The next morning was a scurry of activity.  Our plan was to head to the Isidros for breakfast/brunch, then on to the Winter Garden festival.  After that, it was back to the Isidro's for a quick lunch and then Duncan would leave with Allen to play golf with the Copsey and Wall men who would be finished with the 10 am wedding.  I would meet the Copsey ladies at Sea World and then go back to their townhouse for the night Sunday to go to Busch Gardens on Monday.  Whew!   Any time you're going to be gone over night with the kids, there is a lot of preparation and packing involve and I was afraid we wouldn't make it to the Isidros but we pulled it off.

The Bergherms joined us for breakfast as well and I thought maybe we should just make a habit out of eating together on Sunday mornings since it was two weeks in a row (First Watch has been losing our business!).  Afterwards, we went to the festival which was through main street of Winter Garden which is just a really pretty main street.  It has a very quaint feel to it.  It was a beautiful day out and as you know, the girls love festivals so it was a rousing success.

Decorating lady bug gardens.

This lady was, ah, interesting to say the least.  I think she was like 60.  Not that there's anything wrong with a 60- year old with pink ponytails dressing in a mini skirt and standing on stilts to make balloon butterflies.

At about 3:00, we hopped in the van and left the Isidros for a brief trip to Sea World.  It was nice to get in a little time there with them.  They wanted to go back so that Mia could feed the dolphins which she did.  Calleigh started complaining from the second we got there that she wanted to go on some rides so we finally got to do that.  I think Leigh was pretty impressed that Aubree had no fear on going on the ride that takes you up and then drops you down from 30 or 40 feet up (or however high it is).  We left the park around 7:00ish and found a Sweet Tomatoes for supper.  Brady scarfed the food down so fast and ate so much that I swear, Toni thought I hadn't fed him all day.  I don't know what it is but when we eat at restaurants he seems to eat so much more food then when we're at home.  Very strange.

Isn't this picture just adorable??  Brady seems quite distressed for some reason.  But look at their little hands!

We didn't get to the Copsey's townhouse until after 8:30 but there was no way the girls weren't going to go for a swim and the next thing I know it's creeping up to 9:30 and they're still having a grand old time in that pool.  Just a little bit past their bedtime but I guess we were kind of, sort of, on vacation.  It's so hard to put an end to it when they're having so much fun.  At long last, we had to call it a night.  They stayed in Mia's room in the bottom double bed part of a bunk bed with Mia on top.  You would think now that it was 10 pm they would be ready for bed.  Oh no.  They were seriously bouncing off the walls.  They were just SO excited to be sleeping over in Mia's room.  After about 15 minutes of craziness, I had to come and lie in the bed with them and at long last, long after Mia had quieted down and gone to sleep, they finally succumbed.  I hadn't been that tired in a long time.  At least, not until the next night, that is.

I couldn't even get them to sit still for a picture.

The next morning it was off to Busch Gardens.  We got a little bit later of a start then we had hoped and didn't arrive there until about 11:15 to find out that the park was only open until 6:00.  Of course, this wasn't a problem for me but for people paying for the day, it doesn't leave you a ton of time.  We had a really, really great time.  A big highlight was going into a new ice show.  Brady just love it.  He pointed his finger and was making all kinds of oohing and aahing type noises.  We did spend considerable time in the Sesame Street section and Mia went on all the rides with the girls.  But the real highlight for me out of everything we getting to go on the log ride with Aubree.  Calleigh had left with Terry, Devin, Leigh, and Mia to go on the Congo River Ride which she's big enough to do now.  Toni volunteered to stay with the babies so I could do something with Aubree.  The more kids you have, it's true...the less things you seem to do with them on an individual basis.  So this was my moment with Aubree and it was just truly wonderful.  I can't even describe it.  Just the joy on her face as we went on the log adventure together made me so happy.  She's such a little chatty one and she talked the whole time about different things she was seeing and she probably assured me three or four times that it would be okay if we got wet because we could dry off.  My heart was so full I tell you.  Meanwhile, Calleigh got her backside completely soaked on her ride but she just shook it off and didn't even want to get changed.

The cousins with their babies.

Aubs sacked out at the very end.

We did have a funny moment while we were eating lunch.  I took them to our favorite cafe where you get all you can eat pizza, pasta, and salad.  We decided to eat outdoors which was a major mistake.  Firstly, they had no trays and it was a real pain in the you-know-what to keep trying to lug food for four people from the inside buffet line to outside.  What makes it worse is that I had to cut up Brady's food and he was shoveling it in as fast as I could cut it which left me no time to do anything else.  Then, secondly, there were birds all over the place, stalking us you could say.  Towards the end of the meal, Devin puts up this big yell and then the next thing you know, three birds have swooped down onto our table and grabbed Calleigh's pizza and flown away.  We watched them eat it a short distance from us.  Calleigh was talking about it today and insists they were on her hand when they grabbed the pizza but I'm not sure if that's true.  Either way, it was quite dramatic.  

The neat thing about the day was that Devin, Leigh, and I got to go on three roller coasters while Terry and Toni stayed with the kids.  That was as real treat since I'm a huge roller coaster fan and don't generally take the time to go on them.  But there were barely any lines.  The worst line was for the new coaster, Cheetah Chase which we did as the very last thing.  Good times!

So yeah, I joked that this was the first time that I've ever stayed at a park until closing (albeit a 6:00 pm closing).  We NEVER stay until the end.  But we were having too much fun to go.  The way back was a bit long I must say.  We had to stop about 30 minutes in for Aubree to go # 2 (if only there was a way to get her to have a sense of urgency while taking care of this business).  Then, Brady who had fallen asleep woke about 10 minutes after that.  I stopped at a rest area to change his diaper which didn't help.  We had to listen to some nice crying for about 1/2 hour but what can you do.  All I can say is that it was good to get home.

Our last hurrah with the younger Copseys came on Tuesday night when we, along with David and Yully, met them down at the Cheesecake Factory at the Mall at Millenia.  We were really sad to see them ago.  The girls had so much fun with Mia and she is so good to them even though they're probably such little kids to her.  And of course, Brady and Bode (heretofore collectively known as "Brody") will be great pals in a year or two.

But Toni and Terry are still around and they came over last night with David to watch the Bruins/Capitals game which sadly ended in a 2-1 loss for the B's.  It would have been worse but Yully brought some homemade cupcakes to sooth out sorrows.

Mercy.  I'm sure there is a lot more I'm forgetting but my brain is starting to shut down.  I can barely thing of any anecdotes about the kids to add.  I can at least report that they're happy and healthy.

I'm off to be.  Have a Happy Sabbath!

Dirty feet from helping Grandma plant flowers.  We don't know what happened to Calleigh's left one.