First Prez Egg Hunt

To help get into the Easter spirit, we were excited to join some of our music class buddies for the First Presbyterian Egg Hunt at the church downtown. Since this was N's first mobile egg hunt (he was still crawling last year), I was excited to see how he did with his basket and the whole concept.

We waited with our buddies for the call to start and N was very eager to get going once he saw the field covered in eggs. His basket was almost as big as he is but he was a champ and carried it himself the whole time!

When we got the go-ahead, he raced to the lawn and began gathering well over our quota (I kept throwing them back out when he wasn't looking). He didn't even care to stop and check what was inside.

After the hunt, we joined our friends in the shade for a picnic lunch while the church led a sing-a-long for us. N was more interested in kicking the remaining eggs (there were still hundreds left unpicked) and gathering treasures than eating but we still got to enjoy our time with our buddies before heading home to welcome company for the weekend.

It was a nice event and we had a great time!

Corey and Liz's Wedding

It's been a while since we've had the pleasure of attending a wedding but we got to go as a family last weekend to celebrate the marriage of Ryan's cousin, Corey, and his bride, Liz. They held the ceremony and reception at the Lake Mary Events Center and it was a beautiful setting!

The ceremony was in an atrium overlooking a lake, which was perfect because it had the fantastic view without the threat of the elements (it was really windy and threatened to storm after really bad weather the night before). The sun peeked out just as the couple said their vows - it was perfect!

Nathan was very well behaved during the ceremony, squirming a bit towards the end but staying relatively quiet. He was really interested in the string quartet that played during the ceremony and cocktail hour. While we had drinks and apps, he danced around the girls and showed off!

He loved having the freedom to run around and didn't stay still once the ceremony was over!

The reception was in a ballroom with a live band and buffet dinner. The bride was very sweet to order a special kids' meal just for the bubs even though he preferred the PB&J I packed just in case.

We had a great time celebrating the bride and groom and spending time with some of Ryan's extended family. I even got to slow dance with my hubby, so the night was a success for me! I'm looking forward to wedding season and getting to celebrate more in the coming months (and maybe stealing a few more dances)!

Touch a Truck

One of the local churches in Maitland held a fundraiser for their school and invited the community out to "Touch a Truck". I knew N would love something like this and I'm always looking for a family activity on the weekend so we headed out to see what would be there.

Running up and down the tow truck bed

It was so much bigger than I expected, with more than 30 different trucks of all shapes and sizes lined up to tour. We spent the entire morning exploring!

Sitting in a "scoop"

Driving a bulldozer

Silly as it is, the biggest hit was the Lay's Potato Chip truck because Chester Cheetah was handing out bags of chips beside it. N kept running back and forth, waving hi from afar and talking about the cheetah. We probably went back to see him at least four times throughout the day and it was even the cause of a mini-meltdown when we didn't rush back over when first requested!

"Hi Cheetah!"

Driving a trolley

Riding a bus

Checking out a firetruck

This is definitely an event that I want to make an annual tradition. We all had so much fun!

Weekend in Vero

It had been a while since we saw Ryan's aunt, uncle and grandma in Vero Beach so we took the weekend and went down for a visit. Sarah joined us for the trip and we arrived in time for dinner at Grandma's house on Friday night. N was tired and acted pretty shy at first, refusing to eat anything, but he soon warmed up once he realized he could get attention from the group!

Sadly, Grandma took a spill late Friday night and Barb and Phil were called away to check on her injuries while the paramedics tended to her. Thankfully, it wasn't too major, although she had to spend the weekend in the hospital and we ended up seeing very little of Barb and Phil.
 

Since we had a lot of solo time, we drove over to the beach on Saturday morning to take N to a playground and walk the beach. It was chilly but we all really enjoyed the sand between our toes and the brisk breeze. We had a nice lunch overlooking the ocean before heading back to the house.

Ryan's dad ended up driving over to check on Grandma, so we got to spend time with him, too. N loved being in a new place and exploring all the exciting features of Barb and Phil's house. Uncle Phil/Guppy taught him how to climb on the pool table and roll balls into the pockets.

He spent lots of time with Grandaddy checking out "Nemo" and the other fish in Guppy's aquarium. Feeding time was obviously a hit!

We even got in a little football time, running back and forth in front of the intracoastal and tossing a ball into the bushes and rocks. It was silly but fun and we all had a blast, laughing the whole time.

We packed up pretty early on Sunday to make the drive back home. Even though the weekend didn't work out as we had hoped, it's always nice to get away and stay in such an amazing setting. We're lucky to have relatives that live in a vacation home full-time!