Double Digits

Someone in our family hit the double digits today and is officially a decade old!

Happy 10th Birthday Jack!

Some family traditions never go away, no matter how old you get.  Like waking up with a video camera in your face coupled with a Happy Birthday ditty.

Of course, today is a Thursday and Jack did have school.  And the worst of it, they are in the middle of standardized testing. Poor Birthday Boy!

But don't feel too sorry for him.  He did just get back from an awesome trip to Universal Studios, he has a rockin' birthday party coming up next weekend, and his little sisters showered him with birthday gifts when he got home from school.

And back to that testing thing, it prevented me from being able to bring in Birthday treats to lunch.  So, I improvised with an ice cream outing with his art class carpool buddies.

It was a total score.  Jack said it was "way better than lunch time treats".

I imagine so, look at that bowl of ice cream he filled up!  Eeeek!

It's good to be 10!

Happy Birthday to my favorite boy in the entire world!  You lit up my life ten years ago and I could not be more grateful to be your Mommy.  Keep being smart, funny, creative, and AMAZING!

All My Love xoxo

Hoppy Easter

I'm just HoPpIn' by to share our festive Easter treats.  We took it very easy this year, but I'm loving all the pastels.  It certainly puts me in a Spring-y mood!

Now get ready, it doesn't get much easier than this, the kids and I stuffed cello bags filled with colorful marshmallow bunnies.  It was great counting practice for the littlest Cibula.  And it gave the bigger ones a reason to sit down with their Mommy for a while.

We added a "hoppy Easter" tag and then...

....sealed them with festive washi tape...how I ever mentioned I'm obsessed with washi tape?

And surely, you must know by now that we never miss an opportunity to treat our doting teachers.  I saw these adorable candy flowers at Target and just knew I needed them for something!

Somehow I managed to find each teacher's favorite color.  I tied them up with bakers twine and the same tags I made last year and I'm thinking they turned out pretty sweet.

Happy Easter & Spring Friends!  Peter Cottontail will be hopping down the bunny trail in no time!

Beach & Baby

It's time for the second half of our Spring Break vaca.  Seeing how it was a lot of the same...sun, sand, and swimming, I'm thinking I can squeeze all into one post.

Oh, and did I mention, the cutest baby alive is also in this post?  Call me biased, but I am one adoring Aunt right now.

We arrived to Jacksonville Beach late afternoon on Tuesday.  After a short drive of resting our weary legs, the kiddos were ready to hop in the hotel pool.  As soon as we got checked in, that's exactly what we did.

I waited poolside, as patiently as I could, for Uncle Jon and Aunt Bailee to give us the heads up that they were on the way.  I was pretty much dying to meet the newest Dumbacher...baby Brecken.

His arrival did not disappoint. He is as darling, squishy, and perfect as I imagined him.  The kiddos were adoring their new little cousin.  I couldn't help but see the resemblance in Brecken and baby Jack.  We pulled up a few pictures from the blog and the similarities were uncanny and everyone agreed.

The rest of the week was spent pretty much the same way.  We would take a dip in the pool with lots of playful shenanigans.

And then enjoy the beach for a bit.

And then find somewhere local to dine for lunch.

And each day, I waited with bated breath for Jon to get off work, bring Bailee and the baby, and come hang with us before we carted everyone off to dinner.  The cherry on top of beautiful days.

After a couple days of this, {and my girl's first, and hopefully ever, sunburn} I decided we needed to give something other than the pool and beach a try.

And that is how we ended up at JumpStreet.  All of the Florida kids were in school, so we basically had the entire joint to ourselves.  I loved watching my trio romp around and interact...it's rare that we all get this quality time together without any distractions.

It was definitely hard to leave this vacation and even harder to settle back into reality at home.  I think it's fair to say we all have a bit of summer fever...and a tad bit of baby fever...eeek!

The amazing news is, summer vacation is only a few short weeks away and I will be getting my baby fix in May.  I get to spend a whole week watching Brecken while his Mommy returns to work to finish up the school year.  I mean pinch me!

Now, I'm off to prepare for all the wonderful madness that the rest of April brings...wahw wahw wahw...vacation is over.

Mischief Managed

Hello Muggles! 

I'm back with part two of Universal Studios Orlando.  I hope you are ready for a little more "Mischief Managed".  I'm feeling mighty Harry Potter-ish these days as I craft away on Jack's party and find myself immersed in all these pictures.

And although we did re-visit and enjoy a second day of the Wizarding World, we also discovered a few other faves in the park.

We headed out for the park around 8:30 am.  Grandma arrived from her Jacksonville visit the night before so, as you can imagine, the kids were elated and ready to show her EVERYTHING!  

The kids grabbed their wands and we caught the bus straight from the hotel to the park gates.

Universal...here we come!

A park favorite for day 2 was Seuss Landing.  Imagine all things Dr Seuss and rides just the right size for the girls.  We enjoyed a plethora of who's-its and thing-a-ma-bobs and the girls were totally in their element.

And in case you are wondering where big brother was, well, this was not his element, and fairly so.  He was back to all things Harry Potter with Sophia and enjoying it just as much the second time around.

After a few spins around Suess-ville, we met back up with those wizarding warlocks so Jack could finally give Grandma an official tour of Hogsmead and Diagon Alley.

They both had been anticipating this part of the trip for quite a while.

On day two we enjoyed lunch at the Leaky Cauldron.  Apparently everyone else in the park did also...the line was insane.  However, the fish and chips were very worth the wait and truly thematic.

We spent the spent the rest of our day, and well into the night, hopping on every ride we had missed the day before.  And then going back for seconds.  Favorites were E.T., Race Through New York, and the Minions. 

We even caught the Animal Actors Show, which was a joy for all the kids.

We literally closed the park down with a 9:00 pm exit.  If you are doing the math, that was an over 12 hour day!  I am totally impressed with our stamina.  We have never made it that long at any theme park.  We are growing up around here.

As you can imagine, we literally fell in to bed, but only after I made everyone shower off all of those nasty germs.  Both girls snuggled in tight with all the new animals they had acquired over the pst two days.  

What is it with little girls and stuffed creatures?  I'm just so thrilled to bring all this stuff back home with me...not!

I can thankfully say, everyone slept in the next morning.  Next we were off to Jax Beach to meet my new favorite BaBy!