Tampa, Tampa, Who Has the Tampa??

We are in Florida!!!  We had a crazy ride here and more fun to come!!  I will try to post pictures tonight.  Last night we rolled into Tampa about 6:00 our time and 7:00 Tampa time.  I parked the car while Jeremy went inside the hotel to check in.  When I first walked in, Jeremy was still at the counter.....they had overbooked the hotel!! AGH!  I just about lost it but the man at the front desk was awesome and assured us that we had a room, he was just making sure it was clean, lol!  We got freshened up a bit and headed to the hotel restaurant called Crabby Bill's.  We ate a great dinner of mahi mahi tacos and coconut shrimp!  Carribbean band playing on the beach.....it was awesome.  We walked around our hotel's pier a bit and headed to bed.  Today is gonna be so much fun!!!  

Crap A Dog!

Oh my gosh, I am freaking out!  Seriously, I'm having a panic attack.  It all of a sudden hit me that I am leaving ALL the kids for 7 days!! AGH! All the "what-ifs" are totally consuming my thoughts. I can't even concentrate on packing.  I have NOTHING packed and we leave in 12 hours!!!! I think I need a paper bag, I'm gonna hyperventilate, lol!  And I've got so much to do when I get back from the trip........I'm a basketcase.  Is this what is going to happen when my children start leaving home???  I keep thinking that I haven't prepared them enough.  What are they going to do without me??? For that matter, what are they going to do WITH me, lol!!  Well, I will try to breathe, focus, and pray.  And hope for the best!!  I AM really excited to spend time with my Jeremy....I just don't want to ruin it for him by freaking out the whole time, hehe! Okay, got all that out, now hopefully, I can move on with my night full of preparations.  Wish me luck!
Oh, and the weather forecast just keeps getting worse and worse!  Frickety-frick!!!

Kitty

Yesterday I was told that I could pick up our new kitten when we get back from Florida!!!  So excited!  Cats make me happy!  Now, if we can just keep this one around.  Carthage doesn't seem to do well with cats.....maybe I could have an indoor cat this time.  hmmmmmm, maybe.

Red

Yesterday I was outside and Liam wanted to water the flowers.  I told him to go into the kitchen and bring me the red watering can.  He came back out with the new red tea pot from the stove!!! Bahahahahaha!  We had a good laugh together, I love it!

Florida, Here We Come!

We got our confirmation of travel plans!  woot!  I'm getting more and more excited and more and more panic ridden as I think of all the things that can go wrong with the kids while we are gone!  AGH!  We are pretty stoked about our whole trip though.  We got an AMAZING deal!!  We booked a nice hotel right on the beach in Tampa Bay for 4 nights (normally $150-$200 per night) plus two 2 day passes to Busch Gardens (normally $70 per day, per person) for $400!!!!! 

 It was just too good to pass up!  There is a swim up bar and restaurant at the hotel with room service (a must for me).  Last year we spend $400 per night at the house on the lake in the Lake of the Ozarks!!  I can't believe we got the entire trip for the same price as one night there! lol! I have checked out the weather forecast for the days that we will be there and there is a 30% chance of thunderstorms two of the four days.  BLAH!!!  Hopefully the weather is wrong or decided to do something else! lol!  Secretly, I don't plan on coming back.  I'm just gonna live in a hut on the beach.  Or under a bridge.  Or in a box.  

Finishing Up

Some people might think that I have been sitting at the computer desk blogging the entire day away.  But, no, it has just taken all day for my pictures to load onto Blogger!!! What the crap is going on with it!  I will add them the hit the load button and walk away to make lunch, do laundry, make lava bottles, dishes, etc., and come back....stupid thing hardly moving!  agh!  Driving me nuts!  Despite the slowness of it all, I actually have gotten a lot done on the blog and a lot done here at the house.  I'm trying to prepare for the vacation, a yard sale, and Zack's graduation all at once!  And still keep summer vacation slightly fun for the kids.  I have lots of ideas and activities planned!!  It should be a great summer!!!

Little Doubt

Asher just asked me if he could have Dad take him up to Dollar General when Dad got home.  I said " I don't know, Asher.  I doubt it."  And he goes "Yesssss!" 
LOL!  Pretty sure he is confused as to what I meant!

Lava Lamp Bottles

 Things you need to make Lava Lamp Bottles:

• empty plastic bottles
• oil
• food coloring
• water
• alka-seltzer

 Fill the plastic bottle with oil about 3/4 of the way and the rest with water....you may want to leave a little room at the top just in case of bubbling over once the alka-seltzer is added.

 Add 10 drops of food coloring.

 Break the alka-seltzer tablets into about 5-8 pieces each.  Add them one at a time and watch the bubbles rise!  It's really cool!

 My boys had a ton of fun doing this and want to do it again!!  We saved our bottles so we could do it again when we have more alka-seltzer, lol!  We used a whole box today! 

The Rest of Cedric's Birthday

 We had a family cookout on Saturday for Cedric's birthday.  Grandma Trapp, Grandma and Grandpa Kelley, Trisha and Chase (Josh was working), Tyson and Vanessa with Owen and Tristin all came to our house to celebrate!  We had hot dogs, hamburger, brats, mac and cheese cups, fruit salad, watermelon, chips, pasta salad, and soda!  Yummy!

 Liam was sick of waiting for Cedric to open his presents, haha!

 I found this recipe on pintrest and decided to give it a whirl.  It is confetti cake cheesecake bars.  I wasn't real into much of any of the food that night (my stomach was a little upset) so at the time, it didn't really appeal to me.  Nobody made any good comments about it so I thought it sucked.  The next day though Jeremy and I both had some and it is DELICIOUS!!  And we are not big on cheesecake or regular cake either.  But, combine the two and voila!  A yummy confection to make again (even if nobody else liked it, lol!)

 It was a good time hanging out with everyone.  We don't get to have people over as much as we would like since we are all the way over in Carthage. 

Cedric Turns 10!!!

 Cedric got 6 new sets of Lego Hero Factory for his birthday.  This one is his "big one" called the Witch Doctor.  He was super excited to get it!!

WE LOVE YOU, Cedric Vaughn Kelley!!

My Jeremy

Jeremy hasn't been feeling well as of late.  I don't like it.  Not one little bit.  He has to fast tonight and be at the doc's office bright and early for a bunch of labs and tests.  I have been on him for a while now to schedule a physical so, he is getting all that done too.  It will help put our minds at ease then.  I think this is the first time in our nearly 13 years together that he has went to the doctor.  (He did go once before to get some mole burned off).  And he called and scheduled it himself!  I love that man with all my heart and soul.  I think this little getaway will be just what he needs to help clear his head. 

Cedric's "Friend" Party

 It took what seemed like 42 days to get these pictures to load onto here!  Good Grief!  Anyway, these are the pics from Cedric's "friend" party to Scotties fun Spot in Quincy.  I was a little bit skeptical of taking 8 boys to a place like this but we ended up having a GREAT time!  Cedric's friends are AWESOME!   Well-behaved, thoughtful, polite, terrific!  On Thursday we picked everyone up from school (they had an early out at 12:05).  We left for Quincy. 

 One of the things we did there was Ball-o-city.  It is basically a big jungle gym type area with slides, tunnels, bouncy things, etc.  Also, there are air powered guns and blow tubes and such for the foam balls that are blowing around everywhere!!  They had a blast!

 We also did Laser Tag!  They separated into two teams of 4 and had a battle in the dark!  The pictures turned out kinds poopey but ya get the jest of it right???

 They had spin zone bumper cars too!  Air powered and when you bumped someone in their "spin zone" it made them spin in circles for a bit!! Funny stuff!  Asher was hilarious!

 Praying to the ball god! lol!

 Jackson and Joshua

 Liam and Cedric driving motorcycles!

 Jackson at the Wack-a-mole station!

 Cedric's friends got together secretly and pooled most of their tickets to get Cedric this gun (with lights ans sounds!) from the prize area!  I thought it was so sweet!  It cost them 600 tickets!! And they still a little left over to get themselves some small trinkets.  What good boys!!

 Cedric and Donovan

 Skee-ball!!

 Me and Asher at the top of a slide!  Isn't he the cutest thing ever!?!?

 Cedric and his buddies!

 Lego Hero Factory.....

It was a super day and all the boys loved it!  We ended up leaving at about 6:00pm.  It is something I definitely wouldn't mind doing again!  Cedric said it was the best day ever!  woot!  Can't ask for much more than that!