Toes in the Water, Toes in the Sand

We just returned from our annual beach trip down to the gulf coast.  I grew up going to the Alabama gulf coast from the day I was born until Katrina.  It took our family beach house at Dauphin Island and since then we have started venturing to the Florida gulf coast.



This was our third year for my family so I guess now it is our family tradition.  However this year was a little different because we went with 5 other families with 12 children between us all, and it......was......a.....BLAST!!!! 

















Lots of laughing, sand castle building, napping, kite flying, sea shell finding, corn hole playing, fishing, reading, and swimming, swimming, and more swimming.








My kids LOVE the beach although Miss Lucy wasn't too thrilled with the waves.  It didn't help that on the first day one knocked her over face first.  So, she kept her safe distance, playing in the sand and eventually warmed up to the idea of chasing waves or better yet them chasing her! 












And Landon, well, this boy has loved the beach since being a baby especially the waves!  You can rarely catch him out of the water when at the beach.  This year you could only find him body surfing which he really got the hang of this trip.  The waves were perfect for that the first few days we were there and one wave he rode about 50 feet!







And Miss Lynlee was quite the handful on the beach.  Sometimes she loved it and other times she hated it.  But every single time we were out there it wore her out!








We made our way to the beach nearly every day.  But our house also had a pool so when we were tired of the beach that was our next escape.



I don't know about you, but the beach worked up our appetites in this group. Oh my goodness, I'm not sure I have ever eaten so good and am hitting the gym extra hard now to pay for it.  Each family took a night to make dinner for the entire gang and then clean up afterwards.  It worked out perfectly and every meal was delicious.   Ash and I cooked a shrimp boil the first night we were all there and it was the perfect way to kick off a week at the beach. 



No recipe is really needed for a shrimp boil, just go buy a box of shrimp boil seasoning and follow the directions.  :)  There is a trick to get it all perfectly although I'm not sure what that trick is.  But Ash did a great job...everything was perfectly cooked and seasoned. And from there the meals just kept getting better and better. I definitely have some new meals to add to the rotation and plan on sharing those soon.  But I'm running late as usual and have to run for now.  Will be back soon with more beach pics...have a great Tuesday!

Beach Bound in the AM...

...so you know it utter chaos around here.  And of course, everything that could go wrong, did.  I, for once, did not procrastinate (out of pure excitement) and started the packing process yesterday.  That would have entailed tackling the mound of laundry that needed to be cleaned, ironed, and put away, as well as labeling, finding and bringing up all necessary beach gear, etc, ect.  So the ball got rolling during nap time yesterday and right around the kids were getting up, a crazy strong thunderstrom popped out of nowhere and did some damage around here.  Nothing major to our house, just larger branches, leaves and other debris all over the yard. 



Giant trees were uprooted and one split down the middle just a few doors down though.  And since there was no warning whatsoever, all of our beach towels that were laying out to dry got soaked along with cushions, bathing suits, tee-shirts, shoes, etc, etc. We were taking no chances after the April tornadoes and as soon as the wind kicked up we high tailed it to the basement only for our power to go out.  Arggghhhh!!!  I still had a ton of laundry left to do, a kitchen to clean up, and bedtime routine still needing to be tackled.  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper last night.  I went to sleep in a hot house and a teething baby!



Thankfully, the power did come back on around 1 am when our house lit up like a christmas tree and woke up the teething baby who woke up her toddler sister.  Fun times!

BUT my spirit will not be dampened...I'm going to the beach tomorrow for an entire week with 2 babysitters helping me out...woohoo!!  We are heading down to Seaside tomorrow along with 5 other families to share an enormous beach house for seven full days.  In total there will be 11 adults, 12 children, and 2 lifesavers babysitters.  I keep joking that I hope we're still friends next week!  ha!



Anyhow, I still have a teething baby who is only comforted by her mama right now, which means I am nowhere near being packed.  There is still laundry to be done, a house that needs to be picked up and 5 people that need to be packed.  And it is absolutely insane how much stuff we will be taking...I will have to post a pic so you can laugh along with me.  But, I'm taking it all in stride because I'm beach bound in the a.m...YAY!!!!

Tiny Dancer and a Snack

Summers around this house are none the less busy than the other 9 months of the year except I have to be more diligent in entertaining my kids without school. That in a nutshell means camps...galore! Landon has a packed summer with one camp or trip after another. And the girls and I hang out around the house doing "baby" things. However, I came across a camp for Lucy that I couldn't pass up nor did I want to. I couldn't wait to get that girl in a leotard! :)



And once she was in one she did not want to get out! So that was pretty much her wardrobe all last week during ballet camp. Mind you it was a 2 year old class, and class is a much better way to describe it than camp. But all last week between 9am-10am thats were you could find us...even Lynlee got to have a little fun there.




I didn't know what to expect, but figured she would love it and oh my gosh did she LOVE it! Thats all she did and all she talked about all week!



The wouldn't let the parents in but would crack the curtains enough in the window for us to peak, which is what I did the entire time all 4 days. There is nothing cuter than those little fannies in tights showing off those little tummy rolls! :) Between my luck with my camera and the small little hole we had to look through, my pictures are not the best.





On the last day of camp, they finally let us in to watch and would you believe Lucy got shy!?!? I couldn't, but she pretty much stood there with her hands in her mouth watching everyone else for the first 20 minutes or so. And then finally she got in the groove of everything! We must have kept her up too late, because not only was she shy but she kept yawning every minute or so...ha!

Anyhway, I loved watching her that week and can't wait until she dances again this fall!

And to completely switch gears, I made this easy snack this morning and wanted to share. I actually had this at bunko last month, so you can dress it up for parties or kid it up for snacks! Super easy. All you need are three ingredients...



Bake the dough according to directions. Remove from oven and let cool for just a couple of minutes. Spread with Nutella (YUM!) and sprinkle with powder sugar. And thats it. It is not the prettiest snack in the world, which is why I will spare you the picture. But if your good with dough, I'm sure you could make it pretty, but that darn dough and I battled it out and I do believe it won! :) Regardless, its super yummy...and heres the proof! :)





My sitter just got here, so I'm off to run some errands and then get ready for a concert tonight! Enjoy your day!

Fun Find

So, we were driving down 31 yesterday to the Pelham YMCA when I passed this little number...



There was a line a mile long so I kept driving. But it has been on my mind sense. So, last night after dinner, the kids and I loaded up to get a snow cone. They had a gazillion choices...



...so deciding which flavor took a while, but ended up with Landon choosing green apple, Lucy chose "pink" (still not sure what flavor she ended up with but it was pink!), and Lynlee and I split a georgia peach. The tables were wet from a quick afternoon showerthat had just popped up, so we enjoyed a little snow cone picnic in the car.









Anyhow, for my Birmingham friends, it was a fun little treat and a lot of bang for your buck...literally. A small (which we got...see pics) was only $1 !!! Head down 31 towards Pelham, and the stand is right in front of the Publix shopping center on the right. Can't miss it...well really you can, so make sure to looking! :)