Sea World

So, if you haven't heard yet Sea World and Busch Gardens have a preschool pass for children 5 and under to get in free all year long! I used some Christmas money to buy the adult pass to both parks and we are set for 2012. We had an awesome first trip to Sea World and the kids enjoyed the Sea Lion and Shamu shows. I love the pic below where they are looking at the map to see what they want to do next. We also saw sharks and they have an amazing area where you can go right up to the dolphin lagoon and touch and feed them. Next time we definitely want to feed them because you get way more interaction that way. There are cool rides and one game the little kids can even play. What a blast!

Cuteness

I just wanted to share a few photos of the kids playing around the house recently. They are enjoying all of the wonderful Christmas presents they received! Ethan and his train set have now taken over my entire family room floor and Jillian is all about dress up and "pretty pretty princess" game! Ethan was very proud of the rocket he made and his had the best month ever at school studying space! Jillian was just bumped up 2 classes at her preschool and is doing great with more of a challenge! We hope your new year is starting as great as ours and I will have lots more photos in the next week or so from some very fun things we have been doing and have coming up!

Happy New Year

The kids spent New Year's Eve with their dad and enjoyed a big fireworks display in St. Pete! We then rang in our new year with a trip to visit our friends from Chicago at the Beach. The pool was heated and all 4 kids enjoyed a dip in December-only in Florida! Before heading out we took a quick run on the beach and the kids had a blast as usual even fully clothed Love pics of them enjoying the beach. Myrtle should be awesome this summer!

Captain Memo's Pirate Cruise

After Christmas Mia arranged for us to ride on a pirate ship at Clearwater Beach. The kids and adults all had so much fun! There were structured activities for the kids, including a treasure hunt, water gun fight, face painting, dancing and more! We had an amazing experience when about 14 dolphins decided to swim and play all around us! Afterwards we had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the beach and the kids ran around and played in the sand. Definitely a great memory we will have for years to come.

Christmas in Palm Harbor

The day after Christmas the rest of our family arrived and we spent a wonderful day at Mia and Poppy's house visiting and celebrating the holidays! First on the list, the kids enjoyed the new bounce house that I bought for Ethan and Jillian for Christmas. The cousins bounced for hours and I plan to get many miles out of this gift! We ate some wonderful food and too much of it, picked oranges off the tree, played games and Poppy's trains, took a walk with awesome glow jewelry and opened presents! It was a magical holiday for me with the kids this year and so glad to share it with the family we love!