A full day

After Ivy's party, we drove right to the beach for Jenny Snelson's going away party. Tyler and Julia fell asleep on the way. So I kept Julia in a sling. 

Then we went to the Candy Kitchen. 

Julia was still awake! Probably bc of the sugar! 

family beach evening

We went to the beach after Selene's baby shower. It was Steven's idea. I love it. Time change is making me happy! There's time to do things outside in the evenings! I say sleep shmeep. I love that it is lighter later!! I'll vote for anybody who promises to keep the time just like it is NOW year round. The darker earlier stuff is so dumb.

Dylan got a metal detector with his birthday/baptism Toys R Us gift card from Eirit our amazingly thoughtful gift-of-a-neighbor. He got it yesterday so didn't have much time to use it. Today, he found a weight in our back yard! One that my grandpa Rebeck brought over with a weight bench when he was training us to be big and buff. Dylan was SO excited to find that disk! Malia found some bullets yesterday when her grandparents took her to Ft. Desoto so Dylan really wanted to find some treasures like that. We didn't go to old battle grounds, just to Redington Beach. But that's the beach where I found that pink sandy camera last summer! I found its owners and mailed it back and it still works b/c it was waterproof. CRAZY story. 

There were two more metal detecting guys there so maybe they had already found the good stuff. 

A big ball blew by so the kids had fun chasing it. It was so windy that it flew. 

Tyler loves the beach and the sand and Steven wanted to get a picture of him. I had him run to me and give me a high five then run back to Daddy to punch his tummy. That's about the only bate we had for him. And Tyler bit! 

Tyler buried himself. We helped a little. 

Then he found a "swimming pool" into which he did a bunch of "cannon ball"s. 

Dylan decided we should walk to the Long Pier so we took a long walk with little stops like this along the way. Actually, Tyler and I stopped at this half-way spot while Steven took the boys to their goal. 

Then Tyler and I just sat on the dry sand to wait. Tyler's shorts had gotten wet so his legs hurt to walk from the chaffing and I didn't feel like carrying him all the way there and back then back to the car. We had fun taking selfies. 

And we talked. Tyler asked if the sun would go "pop" when it went all the way down into the water. I was blogging this from my phone at the time so was sort of just saying "yeah" to his questions. He looked at me and said "Don't Say Yeah." I realized what he had asked and had to explain what the sun did when it set. He also asked why that toy was dancing in the water. (A bouy was swaying in the water.)

 We saw a rainbow section in the middle of the sky. Just a piece of a rainbow.

As the sun got lower and Tyler wasn't running any more, he got cold and asked "cuddle me." I gave him my shrug to wear even though my under shirt would then be sticking out of my sleeveless dress. He's doing the "cold" sign here. See the top picture for our cuddle time. 

Isaac and Dylan came back to us to show us their 5 bottle caps, metal stake, and rusted chain they had found. They had also spotted some dead fish near the fishing pier. Thank goodness they didn't feel the need to show me those. 

The sun was just setting so we took a photo of ourselves. Tyler yawned, I think it was fitting, we were there for over 2 hours! 

We stayed for the sunset. All of these pics besides Steven's were taken through a ziploc bag which is my water/sandproof camera case. :) Good enough for the memories I say! 

"I need a napkin" (Happy St. Patrick's Day)

I was in the kitchen. 

Isaac called to me, "I need a napkin." 

Had I just taken a sip of water, it would have spewed out of my mouth all over the kitchen.  

But I just laughed instead.  

 The day before St. Patrick's Day, we started out eating green foods like smoothies and I mushed some avocado for Tyler too.

It actually was only as good as it looks - as in it probably doesn't look that delicious if you're not used to seeing a green smoothie.  I used frozen chopped spinach, which is yucky in smoothies.  I usually use water, a whole bag of baby spinach, then some lime juice and honey (I've used pure maple syrup before) and fill the blender up the rest of the way with frozen fruit.  (Berries are the best frozen fruit, but we just had a bag of mixed fruit.) I put half of an avocado in it the other day and was planning on putting it in this one but forgot.  I'm glad I didn't waste it.  The avocado makes it a little smooth, sorta like a banana would, but I dislike bananas.  It's usually delicious, this one wasn't that good.  That's probably why I just laughed when Isaac wasted his.

 That evening, I ran in the City of Largo's Shamrock'n Run 5k.  This little girl's mom invited me.  I saw 2 families before we started who said to their girls, "that's Tiffany, remember her? She took your pictures."  So cute.  I saw them at the Say No To Drugs run too.

 Here we are - the church group of friends, cool shirts, huh.

 We're running - the 10min/mile two.  Rachael went ahead of us and won her age group.  The funny thing, is that she won a beer mug similar to the one pictured above containing my green smoothie.

 Here's Jeffra's husband and baby cheering us on.

 Another church friend, husband, and baby raced up and ahead of us even though they got there a little late.

 And another family passed me.  These girls' mom also echoed, "Remember Tiffany?  She took your pictures."

 Here are the dads and kids again on our 2nd lap.

 Two of my work friends came and met up at the end of the race and ran in even though they got off of work late.  I have such good friends from church, work, my business, and past jobs.

 The Sonny's and pizza was free afterwards, my sandwich was bigger than Savannah's little head!

 I should probably start another post, but I probably won't get around to it, so here is where the actual St. Patrick's Saturday Day started.

 We had the first day of Soccer.  Not everybody gets into holidays like I do.  I pinched my little nephews' cheekies - so cute.

 Steven and I took turns with this chunky sleepy cutie.  We had to separate because our kids are on different teams.  What're we going to do when Tyler starts a sport too?!

 Noah and Isaac are going to be on the same team.  Raphael might be with them or may be with Dylan, Malia, and Olivia.

We joined this soccer league b/c of Dylan's Kindergarten friend, Dawson. 

He's moving away though, so he won't be on Dylan's team. 

He came to see Dylan anyway! 

 We came home and the kids cleaned the play room while I took a nap with Tyler.  (Bliss.)
Then we went out front to look for a 4 leaf clover. This was as close as I came.

 Then we decided to go to the beach!

 Isaac donned his mask, then was quite dissapointed that we stopped for dinner.

 We ate at Ted Peter's famous smoked fish place and ordered smoked fish spread and Steven got a whole smoked fish!

 We made it to the beach with lots of green still!

 I love this picture Steven took.  Notice my green nails with the pot of gold ring fingers? And the birds, and my boys, and the BEACH, and the sunset lighting. And the relaxed happy day, and Tyler's big belly? I'm loving it. It's my facebook profile photo now.

 I like this one because Steven is in it too, but I like the above one better.

 Then the boys went to the bathroom.  I took the pictures of the sunset and of my baby up high on my feet.

 Then we went to get snowballs.  I got "The 4 Leaf Clover" flavor. It was deliciously green. Yum.

I don't edit photos on this blog, but here's one I did edit a bit for fun, my little 6 month old leprechaun.