Time for a teenager!

13.. Thirteen... ThirTEEN! That's old and wait that makes me old! I remember being 13...glasses, braces and wearing the same Anne of Green Gables tee shirt everyday. Maybe it's just a boy thing but Isaac seems way cooler than I was at 13. He is going into 8th grade which will be his last year before high school. He's not hit puberty yet but he tries to make his voice deepen when he talks to people. I'm sure it won't be long before it happens for real.

He has been asking for an air soft party for the last several years but I've not been able to 'bite the bullet' and pull one off. My main concern was someone loosing a eye! We finally gave in and Isaac and his cousins scouted out a place for the war and Isaac invited 12 little boys bringing the total of pre-teen/teenage boys to 13! Am I crazy or what.. having 13 boys in my house for an air soft party and sleep over.

The boys arrived after Isaac's football practice Thursday evening, had pizza, donned their air soft wardrobe and hit the woods. They played off and on until dark. My floors looked like the outdoors.. sticks, leaves, mud. Oh well.. our house is definitely lived in and that's why I was smart enough NOT to mop before they came over. After dark they hung out in the Media room playing Xbox and being wild. Over half of them didn't go to bed at all and the next morning there wasn't a crumb left in the kitchen. The cupcakes, cookie cake, left over pizza, chips, fruit, etc.. had been completely wiped out.

Josh had to go to work Friday morning so that left me with the two littles and 13 boys. I fixed breakfast (with Livi on my hip) biscuits, eggs, bacon, sausage links, fruit, doughnuts and orange juice and thought to myself "I'm glad I don't have 13 kids." It was demolished. They played air soft some more before parents arrived after lunch time. I think they all had a good time since two of them asked if they could move in :)


Now, to clean house because we leave for the beach tomorrow!

Animal Kingdom day 6

Friday, on our final day, we went to Animal Kingdom. Olivia was visiting with Josh's sweet cousin, Tonia, that lives in Florida and Isaac went to Universal Studios with Papa (he was excited), so we were down to only one kiddo. The park wasn't crowded or overly hot so we had a great time and were able to ride pretty much everything we wanted to. Some of the highlights were the Safari jeep and Nemo the Musical. Nemo was wonderful...the costumes and actors/actresses were great. Josh and I enjoyed it as much as Eli. Afterwards we went to Downtown Disney to meet Tonia to get Olivia back and do some shopping.

We've had a great week, it was tiring but a lot of fun. It was very magical for Eli because he still believes the characters are real. However, Josh says we aren't coming back until everyone is over 42 inches! Audra and I said when Olivia is 4, Cami 5, Eli 6, and Carter 7 then we will return. By then Isaac will be 15! I do want to come back when Olivia's old enough to go to the Bibbity Boppity Boutique and meet the princesses!

A plant lady on stilts.. pretty cool

Getting ready to ride the Dinsoaur ride. It was a bit scary but Eli loved it. 

Watching Nemo

The pelican

The costumes were amazing

Eli eating a snack of edamame

The hippos taking an underwater snooze

On the Safari ride

The tree of life

The Lego store at Downtown Disney

Playing with our new toys back in the room

Daddy trying on the glass slippers

Hollywood day 5

Thursday we headed to Hollywood Studios. Carter and Eli loved seeing and meeting the characters. A definite highlight was the Disney Junior Live show which we had heard from several people was must see.. we saw Mickey, Jake, Doc McStuffins, and Princess Sophia; all four little kids were enthralled. Olivia sat so still and just clapped and watched and Eli sat with his mouth open. We rode a few rides and saw some shows before leaving the park around 5:00, just in time to get back to the room, shower and head to our Mickey BBQ dinner. The Mickey BBQ was outdoors at the Fort Wilderness Pavilion and we enjoyed the ribs, bbq and chicken while watching the characters have a ho' down. The boys were a little timid about going to dance with the characters but did enjoy meeting them at the end.

Sleeping Princess Olivia

Little E

Meeting Pluto

Olivia giving him a high five with Aunt Day 

Handy Manny

This was the first character Cami got up enough nerve to touch. He liked Jake!

Hi Jake

Front row at Disney Live

Mouth open Eli

Jake and the Never Land Pirate.. yep I just sang the tune as I typed that

The Boykin-Allison crew Disney excursion minus me.. I was taking the pic

Clapping along to Beauty and the Beast

I loved the show!

 Carter and Eli at the Mickey BBQ

Howdy Folks

Pool days 3 and 4

Tuesday and Wednesday, the guys went golfing so we had fun at the pools. There were so many nice pools, however, we stayed at this one right in front of our room because it had an enormous kiddie area. All four of the littles loved it. Our resort had putt putt, bicycles for rent, and the fishpipe ride so we stayed put for two days and enjoyed the rest.

Eli with his trucks

Isaac and Eli so cute cuddled up next to each other. They both are used to sleeping by themselves but on our trip they shared a pull out bed and it was so sweet listening to their conversations at night. Eli talked Isaac's ears off. 

Everyone hanging out in Nana and Papa's room

Carter and Eli on our bicycle ride

I hopped off for a quick picture

Josh was sooo happy to be toting our carcasses around

Eli putt putting... he spent more time playing in the puddles.

Carter the little rule follower. He had some good shots.

Isaac in the fishpipe. He loved it.

Sea world- Day 2

On Monday we decided to go to Sea World. We caught the Shamu show when we first arrived and sat in the splash zone.. however we didn't even get one little spash. That was okay with me.. I wasn't really looking forward to walking around in wet clothes. Olivia saw a picture of a whale after that and said, 'whale'. Today was HOT! This was really the only miserably hot day we've had. Around lunch time the kiddos were so whiny we decided to go back to the room and nap. It's a good thing we did because the thunderstorms hit hard. We went back to the park around 7 after it had cooled down and the crowds had left and had the best time! The new Antarctica exhibit was great. We rode a swirling ride through an ice cave and ended up at the live penguin exhibit. We stepped off the ride, it was 30 degrees and there were live penguins all around. Josh, Isaac and I all rode the Manta roller coaster where you ride hanging upside down which was fun as well. We used a child swap ticket and I was able to skip the line and ride right away. Eli wanted to ride it as well.... the child has no fear. I think this is the first time I've been to a theme park in years where I wasn't pregnant and could actually ride the rides.

Watching the Orca whales

Isaac and the littles

Playing in an ice cave. Isaac crawled in there and was trying to scare Eli and Carter.

Hanging out on the polar bear

Watch me growl

Carter in his cool glasses

Hot sweaty Cami Coda

Eli in the fish bubble. 

Isaac, Livi, Josh and Eli at the penguin exhibt

Penguins!

Eli on Daddy's shoulders watching the penguins