Ruler of the Elves

This post has been 2 months plus in the making, sitting lonely as a draft and only being updated when I had a spare moment to even think about it. At the beginning of April, we slipped away from home for a much needed family vacation to Florida. For a little over a week, we soaked up the rays and the sights of the Sunshine State and enjoyed each other’s company without any interruptions from school/work/activities. And it was absolutely wonderful.

We left on a Saturday after a little friend’s birthday party and approximately 18 hours later, we reached the Florida state line. (Did I forget to mention that we drove ourselves? Because honestly if we would have been on a flight for that long, I would have expected to be some place much more exotic than Florida.) Our kids do great on road trips, so it just seemed like a no brainer to drive versus fly since we could take along so much more junk important child stuff.

I always can tell when we are getting close to the ocean because of the scent in the air. Some people may call it dead fish smell, but I prefer the frangrant aroma of sea salt and sand. Love that smell.

One of the things that Pinky was most looking forward to seeing were the palm trees. (Because the ocean and beach are obviously not cool enough.) She was completely fascinated with them and asked me multiple times if she could pull the palm leaves off.

We spent the first several days in St. Augustine enjoying the beach during the day and exploring the old town at night.

I didn’t realize that sand was partially digestible. Or maybe it isn’t. You should have seen this kid’s diapers the week following vacation. Yikes!

We ate so many great meals while on vacation, but The Conch House was certainly a favorite. Great food, great atmosphere, great view, great entertainment. This place was so fun!

Initially, we were a little hesitant about taking a baby to the Magic Kingdom, but it turns out that the park is super accomodating to families with children of all ages. Sweet Pea rode on a lot of rides with us, including It’s A Small World, People Mover, The Jungle Cruise, The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Carribean and Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

Plus they have an air conditioned baby care center which was great for a nap for Sweet Pea in the mid afternoon. And that, my friends, is pure magic.

We were also lucky enough to be able to visit with a few family members before we headed back home. So good to see them!

So, that pretty much wraps up our Florida vacation. I must say that it was such an amazing trip. One week of pure fun and family time with a little R&R thrown in. We really couldn’t ask for much more!

This past week, Pinky has been enjoying “Camp Week” at school. The kids were all to bring in their sleeping bags and flashlights for reading, plus, they have been singing fun songs, reading letters from home, and enjoying outdoor picnics during their usual school time. It was such a neat way to wrap up one of the final weeks of school!

Since camping usually involves some sort of ooey gooey marshmallow-ey goodness, I thought it would be fun to take in stuff for Pinky’s class to make s’mores. However, after some more thought, I realized that the school may slightly frown upon me lighting up a bon fire on the front lawn, so I decided to turn to Pinterest for help. (Seriously, Pinterest has become my go to place for new ideas. Too bad it has completely sucked the creativity out of me!) I found a recipe for S’mores Cracker Candy and off to the store I headed to gather my supplies. In less than an hour, I had created a mouth watering camp type treat that was sure to have every last 1st grader bouncing off the wall from sugar highs in no time.

S’mores Cracker Candy

Recipe from Baked Perfection

12 sheets of graham crackers
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 cups mini marshmallows
4 Hershey bars, broken into pieces
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cool completely before serving.

Oh my gah! These are so super, duper yummy and I’m sure if you are searching to eat some extra calories and add a notch to your belt that these will totally do the trick!

To kick things up a notch (and pretend I am still a wee bit creative) I even designed these cute little sticker lables to put on the treat bags for Pinky’s class.

Lucky for me, 98% of these treats headed into the school today and will not be returning back to our house. I’m sure I would be in a S’mores induced coma this evening if they did!

There is nothing like playing hard all day long and then falling asleep on the floor…

You may or may not remember the post I made more than a year and a half ago regarding two raggedy old chairs that I purchased for super cheap.

I had grand plans of finishing and using them in our home, but shortly after I made that post, I found out I was pregnant and morning sickness settled in. Needless to say, the project was put on the back burner and the chairs gathered cobwebs in our basement. Every once in awhile I would walk past them and wonder if I could spare a moment or two to work on them, but inevitably the sounds of a crying infant or the needs of the family would pull me away.

However, I’m proud to say that the chairs are finally finished! Unfortunately, we don’t really have a place to put them in our new, temporary home, so they have been hanging out in our garage. Here they are in all of their newly refinished glory!

Yes, I know the photo is in black and white, but it really doesn’t take away from the true colors of the chairs themselves, since everything in the photo is already black and white except for the builder beige carpet. Oy.

So what do you think? Hopefully now you are motivated to work on some projects of your own!

Since I’ve been so slow at processing my photos lately, Easter is being shared just a few weeks late.

The weekend started out after a crazy fun, whirlwind of a vacation to Florida. (More on that later.) Here is the classic coloring of the eggs performed by Miss Pinky herself. She had Fuzzworth as a helper, but he was finished with his part by the time I actually started taking pics. Oops!

There was also some attacking playing with the cousins.

The annual Easter Egg hunt was a hit for family members of all ages.