whats been going on

We have been pretty busy the past few weeks, I have started back to school and I am taking four classes and that is a handful!!  Mike is in the busy season and works until about 7 or 8 and so we hardly see him during the week.  Taylor and Emma are registered to play soccer which will start in March and Allen is playing flag football, I really never wanted him to play this because I feel like he won't really learn how to play football but maybe I will be wrong and he might learn more because he won't be focused on the hitting part of it, and learn the basic techniques again. 

We have been doing some pretty cool things around here so I am going to put up some pictures to show what we have been doing.  These first set is Manatee Viewing Center it is a part of the Tampa Electric company.  They have a little inlet they keep warm for the manatees in the winter. We didnt really get to see any manatees up close because it was kindof warm outside anyway but we saw some sting rays and that was neat.  Allen went on a field trip a week later and it is a little bit cooler outside and he said they saw a lot of them and could see them really good!!

That was a pretty neat little place. 
Now, last weekend we went somewhere that was really cool, but a little too adult themed.  I guess I should have paid attention when one weekend was the kids Gasperilla festivities and the next was for the adults.  But, the news was talking about it so much I figured families would be going, I was somewhat wrong.  We got out of our car and I didn't see any children. We decided since we drove down we needed to see some pirates and we wouldn't stay very long.  We walked over to the Bay to see all the boats and the pirate ship that was shooting cannons, it was awesome!!

There were tons of boats around but I think there were hundreds of pirates on this ship and they all unboarded the ship right where we were standing.  The kids thought it was great!!

He was cool, you cant see it but the guy turned to the sides' face was painted like a skeleton.  They spotted the girls out of everyone waving and screaming for the beads and I think we ended up with about 15 lbs of beads!!

After we saw the ship and got our beads we decided it was time to go. 

This weekend is Taylor's birthday! She is 7 years old and she is the smarted little girl and such a sweetheart.  She is still dealing with her "issues" but she takes her meds every night like a big girl, she is so responsible about things, and really always has been.  So yesterday we gave them a choice, to either pick out a cool toy at the toy store or get season passes to Busch Gardens.  And when I say we I mean her and Allen because his birthday will be next week so we do there birthday stuff together.  Anyway-we gave them a choice and we figured one would want a toy and the other would want season passes, Allen would want a toy and Taylor would want the passes.  We sat them down and gave them the option and Taylor picked the passes and went about her business, we had to help Allen make up his mind a little bit.  So we went to Busch Gardens yesterday and it was a great day to go minus the rain. There were hardly any people there and we didnt have to wait on anything.  The girls are still a little small to ride some of the rides but Allen could and he loved it! But about an hour after we were there it started raining and he toughed it out for a little bit but after the log flume with Mike and Allen it was over, Mike was miserable and cold and so were Taylor and Emma.  Thankfully I didnt take my camera since it rained.  I didnt bring it because it is kindof big and bulky and didnt want to have to mess with it; so when we have some family down to go with us (hint, hint) I will be able to take it and get some good photos. 
Here are some pictures of Taylor and her horse cake.  We invited their friends down the street, since we are still a little new here she didn't want to invite her whole class to a birthday party, which is ok with me! Because we got to spend the whole day with her just making sure she enjoyed her day.