Our Florida Adventures with Snow :)

Yes, you read that correctly.  Snow.  You may be thinking, you all are in Florida~ did it snow in Florida? 

To sound a like that our 9 year old- well sort of :)

Before we moved down to Southwest Florida, we researched things to do.  One thing that was so cool was that Cape Coral brings in 20 tons of "snow" every December for the kids to sled down.  How cool is that?  Most of the kids born in Florida have never seen snow, so it is quite the experience.  Being from Virginia, we all know snow. 

We were curious to see this "snow" in Florida.  Off to the Festival of Lights we went.  There was so much to do. Bouncy houses, train rides, snow sled and so much more. 

I thought we would go down, see everything, let the boys sled down the hill and be back in time to make dinner.  No problem- right?  WRONG!!  The boys had tons of fun and we didn't end up leaving the festival until 7pm- oops.

Lesson for next year, eat dinner before going.

Here are some pictures we took at the festival:

It's snowing in Florida- LOL:)

Michael not so sure about the slide

Nathan going up

Nathan coming down

Train ride

Santa came by horse drawn carriage- so cool

It was a neat experience and we will be going back next December :)

Our Circus Adventure

I found out the circus was going to be in town totally by accident.  I talked with hubby and we decided to go.  The tickets weren't bad in price plus Nathan and little Michal got in for FREE :)

None of the boys have ever been to the circus.  So, this was quite a treat for them.  They all had a blast and loved the circus.  They even seemed to enjoy the overly expensive popcorn and over sugared drink.  I thought with all the sugar flowing in their bodies, they would be wired and bouncing all over the place.  Nope, they actually say sat still and watched the whole performance.  I was amazed.  Trying to keep 2 young boys seated is sometimes quite the challenge :)

I will never again complain about movie theater snacks being expensive.  If you thought buying popcorn and drinks at the movies were costly, try going to the circus- oh my :)

Here are some pictures of our circus adventure:

Nathan's exciting elephant ride

Being so brotherly before the circus

Family pic at the circus

 The boys really enjoyed their very first circus adventure.

I can't wait to see where our next adventure takes us :)

Our Florida Adventures Part 5

On our very first visit to a new church, we learned of a huge Fall Festival that they put together.  They said that last year, they had over 4,000 people show up.  WOW 4,000 people- that is impressive.  The boys really really wanted to go:)

When we arrived, they had a scavenger hunt.  It was pretty neat.  The church had all of their different ministries represented.  We had to follow the clues to each of the ministries and find the hidden object and get a stamp.  This church is huge, the amount of different ministries they offer is amazing.

Then we went outside.  They had 2 bounce houses, a huge slide, games, hot dogs, cotton candy, funnel cakes, live band and so much more.

Here are some pictures:

Huge Slide- Up they go

And only one came down- Michael chickened out and had to be escorted back down :(

The big huge slide

Bounce House #1

Bounce House #2

Loving the Bounce House

Dinner :)

Soccer game

Basketball game

Nathan trying his hand at a golf game

Dunk Tank

Pumpkin Patch at the church- all grown at the church garden:)

The Sunset View on the way home

The boys were in shock.  You would have thought we were at a state fair with the amount of things to do, eat and see.  And it was all FREE:)  We all had fun.  The boys were wore out by the time we got home:)

Stay tuned to see what we get into next week......

Our Florida Adventures~ Part 4

Last week was not a very good week for us.  First off, I was not feeling well.  Then what ever could go wrong did- oh boy :(

Our vacuum sucked up it's last cat hair ball.  Luckily, our home is mostly tile but we do have 5 carpeted rooms and it gave up in room 1. 

Our iron decided it was it's time also as it leaked water all over my hubby's work shirt as he was trying to iron it.

My drying rack decided it was tired of standing up and holding all of our clothes as it slowly tilted to the right and fell over.  Now it has a serious tilt and hanging clothes on it becomes a balancing act.

The mop literally fell apart while Kevin was moping the dining room- that was the first room he started it.  The sponge part broke right off the mop.  Leaving Kevin to finish scrubbing the tiles floors of 4 rooms and the hall on his hands and knees.

All this in 1 week- oh boy.  Luckily, we have an emergency fund and a Lowes gift card to be able to replace those items and go on with our normal cleaning schedule.

Living in Florida has been an adjustment and we have only been here 6 weeks.  We are thankful that the things breaking were small and not major appliances. 

I am trying hard not to pass out seeing the food prices down here.  $4 for a gallon of skim milk is outrageous.  Going to BJ's is not much better~ milk is $3.49 a gallon :( 

We are used to living in Amelia Court House, Virginia.  Land of farms and 2 stop lights.  We now live in rural Cape Coral.  No farms but lots of land and lots of stop signs.  People who have lived in Florida for some time call Cape Coral, "The land of many stop signs".  LOL :)

Also, I have noticed our short time here is that stop signs seem to be optional.  Where I am from you run a stop sign, you get pulled over and get a nice ticket.  Here no one seems to care.  I have seen a car pause and not stop at a stop sign right in front of a cop and nothing happened.  I am sure I am the crazy out of towner that actually makes a complete stop at stop signs.  I have almost been in a few accidents because of it- crazy.

Even through all the craziness, we like living here in Florida.  And getting to see my hubby every day is worth any hassle we have to go through.  I am also loving the cooler low 80 degree weather.  My dad, who lives in Virginia tells me that the weather is cold and in the 50's.

Stay tuned to see what we get into next week :)

Our Florida Adventures~ Part 3

This weekend we wanted to do something different.  The boys wanted to go to the beach.  They would live at the beach if they could:)  I want to explore our new state.

So, we decided to pack the boys up for another secret exploration:)  They were so sure we were going to the beach.  I got the wrong directions, got turned all around and got lost- so not cool :(  Luckily, hubby has a smarter phone than I do.  He was able to find the location and off we went, this time in the correct direction.

Imagine the boy's faces when we pulled up, not to a shore line but to Four Mile Cove Ecological Park.  I was super excited. 

We started the trail not sure what we were going to come across.  The trail had mile markers with fascinating information.  We learned about the different wildlife, trees and some cool Florida state history.  The little ones commented that it looked like we were walking through a jungle:)

Here are some pictures I took of this cool trip of ours:

View from the pier

Nathan taking in the sights

One of the piers at this park

Looks so peaceful

Learning :)

Little lizard

Crab climbing up a tree

American White Ibis

It wasn't the beach but I did hear the boys say that they had fun and learned some interesting things.  Yay for fun and educational outings :)

Stay tuned to see where we end up next.....

Our Florida Adventures~ Part 2

Well, we finally made it to the beach.  Before we moved, that is all the boys talked about- going to the beach:)  We get here and no one has even mentioned going to the beach.  The weather was nice, so Michael and I decided to not tell the boys where we were going and we loaded up in the van and drove away:)

Upon doing our research, we found the local beach about 30 minutes from where we live.  Love it a lot better than the 3 hours it would take us when we lived in Virginia.  Now, this beach was described to us as a non swimming beach.  Not sure what that meant, we all loaded in the van to investigate.

This is what happens when you tell Nathan not to get wet:)

Feeling for shells

We get there to discover that non swimming meant no life guards on duty and to swim at your own risk.  Smack to forehead for not bringing swim trunks.  I did, thankfully, bring a change of clothes for the little ones.  We changed their clothes and off in the van we go again.  This time, home to get our swimming clothes on.  And back to the beach we go.

Loving the water

Daddy finding a shell for little Michael's shell collection

We all had a blast.  Nathan said it was the best surprise day he had had:)  So far so good, we are doing well here in South West Florida and are liking our life out here :)

Stay tuned next week to see what kind of adventure we have....