End of Summer + Fall in Florida

I've been trying to get this post done for a while, but as always, life gets in the way! So, this post is SO long because I am catching up on a lot of things! We had a great end of summer + fall in Florida (which, let's be honest, still feels like summer most of the time). The kids miss the seasons and ask when it's going to snow, but they are also loving the fact that they can still swim in November on the warmer days. They've settled on asking for a vacation to a cold place. I think that's the best of both worlds too! I like the cold in small doses. :)

Our 11th wedding anniversary was in August and we were able to get away for 2 days to Sarasota, which is always fun to go back to since we went on our honeymoon there. We stayed right on the beach for the first time ever. Hotels are pretty cheap these days which was nice for us, but it was sad to see how businesses were struggling in this very touristy area. We enjoyed some kid-free time shopping, eating, and hanging out at this beautiful beach. So nice to take a break from "life" sometimes!

We had delicious Thai food at this cute little place. The tables had these beautiful intricate carvings inside. It was so strange to go inside a restaurant for the first time in months. The owner was so sweet and told us about how hard it's been for them with the pandemic. I really hope she (and others like her) can stay in business.

Russell started 2nd grade! School starts early here, 7:40 AM instead of the 8:55 we're used to. So, that's why this first day of school picture was so scary. We barely had time to fix his hair and run out the door. A few months into it...we're all still struggling to get out the door by 7:15, but we do enjoy how early he gets out in the afternoons!

I had a good birthday! Ricardo hadn't started working yet, so it was fun to have him around for the day. Russell got out early that day since it was the first week of school, so we headed to the beach after lunch. 

Caroline noticing Minnie Mouse-her favorite- on her shirt. 

Ricardo surprised me and invited 2 of my old high school friends that live in the area over for cake that night. It was fun to see them since I hadn't seen them in quite a while! Also, lots of fun to see our kids play. I always enjoy when my kids get along with my friends' kids, it's so fun. 

In September we got access to our amazing neighborhood pools. We enjoyed lots of after school time at the pool on some hot days.

A fun project we've had this fall is raising tadpoles into frogs. Ricardo spotted some tadpoles in a pond near our house one day when we were on a walk with the kids, and thought it would be fun to catch some. We did some research and found that tadpoles are pretty low-maintenance, so we caught a bunch and watched them grow! Thomas is our animal lover and absolutely loved it. He convinced us to keep the frogs when they were grown up because he loved them so much. We were planning to just release them originally, but he talked us into keeping them as pets. So, we now have a frog cage and are frequent visitors to the pet store to get crickets for them. It really has provided hours of entertainment and the frogs are tiny and cute, so I'd say it was worth it.

Another birthday, another day at the beach. We met up with Ricardo's brother's family and some friends of ours from Jax, at the beach, and celebrated Ricardo's brother's birthday. Thomas enjoyed getting buried in the sand. 

Cousin games while waiting for our turn at the restaurant.

With COVID, we haven't seen my parents as much as we'd like, but we did get a chance to go swim at their house one weekend in September. The kids had a blast.

These three are becoming such good friends. Caroline copies her big brothers incessantly and idolizes them both.

Enjoying some TV time together.

Following her big brothers' examples of reading.

Box houses/beds. Boxes truly are the best toy. They can always find something to do with them.

Of course, Caroline needed to make one too. She put all her babies inside.

Making fresh-squeezed orange juice, so yummy!

My phone has dozens of pictures of Thomas' "little ones" as he calls them. They go everywhere with him.

Living by Ricardo's mom means the kids get all the avocado ice cream they want (a Brazilian treat). They love it!!

We love living within walking distance of the grocery store. The kids bike there all the time, including Caroline on her little balance bike. They love parking their bikes in the bike rack outside. One Saturday we biked over and picked up some donuts. Not a bad start to the weekend!

Visiting Dad for a checkup.

Preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch.

In October my sister-in-law threw a family Halloween party with fun Halloween themed food and activities. It has been a huge blessing to be near family during a pandemic. Despite the lack of regular socialization, my kids always have their cousins which is great.

We made our mummy strawberries which we make every year.

We had fun making lots of other Halloween food this year, including black monster spaghetti noodles, Halloween ghoul-ash, and monster cookies. There are so many fun ideas online and it was fun to try some of them out this year.

Despite the lack of Halloween festivities this year, it was still fun to plan our family Halloween costume. The kids still enjoy doing a themed group costume so I'll happily keep doing it as long as they're willing. At the last minute, our church did a drive-thru trunk or treat which was so fun. Pretty much the laziest way to trick or treat ever, ha! The kids loved it. We got to hop out of the car at the end for a photo op.

We did get to do some trick or treating on Halloween night with some friends. It was nice to still have some normalcy for the kids. We loved how creative many people were with social distanced ways to hand out candy. 

Caroline loved the concept and insisted on walking the whole time, even though it was past her bedtime. She slowed down towards the end and I offered to carry her and/or hold her bucket but she seemed to think I was trying to steal her candy, so she walked and carried her bucket till the very end! She is so stubborn and independent and we love her for it.

Cutest Peter Pan ever!

Russell had his first big school project this fall, which was a presentation on a famous person. He chose Neil Armstrong (so did 2 other boys in his class...space is popular with the 2nd-grade boys!). He enjoyed making an astronaut costume and his first mobile. 

He fashioned the helmet himself. This boy loves designing costumes.

Thomas has become quite the social butterfly since starting preschool. He loves preschool and is always happy to go. He's previously been a big homebody so it's been nice to see him blossom. He was very excited about his first school project- a poster of all of his favorite things. I love that he put a baby and Pennsylvania-he really does love both of those!

He also loved dressing up as wacky as he could for Wacky Wednesday.

He has 2 best buddies who he loves that we often get to play with at the park after school. These two also have big brothers on the same soccer team so they enjoy seeing each other at practice too.

Their size difference is so funny.

On election day at preschool, they learned about voting and read the cartoon book "Duck for President" and got to vote for Duck or Farmer Brown. Thomas was proud that he voted for Farmer Brown because "he knows what he's doing" and the duck was too silly. I loved that he was so wise. Most of his classmates voted for the duck. Here he is with his "I voted" sticker. So cute. Preschool is the best.

We had a siblings group date one weekend which was a fun cooking competition that Ricardo came up with. We had to roll dice to figure out which random ingredients we had to cook with. It was fun and the food all turned out great!

We made coconut shrimp with a secret ingredient of coffee creamer..it turned out surprisingly good!

My sister-in-law made this awesome spread for the women's session of general conference for our church, which we watched together. She had photos and facts about influential LDS women over the years and we enjoyed an ice cream bar with lots of yummy toppings. She is soo creative!

In early November, two of my best friends/roommates from college came out for a girl's trip. We often do a girl's trip in the fall but weren't sure if it would work out this year. We were so happy it did. We enjoyed a long weekend of chatting, fun at the beach, shopping, and good food. It was so nice to hang out with these ladies. They are the best. 

The boys had a whole week off for fall break and it was nice to have them around. We discovered a fun trail and park one day and did some fun Thanksgiving activities.

The weather was so warm that week so we made a trip to the beach the afternoon before Thanksgiving with Ricardo since he worked just a half day. It was so fun and felt so different from our last few very cold Thanksgivings.

On Thanksgiving morning we got together with Ricardo's family for some futbol!

The kids were very excited to go. Caroline needed to bring her purse because she brings it everywhere.

We did some Thanksgiving crafts with cousins and enjoyed a delicious dinner together.

Ricardo made this delicious apple cheesecake! 

We did a little Black Friday shopping and then spent the day at a fun pier with a great playground and splash pad. The temps were in the 80s and the kids enjoyed the splash bad and the beach.

Whew! Finally caught up! Happy Holidays to all.