Lukee Explains It All

The other day I was going through some pictures and videos and found a few of Luke that just made me laugh.  I interviewed him a few times when he was almost 3 and he told me all kinds of things!  This video in particular has had us laughing for a few days now.  When I get sad, I think of this video and then I am not sad anymore.  True story.

Strawberry Fields, Forever! (Where "forever" means every seven years)

In a freak accident on Saturday when we all had the availability, the money and enthusiasm to do an activity as a family, we headed out to do some good old strawberry picking.   Apparently this is a yearly pick day where the quarts are a dollar and all the money goes to the local high school FFA.  

It certainly was busy and we picked our ten quarts in just about 30 minutes.  

(I am also a fan of the website for this place.)

Luke is sporting the mohawk he has now decided to wear everyday to school and to soccer games as well.  I still don't know what inspired this insane bravery.

 Look, it's Jacob in a picture!  Whaaaaa???

Cindy was elated to finally go picking again. (Not pictured here)  I don't know what the big deal is, I mean, we just went picking like...

Seven......years.........ago.

HOLY CRAP, what have we been doing with our lives???

Oh, my sweet little baby!

   But now she is all growed up and making me delicious confections.  

The only condition on which she is allowed to keep having birthdays.

They were as good as they look :)

#Cucufaceproblems

The other day when the weather was nice I decided to leave the kitchen door open.  No sooner had I let in the fresh air, than Cucuface decided to bring in a gigantic lizard in her mouth and then let it go right when I came walking into the kitchen.  I did an Irish jig and screamed my head off as it made its way directly for my feet, but then it had a change of heart and ran in between the dishwasher.  Cucuface tried to reach in there with her little cat hands for at least a half an hour, but to no avail.  And now every time I load the dishwasher I am terrified that a lizard will run over my feet.  Guess I will just have to stop doing dishes.  Seems reasonable.

You Can't Swing a Dead Cat Without Hitting an Aunt or an Uncle!

You know, you would think that by living in Florida that more of my friends and family would come and visit us in our tropical paradise.  Not so much.  But our luck turned around this month when we had two, count them, TWO different sets of Cindy and Luke's aunts and uncles come for a visit.  What the heck is going on??

Brian, Kelly and Olivia came down for Spring Break from Tennessee, where the snowiest winter in 100 million years was occuring.  Good thing there was lots of time for shorts, putt putt, biking and mustaches...

A better picture of this exists on my mom's camera- aka the "black hole,"
so this one will have to suffice.

 

Family Fun Center is still hanging in there!

One of my new favorite pictures in life

And THEN, the following week Sean and Tara came out all the way from Utah to spend a few days at Universal in Orlando.  And since we are expert level 10 hotel pool moochers, we were there in a heartbeat to swim and test out the slide and lazy river.  It was not lazy enough for Sean, however.

We hung out at the hotel and then headed down to CityWalk to people watch 

and ride ferry boats to nowhere.  Sean and Tara are very patient and Cindy and Luke are easily entertained, so it was a match made in heaven.

And do you know what else happened while we were with Sean and Tara?

THIS:

I got to eat a Sunbutter and Strawberry Jam sandwich on Grandma Sycamore's white bread. 

Life is worth living again!!

Oh, Oh, Oh, It's Magic! You Know....

This little family adventure took place about three weeks ago, but look at me- just now blogging it out!

Because Cindy and Luke played basketball in a youth league sponsored in part by the Orlando Magic, we were able to buy the absolute highest seats in the entire Away Arena and see the Magic 

take on the New Orleans Ants.  I mean, Pelicans.  

My parents came too, but I didn't even take one single picture of them.

FAIL.  

Okay, so I couldn't actually name one single player that even played for the Magic, 

But guess who plays for the Pelicans!!!!

THIS GUY:  

Yes, that is the Jimmer.  And yes, he did crack corn.  

And he cracked the 10 minute mark for playing time.  Boo-yah!

Know who else plays for New Orleans?

Image

That one was for you, Brian.  

And here we are "enjoying" the game.

Quick, name the Orlando Magic mascot!  

No, it is not Harry Potter.  It is this:

"Stuff" the Magic Dragon

Holy crap, that actually makes perfect sense- he is a dragon and he is for The Magic!!!!
And Stuff rhymes with Puff!

My mind is totally blown right now. Marketing guy- give yourself a raise.

Other highlights of the game included:

1. When the jumbotron showed that country megastar Luke Bryan was there watching the game

2. When the Silver Stars 55+ co-ed dance team from the local "active adult community" danced to "All About that Bass" during a commercial break

3. When Luke didn't know anyone was watching him and was pretending to play the drums like Animal from the Muppets
4. And finally, when Jacob and I secretly ate Chick-fil-a cookies all the way home in the front seat, while the kids had no idea in the back.  Mu-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaa!

This Is How You Know You've Made It to the Bigtime

Definitely my new favorite SportsCenter ad.

The Envelope Please

And the winner of "Best Use of 114 Family Fun Center Tickets in 10 Minutes or Less" goes to:

Mario and Luigi.

A Cucuface Quickie

Sunday I decided to cook up a full Thanksgiving dinner.  (Hey, the end of the month budget doesn't care what season it is.)  As Jacob was carving the turkey, I realized that I didn't take out the bag of giblets and they were a hot steaming mess inside the bird.  After removing them, bag and all, I decided that Cucuface might like this unexpected treat.  I put the dripping giblets in a ladle and walked them out to the front porch.  As I bent down and placed them in her bowl, Cucuface came running up to inspect the surprise delivery. And then she scared the living tar out of me because when I looked at her face, I realized that hanging off of her whiskers (and seemingly unbeknownst to her) was a giant lizard!  She had obviously been playing with it, and probably in an effort to save itself, it had chomped down a few of her whiskers and was hanging on for dear life, like some sort of strange cat whisker earrings. I didn't get a picture because shortly thereafter she pulled it off and the poor guy scurried away, but I did manage to have Jacob come out and be my second witness.  Just when I thought I had seen it all...