Today is Jennifer’s birthday and we spent it running around getting her presents and getting a cake. We started off the morning picking up a new bicycle from Target. Abby and Emily helped me pick it out. Abby said we needed to get a red one since that was Mom’s favorite color. We also got a baby seat for the back of the bike for Isabelle. We picked up a cake and some flowers and then presented all of what we found to Jennifer when she came home from shopping with Isabelle.
Later that evening Jennifer and I went out to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and then went to see a movie. Jennifer got a free desert since it was her birthday. She chose a banana cream pie, which was very good.
Today’s picture if from when we went putt-putt golf on our recent Disney vacation.
We had some really good Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs on the grill last night and then we headed over to watch Finding Nemo on the outside movie screen. We figured since Hercules was rained out the night before, we should at least try and see a movie. The girls made it most of the way through and said they were starting to get tired. We packed it up, but it was almost 10:00 so we headed over to the beach and watched the first few minutes of the fireworks that were being shot over at Magic Kingdom. Exhausted, the girls all passed out right when we got back to camp.You would thing they would sleep in, but no. Isabelle was back up at 7:00 and when she’s up, everyone’s up. We had some French Toast for breakfast and we’ve been hanging around camp this morning. Right now the girls are taking a nap. Maybe it’s still residual tiredness from the previous night.
After dinner we headed over to the campfire sing-a-long to eat some s’mores and watch Hercules on an outside movie screen. Unfortunately right as the movie was going to start, it started to rain. We hopped into the golf cart we had rented and headed back to camp as quickly as we could as the sky opened up on us. It’s going to end up being an early night since we are about to head to bed.
The morning started at 6:50 a.m when the kids started to stir. Overnight rain started to fall and we could hear it pelting the thin roof of the camper. We got up and started cooking eggs & bacon on the outside stove.
Afterward, we headed off for the other water park, Typhoon Lagoon. The campground is considered a resort and we were able to get in 15 minutes early and get a prime spot for our “home base”. We were also able to ride the family raft ride a few times with no line. Jennifer doesn’t like the ride because they make you work for your fun. You have to roll a giant inner tube up some stairs before you can start you ride. Isabelle started to get chilly so we decided to go back to the camp for some lunch.
Back at camp we had some sandwiches and now we are laying in the camper waiting for Isabelle to take a nap.
It’s been awhile since I’ve written on Frenchville and I apologize. Work has been super busy (as it usually is) and I just haven’t had the chance to write. I will try to change that habit moving forward.
Today was the first day of Summer vacation. Abby successfully navigated kindergarten and will be moving on to the 1st grade. To celebrate the end of the school year, I took a week off from work starting today and we pulled out the pop-up camper and headed to Disney for four days of camping.
This was the second time we took the new camper out. Our inaugural camping trip was three weeks ago on a long weekend. We wanted to take baby steps and it paid off. We had the camper fully put up with beds made and awning out in just under an hour. It took us twice as long last time. Jennifer has also won the job for pulling the camper in. She picked up the camper last night and pulled it into our driveway unassisted; then today, she pulled it into the camping slip in one try (I can’t say the same when I tried pulling in a couple weeks ago).
After setting up camp we headed out for a few hours at Blizzard Beach, one of Disney’s two water parks. When we were here a couple of weeks ago, we decided to get season passes for the water parks. The plan was to come camping several times over the summer and visit the water parks.
Last week I was at the book store and I picked up the book Campfire Cooking. It looked like a pretty cool cookbook with chapters entitled “On a Stick” and “Wrapped in Foil”. Tonight’s dinner came from the chapter “In a Skillet” and was called “Cowboy Casserole”. It wasn’t too bad. It consisted of ground beef, bacon, and beans. You placed biscuits on top and shut the lid. When it was done you remove the biscuits and ladle the concoction on top. Our charcoals didn’t seem to be very hot and the biscuits didn’t get all the way done, but it was still good.
Right now we are trying to get the girls to settle down and go to bed. In the distance you can hear the fireworks going off from either Epcot or Magic Kingdom. I will report more tomorrow on our adventures.
This year Jennifer’s parent drove over from Texas to visit for Easter. They drove because Jennifer bought a photography set from someone over the Internet who lives in San Antonio. The lady didn’t want to ship it so Jennifer convinced her brother to pick it up and her parents then carted here. Tomorrow they are heading back and they are taking our old crib and a few other baby items to Jennifer’s sister, Christina.
On Friday, Jennifer had her first three customers for her new business. She’s currently giving free sitting fees from some of her friends from church and they took her up on her offer. She was also shooting some of them for a candidate for her first advertisement which is going into a local kids circular.
On Saturday, we did the same thing we’ve done for the four years we’ve been here in Florida: we went to the church’s Easter Egg Hunt. This year Jennifer had a hand in setting it up so she had to leave early that morning while her parents and I made our lunches for the picnic. The event went off without a hitch. This was the first year Isabelle was old enough to hunt for eggs and she had no trouble figuring out what needed to be done. Emily got to ride a horse, so she was quite thrilled with everything.
The next morning the Easter Bunny arrived and brought the girls each an Easter Basket filled with candy and toys. They were so taken by the baskets, they didn’t notice all the eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden around the Living Room. They finally caught on and went around the room finding the eggs. However, they did a pretty bad job. We were finding them all day long.
Well, I was pissed a few weeks ago when we got a ton of money back from the government for our taxes. You’re probably re-reading the last sentence. Yes, I’m pissed. I don’t want my money at the end of the year. I want it in my pay check every week. I have my W4 set to the maximum number of deductions, but EA continues to take too much out of my check and gives it to the government as a interest free loan. The best tax year would be when you don’t owe anything and you don’t get anything back (in my opinion).
Anyway, since the money was burning a hole in our bank account, we decided to do something with it: we bought a pop-up camper. We’ve wanted one for some time. Just the thought of being able to go away for the weekend and drive it up and boom, we are camping is quite appealing. Jennifer found a couple on craigslist and we out and looked at them this weekend. We found one that was barely used and we bought it.
We were under the mistaken idea that we were going to be able to store it in the garage. We spend an hour Saturday night trying to roll it up the driveway just to find out that it doesn’t fit by one inch. We had to shut the garage about half way down. Jennifer is going to start looking into places where we can store it this week.
Today I took my annual trip to see the Astros play a Spring Training game in Kissimmee. The difference this year: I took Emily along. She had a great time. We bought her a kid’s Spring Training shirt and a hat with a pink Astros star. We sat right in front of the bull pin where the pitchers warm up. When Roy Oswalt, the lead off pitcher was done warming up, the catcher tossed Emily the ball. Of course, when we got home the ball became a chew toy for Austin, which upset Emily quite a bit. She wanted me to get a new one and I told her that wasn’t possible. Oh well, we had a good time and I’m looking forward to taking her again next year.
Jennifer has been getting on to me for a while to update Frenchville. Especially, since I had a Christmas tree at the top. Well, it’s now changed. We’ve been pretty busy for the past month, so I guess I will do a month in review.
For me, it has just been work, work, work. We are starting to wrap up our planning phase for the game I’m working on and we will start the actual construction of the code and making of the art assets. I can’t write any details on the web, but hopefully soon EA will put out a press release and then I will write a little bit more about it.
Jennifer has been getting more and more stuff for her photography studio (a.k.a. our front office). She has lights and a couple of sets she’s is working on. She’s been taking test photos of the girls in order to get the lighting just right. She will be starting to take photos of some of the neighbor kids in order to practice.
Abby has been doing fine in school. I’m amazed at how much they learn in Kindergarten. She has spelling words she has to learn. I don’t remember having to take spelling tests way back then. Of coarse, I don’t even remember Kindergarten, but oh well. She’s been struggling with writing out the numbers 11 – 99. She sometimes gets them reversed. We’re working on it often.
We had sad news a couple of weeks ago. Jennifer’s Grandmother, Helen Musselman, passed away. Her funeral was the following weekend, so we had to buy plane tickets and meet Jennifer’s parents in Muskegon, Michigan. The high temperature the day we arrived was 17 degrees and snow was on the ground. We flew into Grand Rapids and then had to rent a car and make a forty minute drive to Muskegon. We stayed in a hotel there in Muskegon and had the funeral on Saturday. On Sunday, we dove over to Jennifer’s other grandparents and visited with them and all of her aunts and uncles. Abby and Emily had fun playing in the snow, having never seen it before. It was tough having to always bundle up when we went outside. We were happy to get back to the warm weather in Florida.
I don’t know if I’ve written about this in Frenchville yet, but Jennifer has been working on setting up her own business as a photographer. She got a camera a couple of months ago and has been taking classes at a local art school. In December, she got a loan in order to start purchasing some of the equipment needed in order to start up a photography studio in the house. We moved the girls’ playroom from our front office to upstairs so that she could set up shop in that room. Well, the room has been painted and the equipment is starting to arrive. There’s now a backdrop, a few sets, and now the lighting equipment. The room is definitely starting to look like a photography studio. She’s also been asked to take photographs up at church during our Easter picnic. So, hopefully she can get some clients from that engagement. Expect to hear more news about her new business, Storybook Portraits, in the coming months.
Two weeks ago we celebrated Emily’s fourth birthday party at Pump It Up. It’s a warehouse type place which is filled with blow-up bounce houses. We thought this was appropriate since when Abby turned four we rented a bounce house for the back yard. Anyway, Emily had a couple of their friends from school show up and a lot more neighbors and friends from church. They had fun bouncing around for and hour and then having cake. Jennifer made a special horse cake just for Emily’s birthday.
Frenchville 