HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Hello every one, I know I haven't finished updating about our trip I've been a little busy this week. I hope I can get to it over the weekend. I wanted to do a quick update this morning..well, because I've been on cloud 9. We went on Tuesday to get some blood work done on Marshall and Amelia for the endocrinologist. Well poor Mimi had to be stuck 3 times and was so worked up...but anyway yesterday afternoon I found out the results of her blood work...First last month she was at
wbc 4.6
hgb 10.2
platelets 29

This week they were
wbc 3.9
hgb 11.6 and
are you ready for this.....


Platelets were 44!!!!!!
Keep those prayers coming she is doing great!!!!

Arrival and Give Kids The World Village...

We arrived fine, had a great flight. At the airport we were greeted by some volunteers who helped us get our luggage and to the rental car. It was so funny, we had a really nice Chrysler Town N Country van loaded. We were getting in the van and all Nathan kept saying is we are going to jail, we are going to jail...I finally turned around and asked him what on Earth are you talking about. He (so innocently) said we are stealing this van and we are going to go to jail!! Poor uncultured kid! After much reassurance that we were only borrowing the van and not steeling did he finally calm down.

Our "stolen" van and our villa in the background.

We arrived at the village in time for dinner and one of the nightly activities, Pirate and Princess party. Tyren and the kids did that while I went to orientation. They also visited the ice cream parlor that was open from 7:30 am and didn't close till 9:30 pm. We let them eat all the ice cream that they wanted and we didn't even sweat it if they didn't eat their supper. We were there after all, to have fun!!!

SATURDAY -- Day 1

Sea World.

We got up early on Saturday headed out to the ginger bread house for breakfast...

Then off to Sea world. the kids were raring to go, and yes it was a Saturday and it was crowded! the first ride the kids...meaning Amelia, Nate and Tyren was Atlantis...I personally can't stand these plunging rides so I didn't ride....Well these next few pictures are priceless. ( I have a lot of pics but I think I'm just going to upload them to a site and let you view them all from there)

This is the Atlantis ride it is a 60 ft, drop.... (be fore warned go to the potty first...you will be laughing at the cuteness!!)

Here they are coming down see the 2 white shirts....

Ready for it...this is priceless!!! This is a picture that I took of the picture that the ride took...we just had to buy this one!!!

See what I told you, you can't look at this picture and not smile or laugh! Even funnier you would think that they were petrified...well no they weren't they went back and rode it again!

That was pretty much the excitement for the day other than we fed the dolphins..Amelia LOVES dolphins, next to horse of course. So here are a few pictures of her and the dolphins the rest I will upload to a host site because there are many of these.....

Daddy trying to help her touch the dolphin.

After this we went to see the Shamu show and ride some kiddie rides, we went back to the village and had dinner at Katie's Kitchen which was all provided for us at the Village and it was Boston Market...it was delicious and the kids had some pizza delivered to the villa...all of it for free.

Day one down and 5 more to go...Next up day 2 both Universal Parks!!!

We are home....

Sorry for the lack of updates. We got home late last night, I tried to update as much as possible, but we went from sun up to well after sundown. I have over 500 pictures to sift through and post, I may just post them to a hosting site and put the link up on here.
But for now here is a link to a newspaper story that ran while we were gone..... http://www.thesttammanynews.com/articles/2009/03/24/news/doc49c98ddc95d1f967993026.txt
I hope to be back this weekend with more!!

Day of departure...

I have more pictures,but not all are on the computer a friend of mine took some of us in our limo as we were leaving, but here is what I have so far and since it takes a while to upload the pictures that is about all you will get. Today we did Seaworld, first time for all of us and it was a great day!!! But first here is travel day Pics......

Pictures of us in the Limo ride to the airport..it was a blast the air port is about a 45 minute ride from our house.

(The weather here has been B E A U T I F U L!!!!) Dad has been great and takes the kids to all the nightly parties here at the Village so that I can update and do laundry and get everyone ready for the next day!!

The sofa in our villa....

Some of Amelia's loot... She also got the mickey in the above picture and they each received nice Panama Jack shirts...

That's all I have for tonight, but the kids are having just as much fun at the Village as they are at the parks...this morning they went to ride horses in a little corral, Mimi and Nate both did it and they also both got CUTE straw cowboy hats!!

We've arrived!!!

We have arrived...In Give Kids the World Village!! It is awesome here! I am sorry for the late update and the lack of pictures tonight!! I promise we will get some too you we have had a long day and we are all about ready to hit the hay have a very busy week ahead of us. Thank you all for your prayers for safe travels everything went fine! The kids right now are having a blast ridding on the carousel....now it's time for a good scrubbing and an early night off to bed!
Blessings,
Kelly

Tasty Tuesday

Ok as per suggestion from Stefunck, I am posting this Tasty Tuesday recipe..not sure if any of you have access to this one or not. I cooked Shark steak last week along with some stuffed artichokes...I know us true southerner's will eat just about anything...(ok so I'm not that true of a southerner..I don't eat a lot of exotic south stuff. The most exotic I got was Alligator and now Shark, well and of course for you Northerner's, CRAWFISH!!!!)
So this one is real simple, some people say you can cook it like a steak but we decided just to bake it..and well it tasted, yummy, just like fish!! I know, I know it is a fish, I already got that one from the hubs!

Here is what they look like in the bag (we got them from some friends of ours who do a lot of fishing out in the Gulf)

Here is what I seasoned it with....

Oh look Stefunck, just for you...cause I remember... And these also...

Then I put a little of EVOO in the bottom of the pan and laid the shark on top and went to town with the seasonings...

Covered it with aluminum foil and baked at 350* for 45 minutes....and yummo.

Notice we moved up from the "fine China" Nathan's plate.


And the Stuffed artichokes...

that is Italian bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, Parmesan Cheese and of course garlic and garlic powder...

Stuff them...

Stick them in a pot fill with water till just about the top of the first leaf cover and simmer for about 2 -3 hrs, keep checking the water and add more if needed.

Ok now I need to go get packing......

Yellow Crayons....

We have a problem in this house... my littlest one loves all things yellow! Well a while, way back, I noticed a yellow crayon in his pants pocket after it had been washed and dried melted in his pocket. I just thought that he had for got it in there. It wasn't very big and caused no other damage than that to his own pocket. Fast forward to about a week ago, as I was doing the laundry again, I found 2 more yellow crayons, thankfully this time I found them before they hit the drier or so I thought....there must have been one that got a way from me. Now you would think that I would have learned my lesson and learned to check his pants pockets. But the truth is that after the last time, I had a talk with him to figure out why he was bringing home all the yellow crayons from his class room, God knows they can't have any left in there!!! So upon interrogating questioning, I was told that the reason that he brought the crayons home was because they reminded him of gold and he wanted to put them in his treasure chest. So we talked about it and he told me he wouldn't bring them home any more. I know, I know, 2 strikes against him already, 1 he's only 5 and the 2 he's male! But I don't fully blame him, I am just as wrong as he as I should be checking his pockets better....

well I didn't this morning and imagine my madness when I found this.....this morning

hmmm let me see if I can make this bigger?

That's the culprit in the pocket.....Here are what some of the clothes look like...

These pictures do it no justice!! When asked about the yellow crayon in his pocket this afternoon, his reply to me was....."I don't want to discuss it." what do you say to that reply from a 5 year old!!!