and we are back!

From what felt like the longest vacation ever! What day is it? Does Matt even have a job? What does our house even look like? Twelve days is absolutely no joke. The planning. The packing. The sheer logistics of it can make one's head spin....

My five and my parents decided to drive down to Florida so that meant we left before the sun (as in 3:30 am) on a Wednesday and drove to Savannah, where we spent the night. We stop every three hours or so and stretch our legs and it just works out for us. The drive down is so much easier because well, there are palm trees to look forward to!

My father rented us this little beauty which we lovingly referred to as the Menno Van. It's a local thing, I am sure. The reason we did this is so that when everyone arrived at our first destination of West Palm Beach we would have transportation for them. And also for when we headed to Disney. So we had all of the car seats in all of the land. Just in case you were wondering why a family of five would need a fifteen passenger van.... My parents refuse to ride down with us and I'll let you imagine as to the why.

happy easter!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend! Whatever you may be doing, whether it's laying in the sun soaking up all that vitamin d, staring at every palm tree with heart eyes, swimming... oh wait that's me.... 

However you celebrate, Happy Easter from my three bunnies!

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easter festivities at home

Last weekend we thought we would throw in all the festive Easter-ness before we headed south for the actual holiday! My niece Mikayla was recovering from being under the weather so it was just my sister and her family and me and mine and my parents. I made my Easter Sicilian soup and mom cooked and we did all the things. In all the lands.

a second grade field trip

Last Friday I had the pleasure of being a chaperone with Letty's class as they headed to The Hershey Story Museum thing and also Chocolate World. I told you I live in Hershey now. It was a full day affair, starting with that long and loud bus ride up there. Letty wanted to sit with her friends so I mean, rude. Guess that ship has sailed. Sniff. 

hersheypark in the spring!

Hersheypark opened their doors for the first time of the year the first weekend of this month and the weather could not have been kinder! Sunny and warm, almost 70 degrees! We all made it a point to get up there.... right after the bunny. 

We did something we have never done before, get the kids measured at the official measuring station. They were just really in to it. I think David was already a Hershey Bar but he seemed to think this was a new thing and was just so friggin excited about it. Mikayla bumped up herself which I mean, of the triplets she is the tallest. Lena and Dom are just hanging on to their Kiss status by a thread. This summer, for sure.

 Ashley and I took the Mikayla and the bigger kids on her first ever Comet ride. It's an old wooden rollercoaster that's been around forever and a day. She was not very impressed. She didn't cry, but love it she did not. The kids hit up a ton of the kiddie rides in between the thrill rides too of course. And David! He's the big man now! He actually went on the big scary tower with his Uncle Colton not once, but twice. He's going to love Disney this year I know it! No more crying on Spaceship Earth for him, no! This was such a good first trip to Hersheypark for the year!

the easter bunny, chocolate style!

This post could alternatively be titled with: I live in Hershey now. I went twice over the weekend and I go again tomorrow for a field trip... So. 

Last weekend we gathered up all the cousins and headed up to Chocolate World where they have a nice bunny set up and you can take all the photos with him that you want. Everyone did so well! Although I do love a good crying baby photo situation.... it just makes me giggle. Harrison did a little bit of that but then got it together for the photo.... And as always we got one of all seven kiddos with him!

disney memory lane

Disney Disney Disney is the name of the game around here these days and so what better way to further the excitement than to look back on past year's trips? I'll forego the ones from you know, my childhood. And I'll skip the trip Matt and I took as newlyweds before kids made us all old and haggard.... It's a big 'un, I'll warn you. And the more kids that join the group the more photos taken!

Starting with Letty's very first trip in 2011! She was the only child in the family and soaked up everyone's attention. Rob didn't join us this trip but we had John! It rained and my dad spent thousands on ponchos.

celebrating 100 years of magic!

With Disney on Ice of course. What a great way to gear up for Disney next week than with taking the kids to see this show, right? We get club seats which is just amazing. Cushier seats, more room, your very own Club bathrooms and Club bar and Club food. No waiting in long lines for us! This time we got six tickets and so we decided to take my niece Lena with us (next time, Mikayla!). The kids all donned their Disney wear.... that I had to unpack because well, whoops. We got ourselves settled with popcorn just in time for the show to start!

go team usa!

We feel very lucky to have the U.S. Women's National Field Hockey Team based out of our very own gym. That's right. Our gym. A friend of mine texted me two Sundays ago and asked if Letty and I wanted to join her and her daughter to watch a game that very same night. And we heartily agreed. Tickets were purchased. Red, white and blue was donned, and flags were found! Off we went!

a bit of a scroll through my camera roll

Here's a glimpse into what we have been up to lately, as told by my camera roll... Which desperately needs to be cleaned out before heading south here in a few days...

We have been getting outside every single chance we get! Must enjoy the sun while we can!

so what's new with you?

It's April!! We are almost to warmer weather please and thank you! It cannot come soon enough! We had ourselves a little bit of a tease this past Saturday and it was phenomenal! Please come back!

the kid's easter baskets, disney style

We are going to be celebrating Easter on our upcoming Floridian trip (we will be in West Palm Beach day of) which poses all sorts of difficulties when it comes to Mister E.B. himself... I pulled this off once before and it worked because well, childish innocence... I feel like the bigger two kids are on the brink of discovering that all of these characters are really just their parents pretending. David more so than Letty.  So. I really need to pull this off. Five of us in one hotel room? I may have to set an alarm and do it at like.... five am. Maybe four. 

But the super fun part of celebrating Easter whilst in Florida before one heads to Disney is that I can theme the baskets! I love a good theme! I really didn't want to get them a bunch of crap that they really don't need so I tried to stick to things that would be really great for them to have when they hit Disney the following day. And I did go to the Dollar Tree and get cheapo baskets that can easily fit into one another, saving me major space. Packing for ten days is a daunting task....