15.5 hours in a car with 3 kids

I can barely keep my eyes open as I type this. We just drove 15.5 hours in the car with the kids to make it to my parents' house here in Louisiana. Boy could I tell some stories if only I hadn't been up for 20 hours on 5 hours of sleep right now. Tomorrow morning we fly out to Paris. Europe here I come!

Happy Birthday to my redneck

In preparation for Europe Travis (for the first time since I have known him) has grown a beard. At least Europe has been his excuse for the beard. Not only that but today on his birthday he donned a cowboy hat, army shorts, and a button up shirt. Quite an ensemble. I have a weak spot for a hot cowboy and boy is he a hottie. ;) Happy birthday baby! I had a great day with you!

A baby shower cake

I'm still too scared to work with fondant and I think it tastes gross! One day I will try it though. Here is my latest cake for Reina's baby shower. I was a little nervous making a cake that was not for a child, but it was fun. Don't look too close, there are a ton of mistakes, but from afar it didn't look too bad.

Random thoughts from the day

Last night went something like this...

2:20 am McKenna - my bug bite itches. It needs cream
3:49 am Kourtney - I have a soar throat. I need medicine.
4:20 am McKenna - my bug bite itches. I need cream.
5:00 am Blake - I uh gung (I want a drink)
5:25 am McKenna - my bug bite needs a bandaid
6:30 am McKenna - good morning mama!

I felt like I had a new born last night

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Kourtney sayings...
Kourtney was cleaning up her room today. She collapses on her bed and says, "I hate to burst your bubble mom, but I'm too exhausted to clean up this mess." Later I found (for the first time) all of her toys under her bed as her method of cleaning.

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Organic bug spray?

Got organic bug repellent yesterday. I was very excited about it... until I put it on and it smelled like vomit. No wonder the bugs don't bite when you wear it. Oh well, I tried. We have to wear something down here in South Florida or they will carry us away!

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Kevin and Brittany's Christmas gifts!
At Christmas Kevin and Brittany gave the kids a gift card to Target. Well after we got back from Christmas the Chinese drywall stuff sort of consumed us and I forgot about the gift card until I found it the other day! So the kids got to have a Christmas shopping spree courtesy of Uncle Kevin and Aunt Brittany. They were all very excited. Here is what they got:

On a date in the keys

One very cool thing about living in the keys is that Travis and I get to try out new restaurants all the time! A couple weeks ago Tammy came down to babysit and we went to eat at Lorelei's. Live music, beautiful sunset, great bayside view. Can't beat it!

My blogging drought

The kids love to JUMP jump JUMP! Anywhere, but especially on my bed.So I haven't been blogging as much as I would like to. There are several times in the day when I think, "I need to blog that!" but never actually get to it. It is much different have 3 energetic mobile children that it was just having 2. Add on top of that commuting to Homestead about 3 times a week and blogging has dwindled. I am sure it will pick up again when Kourtney and McKenna both head to Island Christian School in the fall and it is just me and the Blakester. That will be fun. For now I consider it a successful day if everyone has eaten & bathed, if I can actually walk through the house without stepping on a toy, and if the laundry basket is only half full.

This morning I took all 3 kids to Southland Mall by myself. Play area, carousel, food court, riding the quarter cars without actually putting in the quarters, throwing pennies in the fountain. Made up for my bad day yesterday. I love my kids! We did have to make two trips to the potty AFTER the food was ordered and we were all sitting down at a table. That required me to ask a very nice man sitting next to us if he minded watching our food while I lugged 3 kids in and out of the bathroom. The 2nd time I just packed up what food we had left and said, we can eat this in the car. Thank God it was just pizza. I did find out that on Tuesdays at Regal Cinemas kids can go free to the movies. I just might try to take all of them there some time!

So next week Travis and I head out to Europe. We are celebrating 10 years of marraige this summer! I am so excited. Neither of us have ever been. We are "backpacking." Staying in hostels, traveling all over Italy. I can't wait. We fly into Paris and out of Madrid, Spain. In all we have 5 countries on our list to see. Last night we were packing our backpacks and seeing how heavy they were. Just fyi, all of my pictures will be me in one of the THREE outfits I am taking! LOL! We are gonna act like honeymooners in love. I cannot wait.

We are leaving the kids with my parents and my mom has a whole summer camp activity calendar planned for them while they are there. All around everyone is very excited. I think my brother and Brittany may even get to pop over and see the kids while they are in Louisiana.

So that is what is going on with us right now. At this moment all three of my kids are sleeping at the same time which is rare so I am going to take a break and maybe eat lunch!

Life Pointe Marshmallow night in the keys

Front row: Kourtney, Kennedy, Blake, Cooper, Kaden
Back row: Alex, McKenna, Autumn, Sara, Julia

Kelly Clark telling his son Kaden to go higher and Julie Clark looking on skeptically!My mountain man and his buddy JohnteLeo and Johnte

Kelly's cakes... LOL!

In an effort to improve my baking skills I will look for any reason to make a cake! Our good friends' daughter, Autumn, had a birthday this week and happened to be coming over. So I made this cake. It was my first 3 layer cake. McKenna's Cinderella cake is going to be 3 layers too so this was good practice.

I wasn't a huge fan of the color, but I did learn some things. Maybe one day I will take a cake making class! Of course Blake climbed up on a chair and touched the cake (you can see the mistakes on the plain cake). He is trying to get a job in my bakery.

Minnie

My new furry niece, Minnie
Kourtney putting her little brother's shoes on

Last day of K4

Last day of school. We love Ms. Marie. She was so sweet and loved Kourtney so much.
Jasmine, Kourtney, Andres, and Tyler. Best buds. A few classmates were already gone for the day.

Spongebob Bathing Suit for girls... UGH!

I'm sorry, but I think Spongebob Squarepants is ugly and disgusting. I used to not let the girls watch it. I am good about saying no to things I don't believe they should be doing. But somehow Spongebob crept in thanks to some babysitters who will remain anonymous (you know who you are!) and I don't make them turn it when he comes on Nick Jr. So Kourtney is obsessed with the ugly square animated whatever the heck he is.

Which brings me to yesterday. Kourtney's current bathing suit isn't fitting like it needs to so I took her to Walmart to pick out a new one. I had visions of cute tankinis and sporty little suits. When we got there Spongebob Squarepants was plastered all over PINK bathing suits. There were, of course, other suits that were adorable. But Kourtney begged me for Spongebob. There was no way I was looking at that ugly creature all summer on my beautiful daughter. I'm sorry if any of you reading this have pink bathing suits with Spongebob on them. It is just not my style!

In the end she chose a full piece, blue, High School Musical bathing suit but only because it had silver sparkling stars. Not because she likes (or has even ever watched HSM). My mom told me they did try to watch HSM at Christmas but Kourtney wasn't interested. Oh well, I let her get what she wanted instead of the adorable tankini I had in mind. I have to let her be her own person. She is, after all, 5 going on 16 these days.