Florida Spring Break 2014 Part 1.

We have arrived in Florida! We are pumped and ready for the sun and warm weather. We had a busy travel day yesterday (flight was a little delayed and then we had to drive two hours once we landed), but we arrived safely. We got to sleep in today, which was so nice, and had a relaxing morning. 

Here are some pictures of the house we are staying at. My grandparents are renting it for the whole month, and we are staying with them for the week. It's really nice!

Here is our room (meaning Kley, my sister Kayla, and myself). I just took pictures of the pictures (ha) because Kley and Kayla were actually still sleeping when I took this, and I didn't think they would appreciate a picture of them in their beds.

Living room (my favorite room). I love the yellow walls and blue couch, and the view is the best.

The view out the window. I can definitely live with that! :)

The living room also has this super cute tiny table that I want for my future children.

Dining room.

Kitchen.

Another dining room/sitting room/whatever you want to call it.

Living room #2.

Lanai. 

In the afternoon (and actually for most of the day), we headed to the ball park to watch Keaton's games. It was a double header. It was a bit long, but the weather was super nice. Unfortunately, Keaton only got to pitch the last inning.

Proud Bethel supporters in our twin shirts. :)

My grandparents, me, Keaton, Kley, and Kayla.

My parents and Keaton.

Some pitching!

After the game, we headed to dinner. I had to stop and capture this flower on the way.

We had dinner at Pinchers Crab Shack, and it was so delicious. I am the person who orders the same thing every time they go to a restaurant, but we don't eat seafood often. I ordered BBQ shrimp, which was a little out there for me, but it was so good!

Walking around after dinner.

We had to stop for some ice cream. I had fudge brownie, and again, it was delicious. 

Looking forward to more Florida fun this week!

Crumbs in the corner.

This past week has been super busy for us. We have been gone every night for a long time it seems.

I'm thankful that we usually aren't this busy, but I'm grateful that it's been good things too! Here is a little recap of what we've been up to:

-Watching the Bachelor (This is just an "I" thing, not a "we" thing, ha.) I've been watching it with some girls from our small group at church, although last night I was able to watch the finale with my sister, who was home from school. (For those of you who watch- what the world happened last night? Weirdest finale ever.)
-Took a training class for work that was quite the drive away.
-Had a few small group meetings to catch up from rescheduling dates where people couldn't come. We are reading When Sinners Say I Do for anyone interested! It's a good one.
-Got to go see the premiere of Mom's Night Out, the new Christian movie coming out in May.
-Had dinner with a bunch of Kley's family on Friday, who was in town because MOC-FV (Kley's high school) made it to the Iowa 3A Basketball Championships, and he has a couple cousins on the team. We went to the game on Saturday, and they won!
-Helped host a baby shower for a friend from church.

So we've been keeping busy! I am usually a very clean person, but we have been gone so much that I haven't kept up with the usual cleaning the last week. There was one time where I actually pushed crumbs out of the way, into the corner, with my foot. That is so unlike me.

But, I suppose everyone has weeks like that.

The good and the bad...

(Here is something GREAT- on Saturday we head out to Florida for 8 WHOLE DAYS! We are so pumped!)

Mom's Night Out.

So, awhile back a friend invited us to go to the premiere showing for the Christian movie Courageous, and of course we were happy to attend a great Christian movie for free. Ever since then, we got on Provident Films email list. Usually ending up on email lists is not a good thing, but this time, it's great.

Because we are now VIP people with Provident Films apparently, we were invited to attend the premiere showing of the newest Christian movie that comes out Mother's Day weekend, May 9, called Mom's Night Out. Basically, they give you a bag of stuff for attending the movie for FREE, and ask you to fill out a short survey in the end, and use the stuff they give you to spread the word.

So...word is spread. Go watch Mom's Night Out on May 9. It was a great movie- funny, real, and inspiring. It's so neat to have quality Christian movies out there, and they are getting better each time!

Visit their website for more info and to watch the trailer!

Growing up with Mary-Kate and Ashley.

This post is mostly for my sisters, because we had a deep love for MK & A back in the day. Many people will probably not enjoy this, unless you loved them too when you were young in the 90's.

Someone posted this article on FB yesterday, and it was really funny. (One of the pictures has a tiny bit of language. I apologize. I didn't create this article, just read it.)

It got me thinking to all the great movies of their day- totally filled with quality acting, engaging scripts, and a new plot line every movie. Ha. Basically, in every movie, at least their teenage ones, they went on vacation to a foreign place, and they ran away from their parents with strange boys they knew nothing about. Very safe. Nevertheless, I loved them anyways.

I know there are a lot out there, but I'm only going to post the best (according to us). Starting with a personal favorite...

You can't forget their TV shows- Two of a Kind and So Little Time.

And, ending with another personal favorite- the best of their teenage years...

Number/counting crafts and activities.

Make a number book. You can find all the printouts for this (1-10) at http://www.mrprintables.com/number-coloring-pages.html. They are really cute.

Number tracing- with pencils, markers, watercolors, paint, etc.

Number stickers- Practice identifying numerals and connecting them to correct groups. Put one stickers on one, two on two, etc.

Number ice cream scoops- I had them make 3 cones with vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. I let them pick however many they wanted to "eat," which they loved. Then we counted how many they wanted of each flavor, and them added the total number of scoops up.

Number stamps

My First Numbers Pairs game- I have this game in my collection, and it's a great name to practice identifying numerals and matching them to the correct group. I did this during one of my group times- gave each child a card and they had to find their match- and it worked really well.

Big foam number floor puzzles

Number Slide & Learn cards- Honestly, I really like these, but I think I liked them more than the kids. In reality, they didn't play with them much and just ended up breaking a few.

Number counting cookies- Put it in food form, and they want to play with it.

Counting pegs

Matching numerals to objects