Florida trip part I

I am beginning to think I am not a good blogger anymore. I can't believe how bad I have become about posting. UGH! This not working computer situation is really giving my blogging the beat down! As you may have guessed we made it to and from Florida for Mom's big birthday with little to no problems. It wasn't completely smooth sailing, but we all lived to talk about it. Mom's party was a success and I think she might have even had a good time. I will post those pictures later. If anyone reading this has any pictures from then, please send them to me, I would appreciate it, THNAKS!
I was quite nervous about this trip since I would be traveling alone with the kids and although I had secured a direct flight to FL I still had to wrangle kids/car seats and all into the airport by myself and not to mention keep them entertained. (Eric had a lab meeting and couldn't help me into the airport). But the flight down was a breeze, the flight wasn't full so Nate didn't have to sit in my lap, he got his own seat...I think that was what I was most nervous about. We made it to FL no problems and even got to meet Grandpa for lunch at Chic-fil-a, win-win! The only slight problem was Gwen, I had realized the day before the trip, well the night/morning before the trip that I hadn't really reviewed with the kids "what-if" situations, like what to do if we became separated in the airport, what to do if you were lost or who to talk to in those situations. Fortunately we didn't need any of those situations, we all managed to stay together despite the fact I didn't bring a stroller (which all the flight attendents apparently thought I should have, they all asked me, maybe my kids weren't as good as I thought?) On the way to the airport Eric and I were reviewing with Gwen that if anyone asked her what her name was she needed to tell them her real name, and not "Briar Rose". We also tried to review with her what my real name is. Apparently the lesson didn't sink in, because when we got to security lo and behold when asked what her name was she said "Briar Rose". I was so angry, I got down to her level and I said, remember we reviewed this when asked what your name is, what Mommy and Daddy called you what is your name? Well the kid froze up and we stood there for 5 minutes while I tried to coax her into saying "Gwen". She wouldn't or at least wouldn't loud enough for us to hear. GRR! I was so frustrated. But really that was the only glitch, and not really an un-expected one, I guess I should have known to put "Gwen, Briar Rose" on her ticket.
Before the party we had a couple days with Aunt Ellen, Uncle Bill and Uncle Ken and the boys. Here are some pictures from the days leading up to the party...

Easter

It has been an interesting weekend, Saturday productive, Sunday not so productive, but it appears we finally have, well I don't know what we have because I started this and haven't gotten back to it until now. I guess I must have started yesterday sometime...
Anyhoo, we are having issues with the computer we got back from BBY, but I am hoping while I'm gone, Eric will have it magically fixed without buying something new. I have a couple slideshows, don't remember what's on them, but my 2-3 readers are pretty smart. Oh, wait I remember, these are about Easter weekend. We took down our fence one day and put it back up another day, Eric had Good Friday off. You can see the kids here, "helping".

This is about Easter Egg hunt 2 of 3, we don't really have Easter Egg Hunt #3, we did one at home and the kids weren't that into it, or maybe they were distracted by the little toys the Easter bunny brought them, who knows. But I digress, Easter Egg hunt was put on by Eric's graduate school for the grad students and post docs with kids; maybe 30 kids there. They had the an Easter bunny on a unicycle and an Elmo pinata.

So now that you've seem the slideshow, I have to tell you how freaked out Gwen was about the pinata, well she wasn't really freaked out about it, she just wasn't interested in hitting it with a bat. And as you could see she spent a lot of time hugging Elmo after it was all over. Nate spent the whole time eating candy without bothering to unwrap the wrappers. Good times!
I leave with the kids tomorrow for FL, probably going to be crazy, just praying I make it through the morning in one piece. Have I mentioned Nate is a total nightmare, wild man and don't know if I can keep him in my lap! UGH! Pray for me. If this wasn't for such a good cause, Grandma's big birthday and party, I would have gone at a time where the adult to kid ratio was at least even!