Wordless Wednesday - Tired Out!

Little Miss and Snoop Dog had a busy weekend, so by Sunday afternoon it was crash time.  I couldn't help taking a picture!

Aren't they just adorable?

Pensacola Museum of Art - Chagall for Children

We're fortunate enough to have a great museum here in Pensacola.  Even better, it's free on Tuesdays!  So really there is no excuse not to go if there is something of interest to you.  It's also a great way to spend some time when it's too hot outside.  For a while now they have had a Chagall for Children, and I finally got the chance to get Little Miss to the museum to enjoy it.  

She absolutely loved all of the interactive displays!  

This was a favorite - you found the picture on the side in the painting, and it would do something interactive when you touched it!

The phones talked about the paintings, but Little Miss used them to call her Daddy.

She even got to try her hand at creating her own artwork.  

Trying your hand at painting your own face is always fun!

If you're in the Pensacola area, I highly recommend this exhibit!  It's a great one to get your children interested in art!

Wordless Wednesday - Bubble Time!

Little Miss and Snoopy had a great time playing in the bubbles this weekend!

I'm not sure who had more fun!

SUP - A fun way to exercise!

Last week, Little Miss and I had the pleasure of getting to try out Stand-up Paddle Boards for the first time.  If you're not near a large body of water, you may be wondering what on earth SUP is!  In my opinion, it is without a doubt the most fun exercise you'll ever get!  The boards are similar to surf boards, but wider.  You stand on the board and paddle to get around.  

I was terrified that I would fall off of the board, but it was extremely stable!  Once I got comfortable on the board it was so much fun!  We were even in darker water, so you couldn't see the bottom - I imagine it's even better when you can glide and look at all of the cool animals swimming beneath you!  

Little Miss wouldn't get on the board with me, so the kind people there watched her while I took a demo ride.  Unfortunately that meant I wasn't able to stay out long, but it was enough to get me hooked!  How many other things combine relaxation with a great core workout?  Since your board is constantly moving (slightly), your body is constantly working to stay level.  You probably won't even realize it!

Now I just have to figure out how to come up with the money to buy one!  They sure are expensive, but I think we'd get a lot of use out of one.  

Have you tried a SUP?  

Keep Your Children Entertained This Summer!

Do you live in the Pensacola area?  There are a lot of great children's programs going on this summer if you're looking for something for your children to do!  Some are free, some cost money - it's easy to find something in any budget.  I included links for these, so please be sure to confirm all details!

Pensacola Little Theater Summer Camps:

PLT hosts a number of camps during the summer. Information on their website.

Roy Hyatt Environmental Center Camps:

The environmental center is hosting summer camps for students entering grades 3-6. Camps are held June 13-17 and July 11-15 from 8 am - 3 pm. Cost is $130 per session.  

Pensacola Public Library Summer Reading program:

The public library is hosting their popular reading program. Part of it includes the library game, which encourages kids to read a variety of books through the summer. In addition, they host many programs for kids through the summer, at each branch. Magicians, musicians, model building, puppetry, and others. There will also be art classes on Fridays at Tryon and teen movies on Thursdays. 

Pensacola Museum of Art:

This summer, the PMA is hosting Chagall for Children in their downstairs exhibit space. It is a hands-on exhibit to introduce kids to the work of Chagall.  Tuesdays are always free admission!

The PMA is also hosting art camps throughout the summer. You can choose from four different 2 hour sessions a day, or stay for the whole day. One week of one session is $50 for members; full day is $150. To sign up, contact Raven McBride at Raven@pensacolamuseumofart.org or 850.432.6247.

Pensacola Historic Village:

The historic village is also hosting history and archaeology camp June 13-17 for incoming grades 4-6, and July 11-15 for incoming grades 7-10 from 8:30-12:30 . The cost is $115.

Gulf Islands National Seashore:  Most of these are simply the cost of admission, but always call to confirm!

Island Treasures-Monday, June 13-Aug. 8, 10:00 am, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, June 15-Aug. 13, 2:00 pm at Langdon Beach. Discover the treasures of the Gulf of Mexico at this beachcombers program. 1 hour.

Snorkeling-Mondays, June 13, 20, 27, July 11, 18, 25, Aug. 8, 3:00 pm at Naval Live Oaks Picnic Area, Thursdays and Saturdays, June 16-Aug. 13, 10:00 am at Battery Worth Picnic Area. Discover the underwater world of the National Seashore and the interesting plants and animals that live there. Masks and snorkels provided. 2 hours.

Junior Ranger and Sea Star Day Camps-Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, these day camps introduce children to the wonders of the Seashore through age appropriate activities, storytelling, songs, crafts, and interactive games.  Locations and topics vary and reservations are required.  For Sea Stars ages 3-5 and Junior Ranger ages 6-8 call Ranger Beckie at (850) 934-2631 and for Junior Ranger ages 9-11 call Ranger Amanda at(850) 916-3001. 

Children’s Discovery-Wednesdays, June 22-July 20, 3:30 pm.  Meet at Battery Worth Picnic Area. Each week children discover a different Seashore habitat through hands-on activities.  Large groups should contact Ranger Amanda Carrigan-Grissom at 850-916-3001 before attending the program. Ages 5-11. 1 hour.

Seeing Sealife-Thursdays, June 16-Aug. 11, 2:00 pm at Johnsons Beach, Perdido Key Area.  Discover the sealife of the sound by pulling a seine net. 1 hour.

Barrier Island Experience-Fridays, June 17-Aug. 12, 9:00 am.  Meet at Battery Worth Picnic Area. Discover the plants and animals of the barrier island habitats. 1 hour.

Stargazing-Fridays, June 24 and July 22, sunset to 10:00 pm at Battery Worth Picnic Area.  Join volunteers from the Escambia Amateurs Astronomy Association for an evening of stargazing. 

Wordless Wednesday - Say Ahh! (With Linky)

Last week, Little Miss had her second trip to the Dentist.  She had a great visit, and there were no problems!  

Things like this make a Mom so happy!

Here she is holding Mr. Slurpy!

And now she's done and showing off her beautiful smile!

She was able to get two toys from the treasure chest, so she was so excited!


For those of you looking to link up....

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Good Morning! How was your weekend?

This was the second three day weekend I got to enjoy with my husband, which was so nice!  

He works away from home, and we really haven't gotten to see much of him these past few months.  

Unlike most of my friends, who seemed to be busy cleaning their houses and cooking out this weekend, we really didn't do much of anything other than spend quality time with the family.  My husband got to eat some crawfish on Saturday - he even taught Little Miss how to pull the heads off of them!  Cajun Specialty Meats is walking distance from our house, and they just started serving dinner.  We walked down since the weather was nice, and we were amazed by the cool breeze that came through their patio!

The patio area had a children's table that Little Miss loved, and she also loved having good music to listen to and plenty of room to run around in!   Every time someone who worked there walked by, they had something nice to say to Little Miss.  She even got to see a real live crawfish!

Little Miss took this picture of Snoopy

Snoopy enjoyed playing with Little Miss, she sure has grown a lot!  Little Miss enjoys Snoopy's company most of the time, but occasionally gets tired of her puppy antics.  They are so much fun to watch together!

Snoopy took a swim in the pond this weekend - it was the first time that had happened!

On Sunday we headed to Harry T's for some brunch with Brian's parents.    It was good, but a little too hot since there wasn't much of a breeze where we were sitting.  Their menu is pricey, but if you sign up for their rewards program they always send a lot of coupons, which makes it more reasonable.  

Monday we relaxed, got some grocery shopping done, and then Little Miss and I headed to the beach for a cookout after Dad left to head back to NOLA.  She did NOT want to go home when it was time, but other than that we had a great evening cooking out and seeing friends and puppies!  

How did you spend your weekend?  I hope it was a good one!

Wordless Wednesday - Beach Pictures with Linky!

I realized that I actually did have a few pictures this weekend!

Enjoying an after-lunch treat.

Beach Bird - it enjoyed eating our leftover nachos!

Playing in the waves.

Beach flowers.


Thanks to McCrenshaw for the link-up!

Beach Weekend

How was your weekend?  Ours was fabulous!  We got to house-sit, which means staying on the beach for the weekend. 

Little Miss loved splashing in the waves, and we even took a little boat trip out to Ft. Pickens.  There was only one other boat there, and we had a great time splashing in the water and looking for shells.  We discovered that Little Miss does not like hermit crabs!  We tried to get one to come out and say hi, but they all stayed tightly in their shells.  We pointed out the part of the crab you can see, but she’d have nothing to do with it. 

She did, however, enjoy watching the minnows and helping me look for sand dollars that were washed up on the shore.  We also took a trip to Paradise Bar and Grill, a local hang-out that we frequent where the parents can eat while the children splash in shallow water only a couple of feet away.

This is actually an old pictures, but it's from Paradise!

She even got in some pool time while we were there, courtesy of my old roommate and her fiancé.  It really made me miss the year I spent living at the beach, and if it turns out that we end up staying here longer than expected we’ve decided to work towards getting a place out there once again.  I would love to give that gift to Little Miss! 

We also got to grill some delicious food and watch a beautiful sunset.  The best part about it for me was that my husband was here Friday through Sunday – I can’t remember the last time that happened!

Sorry we don’t have many pictures, too much time was spent having fun – the cameras got forgotten!

Happy Weekend!

We've been REALLY busy lately, so no blog posts from me - I have a lot of great stuff coming up, though!


Here's a cute picture of Little Miss being silly.  

We're not sure what we're doing today, but I think we'll end up pretty busy!  Tomorrow we're going to Perdido.  


If you haven't entered my Tropical Traditions Giveaway, it ends today and has VERY low entries! 


Happy Weekend! 

Crawfish Days

Down here on the Gulf Coast, it's crawfish season.  Personally, they aren't my favorite things in the world, but I do enjoy them if someone has done all of the work of getting them out of their shells!  

This one is still putting up a fight!  Little Miss thought the fighting crawfish was the best!

She's calling a friend to tell them all about it.  

B after he got to enjoy a nice basket of crawfish.  Can't wait until he's home again and he can enjoy them with us more often!!  

Our Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter weekend, but things have been busy since then so I'm just now posting about it!

The Easter basket was full of Hello Kitty swag - went to Grandma's and Grandpa's later and got even more!

What a cute Easter dress!

One tired puppy.

My husband

Awake after the nap!

We totally forgot to hide eggs in the yard, and take pictures of the egg dyeing fun.  We had roll-on paints this time, which were pretty interesting.    

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

Visiting the Easter Bunny

Last weekend we went to an egg hunt and visited the Easter Bunny.  I forgot to post the pictures then, so I thought I'd do it now!

Little Miss didn't want to sit in the bunnies lap, but she didn't mind standing next to it!

She also did some coloring with her cousin (the blonds right next to her).

After all of that excitement, we still managed to go to the beach that evening!  Grayson Capps was playing, so we had good food, good scenery, and good music!

Beach Days

Last weekend we were able to get in a little beach time.  While the water is still cold, it is warm enough to go out and enjoy the sand and sun!

Daddy and Little Miss even played in the surf some!

Don't you just love her surfer pose?  

Sometimes You Just Have to Dance!

We spent our St. Patrick's Day in an unlikely place - a Mexican restaurant!  A friend of ours was playing at Tijuana Flats, so we decided to go see her.

Little Miss insisted on wearing her princess dress there, and she had a great time dancing to the music!

Here she is taking a break to eat some chips and queso.

Spring is Here!

This is my favorite time of year.  Trees are budding, plants are coming back up, and everything just feels alive.  Plus it's not too hot either!  I love the crispness in the mornings, and sitting on the back porch at night listening to our waterfall.

I took this picture this morning.  There are several more daffodils getting ready to bloom any day now!  Aren't they lovely?  I can't believe how quickly they came up.

Here are Little Miss' "Princess Flowers".  She got them when staying with her Grandparents a while back - I think we'll transfer them to pots this weekend!

I even got her some tools so she can help with the planting.  The Princess markers came with the flower kit.  I forgot to get her a watering can though - I think we may have one in the garage, I need to look for it.  If not, maybe I can make a watering can??

Are you enjoying Spring weather yet?

Free Entrance Days This Weekend

If you're in the US and live near a National Park, enjoy fee-free days this weekend!

From their website:

Mark your calendar for these fee-free days in 2011:

• January 15-17
  (Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend)
• April 16-24
  (National Park Week)
• June 21
  (First day of summer)
• September 24
  (Public Lands Day)
• November 11-13
  (Veterans Day weekend)

Making the fun even more affordable, many national park concessioners are joining the National Park Service in welcoming visitors with their ownspecial offers.

Here’s a tip – many of your 394 national parks NEVER charge an entrance fee. So start Planning Your Visit!

*Fee waiver includes: entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees. Other fees such as reservation, camping, tours, concession and fees collected by third parties are not included unless stated otherwise.

We love going to parks - we often stay at them while vacationing!  

Wordless Wednesday - Then and Now

Little Miss sure is growing!  A few weeks ago we were getting out the Christmas things, and she found this stocking.

We used it when we took a photo for our Christmas cards when she was just a few months old back in 2007.

My how we've grown!

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Frugal Family Events - Pensacola, FL - Dec 10th Weekend

With Christmas just around the corner, there are a lot of ongoing events.  I’ll probably leave links to the websites for most of these so you can confirm them yourself.  Little Miss is going to see the Zoo Lights with her grandparents this weekend!

What:  Pensacola Lights
Cost: Free!  This is an individual family who shares Christmas Lights with the community
Where:  8911 Cove Avenue
When:  Daily 5:30-10:00 - hours run later on weekends

What:  Downtown Pensacola’s 1st Annual Palafox Christmas Market
Cost: Free, downtown businesses will have specials and free samples, etc.  
Where:  Downtown Pensacola
When:  December 4th and 11th from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

What:  Seville Quarter’s  Magical Winter Wonderland
Cost: $5 a person
Where:  Seville Quarter Downtown
When:  Friday and Saturday through Christmas from 5-9 pm

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Everett the Elf has made his appearance!

Better late than never!  My cousin, Merry, got me interested in the whole Elf on a shelf phenomenon.  I love the idea of doing something for Christmas every day in December.

Yesterday I was in Hallmark because I had a coupon, and I ran across Everett the Elf and his Magical Shoe.  Everett lost his shoe while helping Santa, and the shoe will leave 'elf magic' fun every day in December until Christmas.  A tiny Everett sits in the shoe, and there is room to put a note and supplies for a craft or other things for an adventure.

Yesterday's adventure was mainly searching for the shoe, but we also made a Buzz Lightyear cut-out.  I imagine we'll have plenty of simple adventures like that one, but hopefully we'll have some really exciting ones as well!