Enjoying Florida's Beautiful Beaches!

As a Florida native growing up on the Pinellas peninsula, I have numerous memories of glorious summer days at the beach -- what a pleasure it has been to share some of those experiences with our precious son! Quintin is fast becoming a beach fan himself, loving the sand & sun and having a blast with other kids splashing in the water.

Gulfport, the small city where my parents live, has a small, quiet beach with an awesome playground, and is one of our favorite spots. Mommy & Quintin's godmother, "Aunt Tsa-Tsa" (Teresa), took Quintin a couple of weeks ago after work -- we all had a wonderful time playing in the sand & sea and climbing the playground equipment, as the sun went down. Nana & Quintin enjoy the same spot pretty regularly together, since Nana & Granddaddy live just a few blocks away!

Several weeks ago, a group of church mommies met at Coral & Tom's to take our kids to Clearwater beach -- that was a beach experience on a whole new level! We caravanned to an awesome spot near the water's edge & set up with enough food & supplies to keep us there for a week :-). The day was perfect, with a bright sun, perfect breeze, and cloudless sky! The kids had an awesome time & the mommies got a chance to socialize & soak up some sun of our own!

Hunting for Eggs!

The Saturday before Easter, Granddaddy Slicker & Mommy had the same idea for Quintin -- Easter Egg Hunt! Mommy bought a package of dinosaurs from the dollar store & filled about ten eggs to bring. Granddaddy bought a bag of chocolate eggs & hid them inside of some larger Easter eggs. Guess whose eggs were more popular? (Check out the face he's giving in the top picture, taken after he found a dinosaur instead of chocolate, lol -- He definitely inherited my affinity for chocolate!). Thanks, Granddaddy, for a LOT of Easter fun!

Easter Sunday, Daddy got up EARLY to play his bass for the sunrise service at Florida Hospital Zephyrhills (Mommy stayed behind to clean house, get ready for the family egg hunt & let Quintin sleep as long as possible). We all headed to the church for a quick band practice before the contemporary service & Quintin spent some time with Eva & Elarie in the nursery. After church, we jotted over to Coral & Tom's before heading home for an Easter egg hunt with Uncle David & Aunt Chrissy, Wade, Bailey, and Grandma Robin. The big boys smoked chicken on the grille while the little boys hunted Easter eggs around the house. Bailey turned out to be a champion egg hunter! Fortunately, he shared his bounty with Quintin. Wade & Uncle David helped Quintin to find more eggs, while Mommy attempted to get pictures (again, the phone camera is just NOT designed to take action picts!). Daddy helped Quintin find the last of the eggs, and provided some assistance getting to the fun stuff tucked inside each one.

Celebrating the miracle of the Easter day among such wonderful family & friends made us more grateful than ever to our gracious God -- We are blessed!

Fun with the Easter Bunny (Sort of!)

Wednesday, March 31, we went to the local library for story hour with the Easter Bunny! Quintin loved the story hour, and was very excited when the Easter Bunny came in ("Bunny Foo-Foo!": Quintin has been watching Wee Sing videos with Martha in the church nursery on Tuesday nights while Mommy & Daddy practice with the band -- Because Martha is the most awesome EPIC leader EVER! -- Quintin was sure that the Easter Bunny was Bunny Foo-Foo, lol!). Quintin was NOT happy, however, when Mommy asked him to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap for a picture. He & Sarah (a good friend from FUMC, just three months older than Q) both screamed and cried when it was their turn to visit with the Easter Bunny -- they wouldn't get any closer than four feet from him! Holden (9 mos. younger than Q, Sarah's cousin & Q's special friend) loooooooved the Easter Bunny and started screaming & crying when he had to get off of his lap -- We ended up with three very unhappy toddlers, lol! Afterward, we all headed over to Coral's house for some cheese pizza & girl talk while the kids played in Holden's awesome toy room:-)

Later that week, as Quintin and I drove home from the shop in St. Pete, he randomly yelled, "I DON'T WANT TO SIT ON THE EASTER BUNNY!" Obviously, that Easter Bunny made a big impression, lol! I told him he'd never have to sit on the Easter Bunny's lap if he didn't want to -- Quintin just solemnly nodded his head (I think it'll be a while before we want to visit with the big white bunny!)

HOORAY! HOORAY! HOORAY! HOORAY! HOORAY! HOORAY!

Monday, March 29th was an AWESOME day for our family! We (specifically, Mommy) closed the book on a very painful period -- and we celebrated big time (Mommy style!). After several very sleep-deprived nights & a looooong morning, we left a building we'll hopefully never see again and went out to breakfast with Nana and Granddad Slicker & Uncle Mikey. Quintin, the trooper, despite being ripped out of slumber at 5:50 a.m., ate his pancake breakfast with gusto & later kept up somewhat frantic energy levels for a day of fun! We went to Uncle Mikey's and hung out while he drove over to his Mother-in-law's to pick up Makayla, his beautiful baby daughter. I got to carry my precious niece around and show her the incredible children's museum in St. Petersburg, Great Explorations. Quintin looooved it! His favorite was the tree house (with real trees!) set up in the middle of the museum (a huge twisty slide made the climb up into the tree completely worth it!). Our brave boy raced up the steep ladder steps to the slide over and over again :-). They also have a fire engine with working siren and video footage from downtown St. Pete that plays on a screen in front of the steering wheel; Quintin had a great time "driving" us to the scene of a fire, giving Daddy & I instructions on where to sit in the fire engine, when to grab the hose & start spraying, etc. After several hours of such fun, we left for McDonald's, where Quintin played in the huge indoor tube playground they have. Mommy was very nervous, since I couldn't see him while he was playing up there, and was NOT excited about having to crawl up there if anything happened, lol --but Quintin had no problems & scaled the interiors as if born to do it (this is the kid who scaled our furniture regularly before he could even walk -- what was I worried for?!?).