April 25--Georgia Renaissance Festival

I remember when I was little, we lived in Wisconsin and my dad was on the volunteer rescue squad. Each year the rescue squad would set up a first aid booth at the Renaissance Festival and family would get to go for free. Most of the time we hung out at the first aid booth helping people, but we would also walk around too. So now that I have my own kids I figured it was time to take them to their first renaissance festival. The kids didn't really know what to expect. I wanted to bring old halloween costumes that we owned, but they didn't want to wear them. Once we were there though I think Jordan wished she'd have worn the outfit. There were alot of people who were dressed up. Jordan ended up buying elf ears for $20.00 and Brandon a knife. The kids liked the jousting the best. This may not be something we do every year, but it sure was a nice walk down memory lane for me.

Joelys Birthday Weekend April 11

HOMELEAVE...this is the best time of the month because Greg doesn't have to work Wednesday-Saturday. So although the kids still had school, we decided to take them out and take a trip to Florida. We had the car all packed and ready to go and left straight from school...of course stopping at our favorite ice cream store Bruster's (lucky for Jordan she didn't have to wear her pj's today to get free icecream). We got to the Huffman's house at 11pm.

The next morning we packed a lunch and drove to New Symrna Beach. We parked our car right on the beach and unloaded. The water was cold, but the kids didn't care, they jumped right it even Greg got in. I just took lots of pics then sat out and read my book. Unfortunately we all got alittle sun burnt. That night Melody had made us dinner and we hung out at her house. Mel and I went to pick up Danielle Muhlenbeck at the airport at 11pm. She flew in for Morgans birthday.

Day two we got up really early and went to Animal Kingdom. Woooo hooooo...we had 5 free tickets. We all made blankets and donated them to the Linus foundation to give to sick kids in the hospital..We also got a 200 dollar gift card to spend at the park when we opened up a disney account so the day was totally free. Brandon and Peytons favorite thing there was the Mt Everest rollercoaster. Jordan said her favorite thing was the safari. We stayed till 30 mins before the park closed.


Day 3 The Huffmans took us, Danielle, Denise, and Julie on the boat. The kids rode the tube pretty much the entire day. I even got on..which suprised me because their could be alligators in the water. It was such a beautiful day and it was so nice just to hang out with everyone. That night we went the the comedy club sax where Melody surprised Morgan...she had the actors do a skit called slice of life...all about Morgan. It was so funny!! Morgan is turning 16 this month. That night Melody and Danielle bought me a cake and sang happy birthday to me. I didn't realize it, but last year I spent my birthday at Melodys also...so we decided to make it a yearly thing :)

Gregs Birthday Weekend March 20

Well today is Saturday and it is Greg's 37th birthday. He had to preach today and I don't remember what exactly the sermon was about except he did go on about Poop. It was very funny for all of us to listen to him say Poop really loud up front. After church we drove over to Bruster's for free ice cream. Today at Bruster's if you wore you pjs you got free ice cream. The kids weren't to happy about this, especially Jordan. Peyton and Brandon slipped their pj's on over their clothes...Jordan on the other hand I only brought along her footed pj's...she was so embarrassed I almost had to drag her out of the car. But, we all got 5 free waffle cones and they were good!!

We drove to Sevierville to use the 4 zipline tickets Greg and I had gotten free after our honeymoon. We only got 4 tickets, so since the last time we tried to get Jordan to go on the zipline at cohutta she wouldn't do it...so I didn't know how it would be at this place. The tickets were 89 dollars a piece so since we only had 4 I was going to sit out. We got lucky though because since it was Greg's actual birthday he got to go free...so now we all had a ticket. Jordan didn't fuss at all and did all 6 lines. They all loved it. It was really cool at this zipline because they let you spin or hang upside down or do whatever you wanted.


Then we went to MagiQuest. The kids all had their own wand and got to run around waving their wands and find certain items to complete their quest. Seemed a bit weird to me, but it entertained the kids.


Slept over at Greg's brother's house. Then got up in the morning to go skiing. None of the kids had ever been skiing, so this was very interesting. It was hard trying to teach the kids how to snowplow and stop. I don't think they ever really got it. Brandon was the first to just take off and go down the hill. He only had one big wipe out. Peyton learned how to slow down and turn. I tried to teach Jordan how to snowplow by skiing behind her and holding on to her...bad idea..we both wiped out. By the end of the day everyone was able to get on the chair lift and go down the hill without help. Next time maybe we'll go skiing during the winter :)