Happy Birthday Jim!

Jim's birthday turned out to be an interesting day. Let me give you the back ground story first...

The night before Jim's b-day we went out to dinner with some friends. We were running early for once, so Jim decides he wants to go shoe shopping on the way. Now I said we were early, but we were not early enough for shopping. (You must know that when I say there is not time to shop that clearly MUST mean there isn't because most people who know me know that shopping is a passion I possess). Therefore, I proceed to give my two cents about this fact, I am however ignored and as I am not driving there is not much I can do. We go on to Miromar Outlets and Jim begins frantically searching every shoe store there for his perfect pair while I sit in the car and pout. Yes, very adult of me I know. So when he FINALLY comes back to the car, shoe bag in hand I rightfully assume that he has now found a wonderful birthday shoe that will have been worth being late over......

Jim opening a b-day gift.
gift card from my mom
Jim and Nolan
And here they are!! The most wonderful shoes ever, that made us late to dinner, that we drove 10 miles out of the way to get, that are the ugliest, most plain, old man shoes, in a wide size I may add (Jim does not have wide feet).

So it turns out that Jim hates them too and he only bought them because he was in a hurry and they were (he thought) the right size and he wanted to feel like we didn't go shopping for nothing.

So what did we spend the rest of Jim's birthday doing????

Yes, that's right, we drove all the way back to Miromar to return the most hideous shoes ever, so that Jim could find a pair he actually liked. Worth it? Yes I think so...

On a side note: to add to the fun of the day Aidan decides he needs a haircut, and who needs a barber when there are scissors right there? Not Aidan.

This is especially sad because he has done this before and his hair had all finally grown back from that time. You can see the before pic above where he is holding the shoes.

Unfortunately we had to buzz him. Very sad because he is just not as cute with a buzz cut.

Here you can see the chunk missing that he cut. It had to be right in the front.

Out come the clippers.As you can see he was not happy with the consequence of his quick cut. But then nobody was.

By the way here are the actual birthday shoes that Jim found on our trip back to the outlets. Much better, Yes?

Dinner out and water fun

Here are pics of a few more things from when my mom was here. We went to dinner at Cracker Barrel with Bill and Elaine. We all enjoyed our meal and then after, the kids had a great time outside playing checkers and rocking in the rocking chairs. Nolan and Aidan looked like two little old men, they were so into their game. It was a fun evening.
The following day we went down to Sun N Fun in Naples with Jennifer and her kids. It is a waterpark that we hadn't been to before, so it was great. Nolan spent almost the entire day on the waterslides with his friend Bryce, and I chilled out in the kiddie area because Aidan and Zoie both loved the big fish slide there. There was also a lazy river that the kids liked but it didn't entertain them for very long. Zoie fell asleep while we were floating on the tube, so she got a good nap and I got a short break. It would have made for a cute pic, but of course I didn't have the camera at the time.

Calusa Nature Center

My mom came to visit us for two weeks this summer which was great. We decided to visit the Nature Center since we bought a family membership last Dec. and we've used it like twice. We saw animals, walked the trails, and watched a show in the planetarium. We had fun but it was hot. August is probably not the prime time to visit. Nolan and Aidan posing with the sea turtle.
Nolan, Aidan, Grandma, and a pregnant Aligator in the background (you can't really see it, it's behind the fence).
Baby Alligator. This one is two years old and it was tiny. The guy kept hitting it on the head because he said it looks better when its mouth is open. (hmm... I don't think I would tap an Alligator just so someone could get a good pic, I don't think they like it...)
Nolan holding a snake.
Zoie was fascinated with the weird looking albino raccoon. I think she would have stood there all day.

Dress up fun

Zoie is starting to want to play dress up and it is so cute. I bought her a little dress up set when she was like 8 months old. (A little premature I know, but I was so excited to have a girl.) Now one and a half years later she actually is using it. Yay!



This picture is just funny. We had a friends' daughter staying with us for a few days and all the kids sat down right next to each other and each had their own bag of chips. I don't even know how we had that many bags at one time, usually we only have one, if any.

Sleeping cutie

This is just too funny, I had to post it. Zoie fell asleep in her chair at the table. I have no idea how, we had some friends over and all the kids were really loud, she must have been super tired. She is starting to fight us more on the naps, and with it being summer our schedule has been very out of whack. We need to get things back in order before school starts again. Sigh...